Shift Work Routine

A_Sober_Paddy

Hey all

Looking for a bit of help, my OH is going to be starting a new job(hopefully she has it) but its shift work Sunday to Thursday 11pm - 7am

Basically she is struggling to figure when to sleep on friday and saturday and sunday? Because our day off together will be friday and hopefully in a few months i'll be able to get fridays and saturdays off.

Her week will start Sunday 23:00 and finishes Friday 7:00

She is thinking of going straight to bed at 7.30 when she gets home and getting up at 15:30.(Monday-Thursday)

But on friday she doesn't want to be asleep all day and the same saturday and she need her 8 hours.

Anyone out there able to offer suggestions?

micks

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Hey all

Looking for a bit of help, my OH is going to be starting a new job(hopefully she has it) but its shift work Sunday to Thursday 11pm - 7am

Basically she is struggling to figure when to sleep on friday and saturday and sunday? Because our day off together will be friday and hopefully in a few months i'll be able to get fridays and saturdays off.

Her week will start Sunday 23:00 and finishes Friday 7:00

She is thinking of going straight to bed at 7.30 when she gets home and getting up at 15:30.(Monday-Thursday)

But on friday she doesn't want to be asleep all day and the same saturday and she need her 8 hours.

Anyone out there able to offer suggestions?

I've only worked 12hr shifts - 8hr should be easier

For me the important bit is getting your head down before the first night

I do 7-7 so i aim for some sleep from 3-5 or 6
That sets me up for block of nights

I go straight to bed when i get home from night shift
and after the last night i try get less sleep maybe 4-5 hrs so i am tired that night
Eating will also be an issue ie when or what to eat
I try not to eat after midnight or if i do I eat late ie 5-6am

christy02

A_Sober_Paddy wrote:

Looking for a bit of help, my OH is going to be starting a new job(hopefully she has it) but its shift work Sunday to Thursday 11pm - 7am

A_Sober_Paddy wrote:

Basically she is struggling to figure when to sleep on friday and saturday and sunday? Because our day off together will be friday and hopefully in a few months i'll be able to get fridays and saturdays off.

A_Sober_Paddy wrote:

Her week will start Sunday 23:00 and finishes Friday 7:00

A_Sober_Paddy wrote:

She is thinking of going straight to bed at 7.30 when she gets home and getting up at 15:30.(Monday-Thursday)

A_Sober_Paddy wrote:

But on friday she doesn't want to be asleep all day and the same saturday and she need her 8 hours.

A_Sober_Paddy wrote:

Anyone out there able to offer suggestions?

I work a 5 night shift pattern starting Monday night 11-7 and 9-4 on a Friday night. I agree with getting a few hours on first day before starting as it sets you up well. I go to bed when I get home and try get 8 hours minimum.

On Friday I get up at 2.30 as I am back in at 9 and finishing early. Friday night I get home at 4.30 and go straight to bed and get up at 11.

Sleeping Saturday night can be tough as the 5 nights in a row gets your body used to it and is hard to change back. I worked 3 12's before and it is a shorter blast so not as tough to come out of.

Best advice I can give is to get plenty of sleep during week so you're not wrecked at weekend, and use your holidays wisely.
Get as much h as you can out of your Friday and Sunday also. If not you end up with a short weekend.

Good luck with it.

A_Sober_Paddy

Anyone have any recommendations for eye masks/ear plugs...things to help sleeping during the day. Our house is near a college and a busy enough road

christy02

A_Sober_Paddy wrote:

Anyone have any recommendations for eye masks/ear plugs...things to help sleeping during the day. Our house is near a college and a busy enough road

I would suggest not using anything (apart from black out blinds). Training yourself for to sleep during the day is a big part of shift work. You'll get used to it quite quickly.

A_Sober_Paddy

christy02 wrote: »

I would suggest not using anything (apart from black out blinds). Training yourself for to sleep during the day is a big part of shift work. You'll get used to it quite quickly.

Herself is lite sleeper, she wears ear plugs during the night, but they don't keep out enough noise for daytime

Not a night worker myself but working nights is popular in my family as we are a family of night owls so some observations would be

They never go straight to bed when they get home. If getting home at say 7:30 am they wouldn't go to bed until maybe 11am or 12 noon, basically treat the morning like your evening (you wouldn't come home at 6pm and go straight to bed) then get up in the evening as you would in the morning.

If its going to be a long term thing trying to be be up during the day at weekends just won't work great, you are better off trying to keep a similar sleep pattern at weekends also as trying to change around will just leave you tired all the time and your body clock will be all over the place. A continuous night shift is a lot easier than going back and fourth between day and night shifts.

The hours are not bad at all really, much better than a 7pm to 7am as even going to bed at say 11am means you could have 8 hours in bed by 7pm and still have time to spend around the house/time with each other in the evening etc.

