Working night shifts... tips?

Are you just working the night shift for two weeks and then going back to a more regular shift? If so, don't worry about it as it's just two weeks. If it is for a longer time you will need to make some changes.

For the two days you are off keep to the same sleep schedule for working nights. Changing back to a regular sleep schedule is much harder.

10 years working the Grave wrote:

Are you just working the night shift for two weeks and then going back to a more regular shift? If so, don't worry about it as it's just two weeks. If it is for a longer time you will need to make some changes.

For the two days you are off keep to the same sleep schedule for working nights. Changing back to a regular sleep schedule is much harder.

+1

I'm on dayshift now, but worked the nightshift for 8 years. The schedule that worked for me was to sleep the night before, then take a nap in the afternoon before work. Drink a cup of coffee and eat something light before going into work. I wouldn't recommend drinking much coffee during your shift, unless you're used to already drinking a lot of coffee during the day because that will affect your sleep after work. When you find yourself getting tired, just get up and move if possible and eat light snacks; nothing high fat and heavy. On my days off, I usually went back to a regular schedule just because that's the way the world runs. I would stay up late and then sleep in later and also take afternoon naps if I felt like it.

I'd guess this would apply to those working days, too; but when I was working night shift I was on my feet for ten hours and I found the only way I could run consistently was to do it before work. It was just too easy to say "I'm too tired" and skip running after my shift.

The temptation after the shift was to run errands or whatever and then sleep through the rest of the day, almost to the last minute before I had to leave for work. I changed that to getting up a couple hours before I had to leave; getting the run in; shower, dress for work, eat breakfast (at dinnertime), then off to the job (allowing time for running errands on the way). At the end of my shift I'd eat at work before the return commute, then pretty much straight to bed once I got home.

Youre working for tips,?

the graveyard shift is hard enough as it is. don't compound the problem by creating a bunch of different sleep sub-routines that your body has to bounce back and forth between depending on if you work or are off. thank your lucky stars you'll only be doing this for 2 weeks instead of the years or decades some people do. stay up as late as you can the night before you begin this stint, sleep during that day, and by the time you get home the next morning you'll be exhausted. skip the caffeine within 7 hours of ending your shift. on your days off, maintain your schedule of sleeping during the day or you'll pay for it your first night back

I assume your running or not? I used to work nights. I would not sleep the night before, work, run right after work and then sleep. On nights you have off try to go to sleep at a similar time and just sleep longer and get up early and run. This will help you catch up on sleep cause no matter how much you try you will lose sleep and need it. I used to have three nights off a week and my night shift started at midnight and off nights i would sleep 7pm-7am.

Having done the same, residency with night shifts for 2 week blocks with interspersed days off, and weeks of q3 30hr call and now as an attending where I work about 7 nights a month with a couple of those as part of 24 hr shifts. I also previously was doing full 7 nights in a row followed by days the following week.

The most important thing for me is when I get home my room is completely blacked out, white noise machine on, and cool. The quality of sleep I get makes all the difference. This I think is most important.

I don’t sleep differently before going in a first night of a block of nights, just push through and tired in AM when I get home and try to get 5-6 quality hours of sleep. Then I’ve got 4-5 hrs of time to do stuff before back to work.