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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask about the night shift

26 replies

Majesticfirefly · 04/02/2022 19:45

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could share their experience with working night shifts particularly 4 on 4 off shifts and bonus points if it's office work.

I know everyone's experience is different but I thought I'd ask as it's something I'm interested in doing but I have a one year old but I do have an idea about that and how to work around it so that's not a major issue.

Thanks (I'm asking here for traffic)

OP posts:

MatildaTheCat · 04/02/2022 20:03

Don’t underestimate how much time is eaten into your ‘days off’. The day before your first night you’ll be trying to rest/ take a nap/ generally fretting about working that night. The day you finish you’ll still need to sleep a few hours and will feel knackered until you’ve had a full night of sleep.

When I was young free and single nights were fine, week on week off. Once I had DC it was a different story. Never got enough sleep and it can be difficult to sleep in the day even when you’re exhausted.

Some people love it though.

DuckWithOneWing · 04/02/2022 20:05

I did it for a short time and hated it. It felt like I was always either working nights, about to be working nights, or trying to get back onto days after finishing nights.

However my partner currently does this and really likes it.

Iamuhtredsonofuhtred · 04/02/2022 20:08

I hate nights. I negotiated to do days only and gave done for several months. Did a night shift recently for extra cash and it really knocked me, I’m still tired now a week later. With kids you can’t rest properly.

123xanadu · 04/02/2022 20:10

Night shift bloody sucks.

Trying to adjust your sleep after being on them is a major pain. I've worked trebles and continentals and the more I done nights the more depressed I got.

onepieceoflollipop · 04/02/2022 20:13

I’ve worked nights on and off through my entire healthcare career.
I don’t like doing more than 3 in a row but sounds like you don’t have a choice?
Few people sleep well during the day. I manage by going to ‘rest’ again late afternoon even if I can’t sleep. So I would read etc in bed and doze if possible then shower just. Different work. Usually have a few hours sleep in the morning fairly soon after the shift. Yes it’s much harder with dc. If at all possible arrange for them to be out of the house for a bit especially in the morning after an night shift. Easier said than done at weekends!

onepieceoflollipop · 04/02/2022 20:13

**shower just before work

Overandout1 · 04/02/2022 20:14

I hated nights! I suppose if you're someone who can get by on little sleep then it's a bonus. I used to really struggle to stay awake and then once home I could have happily slept 10 hours. Also, you think working nights frees up your day but it doesn't because I needed more sleep than I thought and was perpetually tired. I also found it messed up my eating habits, bowels and my skin.

Diditopknot · 04/02/2022 20:16

It’s tough.
Tiredness on another level.
4 on 4 off is especially tough if you don’t get sleep.
In summer it’s kids playing, screaming, doorbell going, delivery people knocking ( my favourite is asking you to take a parcel for a neighbour) lawn mowers, work people shouting, hammering.
Winter is as bad but you go to work in the dark, come home in the dark.
If you don’t get sleep after night 1, you are utterly shattered on night 2, disturbed sleep then night 3 is hell on earth.
I did the school drop offs so didn’t get to bed until after 9am so had to force myself to be awake.
Driving is just dangerous, I couldn’t remember my journey home some days.

I did nearly 13 hour night shifts 7.30pm -8am if I got off on time. If not, it would be 8.30 then mad dash to take kids to school on time.
If kids were poorly, off school I had no one to have them so had to stay awake to look after them then go to work that night on zero sleep.

I can’t think of any positives at all. Nights are crap.

Sparklingbrook · 04/02/2022 20:18

I did them for two weeks, it was awful. I never got to grips as to when my bit of the 24 hours was, to do stuff for me. Once up I was constantly clock watching until it was time to go to work. Plus I'm not someone who can drive home then get into bed and sleep.

I also never knew what to eat and when.

DontKeepTheFaith · 04/02/2022 20:20

I hated nights, did them for years but never liked them.

I’m in healthcare, never did more than 3 in a row, just couldn’t cope with the lack of sleep and general lethargy.

The PP who said about the day before your night start and they day after they finish is right. I used to find I couldn’t do much the day I started as I wanted to ‘bank’ sleep and the day after they finished I had a terrible hangover feeling.

The money was good and less busy than days but still would not do nights again.

I aged years and my health has suffered, I’m sure.

SheldonesqueTheBstard · 04/02/2022 20:31

I’ve worked varying shifts for most of my life.

I do enjoy it but as others say, do not underestimate how much it eats into your days off. Or how tired it can make you. Or how much a commute or daily tasks can eat into your rest.

Depending on how busy you are or how much your work lives in your head, it can be hard to wind down/relax enough to sleep. Buy decent blackout curtains and a fan to keep you cool as you sleep through summer days. Ear plugs are a must. Or sleep buds.

