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Night-shifters of Tildes, what tips do you have?
In a few weeks I'm starting a new position at work that will be 7p-7a, 2 days in a row (each week, so work for 2 days, off for 5). It'll be a sort of "on call" type position that will have busier spats at the beginning and end of the shift, but the middle tends to be slow, occasionally no work at all. My employer doesn't have any major restrictions as far as work downtime, I have a lot of freedom there.
What tips do y'all have for managing sleep surrounding overnight shifts, and also maintaining alertness/awakeness during the overnight shifts?
On the positive side, any appointments you make are yours and you can easily do another job or classes if choose.
As a corrolary to try not to shift schedules too often, on your days off, protect your sleeping hours as much as you humanly can. You'll inevitable have some 2pm doctor appointment that messes you up, but try not to be awake in the middle of the day when you don't have to be. The more routine you keep your sleep/wake cycles, the better you'll feel.
I don’t work overnights but I do work late nights often and end up in different hotel rooms with varying degrees of blackout shades. I tried using a standard sleep
mask a few times and it was ok but then I bought a Manta Mask and it has been worth it’s weight in gold. Highly recommend.
My dad worked mixed days and nights and it really messed with his sleep pattern. Dude is 72 and still only sleeps in 4 hour cycles with a short 20 minute day nap.
If you have time, learn a new skill, a language, do online courses. If you won't have that much time but it's more about not falling asleep, I'd recommend doing some short workouts or yoga, keep that blood pumping. I'm not saying pack clothing to sweat out with, just do a set of 10 push ups or stretches. Do NOT get dependent on caffeine to stay awake, you'll want to drop to sleep easily once off shift.
You're going to find your body clock bounces about and it can lead to putting on weight, just something to be mindful of.
I'm 53 and worked 12 hour swing shifts for close to 30 years and this sounds so familiar. By the end my sleep pattern was so obliterated that I had given up even trying to adhere to a schedule. When I was sleepy, I slept. When I wasnt, I didn't. Horrible insomnia. Uncountable days where I only slept an hour or two between shifts. So much fast food eaten in my car on the way to or home from work. Caffeine. Caffeine. Caffeine. Caffeine.
I got a day job about a year ago and once i had something I had to compare it to it shocked me just how miserable I had gotten.
I did semi-permanent night shifts for nearly 5 years for a previous job. 10pm - 7am on a rolling 5 day window (Mon-Fri/Tue-Sat/Sun-Thu) for months at a time.
When transitioning between day and night shifts, I use weekends to adjust my body clock forward by staying up 2-4 hours later and shifting my sleeping time around first. It's much much easier than doing the reverse of waking up at an earlier time than you have to.
I treated it like daytime shifts just with AM/PM reversed. Basically sleep, wake up and do most tasks at the time I'm supposed to even on weekends. I've never had jobs with 5 days off like yours but I'd imagine it would be hell trying to go from daytime/nighttime whenever work days roll around. If that were me I'd just keep it pretty consistent.
For 10pm starting, I'd wake up at 7pm and have my breakfast, then hit the gym at maybe 8pm onward while it empties out during the night. Ease up on the caffeine if you drink a lot (like me), use it strategically to keep you awake during the quiet periods at work. You'll have time periods on when you'll tend to doze off. Unless you have a very physical job, those periods will wind down but won't completely disappear.
The perk of night shifts is I'm against the flow of the morning rush. So by 7am I go home (wear sunglasses), wind down, maybe sleep by 10-11am depending if there's any errands I have to do. I scheduled appointments at the earliest time in the day (usually 8-9am) and I'm generally the first customer that businesses will have for that day. In a way I actually managed to do errands more efficiently during my night shifts since all the shops and stores were open.
For sleeping, blackout curtains and earplugs work well depending on your environment. I've never really gotten a full 8 hours of sleep on night shifts even with an ideal sleeping environment, I've gotten it to a consistent 6.5-7 hours but I can sleep/wake up naturally without alarm clocks once I got the sleeping schedule down.
And this is highly dependent on the job and employer, but downtime on the clock was spent getting better at the job (and in a way yourself). In my case it was testing out open source software in our sandbox and fixing up tech debt.
