Prefer being up all night even when not working?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in NICU, Peds, Med-Surg.

I'm a natural night owl and worked nights for many years and LOVED it. I felt bad for my coworkers who did NOT like nights,

and only worked them because they HAD to.

I'm not working currently; but I still love to be up at night! I have more energy, it's not as hot, ( HATE summer time! The heat, the

bugs!) I alter my sleep

habits in order to volunteer, socialize, run errands, etc....but if I COULD, I'd love to do all those things in the middle of

the night, too.

How about you?

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I'm a natural night owl and worked nights for many years and LOVED it. I felt bad for my coworkers who did NOT like nights,

and only worked them because they HAD to.

I'm not working currently; but I still love to be up at night! I have more energy, it's not as hot, ( HATE summer time! The heat, the

bugs!) I alter my sleep

habits in order to volunteer, socialize, run errands, etc....but if I COULD, I'd love to do all those things in the middle of

the night, too.

How about you?

My toddler is a day person, so I have to be too. Before the toddler, I was out having dinner and going to the beach between 1-4AM. I never got tired until the sun started to rise, and I still never feel "good" until the sun sets.

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Specializes in Oncology (OCN).

Fellow natural night owl. I loved night shift and only worked days when it was better for family life. I haven't worked in many years now (been on disability) but I'll soon be returning to work prn and I'm wondering if I want to do days or nights. It's just me & my husband now so I could work nights, especially no more than I'll be working (at least starting out).

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Specializes in CMSRN.

I am completely a night person. However, my energy level drops between 1-2am. So 3am is my natural bedtime when I am off. I try to adjust so I do not miss out on family time. But waking up before 11am is hard for me on my days off.

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Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

Night shift taught me how much of a night owl I really am. I'm amazed at how much more productive I am at night, whether at work or at home. Fortunately my boyfriend is also a night owl, so it's worked out nicely. Even with his work schedule slowly becoming more traditional, he can sleep through anything, so I can clean, meal prep, play instruments, watch TV, whatever. I always mean to go to bed by 0300-0400, but it usually ends up being more in the 0500-0600 range. Not so great for keeping up with friends, but otherwise it's a great life situation for me right now.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

I've never been a morning person. Ever. I do best when I sleep from around 0200-1000. I worked the 3-11 shift for years, which was perfect for my circadian rhythm but not so hot for family life. I started out and did OK on noc shift, certainly better than I did on days, but nocs stopped liking me around the age of 40 so I went to swing shift. Now that I'm on disability and can get up and go to bed whenever I want, I stick with my natural rhythm even though my family makes fun of me for it. Haha!

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

I did nights for 38 years. Now that I have a M-F 9-5 sort of job - I have to do my errands with the vast roiling mob of humanity and it ticks me off. I miss grocery shopping at 0300 and having the place to myself. Waiting in line SUCKS!

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My father worked night shift for a couple of decades at the end of his working life. After he retired, he found he could not adjust to daylight hours. This decreased his quality of life immensely. It would be better for a lot of people if there were some activities that occurred at night. And it seems the all night grocery store or pharmacy is never the one that is closest to one's home.

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Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.
I did nights for 38 years. Now that I have a M-F 9-5 sort of job - I have to do my errands with the vast roiling mob of humanity and it ticks me off. I miss grocery shopping at 0300 and having the place to myself. Waiting in line SUCKS!

I'm about to do this right now! LOVE having the grocery store (or diner, or gym, or whatever) to myself. I do feel like night shift has made me a bit agoraphobic. I was always an introvert, but I don't remember disliking humanity with such intensity. Also, driving with more than two other cars on the road. Yeah. I don't enjoy it.

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Specializes in NICU, Peds, Med-Surg.

it's nice to hear from my fellow night owls. :) I am practically useless during the day; but around

9:00 tonight, I started making spaghetti sauce, scrubbed my kitchen and now

onto scrub the bathrooms!

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

Complete and total night owl here! On my days off, I will usually go to bed around 0400 or 0500.

Even back in my pre-nursing life when I had an office job, I would force myself to go to bed around 0200 or so, because I had to be in the office at 0800. I slothed around all morning long sucking down caffeine, then perked up about 1300 and banged out a whole day's work in four hours!

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

I can switch to a day schedule for a while, but I start to get fatigued after a few weeks, and the only thing that seems to revive me is taking a day off and just staying in bed all day. When I volunteer overseas, it gets to be obvious to me, I was not meant to be up EVERY SINGLE morning!!

I get the nods just before sunrise, and use caffeine to power through when working; but my "days" off are really "nights off", and I'm with the rest of you. Bed before 0300 just isn't natural.

One good thing about teaching online..... I get to grade papers and respond all night long! Talk about setting your own hours :)

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