Night shift nurses-tips on sleeping regular hours

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I'm a new graduate night nurse working on a med-surg floor for 4-5 months now. I'm surprised at how I've been able to adjust to sleeping during the day. I like the pace on nights and my co-workers are great. I've always had trouble sleeping at actual night time, so it comes as now surprise that it's gotten worse since I've joined the NOC force. Any tips on not waking up early? (Been up since 130 am). Might try to go back to melatonin. Have had terrible luck with brief stint w/ ambien.

Thanks

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Specializes in Med-Surg., Oncology, Observational Units.

Hmm. I worked nights for three years and am now back on days. I highly recommend day shift for health reasons but it can be chaotic sometimes. Couple of things I can think of are make sure you are not drinking coffee or working out too late in the evening before bed. Also, make sure you keep your room pitch black while you sleep and keep out anything that could wake you up (pets and electronic devices, etc). Is there something in particular that wakes you up?

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thanks. Not really. I've always sort of had issues sleeping at night. It's generally mental I think. I do go way too hard on the caffeine though.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

On my nights off- I stay up until 0300 or so and sleep til noon. Makes that turnaround day much less stressful- and I'm still getting my 'anchor sleep'.

All the cool kids work nights!

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Are you asking about how to sleep good during the day? Or are you asking how to go back and forth from sleeping days to nights on your nights off?

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On my nights off- I stay up until 0300 or so and sleep til noon. Makes that turnaround day much less stressful- and I'm still getting my 'anchor sleep'.

All the cool kids work nights!

Exactly what I do!

And yes, all the cool people DO work nights! :)

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I have the same problem. Sleeping during the day is easy. It's usually at night that I have insomnia now...hence why I'm here at 4:30 am now!

I'm seriously considering taking melatonin or Benadryl because this is ridiculous!

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Normally I don't have problems sleeping during the day, but right now I do! The part of the country I live in, the cicadas are out in full force singing away...all day! Let me tell you, those buggers are LOUD!!! Even with my fan on and the TV turned down low, I can hear them loud and clear. White noise is no match for them.

Anyone else have this problem right now??

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

I love night shift.

I don't try to force my body into anything, but sleep when I'm sleepy and be awake when I'm not. I usually do my 7p-7a then come home and get the kids on the bus. If I try to keep myself awake after that, it's usually semi-disastrous as I've found myself waking up at the table smelling burning food or at my computer desk checking out allnurses. :sleep: :sarcastic:

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