Tips for working nights, please

[quantiestillecanisinfenestra]

Just started covering night shifts at work, in A&E at a fairly large, busy hospital. I didn't think it would be a problem although I anticipated being tired/jetlaggy, but it's harder than I expected. I'm normally pretty robust health wise, but after a week I've come out in patches of what looks like eczema which I've never had before, I've got a few mouth ulcers and my (very mild, relatively speaking) sciatica has flared up.
Is this normal when you start working nights? And is there anything that would help? I'm an agency worker, so can't really say I don't want to work nights without risking my job - and the rest of the team do them and I don't want to be 'the agency worker' who picks and chooses (big NHS stereotype that I'm trying to avoid).
Essentially, any tips for staying well and looking after yourself whilst working nights would be very much appreciated.

It's dreadful, sorry!

Hydrate. Don't rely on coffee and sugar as far as possible, sleep when you're off in a very dark, very quiet place. Be kind to yourself. Always have some time to shower, sit and chill before sleeping. Bring healthy food with you because unhealthy food calls your name at 2am. Stretch, exercise and look after your mental health.

Good luck!

As above.
Plenty of water, stay off the sugar & energy drinks.
Try to keep active. I used to find my hardest time around 3-4 am so.used to leave my most physical tasks (usually a cleaning) until then.
& again take some healthy snacks

The next day try to get your sleep. A mediation app helped me to relax.

Thanks
I've probably been having too much caffeine, definitely too much sugar since I've been putting it in my tea. Will start using sweetener instead and limiting brews the same as I would during the day.
I had my suspicions about diet at night time and started bringing in more fruit and veg to snack on then buying a Mcmuffin on my way home .
A shower or bath before bed sounds like a very good idea.

Things that worked for me for over 10 years of shiftwork...
Don't eat a big meal before your shift.
Keeping active throughout the night especially that awful 3-4am period.
I couldn't catnap on a break, if I fell asleep I woke feeling like death and it buggered up my sleep during thr day.
Treat the morning when you finish like an evening. Home, bath/shower, eat, have a glass of wine, watch a bit telly, off to bed.
Put a note on your door saying "shiftworker asleep, no knocking please".

I find a banana helpful at about 4am.

OK, game plan:
light dinner or snack before work
bring a banana
salad, fruit, veg sticks etc
buy one of those water bottles with the measurements on the side, plus sugar free squash, to make it more interesting
no more sugar in tea
go for a walk round the hospital if feeling tired and nothing physical to be done
usual bedtime routine on return (which is how DP found me sat, in uniform, drinking a glass of wine at 9am the other day )

It seems like a lot, but they're all quite small changes. I reckon reducing caffeine will be the hardest. Thanks for your help!

I’ve worked nights for years in the NHS, a necessary evil but they can be managed. Here’s a few tips I’ve found - feel free to ignore!

Drink caffeine but only early in the shift, try not to have any after midnight. Absolute insist on your breaks. Consider napping, there’s good evidence for short power naps. Set your alarm for 20min so you don’t go into a deep sleep. Be alert to the 4am low, work with colleagues, get them to double check etc.

Make sure you have plenty of time to rest at home, don’t schedule anything else for that time. Consider sunglasses on the way home. Eat well and go quickly to bed. No electronic devices (even MN!). Male sure the house is warm and consider a warm bath or shower before bed. Go to the loo before bed! Get blackout blinds or thick curtains. Put a note on the door so you’re not disturbed during the day and disconnect the phone.

In terms of the shifts you can’t get out of them but do consider how many in a row you do, and the recovery after. If you get the chance consider forward rotation, so do shifts that get progressively later before you do the nights.

Hope this helps?

Following with interest as I'm considering taking a night managers job at the moment. Would be four nights on, four off shift pattern.
Would be great in lots of ways as would fit in around the kids and hypothetically give me more time at home to do some studying I am undertaking towards a different career path. Plus I don't sleep well at night Anyway so I'm like a zombie by 3pm at my day job-I figure it won't be much worse? But am I kidding myself?? I can't decide!!

Just be careful about taking nights to work round the childcare. You need to prioritise sleep when you’re at home. If your kids are at school then the typical school day will only allow you 5-6hr to sleep, which isn’t enough. Similarly as I tell colleagues repeatedly the day you start a night shift isn’t a ‘dayoff’ It’s a day to rest ready for work

I found preparing healthy-ish meals to take in helped, and I ate around 11pm or a bit later. Healthy snacks and plenty of fluid. At around 6am (literally the minute the canteen opened -always first in the queue) I would have a hot breakfast. A cuppa when I got home, then bed within the hour. Eye mask on, ear plugs in... then when I woke I stayed in bed and often went back to sleep. I found when waking in the day, because it was light, I initially felt more awake, but if I put the mask back on, I usually dozed off again.
I also found two week stints better than one week, as it takes about a week for the body to work it out

Sounds like you’ve got a good plan! I’m just adding a couple of things that I found helpful when I started doing nights.