A_Sober_Paddy

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Hey all

Looking for a bit of help, my OH is going to be starting a new job(hopefully she has it) but its shift work Sunday to Thursday 11pm - 7am

...................

She is thinking of going straight to bed at 7.30 when she gets home and getting up at 15:30.(Monday-Thursday)

But on friday she doesn't want to be asleep all day and the same saturday and she need her 8 hours.

Anyone out there able to offer suggestions?

On Fri she should try getting up at 12 or 1 after 5 hours sleep.
Tough to do but essential as she'll be sleeping Fri night and Sat night so she needs to force herself to do it to have a normal weekend.

CIP4

I done 12 hour shift work for about 6 months last year two weeks of days, two weeks of nights rotating around. On the weeks of nights I would finish at 7.30am home by 8am straight to bed asleep by 9am at the latest. During the nights I wouldn't get up till about 4-5pm. On my last night I would get up at 12-1pm in order to sleep that night. I never minded it too much but I did only do it for a short period and I had a great ability to sleep during the day and switch over sleeping pattern reasonably ok.

christy02

Zayn Strong Leopard wrote:

They never go straight to bed when they get home. If getting home at say 7:30 am they wouldn't go to bed until maybe 11am or 12 noon, basically treat the morning like your evening (you wouldn't come home at 6pm and go straight to bed) then get up in the evening as you would in the morning.

This is terrible advice. You haven't done nights yourself obviously. It is not the same working nights as it is days. Everyone I work with goes straight to bed unless they have to stay up for a reason.

conacks

Worked a lot of different nights shifts and would recommend similar to most of the advise above
Straight to bed after coming off night shifts
Minimum of 8 Hrs sleep - you need more sleep working nights...
Get up around 12:30/13:00 of Friday
Don't go to bed too early on Friday night as you wont sleep or else go into deep sleep for 2 hrs and be wide aware afterwards - maybe bed at 01:30 up around 9
I used ear plugs on nights as it's a busy house and find them great
Blackout blinds a must have
I know a lot of people that wear sunglasses on way home from work so they don't get too much daylight before going to bed

XsApollo

Worked a 3 cycle shift for a long time.
Don’t do it anymore thank god.

She needs to work it to see how she reacts.
Some people will go to sleep when they finish but others can’t.
I used to sleep straight away after nights
One thing is you never get used to it.
It’s a bloody killer,
I used to be a zombie after them.
And moody as hell.

But always after my last night I would go to bed and get up after 3 or 4 hours and suffer the day wrecked so to be able to get to sleep at a reasonable hour that night.

Can’t imagine her feeling up to much on the Friday after a week of nights to be honest.

syntheticjunk

There is one more thing to consider. If she never worked nights before - there is big chance she won't be able to handle it - especially 5 nights.
Still doing shifts myself. Best advice that I can give - don't even start.....

christy02

christy02 wrote: »

This is terrible advice. You haven't done nights yourself obviously. It is not the same working nights as it is days. Everyone I work with goes straight to bed unless they have to stay up for a reason.

I have two very close family members who work nights (and have for years) and they come home, eat, watch tv etc in the morning exactly the same as you would in the evening? How is it terrible advice anyway, just because your opinion differs doesn't make what I said terrible advise. I know there is no way I'd want to go straight to bed after a nights work, I wouldn't sleep for a start no more than I would not sleep at 6pm after a days work. I must let my family members know they are "doing it wrong" despite happily doing it this way for years.

In my opinion its bad advice telling people to try convert to being up during the day for the weekend as it will just mean you are wrecked (maybe its why everyone appears to find nights so hard??). If you work nights you are better to be up nights at the weekend too as it keeps your routine much better (I can see the difference with my family member* compared to people who try to convert back for weekends or those who have no choice to because of changing shifts).

*Just for consistency the other family member does 7x12hr nights on and then 7 days off so they do convert to days for a few in the middle of their week off but they have a number of days to ease into it and then a few days to ease back to nights. My relation who works only nights keeps a night routine all through the weekend(maybe getting up a little earlier on a day you need to get somewhere in the afternoon like an appointment/shop etc). Also just to add both do nights totally by choice so maybe its not a fair comparsion as many appear to hate it while they both fought to keep their night hours at different times.

conacks

Converting to days mode or staying on night mode at the weekend normally depend on your circumstances i.e single or married with children. If you can stay in night mode without disturbing your family life it's a better option but most people want to make the most of the time off with their families and revert back to day mode but it's definitely harder............

Rubberchikken

I work shifts of 11 -7, 7-7, 9-4, in no particular order with a night off usually after 3 nights but sometimes up to 5.

I head to bed by 8am when on 7-7 and 11-7 and could sleep to 3pm. On the 9-4 I'm in bed by 5 asleep by 6 and up again before noon.
It's the best I can do. I do tend to fall into a coma by 8pm on the night I'm off and sleep for 12 to 14 hours solid.
It's never easy but at this stage I'm used to it.
Find that going for a walk every day before shift starts is necessary:)