Are you doing the graveyard shift?

1. 73

   thesingernurseposted 12 years ago

   If your job or occupation involves a graveyard shift schedule, what do you do in order to get an ample amount of sleep and proper sleep-wake pattern?

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   1. 66

      nemanjaboskovposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I used to work a graveyard shift, from 10 pm to 6 am... I lived this life for about a year and a half, while sometimes working even 7 days a week with a couple of more shifts in between... All I can say - not the best time in my life.
      I got used to sleeping from 7 am to 1 or 2 pm, but this is not something that should be done for a really long time. I think that our bodies are made to sleep at night, and I certainly felt this after a few weeks of working the graveyard shift. So, the best thing you can do is sleep no longer than six or seven hours as soon as you get home from work, make sure to eat healthy foods and try to change kind of lifestyle as soon as possible. However, as a nurse you probably cannot choose which shifts to work, so I wish you the best luck in dealing with the infamous graveyard shift

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      Andrea K Flemingposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I work in an office that operates 24 hours a day so I work three different shifts and rotate every three weeks. Days are 7am-6pm, afternoons are 3:30pm-2am, and midnights are 12am-9am.  The plus is I only work 4 days a week. however, I think my schedule is only disigned for young people.  No one in my department that works similar schedules is older than 27.  Since I am still in college I treat my first day on midnights like any other all nighter: with coffee. Its hard the first night but I just can't get myself to sleep the day before.  I drink coffee towards the end of my shirft because my shift ends with a turnover meeting that I have to stay alert for and I don't want to fall asleep on my drive home. I don't have trouble falling asleep when I get home as long as it is quiet and dark.  I have found that I am much more sensitive to light and sound on midnights because my body wants to be awake during the day.  On my last day I stay up after my shift and go to bed at the normal hours that everyone else in the world goes to sleep at.  I know its probably not good for my body to switch sleep schedules so often but I don't plan on taking the same schedule I'm working at now after I graduate regardless of where I work.  I don't think midnights is that bad though. You sleep when people are normally working and work when people are normally sleeping so you are awake and free when others are free too.

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   3. 63

      mann101955posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Though I didn't have the opportunity so far, sleep pattern, in my opinion is in our mind set up. Of course I agree that sleep is must for our healthy body as well as mind.
      
      For thousands of years we have been trained to sleep only during night. This might be due to absence of adequate light. Just for a moment imagine that you have sun light for about 20 hours a day. I am sure your  sleep hours will be only for 4 hours daily. If sun shines for 5 hours, we will again shift our sleep time to 19 hours.
      So it all depends on our thinking.

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   4. 60

      Dr. Haddoxposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      for thesingernurse,
      I work late, sometimes all the night, frequently. I love working late and all night if I have to.
      I have problems sleeping doing the morning times especially, because of people trying to get me on the telephone.
      The phone is like a "two edged sword."
      I mean, I cannot ignore it, because the calls are, sometimes, important.
      Most of the times they are not.
      God bless you, young lady.
      I would like to follow you to help bless your career.
      You are doing a very good job with your life. Take care.
      Regards, Dr. Haddox

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   thesingernurseposted 12 years ago

   Thank you for your response nemanjaboskov! Yeah, shift schedules such as this are really hard to deal with especially for doctors and nurses. Luckily, I am not in to hospital practice at the moment and had never experienced such even on my first job as a triage nurse. Thank you for your wonderful feedback. Greatly appreciated.

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3. 59

   DanielNeffposted 12 years ago

   Wow. Are you spying on me?
   I just took at job at a large resort hotel, working the graveyard shift. I start some night this week (won't know until tomorrow). I'll be part of a crew that cleans the public areas. It's not my dream job of course, but it will help pay the bills for now.
   I have been working on transitioning to becoming a full-time writer for the last couple of years, but it has been slow in coming. I've written and self-published two books, but I'm not making enough to live off of...yet.
   One positive aspect of this job is that the nature of the tasks should actually HELP my writing. In her book, "Becoming a Writer," Dorothea Brande talks about all the successful writers she knew had a task that helped free up their subconscious to work (on the stories and characters they were writing at the time). It needs to be something that is "wordless, rhythmic, and repetitious." That way, your conscious mind is occupied just enough to free up your subconscious to go to work full time.
   
   Anyway, I have worked the graveyard shift several times in my life. It's really not that hard if you are willing to give up a normal life and practice a couple of things.
   1) Make yourself go to sleep soon after you get home (of course avoid coffee late in your shift or when you get home). Also, close the blinds or black them out if you have to in order to create a night-like atmosphere.
   2) This one is most important and must be followed strictly. On your nights off, stay up all night. The temptation is to sleep those nights and do "normal" things during the day, but it makes the schedule that much harder on your body. Your body won't know when it is supposed to be awake and when it is supposed to sleep. Once you get your body into the routine of being up all night and sleeping during the day, it's pretty easy.
   
   The one difficult aspect of all that which I usually found a little hard to take, was that I felt like I was cut off from the rest of the world (except of course those I worked with). When I was awake and working, most of the world was alseep, and when I went to sleep, most of the world was just getting going. People were going about their lives, businesses were doing business, people were travelling...and I was left out.

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