Been on night shift for about 3 years now, though it's for a remote position so I'm very lucky to be comfortable in my own house.
My biggest tips are:
Get some exercise PLEASE. Do some jumping jacks, go for a late night walk on a break, pushups, anything to get some activity going. Without this I get depressed faster than you can say "sorry I can't hang out I'll be working that night"
Sleeping is tough sometimes, especially when you have to wake up mid day to go do shit. Don't be afraid to take a nap or cancel plans if you're tired, sleep is more important.
Learn to use your weekends effectively to handle errands or you'll just never do them. Don't fall into the "I'll do it over the work week" trap because you won't (I'm still struggling with this one)
I worked the same type of schedule for a few years (12 a.m. to 7 a.m., two days and then 5 off).
The best advice I can give is find a schedule that works for you and stick to it. That applies for both sleep and activities.
Other than that, enjoy having your days free to get shit done! That was my favorite part. If I wanted to go to the bank, I never had to worry about taking time off or wasting my lunch hour standing in line.
I've been doing night shifts since the start of my career. For me, it's really just about managing my sleep, making sure I wake up as late as possible before the shift starts. The alertness takes care of itself. I always show up to work fresh lol.
Most of the time, it's easier on the body to find a schedule and stick to it, don't flip flop. But if you're 2 days on, 5 days off, I'd totally flip my schedule. Let's say it's the end of my work week and I just got off work. I'll stay up and power through. Or take a short nap (set an alarm) if that would help. That way I'm back on the normal day time schedule by the next day.
Other than that, blackout curtains is a must. If I'm moving from place to place and only staying in the area short-term, I'll put up the disposable blackout shades from Home Depot. White noise helps too (turning on the fan, the AC), or listening to rain sounds, waves, etc.
Get a white noise app. I use one by TMSoft which has options for Apple, Android, PC and browser. You'll need to play around with the sounds to find your perfect mix; my mix contains pink noise (which helps obscure a bunch of regular level noises), thunderstorm (which helps me sleep through bass sounds like lawn mowers and garbage trucks), and a rainstorm to tie them both together (with the rain slightly down-pitched because it was slightly too high and eventually got on my nerves). But there are other white noise apps out there, or you can rip the ten-hour "rainy mood" loop off YouTube - that works well in a pinch.
Blackout curtains or a decent sleeping mask. If it's something you can control, lower the outside light around your bedroom as well: nothing worse than having to go to the bathroom and being assaulted by light and then not being able to get back to sleep!
Consider whether you also need or want those insulating curtains, the ones they advertise to keep the heat out. If you're on the sunny side of the house and you're trying to minimise noise and light, your room can get awfully stuffy with the sun beating down.
Take it easy on the caffeine; maybe try some melatonin to help you sleep as well.
See if there are any 24 hour stores anywhere near your work, your house, or the route between the two; and look up stores that are open early or late. It's nice to get off work at 6am and do your grocery shopping on the way home when no one else is around, or [as I once did] buy a vacuum cleaner at 3am because that's when you happened to be awake on your day off and the store was open.
If you're travelling between, say, 11pm and 2.30am, especially on the weekend, you should know that the cops are likely to be doing pretextual stops looking for drunk drivers. Keep everything out of sight in the trunk, and never consent to a search. [Be aware that some of them are trained to ask questions so that they can interpret the answer however they like: "You don't mind if we search your car, do you?" is best answered with "I do not consent to a search."]
If you need to make appointments for doctors or haircare or whatever, try for the latest (or earliest) possible times, to minimize the disruption to your sleep schedule. But be aware that those times are also most popular for parents, so if kids are problematic for you, bring some headphones or earbuds or something. I usually find someone to sit next to and say, "Hey, I have sensory issues and I'd like to put my headphones on. Could you please tell me if they call my name? Thanks!"
Get ready for your switch to nights a night early if you are planning on staying up during the day on your off days, I work 4 or 5 days on and get 4 or 5 days off and it really helps if I stay up the night before work to get myself used to it after my days off.
