Night nurses, question about how you manage...

Published

  1. What do you do if you work nights and need to be up early on days off?

    • 11
      Sleep after shifts, but get up early
    • 2
      Stay up all day and fight the z's until nighttime
    • 4
      Melatonin or other sleep aide
    • 0
      Sleep? I don't have that luxury.
    • 1
      Something else

18 members have participated

Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

...those inevitable early mornings on your days off?

I am super lucky in that, most of the time, I can sleep in late on my days off. I have been able to pretty much live on a night's schedule, and the earliest I've had to schedule appointments and such is 11 or 12. However, I've got some clinicals coming up for my BSN, and while I can pick which days I go, my hours are set as 8-4:30.

My first one is on Thursday, and I work tonight and tomorrow night. Normally I would sleep on Wednesday until 2 or 3 and then FORCE myself to get up. However, I'm finding that I'm still not tired enough to fall asleep later that night like a normal person. I do have a sleep aide if all else fails (Melatonin is a blessing, but doesn't seem to help in these circumstances), but I'd rather not take it since I'm usually drowsy the whole day afterward.

How do you manage these situations?

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

You're going to have to figure out what works for you. AND what works for you now as opposed to last year. Generally, if I had worked the night before an 8am class, I'd just stay up and do the class then go to bed immediately afterward and sleep until I was dynamited out of bed. But one year of school, that didn't work for me and I had to adjust my working hours. I begged, borrowed and traded shifts like crazy and once or twice had to call in sick to make it all work. I'm glad that's all behind me.

The trouble with asking people to vote, is that what works for them may not work for you. Of course, you may get some ideas you hadn't thought of.

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Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

Yep, I'm just hoping to get some ideas of what works for others. For this situation, I'm leaning toward staying up all day so I'll be extra tired that night and can sleep. I just reeeeeaaaaally suck at going to sleep at normal times, no matter how tired I am.

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Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.

I stay up for about an hour, then sleep for about 3 hours. If I've slept for 3 or 4 hours, I'm good for 3 or 4 hours.

I have a curfew: after working all night, I'm good to drive until noon. After 12p, I don't take responsibility for someone else. That means I don't drive, and I won't go in to work. After sleeping 4 hours, I can drive during the next 4 hours, but not after that,

There's something magical about 3 hours. Any less than that, and I'm groggy and unsafe to drive. I need 3 or 4 hours solid sleep.

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I usually woke up earlier (5-6hours sleep) and "napped " for an hour or two before clinical. Some days this system worked better than others.

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Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

So basically your are working mon and tues nights and then thursday days right? If I had that schedule, I would work mon night, sleep as much as possible tuesday, work tuesday night, sleep until 12 or 1p wednesday, then get up and do something to keep me active - housework, grocery shopping, take kids to the park, ect. and then go to bed at a decent time that night (I'm always tired, so not problem there). Then I would be good to go for Thursday day shift.

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

My wife and I live your scenario every week. We both work nights and have a shared day job. We will sleep 2-4 hours on our transition and be able to sleep that night.

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Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

Thanks, everyone. I was going to try to stay up today, but the past couple nights were a little busier than usual, so I'm gonna try to get a REM cycle in. Hopefully I can drag my butt out of bed by noon...Working nights is so weird.

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Specializes in Critical care.

When I work nights and then days a day or two later I only sleep about 3-4 hours (until noonish). I force myself up then go to bed at 8-9pm that night. I used to work nights on weekends and days during the week, sometimes working Saturday and Sunday night then dayshift Tuesday.

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This is a tough schedule to work with!

I try to sleep as much as I can when I can. On a night when I really need to sleep but can't, I just try to keep the lights off, reduce stimuli, and relax. I use melatonin and sleep aides when I need to (but not routinely). And then in the morning I use caffeine if I need it!

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

Have you tried Unisom? It's non habit forming and works really well for me. I worked 2 years graveyard shift and I'd take it as soon as I got off (Only lived 5 minutes away). I too have issues going to bed at normal times, but that's what works for me.

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