I'm ALWAYS tired sigh

Biffbradford · Jul 25, 2011

Night shift screws up your metabolism big time. Over the long run, I think, it will kill you. I hit my low point after 12 years of night shift when I tried going for a 5 mile bike ride. Half way, I had to lay down and take a nap, then get back on to finish. I quit my job after that. After 6 months I was pretty much back to 'normal'. Finding another job? That's a different story!

MisMatch, LPN · Jul 25, 2011

This is a timely topic for me. I have a drs appt in the AM for the same problem described here, sleep a lot, always tired, lethargic, no energy...and yes I work night shift, have since I started working in LTC 5+ years ago.

Thing is, I LIKE night shift, have always been a night owl and enjoy so much about it. The chaos, egos, politics, administrators, ect. keep me from wanting to work days. I have worked all 3 shifts but prefer my night shift.

This is all definately "food for thought". Hope more is served up!

NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN · Jul 25, 2011

I recently got offered a job for full time nights. After thinking about it I know I will need to decline the offer.

I'm not wired for nights. I used to do nights a while ago but I was always tired and it did not help my depression as well.

I also used to hallucinate:eek: :eek: :eek: at times when I worked nights. I would see things run across the floor or flames. That scared the crap out of me and I knew I couldn't do it.

KalipsoRed · Jul 25, 2011

Yeah, I agree with everyone here. Get out of nights as soon as you can. I work nights on and off as a traveler. I worked a year worth of nights as a new nurse. I find that doing it for short stents (13 weeks) is not so bad. I do that then switch to a day position for a couple of months...it really helps. But when I worked a year soild of nights I hated my life. I loved my job a lot more but I hated my personal life...mostly because I slept through my personal life.

Nursing sucks for this reason....you barley get to have a life if you work days and you have no life if you work nights. I say get the hell out of bedside nursing...I am as soon as the right opportunity comes along.

DavidFR, BSN, MSN, RN · Jul 25, 2011

I've had several night and day posts spanning a 25 year career and am now back on nights by choice. In hospital settings I've always preferred nights. I find the tiredness thing goes in waves. I have good and bad periods.

I think it helps to have long breaks off. I recently had a 3 week holiday and was feeling dog tired before I went off. I came back feeling brand new and am still on top form even after four weeks back at work. I realise you don't have as much annual leave in the US as most European countries, but try to take long holidays if you can as opposed to just one week off here and there. A one week holiday doesn't give you enough time to recharge.

Do you work 12 hours? For me it's 12 hour shifts or nothing. Short night shifts give you too many nights on. If you're on more than you're off it's brutal. We do 12 hour nights which means in a 4 week rota (28 nights) we work 12 nights and have 16 nights off. Even adding in a couple of nights overtime you're still in your bed at night half the month - I think that's a vital factor. If you're on more than off, even on shorter shifts, it's too tiring.

Since I've been in France I've found the French believe in magnesium and Vitamin B6 as anti-tiredness remedies. I take a Magesium B6 supplement every day - whether or not it really helps is questionable, but it at least isn't doing me any harm.

Good luck.

carolmaccas66, BSN, RN · Jul 27, 2011

Switch to an agency and then u can choose what days/hours u want to work, and u could probably choose to have days off when u want.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Jul 27, 2011

I like nights. Recently, I too have felt tired all the time and fed up with my job. My solution? Stop picking up shifts and stop answering the phone when it's work. Everyone is different. Some can't do nights.

ICUenthusiast · Jul 30, 2011

My sister-in-law is a flight attendant who does overnight/overseas flights and she mentioned Provigil to me when we were discussing sleep issues. I'm surprised you don't see that mentioned more often in these forums. Does it work?

Late reply but, yes. Provigil has been amazing for me. I only take it the days I work as to not build too much of a tolerance to it (plus I don't need alertness if I'm at home doing laundry for example). I had tried ritalin before that, and it made me too jittery. I knew a child's psych NP who is also just LOVING this drug for children as well. (I don't believe this is a currently accepted use atm, but I have no knowledge on pedi stuff.) It has much less negative effects on the kids she's used it for than ritalin and so far appears to be a safer drug overall. It also has very very low abuse potential (it's always there as a stimulant but it's nothing like ritalin's abuse potential).

nurse678 · Jul 30, 2011

It actually is FDA approved for work shift sleep d/o. But is called nuvigil? I guess this is a new version of provigil?

