Recently changed onto a 7 on/off shift pattern at work.
7 days off are great, 7 on gets tiresome towards the end..
Anyways, got my last day routine sorted, come in, get four hours kip, then get up and enjoy the rest of my day until a normal bedtime.
The problem is the night before I start! Tried sleeping in till late on, easy done but then have trouble getting to sleep the first morning after my first shift.
Have just woke up at a normal time the day I start back, had a normal day, then gutted out the nightshift. Only prob is I then need ten hours+ sleep the next day which isn’t practical as the missus is back from work at a normal time with my wee boy and I do like making dinner for them and spending a coupla hours with them before going to work..
Anyway, doing the staying up late thing tonight, get up at a normal time then nip back to bed for a few hours in the afternoon before dinner etc..
Know a few guys on the job get pissed to help them adjust but would rather not go down that road!
Anyways, what works for the shift folk on here?
ESP interested in the before prep like I say!!

Well I’m on nights tomorrow night (Friday) so probably won’t go to bed till 2 ish tonight. Then I will be up at 6 a.m with the kids. I’ll dine like a king tomorrow lunch time, then go to bed around 3 or 4 o’ clock tomorrow till around 7 pm, then I’m okay for the first night. Probably not ideal for everyone but for me, it’s far, far better than that 4 am wishing that someone would put me out of my misery feeling…

On and off I’ve been doing it for 15 years

I would stay up late tonight, get up late tomorrow and try for a couple of hours kip tomorrow afternoon – at least get my head down for a bit

Aye, well. Will prob be up about 7, drop the wife and wean off.. Might try getting a wee ride in, then sleep for a few before getting up about 5 for dinner.
First proper go at this method, will see how it goes..

Don’t get me started on eating- a whole other debate!

I find similar to TJ works for me , if possible go for a ride for an hour or so,then shower and bed for a house owo. Doesn’t stop you feeling dead to the world at work tho.

As you can tell from that last post, I start to fade about 2.30 in the morning….. Only need to last until 6.15 though.

I generally try to get a little bit of sleep, feel worse for it then spend the first night wanting to slit my wrists just to escape. The rest of the run is slightly better but I feel like a climber in the death zone, I can only last so long.
Luckily I dont have to do it often

Night shifts are for thieves and prostitutes.

I did nights for 6 yrs. I will never do them again, only now can i see how badly it affected me.

Done them for about 19 years now. Looking after kids inbetween for the last 8 years too, very often had the kids all day. If I haven’t got the kids or other things to then my method is.

A few hours when I get in, hopefully this is just after 7am but can be late as 9.30am or more, either way it’s usually after 9 before I get settled unless I’m knackered then I crash. I sleep until around 11.30 or even 1ish. Then get up and spend the day relaxing and chilling, lying in the garden or sprawled on the sofa. Rarely can I manage even a gentle bike ride now but I use to be able to. Then if I don’t have the kids I go back to bed around 4pm to 5pm and get up just after 6 to get ready again for work.

Try to eat if you can as normal but it’s difficult at times.

Don’t even talk about ‘night belly’!
Humans are not meant to work night shifts-fact! But try telling that to an a&e rota organiser

DrP!

I always stay up late (1/2ish) on the night before and sleep till lunchtime then have a normal afternoon doing whatever (normally kids) then off to work 7 to 7. Does it for me and has done for 10 years. Sleep till 2/3/4 in between and then get about 5 hours after the last night followed by hopefully a normal nights sleep, although that doesn’t always happen.

Day before is a normal day, nothing to strenuous though, ideally a cat nap before going in, take food, eat main meal around midnight, snacks after that, chocolate around 3/4am, home, breakfast/shower and bed, aim for 6hrs sleep. The day after my nights is zombie day. Nights are not healthy for you. Avoid them if you can.

I work annoying odd nights, i.e this week, monday day, tues night, weds evening, then i’m working today day shift and tomorrow day. not a flip of trying to prepare for it.

Avoid nights? Am seconded onto them just now but when I eventually get a shift chances are will be nights..
I sorta flip meals on nights, I might have a bowl of cereal in the morning when I get back, have dinner at 5 or whatever, then have to have a meal at work.. Usually midnight or after. The work I do can be quite physical, esp if its a busy night so I can’t get through a nightshift without eating a decent meal and maybe some fruit or a snack during the night.
The way I see it I’m sleeping most of the day as I would be normally at night so my calorie intake on nights is about the same, or even slightly less..

