Night shift whats it like

bakes0310

bakes0310

bakes0310

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I may be getting a new job soonish and i got the option of going onto nights. Ive never done nights before but im sort of tempted. Or i could do afternoons which i currently do in my current job which i prefer to mornings. Im sure after the first few days i could get used to the sleep pattern. But whats the pros and cons of night shift?

Also if i do afternoons ill be on £19-20k but nights is £23k.
 
Not worth the extra money in all honesty.

I did nights for 3 years and, as above, it makes your immune system less effective, messes up your sleep pattern when you're off and apparently reduces life expectancy. :eek:
 
found the work fine but the sleep terrible, living at home with 3 other adults and a child meant finding quiet time to sleep was hard, if you're on your own/with considerate people then it'd be fine. found myself getting sick less in contrast to what the above have suggested, did it for a year and a half and had a couple of colds if that. didn't have a problem with sleep patterns either but then I've worked all hours of the day, my body's just learnt to accept what it gets :p

I used to do 4x 21:00-07:00 shifts, for reference.
 
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I've been doing nights for 10 years, and love it. My sleep pattern has adjusted, I never get ill because I get a decent sleep every day, never have to wake up to an alarm clock and I have the afternoon to myself.

Me and a couple of mates were on the golf course this afternoon enjoying the lovely weather rather than being stuck at work. :)
 
For that increase in pay i wouldnt do it for the very reasons that mrmoonx stated.
I did factory work on rotating shift patterns involving 12 hour night shifts.
Never again.
 
I must be one of the few people that prefers working nights instead of days.

I never have trouble changing my sleep pattern to switch from days to nights and vice versa as i usually work 1 month on days then the next on nights.
 
Nights arent to bad. I dont do them any more but did them for about 5 years on a 4 on 4 off pattern.

First night - Suck you get tired at the normal go to bed time. By the morning the trip home was always terrible driving felt like what I would think being drunk at the wheel would feel like sometimes. Zombie

Second Night - So much easier you still get tired but your not a zombie

Third Night - Easy nothing to worry about but you will normal still feel tired at the end of your shift

Forth Night - No issues your in the routine

The main Issue I had was getting off night shift If I did that shift and only that shift I think it would have been a lot better (Other then not having a great social life but this helped me save more haha)

Takes a day or two to get off them I found. Some people took longer to get off night shifts.
 
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being doing night's for 15 years and its a lot better (to me anyway) than days.

i sleep for 5 hours a day and have loads of time to do things around the house/go out/friends.
 
Do 12 hour days and nights for work. Been 8 years, never had a problem with it at all. Almost never ill, never have issues with sleep and as a bonus because its 12 hour days you only do 15-16 shifts a month.

Wouldn't want to go back to 9-5 perm.

A lot depends on the pattern you are doing though. A crappy pattern will screw you over big time.
 
it all depends, will you be busy or just watching something, will you have tasks or will you be just there because someone needs to be? trying to stay awake with nothing to do would be tough. I do 12.5 hour shifts, days and nights and that is tough, getting into the day shift pattern too. Ive done it for over 15 years now, would i give it up if I didnt have to do it, hell yes.


messes with your digestion, sleeping pattern if your rotating shifts, causes cancer and is proven to reduce your life expectancy.

plusses-you get to goto sleep when everyone else is working, you get to goto the shops and banks when they are quieter. I get more sleep on nights that normal night time sleep.

there is nearly always less work politics at night! a massive plus.


rotters
 
It depends a lot on the person tho, some can adjust to it fine, others will not take to it well - I'm still seeing some negative effects from doing night work and it was many many years ago. My cognitive ability declinded quite a lot towards the end and it took a couple of years to really recover from that and my sleeping pattern is still a little off today.
 
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