12hr Day vs Night?? (with kid)

[Gina_nailedit]

I am a PCA and was recently offered to choose between 12 hr day and night shifts. Here are a few facts

- I am a morning person. Absolutely.

- i have a 4yr old kid who goes to preschool all day(yay I can sleep at home)

- My husband is extremely busy this year and cant help me out with kid or household chores

My current family situation makes me to choose night shift, but i am a perfectly a morning person!! with mild anxiety related sleep issue.... I had that after I gave a birth to a child. I did night shift for once and totally hated it.

It looks like I have to choose night shift at least until my husband gets less busy and can take some household chore loads.

So, to summarize, 1) Do you think that morning person can adjust to night shift someday? If so, 2) should I choose 3 nights in a row or spread them out?

[Apollo617]

It sounds like you should do the night shift unless you have someone to watch your child after preschool for a few hours.

I work nights and I prefer it. My son is with my parents while I'm at work. I get off in the mornings and take him to school, then I go to school and come home to sleep awhile. I will admit that I typically do not get my proper amount of sleep each day/night, but I'm working on it. I've never been one to sleep for an 8 hour stretch.

Doing 3 overnight 12s in a row is rough. That's what I do. But then I get 4 days in a row to myself. The hard thing about working nights is that you're actually losing two days for each night you work. What I mean by this is: if you work monday night, you have to rest/sleep Monday during the day before your shift and then sleep Tuesday during the day after your shift. If you space out your nights, you really do lose time/days. If you clump them together, it's rough but you get it over with and have 4 free days.

You can adjust. Your body will have no choice. Get blackout curtains or a sleep mask and take a lavendar shower before bed laying down during the day. You'll find ways to make it work.