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Shift work and sleeping
Hey folks, so I've worked nights for the last two years and it sucked. flat out sucked. I would average 4-5 hours of sleep before and after a shift and now I've moved to afternoons (3pm-10pm) I find my body still thinks 5ish hours is great.
Often I wake in the middle of the night and then that's it. I'm up. it truly sucks. anyone got advice on how I can change this? I've been on afternoons for a little over a month now, so could it be more I'm still adjusting? appreciate any help and advice.
edit ** thank you all for the advice. I will have to work out a routine and make sure to sick to it, then just not get too down when only making small steps.
Standard advice is to be very strict with maintaining your routines; your meal-times, the time you go to bed and the time you wake up; not spending too much time in your bedroom during the day; cutting out blue light and caffeine near bedtime etc.
I feel that is where I fail the most on days off, through the week I have to get the kids to school and kinder so I do try to get to bed before midnight.
Caffeine isn't an issue and I try to keep away from sugar before bed as well. The blue light, now that will be a challenge. Stupid phone habit
You probably know about it but fl.ux and night shift and similar apps are really good. I also set triple-click to invert colours in accessibility on my phone which is good for reducing eye strain.
haven't heard of those so just looked them up, I used twilight years ago (came up as a suggestion just now) that was before Android made night mode a thing, it's something I just forget is a feature. I'll be changing the setting to automatically turn on now
Do you have a blue light filter for your phone? I think iPhones come with one preinstalled, but if you have an Android phone there are various filter apps you can download.
I'm on Android, so it's got night mode built-in I really need to use it. it's one of those features that I completely forget about
As someone who is currently working and has worked rotating shifts for the better part of the past 4 years my best advice is that melatonin/sleep-aids are your friend. I use to have so much trouble falling asleep and STAYING asleep and now I think I'm doing much better and have much more energy.
Staying asleep is the biggest problem I have I can drop off at any time at all (my wife hates this) but once I'm awake that's it.
I'll have to look into them, I've never entertained the thought of melatonin or sleeping aids.
Currently I just use melatonin pills, but I have been looking into getting some other sleep aids. ZzzQuil is what I think I will try next, I have heard some good things from friends on the same schedule.
But I'm only a little bit ahead of you in the hunt for good sleep, just started with sleep aids this year, so I wouldn't take my word as well as someone who has been doing it for a long time.
any advice is welcome no matter how long you have been trying to get a decent sleep for.
hopefully we can both find something that works and finally sleep a full night
It's been years since I was on night shifts but in my experience your difficulties can apply to any kind of shift system. I've been working shifts for over 15 years now.
Routine is everything. Every little bit helps. Fall asleep and wake up at the same time are big ones. Caffeine cut off time, regular and healthy meals even regular exercise can help especially when establishing new routines. I find that the first month or 2 of a new shift rotation are the hardest because establishing new routines can really mess up your head temporarily. If you have the option regularly scheduled breaks during work that helps immensely but the nature of a lot of shift hinders that in many cases.
Medication and supplements is something to consider. Someone else mentioned melatonin and I agree that it is very useful and can be a huge help with establishing a new sleep cycle. I sometimes experience myself as being more aware of common ailments when adjusting to new routines and I tend to use over the counter pain killers more when in that transitional state before settling in. Common cold, sore muscles and feet, minor injuries etc. feel more painful and bothersome in those situations.
One thing I never considered until it hit me were vitamin deficiencies. If you don't take care to spend time in sunlight and /or your body's natural capabilities of producing vitamin D are low, you will need vitamin supplements. I anecdotally connect it with vitamin D but there might be other nutrients involved.
Mood and mental health, for some people at least, needs special care. Dealing with the strain of shift work can be mentally exhausting and can have a big impact on you family and social life. You need to take care of yourself and even more so when submitting your body and mind to routines that it's not used to.
Exercise is something I've been talking to my wife about, winter just set in here in Australia so it's cold as balls (for us) still I've been thinking of taking the dog for a quick run around the block before I settle in to bed when I get home at night.
I think I've not entertained meds because of horror stories from other nurses, hearing only the bad sides of dependence and not being able to sleep without them I feel has made me completely dismiss natural ones (melatonin) I'll have to look more at those.
since moving to afternoons my mental health has improved massively! seeing the sun is such a wonderful thing you forget how awesome it is when working nights all the time and most importantly my wife is really happy to have me home at night.
I'm no expert but I have sought medical advice on 2 separate occasions regarding melatonin. I'm giving my son, who has Aspergers and ADHD, melatonin so I was careful to get a doctor's opinion on it. Both my doctor and his paediatrician have assured me that melatonin carries minimal risk whether you use it short term or long term.
Mental health is important. I struggle myself because of long shifts and long winters. Until few years ago I would regularly go up to two months without any real daylight and that can really mess up your brain.
I'm glad you are improving. I'm in the middle of transition myself right and working close as to normal hours as I've ever been. Funny enough, after working shifts for so long, I'm really struggling to adjust to working reasonable hours.
I hope the adjustment isn't too long for you, i was working nights while studying. It worked better because I could work less and earn more, then just stayed with those hours when I moved to the new job until the last school holidays and had a taste of afternoons after that I couldn't go back to nights.
I've never done shift work, but because of the timezone differences between where I live and my school classes, this last year I spent many days getting up at 3 or 4am. I've found that routine and being aware of when you go to sleep are very important; my sleep schedule is very inconsistent right now, so I'm probably not the best example, but the best nights were when I'd been sticking to a routine for a while. It's not something you can fix in just a week either; it takes several to really set in. And although I think it's generally best to avoid them because of how easy a dependence can form, going to a doctor and working out if sleep medication could help is probably a good idea. It might be able to help get you into the pattern, which you can then maintain yourself. Good luck man, I know sleep problems are really challenging to deal with, and it's pretty frustrating to only make a little progress each day. But each little bit gets you one step closer.
Edit: it's really odd why I'm sometimes seeing myself post duplicate comments. It's definitely not my Internet connection or anything, it's working just fine right now...
small progress is still progress :)
thank you, I hope all goes well with your classes.
I've been nights most of my adult life (34 now) and I've always preferred it. currently on 4-10s 1530-0200. I get 8 hours of sleep every night. go to bed at 4 up at noon or earlier. and I never have to use an alarm clock. also there are a lot less higher ups to deal with on nights. which is a major plus.
must admit I liked the no drama and less management parts.
afternoons aren't too bad where I am at the moment, although the one down fall is we don't always have a Registered Nurse on so if shit goes sideways it's extra stressful