I hate night shift

sandys · Aug 18, 2006

I lasted 3 months on a night shift. I am physically NOT capable of doing it. I would do okay while there, usually a little sleepy around 3 or 4, then perking back up. Better if it was busy. I would come home and get to bed within an hour or two, sleep for about 3 hours, then wake up and not be able to get back to sleep. No matter how hard I tried. I am not someone who can sleep during the daytime hours. I was so physically exhausted I could barely function. Not good! I think you have to recognize what is going to make you happy and what works for you. I don't think I ever would have gotten used to it, it just does not work for me and I could not live like that. I would certainly try all of the tips and suggestions to get you through until you're on days, but it sounds like a change is in order for you.

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Aug 22, 2006

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time with nights. I think it's easy to work nights when there's no significant other to try to stay up with. I can see where there might be a sense of loss of time together and with friends.

My problem is a different one. I love working nights. I work in a teaching institution and the residents and attendings are mostly out of my hair. I love being able to turn on the bedside boom boxes to my favorite station, close the curtain and take my time singing to tunes while bathing my sedated, vented patients. The lights are dimmed and it's just more peaceful, except of course for the codes and the admissions that keep on coming. I take sleep aids to help me sleep during the day. Unfortunately though, I work 12h ROTATING shifts, sometimes mixing day and night in the same week which means I go to bed to get up to go to bed. The result is 24h without sleep, a crappy mood and a tired mind that just can't come to full wakefulness. Hopefully, I can request all nights.

I think rotating shifts have to be the worst.

gonzo1, ASN, RN · Aug 22, 2006

I feel your pain, indeed am going through it too. I have been on nights (12s) for over one year now. My mind and body does not like it but it is the sacrifice I am making to work in the unit I love. Someday I will be able to go back to days. In the mean time. Take it easy on yourself. Understand that you feel bad because your body is out of whack. You will at least partially adapt with time until you can change shifts.

I am fortunate in that I don't have little kids and I have a very supportive husband.

I work 2 on and 2 off except every other weekend it is 3 on and 3 off. By the end of the 3rd day my little fanny is dragging.

I find that my trouble is sleeping too much. I sometimes come home and sleep for 20 straight hours. The doc's I work for say I should be glad I can sleep, most people have the oppposite trouble.

I do notice I am depressed, but I know it is from the schedule and I can talk myself through it.

My eating is messed up, my pooping is messed up. My extended family had a hard time with me not being available during normal times.

Perhaps you will never adjust to nights, but until you can change shifts try to concentrate on the positive, look on it as an adventure on the wild side, be kind to yourself, concentrate on learning all you can and know that until you make friends at your new work you have a ready made family here at allnurses that you can visit and exchange ideas with 24/7.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Aug 22, 2006

I've found that my current 6 week rotation is a very good one for me. I work 12 hour shifts in a 0.7 position. I do one day, then one night and have three off, with one stretch that gives me six off, When I work Monday, I only work Monday: one a day and one a night. The night is followed by four off. I get a lot better sleep with this rotation and my family hardly misses me. I'm usually very tired after my day shift and get to sleep fairly easily. I have to get up at 0630 to get my son ready for his day program, and once he's gone I go back to bed until about noon. I'm fine for the night shift and then sleep the next day til about noon again. I sometimes do take melatonin to help get a better sleep, but there's no messing up of my circadian rhythms. It's not for everybody, but it works for me.

RainDreamer, BSN, RN · Aug 29, 2006

I'm one of the nightowls too, you couldn't pay me enough to work day shift ....... no freakin' way!! I get to sleep in, stay up all night, and I get a bigger check ..... oh yeah!! :)

First of all, I don't think you've given yourself time as a NEW NURSE. I think if you moved to day shift you'd still cry and feel like crap because that's pretty much how new nurses feel. You're still adjusting to so many things, night shift just being one of them.

Are there other nurses around your age that work night shift with you? I know it was hard for me to get to know some people ..... somewhat because of the age difference. But I got to know some of the younger nurses more my age that work night shift. It took time though.

Are you a night person or day person? You sound like a night person (going to bed at 8-9 am and waking up at 5 pm), but is it just because you're working nights now? How were you before you started working? Did you stay up late/sleep in late? Or were you up at the crack of dawn?

RainDreamer, BSN, RN · Aug 29, 2006

I have a "regular" schedule of getting up and gong to sleep at the same time, but after my fiance goes to bed, I get sooo depressed and lonely, and no one is awake, and I just spiral into this XXXX...and I have never felt this way.

It's so funny that you mention this because this is EXACTLY, and I mean EXACTLY how I feel sometimes. But it only happens the night before I go back to work. I'll stay up late talking on the phone to the boyfriend, then when it's time for him to go to bed, I get so sad!! And he'll stay up late, we'll hang up at like 2-3 am ..... but I get so depressed and feel LONELY knowing that I need to stay up for at least 3-4 more hours by myself.

I know just what you mean. Everyone's asleep, I'm up all by myself. I usually LOVE that, but the night before I go to work it depresses me for some reason.

