How to help your relationship survive night shift

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I've been working nights for about 6 months... and already I can see the drain it is putting on my relationship. We have been together nearly 3 years and he is as supportive as ever, yet I feel his frustration when I cannot make myself get out of bed to do dinner out or go to monthly wine club meetings, etc. I am poised to go day shift despite losing my pay differential because I want to go back to when we had time together... he works roughly 9-5 home office job. Any thoughts???

Specializes in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgical.

What works for me:

1) My nights are always scheduled in a row.

2) 1st night in: I get a lot of sleep the night before (sleep in till 10/11 am) and then just go to work. I work out after and hit the sack for 7-8 hours. I try to work out in the mornings to tire myself out; usually sleep 10-4.

3) That first day off, I just sleep and lay around all day. I usually get up by 5-6 pm and try to get to bed by 3-4 am, I can usually swing back to bed by 12 on my days off.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

OP- if you are having trouble falling asleep, here's the physiological reason: Sunlight hitting the retina supresses melatonin secretion and drives wakefulness. The act of driving home and seeing the sun is telling your body it's wake up time- metabolically speaking.

The solution? Sunglasses. Sunglasses ON before you walk out of the building in the morning. Leave sunglasses ON until you are IN BED. If you get up to use the bathroom- put the sunglasses ON for the trip until you return to bed.

This ^^^^^ prevents sunlight from hitting your retina, allow melatonin levels to rise, and drives sleep.

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