Just can't do nights and I am finally accepting it.

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Oct 24, 2015

I haven't worked a day rotation over the winter yet. I rotate days/night every month with this schedule, so days will come back around in December. So great! I still won't see sunlight for days on end. Seems like I may as well live in the land of the midnight sun. Gotta love the Northland! [sheese, autocorrect made that Motherland...glad I caught it.]

joanna73, BSN, RN · Oct 24, 2015

I used to live in Northern Alberta. When I first moved there, it was weird realizing that the sun was going down at 10 pm and rising again at 0430 am in the summer. I enjoyed those long days.

TeddyBer · Oct 25, 2015

Thank you for sharing your struggles with night shifts. I'm an lvn working in a hospital setting and I tried working some night shifts. Even after just one shift, I feel like it takes me two days to recover. I love the people and the pace of nights, I just can't physically get used to being awake all night and sleep during the day.

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Oct 25, 2015

Seriously, nights is difficult if not impossible for some people. Unfortunately sometimes night shift is the only one available for a new hire so if you want a job night shift it is. I worked straight nights for 15 years and thought I had no problems with it. Then I switched to days and realized I had all sorts of issues, I had just gotten so used to it that it was my normal.

If you are on nights for awhile there are things that can help. First, as hard as it is to maintain a normal person life for your own sake stick to your night schedule, even on your days off. It really does help to get your body adjusted to those hours as "normal."

Also try room darkening curtains or a sleep mask if you can tolerate one. A white noise machine or a fan can be helpful at cutting down on normal daytime noise distractions. I have a harder time in the summer when kids are outside playing, the neighbors are mowing the lawn, every dog within a hearing range is barking non-stop.

Now that I rotate shifts monthly it takes about 2 days to fully recover from the night rotation. The week on/week off format makes the adjustment easier, but most people on rotating shifts don't have that option. I truly don't understand how you hospital nurses that work rotating days/nights during the same schedule can function.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Oct 25, 2015

The week on/week off format makes the adjustment easier, but most people on rotating shifts don't have that option. I truly don't understand how you hospital nurses that work rotating days/nights during the same schedule can function.

I'm one of those people who works rotating days and nights. I don't have a week-on-week-off rotation though. I've been working some form of day-night rotation for 20 years and knew this was the reality when I entered nursing school. It didn't deter me from becoming a nurse. I don't love nights but they are a necessary evil in nursing - patients don't magically get better at 4 pm.

So let me play devil's advocate here for a minute. The fact is that patient care is a 'round-the-clock occupation for the largest percentage of nurses, those who work in hospitals, LTC, rehab and even home care. Someone has to do the nights. How do we portion out those nights so that it's fair to everyone? Collective agreements in Canada have provisions for night shifts which include pay differential for evenings and nights, a maximum percentage of a nurse's shifts which shall be nights and a maximum number of shifts of any kind in a row that a person shall work as well as a minimum number of hours between the end of a night shift and the beginning of a day shift. This way the discomfort is distributed across the board. However, in the US it would seem that those working nights are mostly the new nurses, who work them all. This would seem to me to be unfair, and pardon the bluntness, unsafe. What would work, what would share both the wealth and the pain?

gemmi999 · Oct 29, 2015

It's weird--I've been a morning person my ENTIRE life, up at 5 am and to sleep at 9pm. I got a night's job during nursing school and figured I'd tough it out. I hated it, but I was only working 1 night a week. Now I have a full-time night job and it turns out I love it--especially because I'm not switching back and forth. I can stay awake without any problems and can get at least 5 or 6 hours of sleep during the day before my dog wakes me up. I've only been doing it for a month or so but hopefully it stays this way! And I say that as a previous early bird.

Stitch3296 · Nov 16, 2015

Thank you for this post! I've done nights before as a CNA, and recently started nights as a new grad. I work with a good group of people, but am having a hard time adjusting to nights. Even though I love the pace of nights, I am already looking forward to switching back to days when a position opens. It's too hard on my body, and my family to have me working nights. And I have been feeling guilty, but it's good to know it's not for everyone. Most of the RN's on my floor love working nights, and you can tell it's the right shift for them!