Eating can be all over the place. Which hasn’t been good for me.

That said, I’d not want to do anything else. I have other responsibilities which leave me feeling as though I’m running on empty all the time but i couldn’t manage anything if I was a Monday- Friday 9-5.

Good luck with what you decide to fo.

PeggyGa · 04/02/2022 20:36

Hard work, I feel tired all the time even with no little kids and plenty of rest. I could still sleep at night.

I also have little motivation and can only do the bare minimum

Beseen22 · 04/02/2022 20:45

4 nights every week with a child sounds utterly grim. I have done night since mine were babies and it works for me, I only do 2 shifts a week and split them. I'm at every school drop off and pick up and with the kids 90% of the time but I am constantly tired. My skin is a mess and my sleep cycle is terrible, I was on a night shift then slept 2 hours then the next night was wide awake until 0500. I have to take sleeping tablets if I have to get back onto a normal sleep cycle. Also I work physically hard all night and I'm still exhausted...not sure I could do an office gig overnight.

Crazykatie · 04/02/2022 20:47

Its tough but can work well if your OH works days, for 70% of my career I did 3 nights a week sometimes 4 and OH looked after the kids. I was earning more than him and now I’ve got a big fat pension too.

Elsiebear90 · 04/02/2022 20:53

If you can sleep well in the day you’ll be fine, most people can’t, I used to work nights and hated it, my dad likes them and I know lots of people who actually request them because they can sleep 8 hours straight in the day and there tends to be less work overall and less drama on the night shift so they prefer it.

KarmaStar · 04/02/2022 20:54

Love night shifts.
Difficult maybe with a baby,but if you can sleep mid afternoon to just before you get ready and go to work your sleep pattern is closer to a normal one because you are sleeping in the evening not the morning,so you are more alert at work and can get back into sleeping at night on days off.
It is exhausting at times..no doubt.
But fantastic.

Sparklingbrook · 04/02/2022 20:54

Am I being thick but when would there be a need for an office job to be a night shift? One that requires international phone calls or something?

user1497787065 · 04/02/2022 20:57

I used to do 15 hour night shifts 1800-0900 and worked one day, 0900-1800, one night and then two days off. Well, the day finishing at 0900 and the following day. I never got used to it at all and would sleep in 1/2 hour spells and then get up after about two hours. I often thought if I had done more night shifts in a row I could have perhaps developed a pattern.

GettingThemFromHereToThere · 04/02/2022 20:58

It can definitely work for some. My aunt used to work nights with young children. She loved it as it freed her up to do everything she needed to do during the days while getting full-time hours done. She's very high energy though.

Personally I'd never be able to do it. I just don't have the energy and know it wouldn't take long for me to feel overwhelmed and out of whack

Original poster

Majesticfirefly · 04/02/2022 21:10

@Sparklingbrook

Am I being thick but when would there be a need for an office job to be a night shift? One that requires international phone calls or something?

For the job I'm interested in they arrange emergency transport so like if a plane is grounded at Manchester and they need a coach to London then I would arrange that but I know there's also another office job that deals with alarm systems and then there's another that deals with like personal alarms so the bracelets elderly people wear when they've fallen and I know there's emails over night for big company's but that's all I know to be fair.

OP posts:

Original poster

Majesticfirefly · 04/02/2022 21:14

Thank you for your answers, a few mixed ones. I suppose I won't actually know until I try it, at the moment I work 9-3 which is a good shift but the night shift offers more money and I can sleep during the day but I was worried about as someone mentioned how much it can eat into the days off.

OP posts:

Sparklingbrook · 04/02/2022 21:14

That makes sense @Majesticfirefly I guess there's call centres 24/7 for people stuck in lifts and other emergency situations etc
I was stupidly thinking of a more traditional office role. I think if I was doing office work overnight I'd want to be very busy.

Original poster

Majesticfirefly · 04/02/2022 21:18

@Sparklingbrook

That makes sense *@Majesticfirefly* I guess there's call centres 24/7 for people stuck in lifts and other emergency situations etc I was stupidly thinking of a more traditional office role. I think if I was doing office work overnight I'd want to be very busy.

Yeah definitely although my friend who works at the alarm place watches YouTube and tv shows and gets paid like 25k plus so part of me is like I wanna get paid for watching Corrie

I'm kidding, I do like to be quite productive.

OP posts:

Sparklingbrook · 04/02/2022 21:21

It's tricky I guess because they need to pay someone to be there just in case something happens, and don't necessarily give them any tasks to do if something doesn't. So they're free to do whatever they like in that time.
I think it would bother me.

wusbanker · 04/02/2022 21:24

I did it for a bit and never felt like I was off work. I went to sleep as soon as I got home, so spent all my 'down time' waiting to go to back in. I would do it if I had to but not out of choice.

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