Nightshifts and sleep

[Ineedtosleeptoo]

I work permanent nights, taken all the usual precautions to get a decent days sleep including a fan, black out blinds and do not disturb on the phone, doors shut so I don't hear anyone at the door etc.
My problem is that people around me don't think I need to sleep, like at all.
Why can't you come on our day trip? You can have an hour in the car!
Why can't you make this appointment? You have all day to yourself!
And my favourite being the argument that the first day after my last night shift is my day off, so I should be attending a meeting at 2pm. I have worked the first 7 hours of that day - hardly a day off! 2pm is the middle of my 'night' I have to travel to get there as most people do so attend after 2 hours sleep, which is hardly good for needing to be on the ball, yes I'm not back the night after, but telling me that it's my day off, so I have no 'excuse' not to attend is ridiculous.
Nights suit me and the first 2 examples are irritating but I'm used to it, it's the last one that's pissing me right off, they want me awake and productive at night for work but also to be a robot that doesn't need sleep.
Something has got to give where employers and nights are concerned, they're detrimental to health, they screw up your family life (I don't really have one so suits me!) And are notoriously hard to recruit for and cover - probably because of this attitude. Very few places offer extra pay for them either.
AIBU to think that there should be some sort of protection for night workers where getting adequate sleep is concerned and the day following your last night considered a rest day and not a day off? So pressure can't be put on you to take an evening shift, or attend a meeting?

I think there is a rule that you must have 8 hours between work shifts. Not perfect, but at least something.

Oh god I hear you OP ... have a relative who is a nurse and this is rife!

The other one which is probably being phased out now is the attitude that if you WFH you aren’t ‘really’ working!

Some people just don’t get it.

Agree with rest day. Expected at a meeting is unrealistic and unsafe. I know there are people who do it, I just don’t know how.
I had people insist that I could do lunch after nights, I can if you can have a meal at 3 am with me! Doesn’t seem reasonable to anyone then.
On the other hand, I could party all night on my days off 😎

@cardibach

I think there is a rule that you must have 8 hours between work shifts. Not perfect, but at least something.

I looked it up on the government website and it says that, or it might be longer than 8 hours, but that it's averaged out over 3 months or something, and some occupations are exempt if 'need' overrides it. So I don't think it'd help in this scenario unfortunately. They won't even consider moving meetings to 5 or 6pm because that's 'inconvenient' for some people the manager doesn't want to stay past 5

Our shift pattern finished at 0700hrs Monday morning,back to work at 1400hrs for a late shift.it is actually better that way as the Monday not counted as a rest day.
Don't know if you've tried it but sleeping in the afternoon/evening before the night shift is much better for you in that you're more alert at work,get jobs done in the morning,and you are sleeping much closer to your natural sleep time i.e. Night time.🌈

Is it your employer saying that you have to attained the meeting

If you have to attend meetings, it is not your 'day off'. Tell them you cannot and see what they say.

I hate that your last night counts as a day off. As you say, you've worked 7.5 hours of it.

Do you have a union you could get support from re meetings? When I did care work our union were successful in challenging re meetings based on it not being safe for people to drive in the daytime after a nightshift.

When it comes to being asked to do stuff in the day, I used to respond with an approximate conversion - 'no I can't do that errand, that's four o'clock in the morning to me' 'sorry but that's my midnight' etc. Most people got it once pointed out to them. It did frustrate me though that some night shift workers were competitive about how little sleep they got - how they went home and had a couple of hours before taking over childcare, or studying, or doing extra bank shifts (eg an afternoon then a night) I totally understand that for some thats a necessity (we were minimum wage) but it didn't help the cause of defending the right to 8hrs daytime sleep!

Under the health and safety legislation they have a duty of care to employees to keep them safe. And getting you to drive on little sleep is dangerous in the short term, eg increased likelihood of accidents, and consistently arranging meetings so that you dont get enough sleep before the next meeting is dangerous for your health in the long term eg it's been proven that shift workers get more ill more often and die younger. Illness is more difficult to prove but if you had an accident where tiredness was a contributing factor, they would be liable.
Do you have an HR? You could discuss the above with them and ask to see their risk assessment and mitigating actions around shift work (they should have a shift work risk assessment and management policy).

I cant link it as it's a pdf but google HSE managing shift work

I get it. I’ve done nightshift as part of my shift pattern for nearly 19 years.

I inwardly laugh when I see posts from people on here considering taking a nightshift post and they talk about having a “nap” during the day. People don’t have a clue how much nightshift takes it out of you and you need the same amount of sleep that you need at night!