You know you work nights when.......

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The conversation with coworkers each night starts with "I got x amount of sleep today..."

Specializes in Critical/Intensive and rehab nursing..
When:

It's winter in Wisconsin. Grandpa needs to be taken to local clinic because of a badly swollen knee.

I am sitting in the Doctor's clinic, half lit waiting area and gently lean back into the chair. Covering up with my coat.

Soon I feel someone shaking me awake.

It was one of the office nurses....asking if I was homeless.

:zzzzz:zzzzz:zzzzz

Oh how true, how true? I've been there only it was I waiting early, just after work at the Dr. office as it was silly to drive home,only to have to go back across town to the doctor's office for my appt. in 11/2 hours so I sit there with my coat over me as I am chilling in the early morning office air. I am watching the fuzzy TV in the office as people are being taken in. OOps!, I'm asleep and 2 1/2 hours later, someone nudges me awake and asks if my appt. is soon? I look at my watch, and it is far past my appt. and I go up to the window and sure enough , they had called my home to tell me I was supposed to be there an hour ago. I tell them, I was. Guess what? Had to make another appt. as they were too booked to take me now. Nice nap, bad timing.

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You know you work night shift when:

you see an elephant driving home and don't think anything about it til you wake up in the afternoon and say to yourself....elephant?......

You are SOOO excited when a restaurant is open after midnite in your little remote/rural town so you can order hot food from out of the hosp!! what a treat

You see snow lightening....again...don't think about it til you wake up in the afternoon and wonder...lighting...its January in Mont..there is no lighting (it was a snow chute in the mountain peeking through some low clouds) weird....course if you were to try to explain this to dayshifters they would think ???

I am now working nights again after many year day shift and going to school....I am enjoying it, even if I still don't know what day it is,,,or the date....I can't wait for my daughter to go back to school so I might get a sleeping routine going, this summer thing is tough....and I am still not sure when to take my meds....A

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Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.

I'm on the 3rd of a 3 night off stretch (gotta love 12's ) and this morning at 10 am:uhoh3: , after going to bed at 2:15 am and being up briefly to put my 8 year old son on the bus at 7, my husband decided it was time for me to get up :wakeneo: and sent my 5 and 6 year old daughters in with ice cubes ;) which they proceded to put down my pajama shirt. :lol2: Think that woke me up? Nope! I just kept on sleeping and ignored them, until the darned ice cubes started melting and I rolled over into ice cold puddles. It took me a few minutes more to fully wake up:gandalf: , then I left the remainder of the ice cubes on my husband's pillow. :devil: I don't care how much sleep I actually get during my nights off, at 8:30 am it's time to sleep! ;)

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you can drink beer or margaritas with chips and hot sauce at 8am. Ok, maybe that's a Texas thing!:cheers:

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Specializes in NICU.
You have some medications you're supposed to take in the morning and some to take @ night--and you're not sure what to do because maybe the ones @ night make you sleepy, and so should you take them in the morning before you go to sleep or?? and then when do you take the morning ones? Will they keep you awake?

aaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkk :uhoh3: :confused:

I usually take all my meds with dinner before I go to work. That includes anything I should take in the morning, after all, it's my morning! It only gets complicated when I'm off work and we go out for dinner. Then I sometimes forget to take them until midnight........

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When:

It's winter in Wisconsin. Grandpa needs to be taken to local clinic because of a badly swollen knee.

I am sitting in the Doctor's clinic, half lit waiting area and gently lean back into the chair. Covering up with my coat.

Soon I feel someone shaking me awake.

It was one of the office nurses....asking if I was homeless.

When I was pregnant, I was working overnights and the only appointment that they had for my first appointment(and the first time I ever met the doc) was at the ungodly hour of like 10 AM. So I get up, shower(it was the only way I was going to even be semi conscious after less than 4 hours of sleep), put on the only pair of pants that fit me(a pair of my male roommates sweatpants) and yes they were clean, do something with my hair and stumble out into the bright light and drive to the dr's office looking and feeling like the living dead. So I think I do fairly well at the office even though I felt like dying and got home and passed out having made sure to tell work a month earlier that I was NOT going to be there that night.

I was later reading over my chart and noticed that the doctor had written on my chart- pt appearance dishevelled resembling homeless person.

This after I had told her the second she walked in the room that I worked nights and had had less then 4 hours of sleep and this was like 1-3 AM to a normal person and I was slightly out of it. I'm pretty sure she doesn't look that hot when she rolls out of bed between the hours of 1-3 AM to do a middle of the night delivery.

She did eventually get it when everytime after that she saw me for an appointment after that it was after 3 PM and I was wide awake and totally with it.

Taryn

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:penguin: I once had to ring the estate agent back to check had I agreed to the offer to sell our house! I nolonger answer the phone! Answering machines are the best thing ever invented.

when you have a complete conversation with someone but you don't remember till the next time you speak with tham.
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I am loving these!

Never know what day it is, and can't tell what I am supposed to be doing when the alarm goes off...is it 5:30PM or 5:30Am? Am I getting up to get kids to school, or go to work?

I actually love summers because I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to get my kids to school on my days off! They are all night owls and we all stay up half the night during the summer.

I fall asleep at every school function and all the teachers learn quickly that I only do field trips or conferences in the early morning. I used to sleep through my daughter's soccer practice on a blanket at the side of the field, and I know they all thought I was nuts.

I have fallen asleep outside a school waiting for the bell to ring.

I have wondered many a time how the heck I got home.

My kids think it is too funny to poke me on the nose or foot when I doze off watching TV on nights off...once I accidently threw the remote at my son when he startled me doing that!

It is a rule in my house that if you ask permission for or tell mom about something while she is asleep, it does not count!

I have had so many conversations with people that I have absolutely no memory of.

Poeple get annoyed when they leave messages that don't get returned till the next day...I sleep days, even when I am off most of the time.

When I was pregnant with my son I would spend half the night on the phone and on hold talking with my night shift friends because I couldn't sleep.

I, too have thanked God for "Nick at Night".

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

You know you work nights when you go to WalMart during "regular hours" to get your groceries...drive home...unpack your groceries...and then go ALL THE WAY BACK because you realize you forgot to stock up on the 5 boxes of instant cappuccino you keep in your work tote!

.............................Yes, day people, it's THAT serious!..............................

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Margaritas and Tacos with coworkers at 8:00 am seems perfectly normal.

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Specializes in MICU.

Wearing PJ's all the time... forgetting to put on a bra before dropping son off at school/going to Target/etc... LOVING online classes... Sunglasses all the time...

I also get bizzare cravings. I'm off tonight, it's 3am, and I need a HotPocket now!! lol

Driving my son to the bus stop (3 min walk) because I stayed up until 4:45, had to wake up again @ 6:30 to get him on the bus, and I don't want to change out of my nightgown! Because you know I'll be getting right back into bed!

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You and your co-workers going to a restraunt after your shift and the waitress looks at you funny when you order a burger and fries for breakfast.

Sleeping til noon on your days off, even though you already been off for a day or two.

Not remembering phone conversations you've had with people.

Threatning telemarketers within an inch of their life if they call you again at 10 am. (Love the Do Not Call Registery)

Sleepwalking usually looking for IV pumps beeping or checking on patients.(didn't do it when I worked days, but do it when I work nights)

Saying to everyone have a good night as you leave work.

Refer to the today as tomorrow even though it is after midnight (I have to work again tomorrow, instead of tonight)

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