Night Shifts

UXB said:
I have worked nights for 35 years 7pm till 7am, my secret is no coffee, no tea, no caffeine based drinks period.
Everyone I work with guzzle coffees, teas and energy drinks and they are always lethargic and complaining about how tired they are, I only drink water and feel fine.
So my advice is to stay away from caffeine.
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I went for the normal lifestyle.
Small meal when I woke, with a coffee after. Mayber a coffee or two before "lunch", and then a big meal after work.
Stay up and socialise a few hours with a few beers or a glass of wine as desired (unashamedly a fair few fairly often).

I agree that the caffeine chase throughout the shift is a terrible idea.
The nearer you can make it to a normal day the better.
 
Wizzkidy said:
I use to do 12 hour shifts 7am until 7pm for 3 nights then 7pm until 7am for another 3 then 7 days off. Horrible shift pattern but a least I was sitting in a chair handing out rack keys and not actually doing manual labour :p

I slept fine during the day, or sometimes I would just sleep at work under the desk
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This sounds like my ideal shift pattern
 
dowie said:
I didn't think people hiring skips would be so fussy as to want the things polished - surely you're just going to ruin any nice finish as soon as you chuck rubbish in them? :D
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I was told that you can't polish a turd, but you can sprinkle it with glitter

Maybe OP can figure an easy "glitter" job on the skips
 
Best of luck OP - just try to get your sleep pattern as close as possible to something you can maintain realistically on the days off IMO. Do you work dayshifts too or is it just the day's off when you might consider more normal sleeping hours? I wonder, if you're single/no dependents, if it isn't worth perhaps just sleeping set hours the whole time - like mornings say... to stop the sleep pattern from being interrupted.

TrannyBill said:
I was told that you can't polish a turd
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Try sticking it in the freezer first :)
 
I'm working nights as we speak. 12 hour at that, I finish at 6 roll on.
For me it's a little more complex I do 4 12 hour shifts 2 days 2 nights a week not always the same days however

For me before my first night shift I stay up as late as possible I aim for 12-1am and sleep in till half 10 ISH then I'll go through my day as usual til I've been to work and finished.

Once finished straight to bed and sleep again around 6-7hours and rinse repeat.

After the final night shift I try get up earlyish around 11-12 to help me get tired a bit earlier to resume normal sleeping pattern.

Id strongly suggest investing in a Mantra sleep mask (the muts nuts worth every penny), use silicone ear plugs and sometimes I have 10mg melatonin to help resume my sleep pattern.

I've learnt this by doing my own research and trial and error over the last 5 years :p
 
interesting to be in this thread as im unemployed atm just on my 7th week off but having 6 weeks in sw franse snd spain next week (no benefits involved ,redundant ,it may be something i go back to when i drag myself back into the working world ,2 nights ideally depends hoe much i blow in spain
as for the snobby commments about a rubbish job (no pun with skip intended) my only job here in cornwall was in a very large bakery ,just over min wage (chose for 4 day weekends) before that i was working in leeds making dog dental sticks for an agency at mars.
what im saying is its more what you do out of work that can make you a success ,im mortgage free on a hillside in cornwall in an amazing place ,more from property choice than a good job
 
String said:
These office pussies need to man up if you ask me. ;)
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In all seriousness the health issues you face by doing nightshifts are quite horrible. If I was in the OP's position, well clearly he needs the job but I would take it and continue to look for something during normal office hours. The effects of working nightshifts for long periods of time are really quite severe and long-lasting. I did them for 5 years on and off... 5 years later I still have trouble sleeping sometimes despite having done office hours for that whole period. My girlfriends mum did nightshifts for the entirety of her career as a nurse and she barely sleeps 4-5hrs a night and wakes up constantly. It's not nice, it's not good for you and unless it's integral to your career development I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Not to mention the detriment of your social life.
 
My tips after working nights for 7 years

1) Get a good amount of sleep when you get home (6+) and then try and do light activity until you get to work. I find I feel worse if I wake up and then laze about until work.

2) Try and build yourself up to night shifts. Stay up 30 minutes later, than maybe an hour later just to ease into them.

3) Eat as well as possible and drink plenty of water during your shift. I’m noticeably more grouchy if I’ve relied on crap food and caffeine to keep going. Hot food helps!

4) When you finish your nights try and stay up all day to try to sleep at night. It’s hard but I find this helps reboot my body!
 
Find something else when you can.Seems fine at first but after a few years it starts to take it's toll on your body and mind and has many health implications.
 
Nights are great. Loved them and would do them again here if the option came up.

Longest record is doing 12 hour shifts starting at 6pm on Nov 30th and we finished at 6am Dec 24th.

It's summer that is the worst, the heat and bright light while trying to sleep but winters it's fine. Sun lamp helps through and vitamins.

it's nice being able to go to bed after a night shift and just sleeping, no need to set an alarm.

Eat at proper meal times when you're off too, same technique for jet lag :)
 
Meatball said:
4) When you finish your nights try and stay up all day to try to sleep at night. It’s hard but I find this helps reboot my body!
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I wouldn't do this. Staying up for 24hrs is pretty harmful. For the weekends I used to get home 8-9am and sleep until midday. Set 3 alarms, force my girlfriend to make sure I got up. It's horrendous but if you time it well and wake up during a non-deep sleep you can actually feel quite freshed. Starting your weekend/days off on 3-4hrs sleep is infinitely better than trying to "power through" and end up being awake for 24hrs or so.
 
I work on the railway and if its going to be a difficult shift I usually get 3 hours sleep before work (10-11pm start) and 3-4 hours sleep after the shift (5-9am) finish. Splitting sleep is perfectly possible and allows for productive day times. In fact, pre industrial sleeping patterns saw people sleep in 4 hour cycles, twice a day - people did not sleep 8 hours straight and throw a girl-fit for not having so..
 
apg said:
I work on the railway and if its going to be a difficult shift I usually get 3 hours sleep before work (10-11pm start) and 3-4 hours sleep after the shift (5-9am) finish. Splitting sleep is perfectly possible and allows for productive day times. In fact, pre industrial sleeping patterns saw people sleep in 4 hour cycles, twice a day - people did not sleep 8 hours straight and throw a girl-fit for not having so..
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Some people are better able to split up their sleeping than others. Personally I could never adjust to getting 3-4 hours sleep either side of a shift - I tried it for awhile and it just left me permanently lagged and lethargic like flying back from the US used to make me feel.

I think it is something that isn't recognised well within our society that people have diverse requirements naturally when it comes to sleep and many can't just adapt to different patterns with good results let alone conform to those that best match a 9-5 job, etc.
 
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