How do you stay awake?

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So, rumor has it that you all work long hours. How do you all stay awake so long? Tea, Coffee, Red Bull? Is your caffeine tolerance through the roof? Just some light discussion... :)

Specializes in M/S, OB, Ortho, ICU, Diabetes, QA/PI.

I used to drive 60 miles round trip and worked nights - some mornings I barely made it home - usually with one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the road :coollook: my husband was very relieved when I was able to switch to days after 2 years

busy nights were the best - slow nights were torture on me, especially between 2 and 4 am

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

I work night shift at a nursing home on weekends, both 12 hour shifts and 8 hour ones (last Sunday I worked 14 and a half hours). If you like your coworker, talking to her/him all night will work. If not, or if your coworker isn't much of a talker, drinking LOTS of liquids help. I'm addicted to Red Mountain Dew, and drink three or four a shift. I try to drink SOMETHING every hour, whether its water or non-caffenated soda. If the taste of the stuff doesn't keep you up, the demands of your bladder will! :chuckle

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I work 7p-7a, and will usually hit the cafeteria around 1am for lunch and a 24 oz. Coke or Diet Coke. On the unlucky nights that the lunch puts me in a food coma, I'll try my hardest to get up and move - up and down the stairs as was previously mentioned, or a quick visit to other floors to visit friends. I try to stay off of mass doses of caffeine.

Things get busy again (re-vitaling, lab work and butt-wiping) anytime after 3 or 4 am, depending on how much we have to do, and how well our patients are sleeping. So sometimes that 2 hour lull in work is killer - all of us have taken the quick 20 minute nap at one time or another, and so long as no one makes it a nightly habit, it's fine with us. (it's been weeks since anyone has done that, now that I'm thinking about it).

This works best when it's coller out, but I found that opening the car windows, and especially opening my sunroof a few inches provides enough breeze on my face to keep me awake on the drive home.

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Specializes in Home care, assisted living.

What is Stevia? I have seen that mentioned a couple times but don't know exactly what it is?

It's a plant. It sweetens things but it's not sugar, nor is it made from sugar. From what I know, it doesn't affect blood sugar, which is great for me. After drinking coffee with sugar all night I tend to be hypersensitive and jittery. So I'm going to see how I do with Stevia.

BTW, Stevia is high-fiber--put it in coffee and you've got a strong laxative.

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Specializes in LTC.

I try to get some rest before my shift.

Caffeine pills. Plus either tea or Diet Dr Pepper. My stomach can't handle much coffee when I'm that tired. I'll have to try the lots of water thing. Would be healthier. I work 6p to 6a. I've gain some weight because I eat all the time. :o I need to do something about that.

I only work 2 to 3 nights a week and the rest of the time my body is on a day schedule. So the day after working a night I feel really messed up. My sense of time is messed up until I can sleep a night.

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Specializes in LTC, home health, critical care, pulmonary nursing.

I'm sure I'll never hear the end of this...LOTS of Diet Coke and Vivarin. I work days, and even though I'm constantly busy, I'm exhausted. I'm in school full time in addition to working full time, so a full night's sleep ain't gonna happen. I just try to make it to the next day.

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Specializes in ICU, ED, Transport, Home Care, Mgmnt.

:nono:

I'm sure I'll never hear the end of this...LOTS of Diet Coke and Vivarin. I work days, and even though I'm constantly busy, I'm exhausted. I'm in school full time in addition to working full time, so a full night's sleep ain't gonna happen. I just try to make it to the next day.

:nono: :nono: You'e right it is bad for you, of course none of the rest of us has ever done anything that was bad for us. The years I worked nights I would read Stephen King if it was quiet, nothing works better than his novels, scared the snot out of me. Other times I plotted against my coworkers and would wait in dark corners or store rooms for them to come in :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Ah the old days! When I worked evenings with an elderly lady I used to watch her nod off while charting, I was facinated at how she could keep her head in an up position for so long before she started to nod. She didn't always jerk and wake up, sometimes she just slowly dropped her head unitl her nose was almost touching the counter. I nodded off once while in the bathroom, the only time I remember having time to stop and go (ICU) there were these hugh old toilets with the pipes running up the back. I leaned back and woke up 10 minutes later. Best damn 10 min. nap I ever had!!! :p Only problem I was stuck to the seat! OUCH! :rotfl: And no one missed me. :uhoh21: Other things I tried was medical hangman with my coworkers, shorter words are better!

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It's a plant. It sweetens things but it's not sugar, nor is it made from sugar. From what I know, it doesn't affect blood sugar, which is great for me. After drinking coffee with sugar all night I tend to be hypersensitive and jittery. So I'm going to see how I do with Stevia.

BTW, Stevia is high-fiber--put it in coffee and you've got a strong laxative.

Coffee does that to me too sometimes. But isn't that the most likely from the caffeine? So I take it that Stevia is another artificial sweetener like Splenda and such? Is it in powder form? I thought I heard someone talking about it being Liquid?!?!

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Specializes in LTC.
I'm sure I'll never hear the end of this...LOTS of Diet Coke and Vivarin. I work days, and even though I'm constantly busy, I'm exhausted. I'm in school full time in addition to working full time, so a full night's sleep ain't gonna happen. I just try to make it to the next day.

Oh, I'm so glad I didn't have to work fulltime while in school! I don't think I would have made it. It was bad enough.

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Specializes in Home care, assisted living.
Coffee does that to me too sometimes. But isn't that the most likely from the caffeine? So I take it that Stevia is another artificial sweetener like Splenda and such? Is it in powder form? I thought I heard someone talking about it being Liquid?!?!

It could be the caffeine, but I tried coffee with stevia and didn't get the jolt I usually get.

I don't think Stevia is like other sweeteners. Splenda is derived from sugar and I think other sweeteners are as well. Stevia is an herb. You can get it in powdered form (bulk or packets) and liquid form.

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It could be the caffeine, but I tried coffee with stevia and didn't get the jolt I usually get.

I don't think Stevia is like other sweeteners. Splenda is derived from sugar and I think other sweeteners are as well. Stevia is an herb. You can get it in powdered form (bulk or packets) and liquid form.

Not the Caffeine? Interesting. Well, at least you seem to have solved the problem.

So Stevia is an herb? That sounds good and healthy. I will have to look into it since sometimes these things are misleading. Like Splenda being derived from Sugar? As far as I heard Splenda is just another manufactured chemical, it is not linked so closely to sugar as they are trying to make it appear. I actually came accross an article about this yesterday:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050201/od_nm/food_splenda_dc_2

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