So my best advice from a few years of 4-on 4-off 7-7 shifts was for when switching off night shifts: When you get home post-shift set, go straight to bed and sleep 'til about 1PM, then wake up and do some relaxing things, maybe get a bit of light and do some shopping etc. Then go to bed a little early, maybe 10 PM. This gives you a really good chance of quickly getting back onto a normal schedule!
Also just remember that a lot of your time will be spent with little to do, so make sure you use that time to chill and relax.
I worked emergency rooms for a few year and would advise to come up with a great weekly meal plan. You will need nutrient dense meals that can sustain you as you adjust, stay awake and ensure you're not so sleepy.
I would also advise to start organizing your life. What day you run errands, do laundry, grab groceries. Try to set up all ur bills to pay automatically and schedule time to spend with friends n family. It’s sound dull to schedule time with friends n family but it makes life so much easier and also helps me to stay present when im with them and enjoy the moment i have before my life get complicated with work.
I work a 7-7 myself, alternating days and nights on a monthly basis. I found the key thing for nights is timing the flip-over. The day before I will wake up early (~7am) and then go to bed round 9-10pm. I then get up about 2-3am, and then back to bed from 11am to 4pm.
Flipping back to daytime schedule, I go to bed immediately after finishing shift and sleep til around 1-2pm. I'm usually ready for bed then about 10pm and back to normal after that.
I read this as "night shitters," had some very confusing thoughts and had to look again!
Anyway, guard your downtime! Don't schedule anything during the day. Twelve hours off goes really fast. Maybe get gas or take out food but you really need the time to unwind, sleep, and get ready again. Morning walks can be really nice!
On days off, try to keep bartender's hours. Don't switch your sleep hours around or you might regret it! You're a night owl now. From now on all your appointments are at 7 or 8 am. Maybe wake up at 5pm to meet friends for dinner. If you try to have a "normal" day schedule you'll wear yourself down very fast!
Good luck!
Meal prep. It's very easy to eat very unhealthily on night shift. Look up some recipes that look decent and easy and make enough for the work week. I gained 40 pounds over 2 years working nights and have only managed to start losing it with healthy meals I made myself.
It's short but important, spend time with your friends. Having a schedule off from them makes planning difficult, and not having your normal hangouts can be rough. A hour long discord call or drink at a bar can be a lifesaver a couple times a week to remember that life exists. I worked nights in a city that functionally closes at 9, so it gets pretty lonely when you aren't around people, even just passerbys on the street.
Eating schedule & sleeping schedule are different things. If you are like me and order takeout and not cook for yourself DO NOT let your eating schedule shift to be too late, make sure you are eating very early so that places are still open. I only eat one meal a day, and then a snack of some leftovers later, but if I start to eat that one meal even 2 hours late, nearly everything is closed. 4 hours late? Nothing is open. If it happens once, ok, I cook something. If this happens many days in a row? I'm screwed, I'm no longer hungry immediately in the "morning."
DO NOT play "revenge bedtime procrastination." You will want to, bc the sun is coming up, and humans feel awake when this happens. Don't do it. Stick to your bedtime.
Make internet friends in other countries. This is necessary so that you have people to chat with throughout your day. If you don't do this you will be miserably lonely. Join random discords of things you're interested in, most of them are pretty international. I have a lot of Australian friends haha
I worked rotating shifts at a chemical plant for 5 years. 6am-2pm, 2-10,10-6. Night shift was by far my favorite although it messed with my sleep the most. Like many have said don’t rely solely on caffeine to keep you awake, try not to eat super greasy/heavy meals and make sleep at home paramount. I started out with malleable ear plugs, then a white noise machine. Eventually the shifts and overtime took their toll and I was so tired I could fall sleep anywhere any time. I used to find reasons to move around (clean the unit, sort tools, walk around the plant when the batch showed) and it helped immensely. The more I sat around fighting sleep and drinking coffee the more tired I would get. If I had it to do over again I would have taken better care of myself and did more cardio. I’m on straight days now but the memory of shift work is still there. Hang in there, it’s truly not so bad of you just listen to your body and adjust your lifestyle accordingly. Best of luck