Night shift workers, tell me how you prepare

[HeadFairy]

I’ve been doing nights for years, I get three 12 hour night shifts every 4 weeks. First one is always a killer. I never know which is worse, get up early the day I start nights (like 5am) and then go back to bed at lunchtime until 6pm, or stay up all night the night before and then sleep all day on the day of my first night shift. I mean, they’re knackering full stop but has anyone got on a great body clock shifting techniques I haven’t tried yet? How do you do your nights?

Been doing nights for many years and still not totally prepared.

I'm sat here scrolling dreading going in for night shift 2 after only 4 hours sleep! Have been doing 2 days, 2 nights, 4 off for years and I still struggle.

Switching between days and nights every week is a killer... I tend to go to bed a bit later after my days, and have a lie in. Then try and grab 2-3 hours in the afternoon before starting the first night. But it took me a long time to learn to 'nap'. Then in theory sleep a full 8 hours between night one and two but like today, I'm usually wide awake by lunch time.

I don't think there is a good way, though a lot of my colleagues who have done it long term love it. But I feel like it's aged me rapidly!

I couldn't do a mix it would kill me 😆

I have tried doing the whole stay awake for 24 hours on the first night shift. I certainly sleep like the dead after that, but the first night is absolutely dreadful. Here I am contemplating nights staying tomorrow and wondering if I stay up all night tonight, and go to bed around 7am.

We have some who do nothing but nights, now that would kill me. Shifting my body clock ain’t fun but non stop nights must be grim!

I'm about to start my 3 1/2 hour night shift, lucky if I get 5 hours sleep between.

3 1/2 hours while grim, I think I could do. Mine are 12 hours. By 4am I want to die.

I’m a community nurse and we cover out of hours, I’m on nights this weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and I never sleep properly during the day I just can’t get out of my usual sleep routine so I just have to go with it, sleep like the dead once I’ve done my run of shifts though 😂

Take it from me, recently retired nurse aged 71, there is nothing good or do-able about night shifts.

They might fit in with childcare, save nursery fees, leave you free to do household chores, etc., but they are detrimental to your health.

To my younger colleagues, in whatever profession, I would say just don't do it, unless you really have no choice.

There's a reason why the overwhelming majority of workers do the day shift!

Sadly I don’t have a choice unless I’m medically signed off them.

When I was doing night shifts I ordered melatonin from an overseas pharmacy. Not everyone will approve, but it did the trick for me.

I know a few flight crew who do this. Does it make you sleepy then?

I did night shifts five to six nights a week while living in social housing. Were days when i couldnt go to bed at all because the HA were so inflexible with their checks and visits and all day appointments.

I’ve work rotating shifts for over 20years and I still haven’t cracked it!
things that gave made it slightly more bearable:
stay up late the night before, I always finish at midnight the day before nights and go to bed about 0230
dont set an alarm that morning but get up when I wake up
have a nap later on in the day before starting work.
through the night I don’t drink caffeine and nothing after 0330
breakfast when I get home
stay up til about 0930 and sleep as long as I can (usually only 3 hours)
try and get another rest period before going back to work. I usually don’t sleep. But I just lay on the sofa or on the bed, no tv or phone just quiet.
i thankfully only do 2 nights in my rotation but it’s still a struggle.

It worked well for me. Its not like a sedative so you still need to be in bed trying to go to sleep, but it helps you switch off and get into a deeper sleep.

I work nights. Have done for 15yrs

i always sleep the next day even if for 2hrs - sometimes it’s 4hrs

that’s interesting, because despite being absolutely shattered my head is spinning from demanding job, so I find it very hard to switch off my thoughts.

Your post illustrates just what's so bad about night shifts... they bugger-up two days, the day the shift starts and the day after!

@westfacingyou’re right. I only do 2 nights but it ruins 4 days of my week. It also takes me a good couple of days to revert back to “normal” sleeping.
shift work is quite literally a killer, but I honestly couldn’t manage to go back to working mon-fri 9-5.

I understand not wanting to work five short shifts as that means going out to work five days a week!

But could you not do two long days?

I have been working nights for years. I do a mixture of days and nights with no structured pattern.
For my first night, I just have up to an hours nap between 5-6pm, and start work at 7. I just push through the first night and try not to think about the missing sleep.

The game changer for me is melatonin! I have a friend who lives in the States, where it can be bought in a pharmacy, so she brings them over for me.
I take a 3mg tablet (dose is up to 10mg) and that means I sleep all day. I might still wake up, but pre melatonin I’d struggle to get back to sleep and be stuck in that horrible worry about not being able to get enough sleep before the next shift. Not now!

There’s so much evidence about how bad nights are for us, but sadly they are a non negotiable in my role!

I used to do 12 hour nights and never found the right pattern. I'd try and stay up late the night before, go to sleep about 4am and then sleep as late as possible on the day of the night shift. Not perfect but it helped.

It came up on my Facebook memories the other day of the time when I did eight, 12-hour night shifts in the span of 10 days, and was so sleep deprived after the run that I tried to process a 999 call with my very bemused husband in my sleep 🤣

I really wish I didn’t have to do nights but no choice, thankfully I only have to do 5 a year so spread them over the course of the year if I can

I think it also helps that If it’s a slower night with less call outs I can catch an hour here or there

I’m considering going on permanent nights

we Do 7 x 11 hour shifts, mon thorough to next monday

then get a week off before repeating it. It’s rarely calm, we are usually busy all night with no breaks.

interesting about the melatonin

I don't do night shifts now since I changed jobs, but I always had a couple of days off before starting them. I'd stay up until maybe 3 or 4am, depending on how long I lasted, and then stay in bed dozing until about 4.30pm. I'd get up and have a shower and something to eat and generally chill until I had to leave to start the night shift at 8pm. I found that if I at least stayed in bed and didn't do much, I could manage all right even if I hadn't slept right up until mid afternoon.