Post Night Shift Sickness

[canfield.km1]

Starting around 0830 if I am trying to stay awake for classes or to get onto days schedule after a night shift I feel almost like I am car sick/motion sick. I get a nauseated feeling and a weak headache that starts in my eyes. The physical sensation are difficult to describe. It is basically an all-over crappy feeling. My skin even feels odd, like a heaviness in my face.

Does anyone else experience this? Is it just sleep deprivation sinking in?

[klone, MSN, RN]

Yes, that is sleep deprivation. When I try to switch from nights to days, I would go to sleep, but would only sleep until around noon, then force myself to get up and move around. Generally I was able to go back to sleep again around 10 or 11 pm.

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

I noticed after working the night shift if I tried to stay awake after work or even if I went right to sleep I'd wake up feeling like you described. It wasn't so much sleep deprivation for me. I often said, "I feel hungover...as if I'd been drinking all night'. My husband is the one who made me realize what that yucky feeling was. I was dehydated..much like if I had been drinking all night.

My solution..try my hardest to drink water during my shift. As well, I'd chug a bottle or two of water before I went to bed. If I do that, I feel 100% normal when I wake up.

[SwansonRN]

I'm a day babe. I can't hang on nights. I frequently feel sick during and after my shift. I'm nauseated, sometimes dry heaving/vomiting around 2-3am on. I believe it's due to a medication I take at night that I usually would sleep through these side effects. I also wake up with that hangover/dehydrated feeling. My strategy is to avoid nights. If I can't I just bring a ton of light snacks and water and hope for the best.

[RNperdiem, RN]

That is sleep deprivation. If you switch between days and nights, you shuffle around like a zombie on your day off. I felt that way a lot when I was a new parent as well as when I worked nights.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Just to be safe, check your BS.... Those symptoms could be associated with a lot of different issues, but if they happen with some sort of cyclic (predictable) regularity it could have a metabolic connection.

Take care of yourself.