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

Nurses General Nursing

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

I wouldn't let the grandparents or anyone else for that matter buy my daughters "Big Wheels" when they were ready for tricycles cause that noise kept me awake my entire first year of nursing! I worked nights and tried, usually unsuccessfully, to sleep during the day, with that obnoxious noise of plastic wheels against concrete sidewalks grating through my head. I lived in the upstairs apartment of an older house and my bedroom window was a mere five feet from the sidewalk. I had to keep windows open since I didn't have air conditioning. Needless to say, my dd's first tricycle was a good old fashioned red metal one with black rubber wheels!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
I'm laughing hard with recognition and appreciation.

You have two basic types of clothing--sleepwear and scrubs.

You go out for breakfast with co-workers and any "normal" friends you can haul out of bed that early.

During the winter, you can go for days at a time without seeing the sun.

You don't adjust your schedule too much on your days off. I personally sleep from 0400 till 1200 so my body doesn't go into shock.

You get to know cops, firefighters, cab drivers, security folks, all-night cashiers and waitresses--the other creatures of the night.

You tell your friends and family members with newborns to give you a call if they hit a rough patch during those wee-hours feedings.

You know the line-up of all the 24-hour cable stations. And you can rattle off the names of half a dozen or more infomercial products. Double points if you remember the phone numbers. Triple if you've ordered recently.

You wish you could find (or in my case, could have found) night school for the kids.

You try not to resent the fact that your kids' school conferences, athletic events, band concerts, etc. are cutting into your nap time before work.

You would like to kiss the person who invented vcrs and dvrs (TiVo), allowing you to actually watch prime time TV.

You scratch your head over people who can't stay up past ten o'clock.

You have to slap your own hand to keep from calling a friend at midnight.

It isn't the next day until you get up--even if it's not until four o'clock in the afternoon.

Breakfast isn't a time of day--it's a state of mind.

You wish doctors, dentists, hair salons, mechanics, and the rest routinely scheduled appointments until 11:00 at night.

You wake up in your driveway an hour after you got home. And this is despite the fact that your door is open, one foot is on the ground, and the keys-in-the-ignition bell has been going off the entire time.

You pray that you will remember to take the half-eaten sandwich out of your work bag before you stumble up to bed. Especially if you're off the next two days.

You have to have the TV on to fall asleep and you know what a whole bunch of TV shows and movies sound like but you've never actually seen them.

You don't balk at spending a little extra on foofy comforters and pillows because your bed is your best friend.

I could go on and on, but I just got home from work a little while ago and it's beddy-bye time for me.

Keep it coming, nocturnal ones.

these are all great!!! i really like "breakfast isn't a time of day, it's a state of mind!" I'm going to have to start explaining that to people who want to puke when I say I'm gonna have spaghetti or something when I get home... hey I never thought of the nighttime baby feedings... little extra cash hey? ;)

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when you forgot what a sunrise looks like

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

You want to smack, and give your job for a couple of days, to the next person who says "but it must be so QUIET at night with all the patients sleeping!!" Or (luckily, a VERY rare bird at my hospital) the day shift nurse who constantly tells night shifters they "just don't know how hard it can get around here" or the one who says that "night shifters don't really have to work any holidays..." :D :D :D

You never really had tooth problems (besides braces) until you started drinking lots of Coke and eating too much sugar to stay awake!! (oooops...)

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....You enjoy your job but can't deal with the shift physically. My hospital's HR just released me to apply for positions elsewhere in the hospital, although I haven't finished my 6 month commitment to the CCU yet. I'm definitely not a night owl...

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Specializes in emergency and psych.

You have cheese enchiladas and a margaritas for breakfast.

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Specializes in L/D, Peds.

You have ever stopped for a stop sign to turn green.

You have ever stopped at a red light and then went because you thought it was only a stop sign.

I have done both of these.

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When you have to "get up early" to pick your kids up from school, instead of getting up early to take them to school.

When you can pick out night shift nurses at monthly meetings b/c they are the ones with coffee, bags under their eyes, and asking why meetings have to be so early (1:00pm).

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

You contemplate throwing a heavy object at the person who says night shift is the boring shift because there's nothing to do.

You plan your "dinner" based on the fact that you'll be laying down in a few minutes, therefore salsa and jalepenos probably shouldn't top your breakfast burrito.

You see an outfit in the store and say to yourself "oh how comfortable" instead of "oh how pretty".

Cold coffee, hot coffee, it doesn't matter anymore unless it lacks caffeine.

You've tried every flavor of coffee creamer that exists.

You should have stock in Mountain Dew by now.

Makeup is something you wear on your day off.

Your take great pains to make sure your bed is heaven (lavender oil reed diffuser, nice sheets, soft blankets.)

You used to make sure every sliver of light was blacked out from the window, but now that doesn't matter anymore, because you're too tired for that to keep you up anymore.

Your TV stays on Nickelodeon all the time on your day off (Nick at Nite).

Taking a week's vacation, and being up on daylight, you feel like you took a trip to another planet.

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you come home from work at 8 am and unwind with a cold beer and the cable guy looks at you funny:lol2:

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Specializes in OB.

If you have ever answered the phone in a sleepy state, mumbled something and then realized it was you childs school! They must think I am a drunk the way I sound on the phone in the middle of the day. I tell them every year that they need to call dad first, but they just don't get it!

If you have ever driven your kid to school in your pajamas and slippers.

If you have ever picked up your kid from school in your pajamas because you just needed a few more minutes of sleep.

If you have ever paid a babysitter so you can sleep.

If you leave work, come back and it is the same date!

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

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:

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