On those nights that I'm feeling really down, I found that watching a funny movie helps. But on nights like tonight, I'm awake and everyone is asleep, and I'm feeling fine .... not depressed or anything. But I don't have to work tomorrow night. I always feel like I'm a weirdo too for feeling lonely and depressed on those nights, lol. Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one ..... I guess it's just something that we'll have to work through.

blondie7280 · Apr 17, 2009

Hi, I know exactly how you feel. I took a job as a new grad on 12 hour nights in med surg. I hated it so much because I felt like just when everybody elses day was winding down, here I go having to go and start my night at work. Then I slept all day and even if it was my "day off" the whole day was gone cuz I slept it away. So eventually I got a new job in maternity instead of med surg cuz i couldnt stand the med surg anymore, so needless to say I am much happier in that aspect but it is still a night position and I am still miserable for that matter. Days on this unit is nuts and I dont even know if a day position became available if i would even want it, but then again it might be better to deal with all the managers and doctors and families to at least have a life again. I really dont know what to do and I am already becoming cranky again and treating my family like garbage cuz of my crabbiness. So like i said i can totally relate and I am just trying to stick it out but I really do wish there was another option you know. Sometimes I think this is just not cut out for me and I should pick another career where it is 9-5, 5 days a week, no holidays, no weekends, you know? I feel like i am so young and my life is just passing me by.

changeofpaceRN · Apr 23, 2009

Hang in there until days opens up. I think you should give yourself time to adjust like others said BUT I will tell you my experience- it is not for everyone. My 1st year I worked nights (I had just had a baby, couldn't afford daycare and it worked with my husband's schedule). I became a zombie that 1st year. On my days off, I would sleep. If I wasn't sleeping, I was so tried that I couldn't even get up to play with my baby. I wanted to and I wanted to get up and do chores like laundry ect.. I wasn't getting "quality" sleep. I live in FL and during the day, I'd always hear lawnmowers going, younger kids laughing and playing, UPS trucks drive by, school buses picking up and dropping off kids ect.. I live about 2 miles from a hospital and always could hear the emergency sirens in the distance (I've always been a light sleeper). I tried noise reduction machines, fans, blackout curtains ect but my body would just NOT adjust. My husband and I started to fight a lot because I did nothing when I was home and cried when I was awake.

Fast forward to a year after that and I got a new 11-7 job. The time between the 2 jobs was about 2 weeks since there was a holdup with the paperwork. I became normal in that 2 weeks of sleeping at normal times. When I started the new 11-7 job, I could NOT do it anymore- not FT at least.

I found a job at one facility that I could do 2 days on 3-11 and I took a PRN job at another facility where I would do no more than 2 nights a week 11-7. My body COULD handle a few nights a week but not FT... it just wasn't for me. Mind you, I am still "young" in my mid 20's (everyone told me I shouldn't have a problem). Anyway, now I work 3-11 and I have remained "normal" in my eyes.

Some people can do nights and they are very impt people and deserve the shift dif!

I didn't realize this was such a old post! My advice still stands though haha

ladnewnurse · Apr 27, 2009

Ok, so I just need to talk, so here goes..
I am a new nurse, and I requested night shift because I didn't think I could handle the BS of days, with all the admits and docs and whatever. But after 1 week of nights, I started to get depressed and feel like ****, which is sooo not like me. I hate it. I am a happy person, and I want to just quit my da*n job. I cry about 4+ times a week, for varying reasons, just to "get it out", although I don't know what I am realy getting out, I am just so unhappy. Lonely mostly. I haven't made night shift friends yet, but I don't have any of my usual friends up at 2am. I have tried to do the day schedule thing on my off days, but I feel so tired I end up crashing at 5pm for a 5 hour nap, and feel even more let down by my body because I missed more day hours that I could have been up. I work better getting up at 5pm daily, and going to bed at about 8 or 9 am.
Anyone else understand? None of my coworkers get it, they are all getting up at 12pm on their days off and going to bed at 10pm, acting like normal. I can't freaking do that!!!!! I wish I could, but it's just not for me, and as a result I am so alienated. Help! I have asked for day shift, but until then, what do I do? Thanks :)

I can completely understand this. It is so hard, because my husband works days so on my days off I so want to be with him, but I'm so exhausted. I have been on this shift for 2 1/2 months now and I'm thinking I'll never get used to it. I drive and hour to work and they recently took away my 3 days in a row, so I'm afraid that I'll never come out of the coma that always took up the entire day after my last shift! I'm afraid I'll be a zombie all the time. Yesterday, we had something to do, errands to run, I slept for 2 1/2 hours and then I squinted the rest of the day because I could hardly keep my eyes open I was so tired. I slept for 6 hours today in the middle of the day. I feel like I waste so many days!!! I cry too, because I feel like I accomplish NOTHING!! Hopefully this gets better. I'm more tired now then I was in school!

texastaz · Apr 27, 2009

I worked nigts and loved it because of the quite. My kids were grown, but also put demands on me during the dad time. I would get so mad when I was home at 8am and they were nto out of bed then wanted for me to wait for them until they were ready to go where ever at 1 or 2 pm. Well conflict and I became a B - then also I liked having time with my friends who wor 8-4, M-F. I figured ok - and I friends don't give me a pay check and adjust. Well I ended up just not being happy and my kids and friends still are them. I am the only one that makes myself happy and I love waking up in the mornig not having to go to work and having a cup of coffee.

KimICURN · Dec 15, 2010

I can totally relate to to the depression and crying of night shift. I am married and have two children at home 9 and 11 and feel so disconnected from the people who live in my own house! I have a dream job of CVICU but struggle everyweek with sticking with it to get a year experience so I can move on. (I still have 9 months left) Some days I can talk myself into hanging in there and other days I am just angry. I know an opportunity was given to me and I should take full advantage of it; but I am at the point where I think that my health and the happiness of my family should far outweigh any career goals that I may have.

I have asked my manager for a 6 days on 7 off shift because we just had someone leave with that shift and there is already someone working the opposite, but she is doing away with that rotation because of safety concerns, which incidentally I ended up working anyway to complete the outgiong persons schedule. I like it becauseyou can have a normal week.

Hopefully a solution will present itself and it will work better for myself and my family. I hope you also find a soluntion as I can totally relate to the frustration you feel. Keep us updated and good luck to you.

AtomicWoman · Jan 25, 2011

Just wondering if any of the people who posted about the bad effects of night shift in this thread have managed to change your shift or find some magical way to deal with the problems better?