Sleep and working nightshift...

chucky_cheese · 16-03-2004 09:16PM #1

I work nights 3x12hr./week. Sleeping during the day in between shifts is not a problem. However, coming down off this shift schedule and trying to get back to a normal sleeping pattern is hell!

Basically, on my first night off, i cant sleep. I just cant make myself sleep! I have tried the herbal sleep inducing pills (valerium) but they dont do the trick. Its anywhere between 4 and 6am before i get any sleep at all - and then i get poor quality sleep for just a few hours. I'm totally lethargic and fecked up during my time off.

I would like to hear from anyone who has overcome this problem. Please post your strategy for sleep here:ninja:

KlodaX · 16-03-2004 09:18PM

alcohol or other intoxicating substances knock you out.
sleeping tablets I would avoid as you won't wake for at least 12 hours ... yoga I believe helps. That and sex.

Other than that I can't help.

KlodaX · 16-03-2004 09:20PM

lol

my last post sounded not right. emm ... meditation?

chucky_cheese · 16-03-2004 09:27PM

alcohol or other intoxicating substances knock you out.

Yes, but you dont get quality sleep if its alco induced - and i dont want to be waking up in a beery haze (not any more) - i want to get up and run five miles - which is what i used to do before i started working nights!

sleeping tablets I would avoid as you won't wake for at least 12 hours

i can tell you i have been very tempted and im sure there aer a few people on my shift strung out on these.

Maybe its a case of wheatabix and speed for breakfast:p

KdjaCL · 16-03-2004 09:47PM

Do you work in D 22??

Anyway trick is to stay awake all day and gain a day off.
You will go to bed early that night but will be awake the whole day and the sleep will be great then you up on the thursday/sunday morning back in normal sleeping pattern.

kdjac

Mocking Burd · 16-03-2004 09:49PM

I work a similar pattern myself sometimes with a short turnaround back on to days.
I basically take it very easy the day that I finish the last night shift. I set my alarm so that I'm only getting about 4 hours sleep (otherwise I'd probably sleep for 24hrs on the trot). I like to go on a good walk in the afternoon - usually down Dun Laoghaire pier - the sea/ fresh air seems to help a lot. I rarely schedule any social activity (that may require effort) for the evening - as I usually look like crap:D. I'd usually hang out with my flatmates and have a couple of glasses of red wine (which usually makes me sleepy).

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I've been working these hours for the last 6 years:eek: - and there are plenty of times that nothing works and I end up awake half the night. Sometimes too I don't bother setting the alarm on the last day, I sleep 'til 4 or 5, then head to bed at 10pm and sleep like a baby.

That's my own way of coping with things. You can only try to get in some sort of routine yourself.

dood · 16-03-2004 09:59PM

Try sleeping very little the morning you finish your last shift - you should sleep ok that night - then just get up fairly early every other day. Works for me most of the time although sometimes I wake up around 7 and cant sleep again till 9.

rymus · 16-03-2004 11:17PM

I used to work in security years ago and did 4 12 hour shifts overnight on an 8 day week. Sleep patterns aren't the best thing to mess with in general so by the 3rd night I used to be in a state of waking sleep... if you get my drift. After coming home at 8am from the 4th night I used to stay up all that day then go to bed at my normal time, about 12/1am then sleep until I woke up the next day. I'd be grand after that. Only thing is the next day would be a write-off because I always used to sleep till about 2/3pm. Maybe it's not the most health concious option, but hey, worked for me!

colincarnate · 17-03-2004 12:14AM

12 hour night shifts are the devil
i did two summers on your-style shift, what i did most of the time after i got off i either stayed awake zombified 'til early in the night or i went to sleep immeditaley after the last shift for maybe 3 hours and went to bed kinda early that night.
it's a boll*x though that shift...

loismustdie · 17-03-2004 01:07AM

doo you work the other 3 days too on days?

User45701 · 17-03-2004 01:47AM

I belong in the night...
The sun hurts my eyes. I put a blanket over my window for extra protection so the sun doent hurt me.
I cant wait till I get a nice job woprking nite shift, ive heard superquinn pay well for night shift.
given a choice betweeen working night or day i would choose night
I am nocternal (is that how u spell it?)

chucky_cheese · 17-03-2004 11:49AM

Thanks for your thoughts on this ppl. I think i will follow the suggestions most have made and not sleep the day after my shift schedule ends. Now that i think of it, i am aware of few others on my shift who do this - so there must be something in it.

wiped · 17-03-2004 12:31PM

Yep , that's what I do .. finish at 7am , get home - into bed by 7.45am , sleep til about mid-day , get up - strong coffee * ... see out the rest of the day as normal ..... go to bed about 1am that night (next morning) ... Bob's ur aunties husband - back into normality and the land of the living ...........

*Gotta be Java .............. mmmmmmm j-a-v-a !!!

Sleep and working nightshift...

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