Working Nights

phill106

I finally got a new job, unfortunately, i will be working nights. Having never worked nights before, would anyone have tips on what works best? Not sure of exact hours, but assume a 5 day week 11pm-6am or similar.
Bed right away when you get home? Breakfast in the afternoon? All odd things i never thought of before!
Also im married with small children if that affects the answers, as obviously i would be spending as much of my waking time as possible with them.

helimachoptor

You'll find your own balance but for me I did a bit while at college, took me a couple of weeks to get used to it. On a good note you won't really spend any money

AARRRGH

I work as a bar man before so wouldn't get home until 3 or 4 or something like that. I found I would be wide awake after work for about another 6 hours. So you may find you're like me and will be lying in bed staring at the roof!

Nody

All depends on you but for me it was home, unwind for 30 min and then to bed. Now with a small child you could make the missus very happy but taking care of her in the morning to let the missus get ready/have a sleep in before you go crashing.

Make sure you got good blinds to keep the light out during the day and if you got a noisy street outside to have some soft background music playing.

TestTransmission

I work shifts,8pm to 8am and 8pm to 8am.
Best thing Ive found is not to sleep too much,so when i get to bed after a night shift im usually up by 1:30pm

It can disturb your body clock so you'll find your eating patterns can be all over the place.It is handy when it comes to saving money tho.

Penn

phill106 wrote: »

I finally got a new job, unfortunately, i will be working nights. Having never worked nights before, would anyone have tips on what works best? Not sure of exact hours, but assume a 5 day week 11pm-6am or similar.
Bed right away when you get home? Breakfast in the afternoon? All odd things i never thought of before!
Also im married with small children if that affects the answers, as obviously i would be spending as much of my waking time as possible with them.

I used to do 8pm-8am shifts. I best way I found, and I'm sure other people are different, was if you are starting on a Monday, get a good nights sleep Sunday night, then try to sleep for 2-3 hours in the evening before you start work. After you come home, you'll likely be full of energy due to the change in scenery and stuff, so I used to have a bit of breakfast and watch tv for a while. About an hour or hour and a half later, I'd go to sleep.

For sleeping during the day, I recommend earplugs, and curtains and blinds closed, whatever you can do to block out the light. The earplugs help a lot because since its daytime, people generally don't care about noise. My aunt used to drop off her son as my mother used to take care of him some days, and she'd leave the car running outside while she came in for a few minutes, used to drive me mental. A packet of cheap, comfortable earplugs could be your best friend. Just make sure someone is around to wake you at a certain time in case you can't hear the alarm.

It all takes a bit of getting used to, but you will eventually. Good luck with the new job!

phill106

ok thats 2 of you on about saving money by working nights. i am intrigued! It does make sense though i guess, and would be very welcome!

Nody

phill106 wrote: »

ok thats 2 of you on about saving money by working nights. i am intrigued! It does make sense though i guess, and would be very welcome!

The whole reason lies in your work time. You're not going to go out for a night with your friends pissing money away 'cause you're at work at work at that time.You're not going to be doing a whole lot of impulse shopping as you're going shopping after you've waken up and that is not the most happy happy spending mode you can be in

One thing to be careful about is your "lunch" during the nght; it can easily become a habit to order take away and it is both expensive and more importantly very fatty to eat so often.

panda100

helimachoptor wrote: »

You'll find your own balance but for me I did a bit while at college, took me a couple of weeks to get used to it. On a good note you won't really spend any money

I worked 5pm to 8am last year for two months and saved SO much money!
I didn't realise how much I spent going to meet friends for dinner,drinks or cinema in the evening time.

You'll find a rhytm that you'll get into. Just for your own mental health it is important to maybe meet up with a friend during the day maybe once or twice a week. It can be quite depressing working such anti-sociable hours so ensure that you get a good mix of work and play.

tman

I used to go to bed pretty much straight away after working 11-7, maybe have a bit of breakfast beforehand but I was usually too damn knackered to stay awake.
It does take a bit of getting used to at first, but isn't as bad as people make out. (apart from totally screwing with your body clock)

Having to work nights and then go back on to days straight afterwards is a killer though!

phill106

Nody wrote: »

