Trouble adapting to night shift

[dee789]

I've been on the night shift for about two years now and am still having a lot of trouble with it. It seems like no matter how much I sleep, if I am awake before around 1 to 2pm I feel like absolute crap. For example, yesterday I went to sleep around 10am (late because I went out to breakfast with my coworkers after a shift), slept til 3pm, took a 45 minute nap around 6pm, went to sleep at 1am and slept til 8am, and now it's 10:30am and I am exhausted and about to go back to sleep to get ready for my shift tonight. This seems like a ridiculous amount to sleep in a small amount of time and yet I still feel like crap and tired.

Basically all my night shift coworkers seem to be awake and about during the day, do things during the weekend, etc. I can't really do anything with my life anymore or be an active member of society and it's really depressing as I am a very social person and I prefer to be out doing things. I feel it's straining my relationship with my fiance who works normal hours -- I just feel very disconnected from him at times.

I have a hard time looking forward to vacations or time off because I know I'll either be exhausted and in a fog or asleep half the day.

What do I do?! There's a wait ahead of me to go to days at my job and only one person has been moved in the year I've been there. I love my specialty (ED) and the sad thing is that I want to try ICU in the future but I know that just means more years of this. I love acute care and want to spend my career in the hospital so I know that means nights. No real way out I guess, I just feel stuck and hopeless a lot of the time (some days are better than others) and wondering what anyone did in this situation.

Thanks in advance.

[OldDude]

I never got used to nights. I worked in a Pedi ER and loved it, had a great crew of nurses, and good docs, but I was in the same boat as you. I worked with nurses who would only work nights. As time went on it just got worse so I had to bail out. I'm just not a night person I guess.

[dee789]

Where are you at now? Was it worth leaving a specialty you otherwise liked?

[OldDude]

I ended up as an elementary school nurse after a few trips around the circuit, so to speak, but yes, in retrospect, the ER gave me the experience, critical thinking skills, and confidence to "step up" to other nursing roles and ultimately to be self sufficient in my current, and final, nursing position.