Night shift whats it like

Marine Iguana said:
No daily mail link.

I am dissapoint.

Been doing night shift for nearly 4 years now and I'm in no bad health was worse when I was working days.
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It doesn`t work like that. I feel healthy now as well. What about 10, 20, 30 years from now on? According to recent researches you and I are both more probable to develop cancer than people who never did any night shifts.

I know there are probably 1000000 other factors - mostly unknown - that influence the risk of the disease, but you have to look out for yourself.

Even if you dismiss the cancer risk, there is plenty of other reasons health-related or otherwise to avoid it if possible. Social, biological, psychical etc. Anyway, this is just my opinion, but there is no reason not to educate yourself on the matter.
 
I do IT support working Nights 4 on 4 off.

I've done it for around 18months now and started doing it to pay some debts off. With OT I get around £33k

Sleeping is hard and so is adjusting to 4 normal days when your off + missing out on lots of nights out etc. But I get 4 days off and I'm doing my house up and go mountain biking a lot.

The way I see it is I'm pretty much earning double what I was earning, doing 2/3's less work. No management around so its really chilled out.
But no chance at all of promotion/progression, but there isn't any baggage to take home with you as its a new issue each day.
 
Ive done it and its the worst thing ever, ugh never again. Like others before me have said - it messes with you pretty bad. Make sure your windows are dark...and I mean *DARK*. Get blackout shades for the windows, so you think its night even when its a sunny clear day outside. No external light must show or your body clock/sense will mess with your sleep.

But I have to say it differs from person to person. Our physiology is all different. So for some people its no problem at all (someone above me posted they been doin it for 15 yrs with no issues).

But yea...for that tiny amount of extra money - I would not do it.
 
I work for one of the main uk communication companies as an oracle DBA. We do 12 hours shifts of 2 days, 2 nights, 4 days off, cycled forever.
Work's a treat for me, I find i'm a bit of a night owl anyway so often find the days more of a slog than the nights.
As far as illness etc goes - not had a single days sick in over a year. I go gym after my night shifts and at least a couple of the days off, I look after what I eat, I sleep pretty well, take it easy with the ales and etc and honestly couldn't concieve of going back to a 9-5 mon-fri effort.

Do have 2 inherited traits one of which being the ability to sleep on demand pretty much anywhere and rise to an alarm.

The other is complete immunity to hangovers (still, even now i'm in my 30's) but that's not quiet relevant :D
 
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Somnambulist said:
Currently at work on nights now. I do a 4 week rotation of Mon-Thurs days, Thurs-Sun nights, Fri-Sun days and Mon-Weds nights. All shifts are 8 till 8. I get a lot of days off and find adjusting fairly easy, the only part that sucks is how little work I need to do at night (reactive IT job) which can make it drag out a bit. I don't plan on doing it for too many years, it's just a case of earning my stripes and getting a better job.

I would dislike doing nights all the time immensely.
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Your work with a communications company too? Sounds like exactly what I do.
 
I've discovered tonight that a night shift that ends at 07:00 is a pain in the ass when there is a race starting at 07:00.

Balls.
 
I'm on a 12 hour night tomorrow.

nights have been wonderful since i got proper blackout curtains. i sleep like a baby during the day
 
I find it pretty easy, but I only do night shifts, I don't rotate between mornings or afternoons, my routine is pretty much:
  • Start work at 11pm
  • Finish work at 7am
  • Arrive home around 7:15am
  • Put the kettle on and have a cuppa
  • Watch TV for an hour or so
  • Sleep until 2-3pm

That gives me plenty of time in the evening to see my girlfriend, go out or do whatever I want to do before work, it's pretty easy but more so because the work I do is easy, I can see how people would have problems with it if they had to alternate it with day shifts though.
 
Most people on here hate it then:p Im off in about 30 mins for my first night shift. I ride to work on my motorbike, im sure thats gonna be fun at the end of my shift...anyway god speed.
 
don't do it for peanuts

I did nights for 8 nights and I could never go to the toilet properly
I look at life this way you are either born nocturnal or diurnal and I am for sure diurnal so never again.
 
It's not healty and you will have a lesser social life then ever, yet it's a new view of life for you.
Experience it, but don't stuck with it.

Also i'm new around here, so hi everyone :)
(My first message is a life advise, not the best way to start, i guess. lol )
 
ive been doing nights for 20 years and its still hard, but depends what type of work you have to do,i liken the tired/sick feeling you get on nights to jet lag!
 
bakes0310 said:
Most people on here hate it then:p Im off in about 30 mins for my first night shift. I ride to work on my motorbike, im sure thats gonna be fun at the end of my shift...anyway god speed.
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I love em. My work entails doing next to **** all all night and with no one else around I can chill out for 12 hours. Plus I get more sleep than I do on days.

Tonight is shift 5 of 5, then I have 4 off until I'm back on Friday for 5 more nights and then off for 5 days (actually 12 off but that is not the normal pattern).

Then when I go back it'll be day shifts only for the next 28 days (14 actual shifts in that time).
 
Its ****.

I did 9 hour shifts, 10pm til 7am during my A levels and it killed me.
It has put me off part time work all together.
 
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