Ever done night shift?

[Nitewaif]

I LOVE night shift, and keep that sort of schedule all the time.  Always have, which made it hard back when I was still trying to fit in with the daytime world.  I was that kid who kept falling asleep in class, but was awake with my flashlight under the covers reading at 3 and 4 am.  My whole family are night owls, and I figure it's genetic for us.  We all found careers that would let us stay up all night.

Blackout curtains are great, but they are usually ugly.  If you don't want the damask or velvet, go to the fabric store and buy a roll of blackout curtain liner.  It is usually around $3/yd, and have it sewn on to curtains you like.  Those sleep masks are silly looking but they are a godsend.  The best ones are the molded ones like you find at Bed Bath & Beyond/Linens n Things.  Turn the ringer off.  People don't "get" that you have to sleep during the day if you work all night.  There are lots of quirky places that are open all or most of the night.  You'll find them.  You'll also discover there is a whole subculture of vampire-types out there, and we hang out and have movie nights and cook and stuff all night.  It's fun.

I still think people are either day people or night people, and it is hard to force your body to live a schedule it doesn't like.  I have tried to work day shift a couple of times, and inevitably I end up getting run-down and staying sick all the time.  Even if I am able to fall asleep at night, I'm still wide awake and hungry at 2am, and energetic at 3-5am.  Hopefully your transition will be easier.

Good luck!!

[MendoDave]

I LOVE night shift, and keep that sort of schedule all the time.  Always have, which made it hard back when I was still trying to fit in with the daytime world.  I was that kid who kept falling asleep in class, but was awake with my flashlight under the covers reading at 3 and 4 am.  My whole family are night owls, and I figure it's genetic for us.  We all found careers that would let us stay up all night.

Blackout curtains are great, but they are usually ugly.  If you don't want the damask or velvet, go to the fabric store and buy a roll of blackout curtain liner.  It is usually around $3/yd, and have it sewn on to curtains you like.  Those sleep masks are silly looking but they are a godsend.  The best ones are the molded ones like you find at Bed Bath & Beyond/Linens n Things.  Turn the ringer off.  People don't "get" that you have to sleep during the day if you work all night.  There are lots of quirky places that are open all or most of the night.  You'll find them.  You'll also discover there is a whole subculture of vampire-types out there, and we hang out and have movie nights and cook and stuff all night.  It's fun.

I still think people are either day people or night people, and it is hard to force your body to live a schedule it doesn't like.  I have tried to work day shift a couple of times, and inevitably I end up getting run-down and staying sick all the time.  Even if I am able to fall asleep at night, I'm still wide awake and hungry at 2am, and energetic at 3-5am.  Hopefully your transition will be easier.

Good luck!!

I forgot about all the nighttime types like yourself that thrive on the night shift. I found that there were people that had been on Night shift for years,  even though they could have got on a different shift. My brother in law is a night owl. Some times I go over there at the incredible late hour of 11:30 AM and only the kids are up. It amazes me because I have to get up just before dawn so I'm usually up for at least 6 hours been there done that and working on something else before I stop by, and they are just getting up.

[Nitewaif]

I forgot about all the nighttime types like yourself that thrive on the night shift. I found that there were people that had been on Night shift for years,  even though they could have got on a different shift. My brother in law is a night owl. Some times I go over there at the incredible late hour of 11:30 AM and only the kids are up. It amazes me because I have to get up just before dawn so I'm usually up for at least 6 hours been there done that and working on something else before I stop by, and they are just getting up.

[laugh]Yep, that sounds like our house when I was growing up. 

[geoffduc]

To answer your question "YES" and I hated every bloody one 

For the 30 years that I worked at FoMoCo, I worked nights mostly before a new model launch as I was on a drive team that did the type approval and we used to do 12 hour shifts 7 nights a week for months on end. I never got used to sleeping in the day time but my buddy who worked opposite me would get home at 7.30am and sleep till 18.00pm and then dash back to work, I just don't know how he did it. Since retirement I think of all you guys still working the night shift and boy I take my hat off to you, I really don't think people who have not worked nights appreciate what its like to mix up your body clock.

[bluemoco]

To answer your question "YES" and I hated every bloody one 

For the 30 years that I worked at FoMoCo, I worked nights mostly before a new model launch as I was on a drive team that did the type approval and we used to do 12 hour shifts 7 nights a week for months on end. I never got used to sleeping in the day time but my buddy who worked opposite me would get home at 7.30am and sleep till 18.00pm and then dash back to work, I just don't know how he did it. Since retirement I think of all you guys still working the night shift and boy I take my hat off to you, I really don't think people who have not worked nights appreciate what its like to mix up your body clock.

I worked at a Ford assembly plant for 8 years.  About 2/3 of that was night-shift work, and we were on 5x10 hour shifts.  Many 8hr Saturdays, too, back in the mid-'90s.  My hours were typically 5pm-3:30am, sometimes going until 5am if there was still work to do before the day shift showed up at 6am. 

I always came home from work and went straight to bed.  Slept for ~6hours/day during the week.   I would wake up at noon, hang out at home all afternoon, then go to work for my 5pm start time.  On the weekends, I'd sleep a little later, but I was always up late so my body schedule didn't get too far out of sorts.   I'm a heavy sleeper, so I didn't need dark curtains.  I did turn the phone ringer off, though.

We didn't have kids during my night-shift years.  My hat is off to night-shift folks who are still able to balance their work/family schedules. 

[Scottish]

I've worked more nights than days. To the point that the only reason I wake before noon is my little girl. If it wasn't for that my internal clock is permanantly set to pm.
My family were always early risers yech, I'm definitely a night person.

One piece of advice, avoid energy drinks, even if you're tired you'll think better and be more productive tired than you will on Redbull.

The exception is Five Hour Energy... good stuff that, but if you take it, do it early, if you pop that top with three hours left to work you're going to be frustrated trying to sleep later.

Learn a way to calm yourself after work, the biggest challenge you'll face to sleeping during the day is shutting your mind down. If your mind is working your body no matter how tired won't shut down. Try some meditation, reading works for some, not me during day light, perhaps a relaxing movie and a tv on a timer.