Status update: bed at 2am, son woke me at quarter to six. Been up since then, dropped wife off and done shopping for mum, short bike ride then bed. Tired now so doubt there’ll be any probs getting to sleep.
Plus I use a sleepmask which helps!!

Lots of coffee, Red Bull and a large portion of MTFU? 😛

Wait ’til you’re flicking between 3am starts and 3am finishes every 4 days and then you’ll have something to complain about. One doesn’t do one’s job with any subtlety whatsoever at 2 in the morning. “Temporary” variation to the contract which has been going on for the last 2 years!

Identify when you need to go to sleep, be it 2 in the afternoon, 3 in the morning or half elevenses.

Then, ten minutes (YMMV) before you need to go to sleep, approach your wife and do whatever it is you normally do to get her to want to have sex with you. I dunno, compliment her, shoulder massage, argue, rohypnol, whatever.

Have sex.

Then, when it’s time for you to sleep, she’ll start talking about feelings, love and babies……. and bingo! You’re asleep!

HTH.

I’ve been working to a day and night shift pattern for 13 years.

You never get used to flipping your body clock around. I’ve always found it both physically and mentally gruelling. The first two nights really hurt me. I’ve never found the first two easy. I prepare for my nights by having a lie down in the afternoon from about 3 – 5pm before I leave the house at 6pm but my body still wants to be asleep at 2am.

If I drink too much caffeine over the course of the night I struggle to get a decent sleep in the day after. I find that the trick to getting through nights is getting decent sleeps during the day. I try avoid caffeine (especially espresso) after 10pm and that generally helps. Caffeine really affects me.

To flip my body clock back to normal, I usually have no more than 4 hours sleep after my final shift. At night time on my first day off, I take a melatonin tablet at about 7.30 – 8pm to make me drowsy and I usually fall into a deep sleep at about 10pm. That will give me enough sleep to wake up at a regular hour on the following day and allow me to enjoy my days off.

I worked nights on a rolling shift pattern for 5 years and never worked out a good way to cope with it. It is impossible to sleep in advance, knowing you will be tired later. I think you do get better at just coping with being tired, and not quite as grumpy.

Been doing nights as part of shifts for 25 years now & it really is just a case of MTFU.I get to bed around 7.15am(yes it is that precise),but have never slept passed 2pm,today I was awake for 12.
As for the day before a shift I just go to bed at normal time in the evening,usually wake around 7am(the missus,3 noisey kids & a stupid dog see to that),cat nap for a few hours & then get up around 9.30-10am…..
Food’s easy for me,just eat what I would normally eat but at different times,but it is all healthy low fat,lean meat,veggies & spuds etc.No fry ups or chips,if I eat crap that’s generally how I will feel all night.Few cups of coffee but don’t over do it, none after 2am & drink plenty of water all night…..
Sometimes you’ll sleep well,at other times you won’t, but tiredness can be overcome by the mind.If you keep thinking christ how tired am I then you will be,but find something to think/chat about that interest you & the night will fly by.We have plenty of banter where I work & that usually keeps me on my toes….
Love getting out for a ride for an hour or two as well,don’t go mental perhaps 80% of max effort at the most,it releases all those feel good endorphins & will give you a huge lift during the night….

In the 4HB book (Tim Ferris) theres a chaper on how to cope with 2 hours sleep a day, indefintely.

Baiscly your only in REM sleep for about 20minutes evry hour and a bit of sleep, so in 8 hours you do it ~6 times.

The only usefull part of sleep is REM.

If your tired your body goes straight to REM.

So if you sleep for 20minutes every 2 hours then you can go on indefinately without sleeping at night.

Or more practicaly, a 20minute afternoon siesta buys you about 90 minutes less sleep at night, add in more naps as nececary to reduce the ammount of sleep needed. This is how people ride accross america, or sail solo round the world without going loopy.

So for an average peroson…..

get up 4am, do stuff, nap time ~7am, get up and goto work, lunchtime nap, work, siesta imediatly after work, party till midnight, sleep, repeat.

The more naps/less sleep you have the more rigid the timings need to be to force the body to go straight into REM sleep.

TINAS
This is how i operate…I work nights DRIVING so its essential that im awake and alert.

the morning of my first shift of the week would be a typical rising at 7-8am, get up and treat it as a normal day….get to work for anywhere from 2000-2300 and I sleep whilst on my rest periods(45-1 hour) maybe twice through the night..I find that once I get home in the morning, I’ll have breakfast with the family and then venture to bed as the kids go to school…wake around 1300-1400 and repeat the process for the rest of the week….the last shift is easy…get home and just stay awake until say 2200 then go to bed as normal