night shift and day classes

[namahshivaya]

I've been a nurse for a few months and work night shift in a med-surg unit. I absolutely love working nights! Although on my days off I find it hard to fall asleep before 6am and sleep til 2 or 3pm. It's frustrating bc I don't want to sleep all day but at the same time I don't want to limit my sleep. Any suggestions on how to fall asleep by 2 or 3am?

A big concern of mine is the classes we take during the day. So far they've been simple so it's been okay with just 1 hr of sleep. I'll be taking an EKG class next month (4 days in 3 wks) and I'm concerned bc it would be nice to have at least 4 hrs of sleep. I'm curious how other night nurses deal with this issue.

Much gratitude for your time. :)

[Guest296136]

I try to do my 3 nights in a row for better sleep on my 3rd night I go home and sleep for 4 hrs only and then go to bed around 11pm and stay on that schedule til I work again. On my first night of work I am up by 9am and stay up all day and go to work at night.(I have kids and also take classes online)

I find that online classes work best for me, try to take classes early in the morning if you can that may help.

[nialloh, RN]

I have worked nights for many years now. If I'm off for one day between night shifts, I try to keep to my night schedule. If I'm off for a few days, I sleep for a few hours (after a night shift), and then go to bed at a reasonable normal hour. By doing that I switch myself to day shift. In all fairness, I have been told that I'm better at this then most (by other night nurses). I hope you are able to work out your own system. good luck. I'm not going to school, so I can't help you with that one.

[klrmom]

A friend of mine works night-shift in a jail. They work 7 days on, then 7 days off, so her situation is probably a little easier than only having a day or 2 off in between. On her last work night, she stays up all day... she doesn't even give herself a nap because then she won't wake up for hours lol. She cleans house, pays bills, catches up on phone calls, whatever she can do to stay busy, then goes to bed at night and keeps to a normal night time sleeping schedule on her off week. The night before her first work night, she sits up all night. She DVR's all of her favorite shows through the week and ONLY watches them on that night. It helps her stay awake all night and then she's ready for her working week. Again, this would be a lot easier on a work one week/off one week schedule. Good luck! Maybe you should just get some red bull? lol... anything helps, right?

[island40]

keeping close to the same sleep schedule is best - so on your night off stay up until at least 2-3am before going to bed or if you go to sleep at 10-11pm then get up at 3-4am so that you are not trying to sleep through the night when off and then trying to stay alert at night when working.