Night Nurses?

[medgen]

I've been a nurse now for 1 1/2 years and work nights. I enjoy the hospital and people I work with, but working nights really puts a hurt on my body. I have lots of problems trying to sleep on my nights off, and find myself tossing and turning all night long. My days off are usually ruined because I sleep all morning and am tired through out the day. I'm thinking about switching to days, but I really do like working the night shifts.

Who else suffers from this issue and what can I do?

[suanna]

If you haven't adapted in 1 1/2 years I don't see much hope for you on nights. Usually a new night staff person adapts in 6mos to a year. Everyone I work with on nights does thier schedule a little different but after 18mos I just don't think you are a nightshifter. You can always go to days and if you don't like it I'd bet there will always be a position to go back to on nights.

[Tait, MSN, RN]

The key to nights is, as said before, consistency. I tend to keep my night schedule, sleep around 5am on nights off, up around 2/3. My friend works T-Th 7p-7a and then flips her schedule for the weekend. She has been doing it for a long time so it works well for her.

:icon_hug:

I found, after many weeks of the same T-Th schedule, that I was asked to work Wed night and then Friday 7a-3p as a tele tech. I have been screwed up since. It's hard with nights to get off your routine.

Tait