Night Shift

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hi, I am going to be interviewing for a night shift job and was wondering if those of you who have worked nights could tell me how you were able to adjust to it, and what time of day do you do your sleeping? Also, how can I prepare myself for working nights? Thanks.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

I'm exactly like Nocturne121, I'm a night person, even on my days off. I go to the 24 hour gym at 2 or 3AM, then to the 24 hour grocery store, or to Walmart. My spouse is pretty nocturnal too, but not as bad as me.

Good advice from above. I would just try to stay up as late as possible the night before your first night and sleep all day if you can. Most people have a lot of trouble sleeping during the day at first, but you get used to it.

A lot of people work work 8 hours sleep those last few hours right before work and that gets them over the hump.

Good luck.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

Put aluminum foil on your bedroom windows under your blinds, keeps out any sneaky little rays of light that will find your eyes and poke you until you wake up.

I don't work nights anymore, but my son does, and he finds that keeping his schedule on days off works much better, even a modified one such as staying up til about 3 am and getting up at noon, gives him time for fun and errands, without getting him too far off his usual track of staying up til 7 and sleeping til whenever.

That was my main problem with working nights, I had several children and on days off I reverted back to a day schedule and as a result my poor body had no idea what time of the day or night it was and I felt like he!! all the time.

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I too work nights at a LTC facility and it is my shift by choice. I remember the first few nights I thought it was "unnatural" to be up all night but found out soon that I liked it. I usually go to sleep about 2pm but can sleep early or split my time sleeping. I live alone and that makes it easier. Usually I'm up at night even on my nights off. Agree with all the tips above, especially about letting everyone know you need your sleep. :zzzzz

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Specializes in Geriatrics, LTC.

For myself what worked is don't try to "burn the candle at both ends" and deprive yourself of sleep. I tried and ended up sick. I work 12 hour night shifts so I work 2 to 3 days a week. My first day to work I sleep until noon (went to bed at approx 1am) and go to work at 6p. The next day when I get home I sleep from 7:30a until about 2 or 3p and back to work at 6. When I get home and that is my night off I sleep only about 4 hours and then go to bed at a decent hour and get up at 7am the next day for my day off. It works for me anyhow. Use a fan, it blocks out daytime noises. And cover those windows with anything that will darken it up alot.

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Specializes in L&D, Research, Midwifery Student.

Thanks! That helped a lot especially what greer128 said. I am going to try those suggestions. I go to school during the day so I have to switch back to the day shift to attend school, but I am going to work on the weekends and so I guess I will just be extremely tired on Mondays and have to "catch up" so to speak from there on. I guess I will have to see how it goes. I have white noise, a humidifier, and room darkening shades. I just hope I can swing the sleep cycle switching, but there are others on my floor that are also nursing students and do it okay. We shall see. I am definitely a night person, but I have to have 8-10 hours of sleep each night or I feel horrible. This will definitely be an experiment! :roll

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