New Grad working 7p to 7a

joanna73, BSN, RN · Aug 4, 2011

I work permanent nights. I sleep from 0930 am to 1700, eat a healthy breakfast or dinner and go to work. I sometimes take melatonin in the morning right before I sleep, my phone is off all day, and my room is dark. Works for me :)

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Aug 5, 2011

I did nights for my practicum and now have done it for a few weeks as a new grad. I am naturally more a night person and it's harder for me to force myself to bed early to wake up early. I have 4 children. It's been more trying with school out for my 3 oldest, they are good about trying to let me sleep but they are in and out of the house all the time and slamming the door and stuff or fighting and stuff so I wake up.

So what I have been doing. Night before a shift I stay up until 3-4 in the morning so I can sleep in the next day. Right now I have my youngest child in Pre Kindergarten 3 days a week. It's hardest with her when she is home on the T and TH or on weekends because she knows I need to sleep for work but we are super close. So she will usually come in my room and play on the ipad while I am sleeping or watch movies or stuff. (I know bad parenting) if the husband is home he will help with her or my Teenager when he doesn't have football will take her to the park and stuff. He has a GF he is pretty serious with and she adores my daughter so she loves taking her with them.

My work is 35-40 mins away. I leave by 6pm to account for any unexpected traffic or accidents so I am usually at work by 6:40-6:45. I get off at 7:30 and usually it's always at time. I get home by 8:15 or 8:30. I usually get into bed by about 9:30 and I set my alarm for 4:00. One time I had to push it to 5 because I just had way to many interruptions. I try to take a melatonin as soon as I get home and if that hasn't worked by 9 I take an ambien that I have a rx for. Sometimes that doesn't work either but I am out of options at that point. LOL

I have blackout curtains and I play my ipod in the background and turn on the bathroom fan. It helps to drown out any outside noise or the regular kid noise. I also keep my room extremely cool. I can not sleep when I am hot and I have to sleep with a blanket. Just a weird quirk. So I have A/C on which doesn't seem to cool down room super good so I also have cieling fan on and regular fan on at all times and my door shut to keep it cool in my room.

Staying awake I usually do ok, slower nights it can be a bit harder. I will have 1-2 5 hr energy drinks. Pop doesn't do anything to help me stay awake I think because I drink way to much of it for to many years. Diet Dr Peper is my weakness.

For eating I try to eat something light before I go into a shift. If I can't grab something to eat I will drink a protein shake (I get really good ones from Costco with high protein and low sugar and carbs). Usually after I get my first rounding done at work by about 9 I will have a snack. I have "lunch" around 1-2 in the morning and I have been trying to stop eating stuff from work and bringing my own stuff. I have been making me a tuna sandwich for more protein. (I buy the pack that is drained and that is all I have to bring, I add a pack of Mayo, dijon mustard, and a pepper packet from the condiments section. I could bring my own bread but we keep loaves stocked on the floor and they always go bad before they are used so I take 2 slices from that.) I usually buy a chocolate milk with that because that is another weakness of mine and I try not to have one outside of work. This usually keeps me satisfied the rest of the shift.

A lot of people suggest to eat before you sleep in the morning but I don't. I usually am still full from lunch and I don't want to fall into the trap of gaining weight after I just worked hard to lose a lot. If I was absolutely needing to eat something I would probably drink another protein shake.

My biggest struggle is adjusting back. I don't get a whole lot of sleep on my work days, but I am sleeping so much on my days off. It's not continuous sleep and I think that plays a big role in it but I am sleeping like 12-14 hrs on my days off. I can go to sleep at 2 in the morning and not want to wake up until 3-4 in the afternoon. So I am hoping to adjust a little more that on my days off I can get some stuff done.

That's all I got.

anotherone, BSN, RN · Aug 5, 2011

come home shower and eat in bed by 9am and get up at 4pm

anotherone, BSN, RN · Aug 5, 2011

When I started HS 12 hour shift, I was told to keep day sleep, awake all night schedule. Recently, I found out that no HS crew does that. They take a nap before the 1st night, then do three shift in row then when they are done, they take another nap, and back to normal sleep awake cycle. I disliked being awake when nothing is open except walmart and 24 hour grocery store

I can not do that if I don't work all my nights in a row. I don't even have the option to work all nights or all days let alone all of them in a row.

DreamyEyes · Aug 5, 2011

I work nights, but I work 11-7. I've started a nice little routine since being out of school for the summer. I generally come home and eat breakfast, and am in bed by 8 am. Then I sleep until about 4 pm. I used to have problems sleeping in the day until I got a sleep mask...it helps a LOT.

At night I really don't drink much caffeine, just water.. and I try to eat healthy snacks throughout the night. This may not work for everyone, but I try to avoid drinking anything, including water, after 3 am because otherwise I will wake up during the day then can't fall back asleep.

I'm going back to part-time in a few weeks because I'll be going back to school, and I've been having the same issue as CBsMommy.. I have a hard time sleeping at night now, and when I do fall asleep I wake up after only 3-4 hours. My body is just so used to working nights now. I'm hoping I can adjust to night sleep again before school starts!

JM RN · Aug 6, 2011

Thank you all for the advice and responses! I feel so much better now! Like I can actually do this. Thank you all again :)