How do you do it. Do you try and hardcore it and do it as fast as possible or try and turn back a bit at a time. I don't do nights very often anymore thankfully but I am 1 week into a 3 week rotation of 7pm to 7 am shifts. I have never found a system that works well for me. Melatonin can work sometimes along with getting peace with no noise when I can sleep. But no system seems to stop me feeling like hell for a week or so. Hence why I hardly do them any more.
No drinks, especially tea or coffee, after 3am. And get up early as you can after last one.
My system
After the last night sleep till noon, get up shower and don’t sit around again till 8pm, few beers, melatonin, ear plugs and dark cool room, sleep till next morning and I’m good, maybe an afternoon nap the next couple of days, but I do 14x12 hour nights so I’m pretty tired at the end
i stay up after the last nightshift
Im ok unless i stop. Sitting on the sofa would see me asleep quite quickly. i know im not at my best but i do all the admin jobs like washing nd shopping, batch cooking etc. About 8pm i have a beer and its bed for 9. I then sleep right through and im ok for 7am next day.
Our nights are a block of 4 nights and my current block of three nights. we get these every 4 weeks on this rota. They are 10hr shifts if that makes a difference.
Avoid alcohol before bed. You might fall asleep marginally quicker, but the sleep you get will be poor quality even if you think you slept well.
I do a block of 4 nights and a block of 3 (12 hrs)
I never sleep before the first night normaly ride in the morning then just chill on the sofa for a few hours.
I have a meal when wifes gets home about 4.30pm then something at 10pm ish and 2am ish then breakfast at 6.30am when I get home. I try and be in bed for 7am then it just depends! sometimes I sleep well and wake about 1-2pm other times its just broken sleep. Sometimes its just a matter of surviving on what you can get I don't think I get grumpy but wife say I do!
On the last night I always try and get up before 12 and make sure I do something active normally a ride or have recently started running, then its an early night (we never make plans for the evening after finishing nights)
I always think about the forth week of the four week cycle 7 days off 🙂
Stay up do normal stuff, you’ll be tired but you will soon get over it.
Avoid alcohol before bed. You might fall asleep marginally quicker, but the sleep you get will be poor quality even if you think you slept well.
I’m sure your right but after 14 days/nights at work I want a beer or 6 lol
I'm doing 4x12h shifts a week at the moment, mostly 7-7 two days and two nights.
I find the best way out of them is to go to bed as soon as i get in at 7:30, set an alarm for 10:30 then get up and have breakfast. I'm tired but not completely dead, I can just about manage a run round the village, but long bike rides are out!
Other stuff I've found helps:
Lots of sleep, 8-9 hours a night, no point going into them already with a deficit.
Keep meals normal, I have a breakfast when I wake up, dinner at 7pm (I.e. sometimes not long after breakfast) and only move lunch and lunch is almost always overly healthy (salad, quinoa, meat, chickpeas, all that good stuff) to avoid any fatty/carby lethargy or sugar rush.
After 3 weeks of nights you are well into it so it can be hard. No fixed plan works for me and you have to take it as it comes. Also what works for one person doesn’t always works for another as well. For me personally the main dont’s are:
- do not drink too much on your first day back, it does not help.
- Obvious one, try not to have too much sleep through the day, it’s always tempting to have a power nap late afternoon but I find this messes you up. If you can stay up for as long as possible and go to bed at a “normal time” it helps.
- if you wake in the middle of the night on change over, try not to get up. Try to get back to sleep, this doesn’t always work....