The whole reason lies in your work time. You're not going to go out for a night with your friends pissing money away 'cause you're at work at work at that time.You're not going to be doing a whole lot of impulse shopping as you're going shopping after you've waken up and that is not the most happy happy spending mode you can be in

One thing to be careful about is your "lunch" during the nght; it can easily become a habit to order take away and it is both expensive and more importantly very fatty to eat so often.

luckily ill be night manager in a hotel, so will be grabbing food there

filthymcnasty

hello
do 7pm-7am shifts myself.
1) try to sleep as soon as u get home from work, then get up as early as you can so you still have a good bit of free time before work.
2) a few people have mentioned diet/meals etc. I agree, try to eat healthily/moderately, if you don't already. You will be eating at erratic times, so your body won't know whats going on, big potential of putting on weight.

veryangryman

Nights can be both a dream and a nightmare. I did them for 6 months in a 24 hour call centre before

Pros:
Minimal supervision because supervisor is on call (usually) so can watch DVDs, read a book, whatever
Can wear what you like
If your in a small team (and its quiet), you can tell each other all sorts of stories..People are naturally more sentimental, open up etc at night
Deadly shift allowance. 30% in this case
Plenty of days off in addition to standard AL. With us it was 4 nights on 4 nights off
You can sleep on your lunch break!


Cons
Can affect your health if you dont look after yourself properly
Can be boring if not that busy
Waiting on the morning staff to log in. If they're late, you cant leave
Being out of touch with whats going on in the daytime and/or the main office gossip.
If the phone rings while your sleepy, you can go mad. There have been screaming occasions

AARRRGH

An ex of mine used to work for a multi-national based on the northside doing the night shift. She used to smoke heroin during her break and then sleep for a few hours.

Yeah, I dumped her pretty quick, but I think her experience tells you a lot about working nights!

miec

I did night work sorting post, it was only temporary but it probably didn't help my health doing overtime delivery walks after, I became very ill doing this, so would suggest you take it easy during the day, eat healthy and know that you will be out of sync for a while. I know I am not the type of person who can do nights, I can get up eary (eg: 4am) but during the night no way. Be aware of the trough time of 2-4 am, when I worked nights everyone in the sorting office went through a downer during that time, so maybe take a walk around the hotel or do something busy during that time (you may escape this though).

doolox

I used to work shift which involved working 12 hour days for 4 weeks, then 12 hour nights for 4 weeks and then back to days.
The nights were better because there were no meetings, no politics and little or no senior managment to annoy you.
All in all a person could stick it for 4 to 5 years but I wouldn't do it after that as the health , both mental and physical, suffers.
I am now back in the workforce in an office-hour job with flexitime which is great, you can never be late as you finish 7.5 hours after you start, anytime between 8 and 10 am......
Also we work 37.5 hour week which is better than the poxy 42hr week previously, overtime regardless.

timmywex

Ive done the odd night and do the odd one still now and again, best advice i think is get up at the normal hour and go to work that night, you'll be knackered by 7am or whatever the next day. Then straight to bed for a lovely sleep,itd be different i guess if your doing a few nights, ive only ever done the odd one here and there. Theyre grand apart from weekend nights when everyone else goes out!

phill106

timmywex wrote: »

Ive done the odd night and do the odd one still now and again, best advice i think is get up at the normal hour and go to work that night, you'll be knackered by 7am or whatever the next day. Then straight to bed for a lovely sleep,itd be different i guess if your doing a few nights, ive only ever done the odd one here and there. Theyre grand apart from weekend nights when everyone else goes out!

No way could i be up all day, then work the night, id need a nap during the day :P

phill106

just finishing first night shift. I am still alive, though the flu i have is giving me some interesting side effects! Least i hope its the flu thats giving me sore limbs and a loss of hearing in my left ear!

Hydrosylator

phill106 wrote: »

just finishing first night shift. I am still alive, though the flu i have is giving me some interesting side effects! Least i hope its the flu thats giving me sore limbs and a loss of hearing in my left ear!

I used to work in pubs, which isn't quite as hardcore as what you're doing.

From my own experience, these things make it work well:
Bed as soon as you get back.
Taking a walk in the daytime to get some sunshine and air.
Making yourself a decent, hearty lunch for in work if there's no good food on site.

Another great thing to do is to be in a relationship with someone else who works nights. Waking up in bed when both of you have nowhere to be for 6 hours is magic!