Night shift and adjusting on your days off

[Katniss88]

Does anyone else that works on night shift have trouble adjusting to sleeping at night on your days off? I usually work three nights in a row and after my last shift I will usually sleep until 3 pm and then get up and will try to go back to bed sometime after 11:30 that night, but I usually wake up around 5:00 am that next morning because I've had too much sleep. Then I will be somewhat tired the rest of the day and I usually can then adjust to sleeping at night again, but the problem is I'll have maybe one more night off and then this whole thing starts over again. A lot of the time I'll fall asleep during the daytime while watching tv because I have a hard time sleeping at night, it's just so frustrating. What has made it even worse is the work schedule has been all over the place, sometimes I'll work two days in a row and have two to three days off and then work one day somewhere else in the week and then have maybe two days off. I have such a hard time sleeping as it is and this just makes it worse.

[Mr. Murse]

Usually, unless I have more than 3 days off in a row, I just stick to my night sleeping schedule. I may back it up a little bit, as in going to bed at 3 or 4 instead of 8 or 9, but I think it's more wise to just accept that this is your schedule and not try to flip everything back to normality every time you're off. If you have a long stretch off, then sure, otherwise, just stick to sleeping at least through morning.

It's funny though because I'm reading this at 6 in the morning and I just woke up because my schedule's been completely messed up the last few days off.......like going to bed at 8pm, waking up at midnight, then going back to sleep a while later and waking up early. Tonight's shift is going to be rough.......

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

When I worked nights I tired to keep a similar schedule...and I just resigned myself that I will always be tired with weird sleeping habits.

[ORNerd, BSN, RN]

If your life allows you, I would try and keep a similar schedule on your nights off, i.e. stay up late and sleep in the next day. Flipping back and forth is hard on your body. I have a two year old boy that is in daycare MWF and home with me the other two days of the week, so I don't have that option, since he'll wake up in the morning regardless of when I go to bed. I try and minimize the sleep deprivation by scheduling my night shifts over the weekend when my husband is home for our son. So far I can handle it, but I certainly have exhausting days and restless nights when I'm flipping back!

[cassie77775]

I work nights and keep my schedule the same unless we have things to do. My kids are in school from 7-3 so I get up at 3 and do work with them. But like today, we had aily stuff to do so Icame home from work and slept 4 hours and then I'll go to sleep around 12-1am, off Sunday so ill go to sleep Sunday night around 2-3, and Monday I work so ill be up around 3. I can not flip flop my sleep.

[cinlou, BSN, MSN, RN]

I have worked many shifts but most of my years have been the night shift, when I first started on nights as a new grad, back then you couldn't get a day job unless you were in line for it after someone died or retired. About 4 am I would start getting really nauseated. Then I settled into it. I made my bedroom as dark as possible and cool for sleeping. If possible I tried to keep me days on in a row. At one point my schedule was rotating day 12's and night 12's they would always seem to schedule me Friday nights before my weekend off and then back on day shift Monday, made for a very short weekend. I was constantly trying to flip back and forth. So I decided to just stay on nights it was easier on my body. We all know that research shows that night workers have higher incidence of heart disease and other medical issues. The ANA is in the middle of a new research project on nurse fatigue and safety. They should have a white paper out soon on it. But they discuss issues such as employers allowing naps. Driving while sleepy is as bad as driving under the influence both are impaired. Some people can adapt to night hours better than others, now that I am on days I have a hard time getting up early. I still do not sleep more than 6 hours at night. And on my days off I sleep late and stay up late. Try to maintain good eating habits it will help, you can also try melatonin for sleep, talk with your Doc about it. If you try other sleep aides they can make you feel groggy and foggy in the head. I wish I could give you better information but each individual is different. If you are able to maintain a night schedule even on your days of this is ideal, but most people are not able, do to family and other responsibilities. The best I can offer is a dark cool room and a good diet, I would try to stay up for a couple hours in the morning when I first got home then I slept better, but generally I tended to sleep in short blocks of about 4 hours.