Starting night shift...

A thread was just started on this not too long ago

https://allnurses.com/forums/f224/working-overnight-shifts-219609.html

good luck with nights!

... it seems like everyone on nights is tired!

I'm a nightshifter and I love it. It's funny that you said the noc crew look tired - I often think to myself that the day crew always look worn out - both coming and going.

I love night shift. I tend to get overstimulated and very cranky when I was on days - I'm not a morning person, and there is too much coming and going on days. The lights are all on, light through the windows, the entire healthcare population is buzzing around - family, meals, phones. Too much for me!

Still being a new nurse, being on the night shift gives me a better opportunity to learn. I can take a little bit more time for tasks & skills so I can make sure I'm doing it correctly - and I don't feel rushed. I like reading charts & analyse labs & trends. Because a lot of the services aren't 24h, there are more tasks I have to do because that department went home already - which broadens my skillset. I feel like I get to absorb so much more than when I was on days. And for whatever reason - it seems a 12h noc goes by faster than even the craziest 12h day shift.

I like that we turn off all the flourescent lighting and have softer, warmer track & task lighting. Such a calming effect (yet, I don't get sleepy at all). Have you ever seen Joe vs. The Volcano (Tom Hanks)? I love that scene w/ the lights. They really do suck the life force out of you.

I didn't have much difficulty changing my body's rhthym either. I've always been a night owl, so I don't poop out on my shift. If I'm working the next day, I have to work at getting to bed early enough to get enough sleep. While I had to hit the snooze button from 0500-0545 when I was on days, I naturally wake around 1600, well rested & with time to dine with family, shower, do makeup (that was sacrificed on days), and be ready to work.

:monkeydance:

I agree with the above poster. I made the shift from nights to days and I like it but I hate it. I like it because like the above, I'm soooo not a morning person and I had a heck of a hard time getting up by 5:15 so I could be out the door by 6:15 and up and running by 7am to a day of craziness. Working nights, I can stay up late on my days off and sleep in every day. My body likes it better.

The downside is that it sometimes feels like you're working 2 days and really you are. An example is that I worked last night, I sleep all day and I'm working tonight. Now i'm off tomorrow but I'll spend the gorgeous day sleeping it away! By the time I wake up (around 5 or 6-ish) it's too late to get things done or spend the day out or something and I only get a few hours to spend with my daughter before she goes to bed at 8:30.

And on the days where I'm off but I'm working that night, they're limited because i'm pre-sleeping before a shift. I feel like I've got less of a personal life working nights, but it beats always feeling exhausted and stressed out working days.