I found blackout blinds and earplugs really helpful for falling (and staying!) asleep during the day. I also always put my phone on silent, unplug the doorbell etc. Basically make sure that I won’t be disturbed.

I wear sunglasses on the way home, which looks strange sometimes in the middle of winter but I’m sure you know that light is a cue to your brain to wake up, so sunglasses can counteract that slightly.

Definitely look at your diet and make sure you’re not surviving for days on coffee and chocolate (guilty!) It’s so hard to eat healthily when you’re on nights but I try to meal prep beforehand so there are easy meals available to me, because personally I don’t feel very inclined to cook a full-scale meal after/before a night shift, and it turns out that toast and chocolate don’t sustain me through the whole shift.

TheLastNigel, I was an LP with three children, I found nights a lot easier. I was in really good shape, in my 30's and naturally a 'night owl', who could manage on four hours sleep and napping.

OP, everything that's been said and I weaned myself off having milk in my tea and moved onto naturally caffeine free types, such as Redbush/Roobios.

I found a natural way of eating made me feel a lot better. So whilst you are switching to sweeteners, the chemicals mess as much with your system as a diet high in sugar.

I did nights for 4 years. When I quit I told DH I would take a week off to "get back to normal" then look for a new job- I was genuinely shocked how long it took to get over it, I'm talking about three months to truly recover
At the time I did all the sort of things suggested above. The other thing was to prioritise my sleep, so if the kitchen floor didn't get mopped because I was tired then so be it. It's also helpful to manage the expectations of others in your household, DH would assume that as I was in bed when he left for work and was still there when he got home then I must have had eight hours sleep. The reality is the sleep is more broken, noise from the tractors outside, the postman, dogs barking etc. DH nearly met a sticky end on several occasions due to this assumption

I mostly work nights and find it pretty easy to be honest. It’s gotten much easier than at the start! You do get used to it.

I prep well for my first shift - so the night before I stay up late and get up early so I only have 4 or 5 hours sleep. I then go to bed late morning/early afternoon for 4 hours or so.

Then I just treat it like a normal day; breakfast lunch dinner (although I tend to have breakfast for dinner as I tend to go to sleep an hour after I get home.

Then after my last shift I only sleep for about 3 hours so I can switch over for my rest days. Admittedly I do sometimes struggle at night on my second test day - often wake up around 1/2 and I’m wide awake for a few hours but that’s life.

I did find it tough at first, especially aaa I have a desk job and after 1/2am there is generally very little to do but you have to get abd stay focused because you only get a 2 second warning of a job coming in and then you need to be 100% mentally alert and on the ball. But it works well for me. I sleep very well during the day.

I always eat meals at normal times, I'm dont eat through the night (except maybe tea and toast and jam at 4am).
If I'm on a run of nights I put my son in to nursery a full day and if it's my last day just a morning session. Some of my friends say they find it easier to get the kids out of the house before they get home. I personally haven't tried that as we have to swap cars but j really struggle in the morning as my husband wants to have a chat and my son is desperate to play but the minute I step in the house the tiredness hits.
I have blackout blinds and listen to an audiobook and usually manage a broken sleep until 3pm.

Aim for sleep 9-5. I ate breakfast cereal or yogurt and banana for digestibility.
Phones on silent, including land line.
Very dark bedroom, I clothes pegged a duvet over the curtain rail. Eye mask if needed. Earplugs.
Melatonin tablet 3mg from Internet (Puritans pride, US brand).
One a night otc sleep aid occasionally or when going back to days.
Death threats re waking me.

Sympathy because I hate nights... Can do them but have just come off 6 months of them and my sleep is still buggered 3 weeks later... Good luck to pp that had them for 4 years!
Adding to everyone that a hot water bottle to teh tummy-even in summer- works to get you off and wax ear plugs are the best thing ever. I saved some stodge to have when I got in and I think ended up two stone heavier ... Try and not eat your way thru the night and drive home.
When I started nights my pal gave me v funny tips... If start to feel tired put some fake glasses on and walk to the left with a limp... Aye.
Good luck