night shift & sleep

mrscurtwkids4 · Mar 24, 2008

I don't really have any advice for you. I'm kind of in similar circumstances with working nights. Except I only have every other weekend off and a day here and there in between 3 and 4 days working straight. So I end up trying to maintain my sleeping during the day and being awake at night even on my "nights" off. It's become a real pain because I feel like I don't near the time I would like to have with my kids and husband. But I try and spend every waking minute I can with them to make up for the amount of time I'm asleep. I feel like I'm sleeping more hours because the quality of sleep is lower than if I were sleeping during the night like our bodies are used to. If you find a better way to keep up the schedule, please pass it along!

CABG patch kid, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2008

I feel your pain, as I am having problems adjusting to night shift as well. I have no problem sleeping during the day or being up at night, I just feel like I am missing out on some quality time with people. I don't have a real set schedule, we have to work every other weekend and that usually makes me not get 3 on 4 off in a row each week.

What I do is my first day/night off after work is I come home and set my alarm to 4pm before I go to sleep. Then I have time to shower/dress before hubby gets home. Since I am a bit more tired, I still stay up late but try to get to bed a bit earlier and wake up a bit earlier, like bed at 4am and up by 1pm. That way I'm not messing my schedule up too much and I still have enough energy to make it through a whole day. Earliest I ever go to bed is 3am, earliest I ever wake up is noon. But I don't have kids, so I'm sure it would be much harder to stick to this if I had em.

Even by trying to be awake during the day more, I still feel like I'm missing out on things sometimes, but then I remind myself that if I worked days I would need to be in bed by 8-9am each night which would be torture for me.

I am curious to hear how others do it, but I have yet to be successful in that whole "getting back on a day routine" thing so far

nurseinlimbo · Mar 24, 2008

I usually work 2 or 3 in a row, sometimes 8's, sometimes 12's. I generally sleep from 730 to about 1400, but sometimes less, sometimes more. On my days off, I try to switch back to a 'day' schedule, up by about 830 at the latest and to bed around 1030 or 11 at night.

I was working a rotation that consisted of mostly nights, 2 every week minimum, but gave it up because I found I just felt like crap all the time, and they never gave me anything else but nights. Now I might do 2 or 3 nights a month, usually grouped together, and work 12 hour days and the occasional 8 hr 3-11. Works better for me.

Bugaloo · Mar 24, 2008

It is for this very reason that I decided to accept a position where I will be working 12-hr nights on Tue-Wed-Thurs every week.

I love working night shift, but feel as I am always trying to find a balance between work/sleep/life. If I have had a rough few nights at work, sometimes all I do is sleep my first day off, then have trouble sleeping with my family my first night off. Sometimes, I fight with myself on whether to sleep or stay up.

nyapa, RN · Mar 24, 2008

How many of you people have to split your night shifts in one roster? We have to do four nights every 28 days. After working permanent nights I sleep really well. And because we work 10 and a half hour shifts, as opposed to 8 hour shifts during the day, we get an extra day off if we are full time.

So I handle night shift really well. I just make sure I have three days off after, so the first day I may sleep a while, and then the next two I have time to spend with people...

Jay

cardiacnurse05 · Mar 24, 2008

Thanks for all your responses. At least I feel like I'm not alone in this!

hikernurse · Mar 24, 2008

Thanks for all your responses. At least I feel like I'm not alone in this!

You are so not alone. I feel like I waste a lot more hours sleeping when I'm working nights, yet I'm always tired. Several noc nurses where I work totally switch their schedules around and stay up all night even when they're not working, but I'd hate that; I'd miss sunshine too much.

medsurgrnco, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2008

You might try staying up a couple of hours later in the evening to see if you can sleep later in the morning, and either take a shorter nap or drink caffeine instead of going back to sleep mid-afternoon. I think everyone working night shift comes up with their own system on how to have a life on their days off. This subject has been covered recently, so I suggest you do a search.

kcochrane · Mar 25, 2008

On my days off, I stay up until at least 2 or 3am. That way I still can get up at 10 or 11am and have time with the family. If I have to work that night, I will take a brief nap if needed. I use the time I stay up to study, watch tv or read. This works best on the weekend since everyone sleeps in, so I'm only missing an hour or two from family life.