Night shift workers

[kirennia]

Night shifts...what a bastard.

After working a while in my current job doing 12 hour night shifts (6pm-6am) whilst saving up for uni next year, I've ran into problems to do with my sleeping. Every weekend I find that my days seem to merge into one and I'm never up at the right times. During the week I'll be zombified no matter how much sleep I have and It's a very strange feeling to go to sleep when it's dark and wake up when it's dark.

My previous job I was doing the opposite (6am-6pm) until I was made redundant as the company was moving to china. This I found was okay apart from the fact that it was 4 days on, 4 days off so my work days would include weekends also and I'm terrible at waking up. My weekends I find important which is handy as this is a mon-thurs job but I seem to miss out on parts of my weekend anyways.

Last week for example, I got in on friday from the thursday night shift at 6am but couldn't sleep until midday and afterwhich I woke up at 9:30pm.....night ruined.
Saturday night I again couldn't sleep but went to sleep sunday afternoon at 5:30pm and woke up at 10:00pm...again, night ruined.

Tonight I still haven't been able to sleep and am due in work in just over 6 hours but I think I'm gonna be knackered by about midnight

In the past I've suffered from a little bit of insomnia as some old DAoCers might well have known from my irratic play times but this is making it worse (despite having quit DAoC now).

So the point to this post? Ooh yes don't worry I haven't been babbling for nothing...I'm wondering if any fellow night shift workers have any tips on how to sleep as the sun is coming up and to wake up as it's going down, without having to set the alarm everytime because I couldn't sleep early enough. I'm too paranoid to take sleeping pills and wont wear a face mask because that isn't the problem. Even during the daytime my room is pitch black if I want it to be cause I've got extra thickened curtains

/cue topical conversation!

 

[Tiki]

Hehe my only tip was addressed the final few lines you wrote, just make sure the place you sleep is "pitch" black worked for me

 

[Chronictank]

i work 12 hrs also, my advice is to go to the gym, or for a run or sumin after/before work (most places are open 6ish in the morning). For the beginning will be a royal bas***d but you get used to it and find you sleep better since you burn off all the excess energy. Works for me anyhow, also overall fitness improving is always a good thing.
Might also wana cut down on the tea/cofee/soft drinks with caffine since it can linger in youre system long after you consumed it (i gave up cofee but not tea, addict/routine either way )

good luck

If all else fails see youre GP they tend to have advice at hand.

 

[kirennia]

I've got dumbells and a barbell at my house but theres not a local gym for miles...I live in devon unfortunately (oooh arrr!!!) so all there is on the horizon is a great display of combine harvesters!

I been drinking a bit too much coca cola recently despite the fact that I hate it on its own but only as a rum/whiskey mixer and coffee I drink at work to keep me awake but as soon as I get home, I find it impossible to sleep again. If only they had beds at work

 

[Lumikki]

What kind of a job are you doing?

 

[kirennia]

Working in telecommunications, testing broadband devices which are beyond belief. To summarise, the fibreoptics I work with have an inner purified glass lair just one seventh of the thickness of a hair. Each device on a single frequency can transmit 160,000 phone calls through it at any one time and each one can hold 80 frequencies. An alternate way at looking at them is that they can download at a few terrabytes (1024 gigabytes) a second.

So these devices are kinda important which is why my sleep is starting to worry me. If I drop one of these (bout same size as an average harddisk these days) , I'm completely screwed.

 

[Lumikki]

Sounds pretty crazy you have to work such odd hours and yet the responsibility is so huge.. :/

But like others said, make sure the place you sleep in is dark and cool. Also try camomilla tea, it calms you down and makes it easier to fall asleep.

 

[kirennia]

Hey, just to top it all off, I now have workers drilling literally on my front door step fixing an apparent water leak which didn't even effect our house. Works gonna be fun tonight.

 

[Tilda]

Sorry to see you quit kir

 

[swords]

you need to force yourself into a routine of going to sleep and getting up at the same time each day/night. if you start going to sleep at any old time then your circadian rhythm goes FUBAR and you experience what you are now.

 

[[NO]Subedai]

like mine :s

end up going to bed at 5am or around that time on average.

 

[Drummer]

Once every 2 weeks perhaps I can't sleep either. I got to bed at about 11pm.
So if I'm still awake after say 1/2am is grabbing myself a book and just read.
Read untill your eyelids just get really heavy. I put away my book and lay down. 10seconds later I'm off

If u don't like reading just make sure you're tired. Go run around your block or something.

 

[nakkiel]

a few joints and a couple of beers when u get home works for me. when u work in the day u don't go bed as soon as u get in, so keep the same routine on nights

 

[HerculesPluto]

dr00gz

 

[nakkiel]

herbal remedies

 

[Heath]

I work Tues/Weds/Fri/Sat nights....9pm til 7am. Can be a bitch sometimes because i am the only driver so i stay up to run the kids to school at 9am. I then come home..have a cuppa, by then i am wide awake. So, i play the game for a while...next thing i know its time to pick the kids up. So, i get home...have some tea, and have a sleep for a couple of hours before the shift. Done this now for 4 years..i seem to survive better on about 2-3 hours kip than when i have a night off and get a decent sleep.

Weekends are bit of a pisser too...i feel that i am missing too much time with the wife and kids if i sleep too much. But, i am looking for a nice dayjob now so i can sllep when its dark and stay awake when its light...like you are supposed to do (o: