Live at night, Sleep during Day

25-02-2013 06:55PM

shedweller wrote: »

Theres the thing. I'm on 4 nights shift. 22:00 to 07:00 monday to thursday night. Been that way for nearly 8 years and i would love a week on week off. Well, i think i would. I did the continental shift before which was two 12hr days followed by two 12hr nights, followed by four days off. I thought it was ok. A lot of weekends sucked but other than that it was fine. Short term nights are quickly recovered from. Long term nights just wear you down and i cannot imagine how hard it would be to study something on nights.

That 22:00 to 7:00 shift for 4 days looks like something I'd like to be honest. The most thing that would put me off an evening shift or night shift starting earlier in the evening is missing midweek sport but with your shift you can watch it before work, you have three days off then and your on a perfect body clock for late nights out at weekends along with the fact your week doesn't start until monday night.

A lot of people are saying working nights will mess with your head. Once you have a situation where you can sleep properly during the day (i.e. no interuptions) I dont see why its all that different, you might see a bit less sunlight but plenty of people on days see very little of it especially during the winter. Its dark leaving for work, inside all day and dark going home etc.

As I said above, I think having to get up very early every morning for work would be much harder on me psychologically than working evening's/nights.

danslevent wrote: »

Prepare for no social life!

It depends, you wont get much in the way of midweek nights out but you will be on a perfect body clock for weekend nights out/all night sessions and you can have better sunday nights out as work isn't until Monday night.

Sofiztikated · 25-02-2013 06:59PM

BattleCorp wrote: »

By law, workers are supposed to have a medical exam before they start work as night shift workers.

These medical exams are supposed to be carried out occasionally to monitor if the night shift is having an adverse effect on your health.

There's a reason for this. I've done it for years and night shift work fcuks you up

Have you a link/source for this?

I don't mind doing them. Have been doing them on and off for a while. And just about to start a position as a night manager.

Don't plan on doing them forever, I'm planning a year, and that's it.

The hardest part of the night is between 4.30 and 5.30. You physically feel your body slowing down. You start to hear things. You see things in your peripheral vision. You hear your heart. You taste iron in your mouth.

Come 7.30, and I'm awake again. Home, sleep for 3 - 4 hours, up, do day time stuff, sleep for an hour or 2 before work.

shedweller · 25-02-2013 07:11PM

I should also point out that my sleep cycle is very delicate. Come tuesday morning you would expect me to sleep the sleep of the gods. But no, i wake between 12:00 and 13:00. Thats 4.5hrs. Less if i drink anything after midnight as i wake for a slash and cannot go back to sleep, despite almost crying from tiredness. As the week progresses i sleep longer day on day until friday when i need to get up at 13:00 but struggle out of the bed. If i sleep till 15:00 then the weekend is a write off!
Even if i do everything perfectly i still get woken up by one of the kids in the middle of the night and thats it, i'm awake for the night! The next day can be tough!

Ah the joys.

25-02-2013 07:19PM

shedweller wrote: »

I should also point out that my sleep cycle is very delicate. Come tuesday morning you would expect me to sleep the sleep of the gods. But no, i wake between 12:00 and 13:00. Thats 4.5hrs. Less if i drink anything after midnight as i wake for a slash and cannot go back to sleep, despite almost crying from tiredness. As the week progresses i sleep longer day on day until friday when i need to get up at 13:00 but struggle out of the bed. If i sleep till 15:00 then the weekend is a write off!
Even if i do everything perfectly i still get woken up by one of the kids in the middle of the night and thats it, i'm awake for the night! The next day can be tough!

Ah the joys.

I suppose again, like someone changing shifts from nights to days regularly its the fact you have to regularly switch to a more day time regime at weekends that's really killing you. I understand this is due to responsibilities, kids etc and is not totally by choice so you cannot just keep more or less the same sleep cycle throughout the week.

stoneill · 26-02-2013 08:06AM

Jaziel Refined Joint wrote: »

A lot of people are saying working nights will mess with your head. Once you have a situation where you can sleep properly during the day (i.e. no interuptions) I dont see why its all that different, you might see a bit less sunlight but plenty of people on days see very little of it especially during the winter. Its dark leaving for work, inside all day and dark going home etc.

As I said above, I think having to get up very early every morning for work would be much harder on me psychologically than working evening's/nights.

A lot of people who have never done shift work think this - they base this on their limited experience of staying out late once or twice.
It is more than sleep patterns that gets messed up. It messes with your whole body, it messes with when you are hungry, what type of hunger, when your need to use bathrooms, try having to get up at 4am on your rest days to take a crap, there is a buzzing sensation behind your eyes, you can't sleep well at night, you find it hard to stay awake during the day. I could go on and on, but basically NO - if you don't need to then don't do it.

BattleCorp · 26-02-2013 07:32PM

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Have you a link/source for this?

Sorry, I don't have a link to it. It's in our Safety Statement and I work for a large company so I reckon it's legit or it wouldn't be in there.

Micky Dolenz · 26-02-2013 07:36PM

We are not designed to be nocturnal. It is something your body will never get used to, no matter how long you do it for. Some people cope better then others though.

Dwork · 26-02-2013 08:45PM

I would consider doing this, but only at gunpoint and then I'd doze off around 1am so they'd shoot me as a failure. I like sleeping in my bed, at night. Night working is for Badgers, foxes and people whose Bosses are greedy cnuts.

Culleeo · 26-02-2013 09:12PM

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Have you a link/source for this?

Regulation 157: Health assessment and transfer to day work
157. (1) An employer,
(a) before employing a person as a night worker, and
(b) at regular intervals during the period that that person is employed as
a night worker,
shall make available to that person, free of charge, an assessment by a
registered medical practitioner, or a person under the practitioner’s
supervision, in relation to any adverse effects of that night work on the
night worker’s health.
Before an employee starts night work and at regular intervals whilst working as a
night worker, the employer must offer the employee an assessment by a registered
medical practitioner, or a person under the medical practitioner’s supervision, to
determine any adverse effects of night working on the employee’s health.

It's part of the General Applications 2007, Chapter 3 of Part 6, Shiftwork and Nightwork.

26-02-2013 10:21PM

Grayson wrote: »

If only pubs and cinemas were open in the evening.

What use is that when you're probably starting your night shift between 8pm and 11pm? You can't drink before work. You'd have to leave the cinema before the film was over.

This is what's most annoying about shift work. People just don't get that your entire day is backwards. When you're on a night shift, you might get up at between 4pm and 6pm (depending on when you got home from work and how much sleep you need). That's the equivalent of early morning for most people. You have 'breakfast', have a shower, get ready and go to work. Fancy meeting a friend for lunch? Good luck doing that at at your 'lunchtime' - 3am or 4am. Fancy going out for a pint after work? Not that easy to do at 7am or 8am, which is your 'evening'. You have no social life because you're either at work or in bed when most people are meeting up and doing things. People never really seem to get this, for some reason.

That's why working nights ruins your life. Late afternoon/evening shifts are bad enough (I usually finish the day job at 10pm) but at least you can do something after work, even if it's a quick pint or a late-night film and you're up by lunchtime. Night shifts have no social benefits at all really, unless you hate people.

Dwork · 26-02-2013 10:45PM

I'd rather get the shift at night than get the nightshift.

amjon. · 26-02-2013 10:48PM

Dean0088 wrote: »

Anyone ever done this?

I have a load of college work and other stuff I'm supposed to be doing. But I find I can only concentrate on anything at night.

So I'm considering flipping my life around to sleep during the day, and go to work in the evenings and study through the night.

Did this for my finals. Worked a treat.

Celly Smunt · 26-02-2013 10:50PM

I love nightshifts,there's something great in waking up at 7 putting on a movie and heading to work in the dead of night.It just suits me.

orestes · 26-02-2013 11:01PM

Did late night bar work for a few years. No early shifts, 6pm till about 4am 5 nights a week, so going to bed at about 6am and getting up at about 4pm. Doing the odd late night if it's a part time job for college or something is one thing, but actually living long term like that becomes a nightmarish version of groundhog day and really messes you up. Some people are suited to it, but like someone else said if you enjoy being normal don't do it. It's lonely as fukk and really bad for your health, physically and mentally, you have almost no social life, you don't eat properly, it just ends up an all round killer, especially in winter when you go a couple of months without seeing any daylight at all.

dyer · 26-02-2013 11:12PM

this was on bbc news today, might be of interest!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21572686

i tend to like the dark side.. i seem to be more creative at night, could well be that im just going mad too

Ruudi_Mentari · 27-02-2013 12:49AM

It's hard during winter when you become full-on nocturnal and whatever daylight is just cold and overcast and harder to face anyhow but I like the nightlife, don't want to be caught nodding off when the night is relatively young would sooner only be coming 'round.

But when summer comes around we have no option but to adapt even if you for some reason prefer eternal icy grim half arsed 'days' that chill you to the bone, really calm but really dull and permeating cold that's hard to shake and it just looks like death and is hardly growth promoting.. only promotes nocturnal activity if you ask me and stay out of a nine to five for too long and it's hard to readjust. those can become the very hours I sleep through (occasionally / at most) during the winter but certainly wouldn't go any further than that am hoping for reversal, not some kind of fcuked up full circle solution

Ruudi_Mentari · 27-02-2013 01:01AM

It really is like some kind of vampirism though and I certainly feel like a lost boy for it.

Weight of the day! I bet day people can deal with night better than the vice versa.

27-02-2013 01:14AM

My OH is away working. 6pm - 5am 7 days a week. It's his fourth week and won't be home for another two. Then it's a week off.

Think he deserves steak and BJs every night he is home

andymurphy93 · 27-02-2013 01:24AM

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

My OH is away working. 6pm - 5am 7 days a week. It's his fourth week and won't be home for another two. Then it's a week off.

Think he deserves steak and BJs every night he is home

BEST WIFE EVER!!!!

27-02-2013 11:13AM

stoneill wrote: »

A lot of people who have never done shift work think this - they base this on their limited experience of staying out late once or twice.
It is more than sleep patterns that gets messed up. It messes with your whole body, it messes with when you are hungry, what type of hunger, when your need to use bathrooms, try having to get up at 4am on your rest days to take a crap, there is a buzzing sensation behind your eyes, you can't sleep well at night, you find it hard to stay awake during the day. I could go on and on, but basically NO - if you don't need to then don't do it.

Well in fairness while I haven't done night shifts myself I did say that two family members both do them, well my mother does a proper night shift 8pm to 8am and my uncle works 5pm to 2:30am however he would wait up for hours after his shift, until at least 6am and often up to 9am. I also said they would swap them for nothing. Both had to fight to keep their night shift actually especially my mother. They both work in two very different areas also.

Now as I said my mother works 7 nights on 7 nights off and converts into a more normal sleep pattern on her week off without much difficulty (obviously easier than if you are working days rather than being off). While my uncle works a normal 5 day week of evenings and never changes shift, he would also keep the same sleep pattern on his time off, i.e. he always does his sleeping in the day.

The point I was making is that its the doing nights on week and days the next that is the killer, if you just did nights then you wouldn't have problems with changing your sleep pattern etc. Also you mention getting up a 4am on rest days for a crap, why not stick to your up at night and sleeping in the day pattern on days off also its the transitions that's the hard part, not always possible but changes should be an exception rather than a rule.

joseph brand · 27-02-2013 01:25PM

boboldpilot wrote: »

Try working overnight shifts. It'll soon cure you of the idea. Around three in the morning you go slightly insane. It's like being drunk. After a month of it you'll be exhausted. Then there's the daytime sleeping, you'll be constantly interrupted by people who don't get the idea that this is your rest time. Then there's those inconsiderate people who let their children play outside on on sunny afternoons while they cut the grass with their petrol mowers. So you never get enough sleep.

Did seven years of it. Probably knocked 14 years off my life.

I worked with a guy, who's father used to wake him up at about 11:30 a.m. He had just got to bed around 08:30, after finishing at 07:00, after a 12-hour shift.

The father: "What are you doing in bed all day?" "Get up and dig the garden!"

For some reason, there's plenty of folks who can't understand why shift workers need to sleep in the day.

I did seven years of it too, and it does knock years off your life. But they reimburse you with your shift allowance. Apparently our lives DO have a price.

@OP: I'm in the same boat, as regards college work. There's less distractions at night when the wife and kids are gone off to bedfordshire.

joseph brand · 27-02-2013 01:34PM

Bad sleep 'dramatically' alters body.

A run of poor sleep can have a potentially profound effect on the internal workings of the human body, say UK researchers.

The activity of hundreds of genes was altered when people's sleep was cut to less than six hours a day for a week.

Writing in the journal PNAS, the researchers said the results helped explain how poor sleep damaged health.

Heart disease, diabetes, obesity and poor brain function have all been linked to substandard sleep.

jester77 · 27-02-2013 01:44PM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

very bad for your health OP

I've always wondered this. If you get your 8 hours of sleep during the day then why would it be unhealthier for someone? The only thing you would be really missing out on is a bit of Vitamin D, but it's not like Ireland has much of that to offer anyway.

Sofiztikated · 27-02-2013 04:19PM

jester77 wrote: »

I've always wondered this. If you get your 8 hours of sleep during the day then why would it be unhealthier for someone? The only thing you would be really missing out on is a bit of Vitamin D, but it's not like Ireland has much of that to offer anyway.

http://www.decodedscience.com/is-night-shift-bad-for-you-hazards-of-shift-work-examined/8693

Human body is a strange machine.

shedweller · 27-02-2013 04:20PM

Jaysus i wish i could sleep for 8 hours during the day! 5 if i'm lucky. I make up for it at the weekend though. In bed by midnight, up at 8 or 9. The kids can make their own brekfast now, which gives me about 2 hours more in the morning!

jme2010 · 27-02-2013 04:59PM

boboldpilot wrote: »

sunny afternoons while they cut the grass with their petrol mowers.

You are describing the best nap I've ever had. Can't beat warm sunshine through the curtains, while the faint sound of a lawn mower acts like white noise that gently rocks youu toooosleee.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Novella · 27-02-2013 05:06PM

I work night shifts so I'm always up all night. Being a student doesn't help because I'm expected to be in college but I often miss my 9, 10, 11am lectures 'cause I'm asleep. In all seriousness, sleeping in the day and being awake in the middle of the night is a little depressing after a while.

Live at night, Sleep during Day

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