New to night shift

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I will be starting a new job, in a new hospital in a new state. I'm used to working days and I'll be going to nights this time. Wondering if any of you seasoned night nurses have some tips for working nights? Best way to get good sleep in the day? A good reccomendatoon on black out curtains maybe?

Put alum foil on the windows.... works great!

My HOA would send me a letter as soon as the foil was on the windows. Foil on windows is not allowed in my neighborhood--it's mentioned specifically in our HOA handbook.

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Specializes in Adult/Ped Emergency and Trauma.
I don't understand..?
I'm sorry, i was making a dark joke about the meth lab homes. Ignore me:)
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Specializes in Emergency.
I'm sorry, i was making a dark joke about the meth lab homes. Ignore me:)

OHHH! LOL I get it now. Haha.

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Specializes in Emergency.

My HOA would send me a letter as soon as the foil was on the windows. Foil on windows is not allowed in my neighborhood--it's mentioned specifically in our HOA handbook.

I have an HOA too... I haven't read the book yet since I haven't moved in yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was in there too.

I'm hoping I can get some good dark shades? With blinds and dark curtains over. Hopefully that'll do it.

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Specializes in Prior military RN/current ICU RN..

One thing...I worked nights a long time ago and I got horrible reflux. I only did it for 6 months and never again. The one part I learned from a sleep doc is that while sleep masks help, light energy is absorbed through the skin. So the body still is going through the same processes it does during the day and deep normal "sleep" is not happening. So making the room as dark as possible is ESSENTIAL. Use the mask, but make sure you are in the darkest room possible. I actually started sleeping in my basement with just one little window which was easy to cover up. All I know is thank god I will never have to go through that again. I do appreciate the people who do it because I have no idea how they do it.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Yikes! Hopefully I don't have that hard of a time. Ill be required to do nights for a year before switching to days.

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