Sehille4774 · Jul 30, 2011

Late reply but, yes. Provigil has been amazing for me. I only take it the days I work as to not build too much of a tolerance to it (plus I don't need alertness if I'm at home doing laundry for example). I had tried ritalin before that, and it made me too jittery. I knew a child's psych NP who is also just LOVING this drug for children as well. (I don't believe this is a currently accepted use atm, but I have no knowledge on pedi stuff.) It has much less negative effects on the kids she's used it for than ritalin and so far appears to be a safer drug overall. It also has very very low abuse potential (it's always there as a stimulant but it's nothing like ritalin's abuse potential).

I was just wondering, as a someone who has used this med....How does it compare to caffeine in terms of the typical side-effects...especially cardiovascular symptoms and rebound drowsiness? I use caffeine this way sometimes ..Lol. But I don't like the the side effects and would like to find something similar but maybe gentler.

thnkr917 · Oct 9, 2011

Tell me about it! I have been a night shift nurse for 17 years. It must be finally catching up with me. I am so tired all the time that I sleep all day the first day off then get up to eat and relax for about an hour then go straight back to bed. My second day off is my first real day off.

The more days in a row I worked before and the more stressful they were, the more tired I am on my first day off.

Heaven forbid if I have something in the daytime to do. I missed ACLS that I paid $160 for this weekend. It's only been expired for 6 months! I simply cannot be up for a 9 am class. In this case I had a rough week and was simply unable to get adjusted. I ended up signing online later and taking the first part of the class online and now I'm looking for an afternoon skills checkoff! Once again I missed an opportunity to network with other nurses outside of the madness on the floors. Meanwhile I blew all that money for nothing and I look like a flake to my coworkers... again.

It gets worse as I get older, this inability to adjust even for short periods of time like this class.

A 9am class for someone like me is like having an all night class in the middle of the night for anyone else. It requires a whole process of switching my hours the night before to get functioning. Thus one day of a day shift class means changing my sleep pattern around the day before then again the day after. In other words my sleep is affected for the better part of a week. I try to take vacation time for things like ACLS for this reason.. and there goes any thoughts of a real vacation. Half of all healthcare workers work nightshift but no one ever schedules afternoon CPR and ACLS classes. Thank God for the internet so I can at least take half the class online.

Try running errands and making appointments as a nightshift worker. Everything you need to do needs to fit between 3pm and 5 pm when the rest of the world shuts down. Thank God for Walmart, IHOP, Denny's and the few all night stores in the world or I'd never eat. I shop at 2am.

I watch vampire movies and have a lot more empathy for vampires than the rest of the world. I mean, really, I am one accept for the blood drinking! I'm pasty, dead looking and I rise as the sun goes down. I can be found wandering the streets in the middle of the night hungry (where is that Wendy's?). I tend to hang with other vampires. I miss the sunshine but it burns (my eyes). Yup, I'm a vampire.

In order to adapt through the years I have had to turn my entire schedule around. It has killed my social life to the point where I have no friends anymore. How can it not kill your social life when you must change your schedule around the night before just to be able to be awake for any event that doesn't involve a late night bar.

Lucky for me, most of my immediate family is on a night schedule as well. Somewhere I read that there is a hereditary tendency to be able to work night shifts. Being from one of those families, I can explain that. Even my family does better getting to sleep by 4 am. On my days off that is the witching hour.

I'm not sure we really have a different chemistry than day shifters. I think it is more learned. My mother and I are both healthcare workers and my brother is a cop. All of us will claim we simply have no choice. That is what was available for work and now we are used to the shift. My father and son are just night owls. They tend to stay up until 2-4 am. Even the night owls are asleep before the sun actually comes up.

I'm a person who prefers to find an answer rather than needless complaining, but on this one, my only choice is to change shifts. I have done nights almost my entire career now and frankly, day shift scares me a little. There is no real solution.

I worked 3-11 for about a year and that changed my whole perspective. I even liked nursing again. I am still not sure if I loved that particular job or if the change in hours was the reason for my attitude change. Alas, I was forced to leave that job to move. Afternoon shift jobs are scarce in nursing.

I don't know what to tell other night shift workers that would be helpful. Find night shift friends. Develop a drinking habit or an interest in video games and internet, because the ONLY thing to do at 2 am.

I'm ALWAYS tired *sigh*

I'm ALWAYS tired sigh