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Working Nights

15:10 / 24.08.07

Hello Barbelith. An increasingly desperate set of circumstances has led me to consider accepting a job working night shifts - 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. - five days a week. It sounds like fairly boring work, stacking books and arranging displays, but I've done worse. I'm more worried about what it will do to my body and my social life, and how functional I'll be in the hours I have off. If it's just like shifting your day forward 8 hours, that would be fine, but I don't want to spend all my time in a semi-conscious daze. Has anyone on Barbelith worked nights on a regular basis? Any warnings or advice?

15:24 / 24.08.07

Night shift related trivia:

The majority of serious at work accidents happen at 3am.

15:24 / 24.08.07

I work and am conscious mostly at night. As far as I can tell, it hasn't effected me by adding sleepiness or dazed-psychadelic-waviness-of-life.* Many people will tell you your circadian rhythms will be all frazzled, but this hasn't been my experience, and even the AMA is currently supporting the idea that, instead, the nine-to-five, three meal a day, standardized schedule is something we get comfortably locked into and there's only a short-term effect by shifting it over, if that. As the saying goes, even the cows can get used to being milked two hours later in the day. That saying may only be limited to my grandpa, however, he'd still have a point.

The biggest hassle seems to be friends/family who cannot comprehend why you need to be asleep at eleven in the morning. And getting over any strict dietary timetable from your previous day-primed existence, because you will need to eat at different times. Or that, just because you work at night, it doesn't mean it's always okeh to call you at two in the morning because they're bored, lonely, or need to run down a list of your currently-out-of-the-house SO's recent flaws and complain about local politics.

* Cue evidence to contrary from my posting history, except that I'm like that on a day-schedule.

Happy Dave Has Left

15:27 / 24.08.07

You need to speak to Stoatie. IIRC, he's worked nights for ages.

16:32 / 24.08.07

I think it's very much down to the individual as some folk are morning people and some are night-owls. My experience wasn't very good, I worked nights 5-6 nights a week (10pm-8am)for about a year and a half and it took an awfully long time to get back to normal when I left that job. For almost a year afterwards I always seemed to be tired and emotional. This could've been due to the fact that I didn't eat regular meals or really look after myself properly as I was in my late teens and valued my social life over my well-being. I hope it works for you though.

05:40 / 27.08.07

I used to work shifts from 11 pm to 7 am for a week or two at a time. (When I had the 3 pm to 11 pm shift, I usually traded with someone because I hated that shift.) It usually took 2 or 3 days to get used to the new schedule. Some people can't handle it. There was one woman who worked with me who actually threw up at work because being on night shift made her sick.

Sleeping during the day can be hard. That's when the telemarketers call and there's more noise outside and then there's the whole sunlight thing too. It helps to unplug your phone, put up really dark curtains or blinds, and have a fan going because it's a constant droning noise and helps block out some of the background noise.

I work from 5:30 pm to 2 am now, and it sucks way more than an overnight shift. I have no social life because everyone's working before I go to work and everyone's sleeping or getting ready to go to sleep when I'm done. With an overnight shift, you can still go out for dinner or whatever with people after they're done their day shift.

Bubblegum Death

09:23 / 27.08.07

I've worked 11:00 to 7:00 on a fairly regular basis for the last 6 years. I like it because I don't have to deal with nearly as many people. I work at a hotel and third shift is mostly paperwork.

The only drawback is I'll suffer from sleep paralysis. It never happened before I started working third, and it never happens when I work another shift.

I don't know how your schedule is, but I always try to my two days off in a row. Otherwise, I'll waste my off days by sleeping.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:06 / 27.08.07

*yawn*

Been doing nights for about, erm, 6 or maybe 7 years?

The trick to it is that it's all in how you organise your sleep. I find evenings too depressing if I have to go to work afterwards... you can't really immerse yourself in anything, and worst of all you can't get pissed if you have to go to work at 11. And there's bugger all to do at 7 AM.

It's different for everyone, and it took me a few years to get to my ideal arrangement, but what I do is go straight to bed (well, after taking the dog round the block) when I get in in the morning, and sleep until about mid-day. Then I go back to bed for a couple of hours in the evening before work. This way I actually get an afternoon, I get some sunlight, I can do stuff involving banks and shops and shit like that, and I feel like I've actually had a day.

As I say, people have different tricks, but that one works just fine for me.

The other thing with starting to work nights is that the readjustment to your body clock takes a couple of months- my first few shifts I was constantly on the point of quitting. Then one night I went in and it all seemed to click suddenly.

I work a 7 nights on, 7 nights off shift pattern, and the hardest part was in adjusting from week to week. Again, that came with time.

Now I can't actually imagine working a day job.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:08 / 27.08.07

Oh, and melatonin's really handy if you can get hold of some for those first couple of months. Staying awake's not hard- sleeping on demand is.

22:20 / 29.08.07

Thanks everyone. My first shift's on Monday so I'll let you know how it goes.

22:27 / 29.08.07

Oh, also, how much melatonin should I be looking to take, and when? I was thinking about getting to 1mg capsules, and possibly some valerian root for the first few weeks.

23:58 / 29.08.07

My SO worked 6pm - 6am for several months. Apart from the strain of not being able to see much of each other, it went fine for him. He had to put some planning into his eating habits, and be careful to get enough sleep (he slept with an eye mask but other than that no sleep aids, but then he's one of those annoyingly easy sleepers) but there weren't really any physical side effects.

I used to make a week's worth of casserole-type dinners on Sundays so that the half hour we had together in the evening wasn't spent cooking - we would just microwave & eat together. He brought a bag "lunch" to work that he ate at about 11 I think? And a thermos of coffee. Then when he got home at 6 or 7 he'd go straight to bed (I could never do that, but he did) and sleep 7 hours typically. That would put him at 1 or 2 or sometimes 3. He didn't have time to do much but have a bowl of cereal and fart around the house before work.

For a while he switched to 4pm - 4am and I think that was the hardest... because then at 4 he was now used to staying up a few more hours, so he'd be on the computer/playstation til 6 or 7 and then not have enough time to get his sleep on properly.

His shift now is 12pm - 12 am, which compared to the other two is a cake walk, for both of us.