Night Shift Life

[Mantics]

Hello all!

I've just accepted a new position doing 4 10hr night shifts M-Th! I'm really excited about it. It's my second job out of PA school. I wanted some tips on how to stay rested and healthy as I transition to this shift. I used to be a night person so I'm hoping I bounce back easily. 

Eating tips? Exercise only on days off? Maintain sleep schedule even on weekends?

Also any book recommendations would be appreciated as well. My first job was in an office setting so I feel like my acute care knowledge is lacking. I'm now going into inpatient orthopedics. 

Thanks in advance!

[EMEDPA]

nights are awesome. I have done nights and 24s for the last 10 years. try to stay up a bit late on days off, but maintain a social life and get regular exercise in. I worked m-th for 2 years. it is nice having a 3 day weekend every week. I would pick up every other fri as OT at 1.5x for some extra money(it was my first job out of school). check out Essentials of musculoskeletal care:

https://www.aaos.org/store/product/?productId=7723871&ssopc=1

[Mantics]

4 hours ago, EMEDPA said:

nights are awesome. I have done nights and 24s for the last 10 years. try to stay up a bit late on days off, but maintain a social life and get regular exercise in. I worked m-th for 2 years. it is nice having a 3 day weekend every week. I would pick up every other fri as OT at 1.5x for some extra money(it was my first job out of school). check out Essentials of musculoskeletal care:

https://www.aaos.org/store/product/?productId=7723871&ssopc=1

Thanks for the advice! Most of what I've heard is how terrible night shifts are on the body. Glad to hear someone enjoys them!

 

[EMEDPA]

no admin folks around at night so no BS rules like no coffee at your work station, etc.

[south]

I worked rotating shifts and straight nights for 20 years, which I preferred.   It can be like a second job to get proper rest sometimes, because it's unnatural to most of the population.  You'll be kind of minding your own business at 6PM, and then realize you have to go sleep for a little while to prepare for your shift.  You'll find what works for you - listen to your body and get proper rest.  If you don't, you'll feel like crap at work and away from it. 

[charlottew]

I work a mix of days and nights. When I am off, I stay awake days and sleep nights. My one rule for working nights, is I don't eat between 12mid and 5am. Drinking coffee is OK. I find I sleep better this way, and I feel my liver (a very circadian organ) is less 'confused' this way.

Your mileage may vary, but it works for me.

[JMPAC]

Night shift is awesome while you’re there. Where I️ work, the night crew is friendlier than the day crew, no admin people, you can skip meetings and just get the summary later, make more money and everyone you work with is so grateful you’re doing it so they don’t have to. I’ve done nights for the past 2 years and have loved it until recently. I️ am still really happy with the actual shift but the past couple months I’ve have just felt messed up from it and it really affects my life outside of work. I’ve started having issues with insomnia and taking Advil PM and unisom type things gave me all kinds of side effects. Last week I️ had an issue where I️ couldn’t sleep well and ended up getting less than 6 hours of sleep in 48 hours and then (thanks to my SO’s support) slept for about 20 hours in the next 24. Towards the end of my last shift I️ actually had a little mini hallucination of words moving around on paper because I️ was just so low on sleep.
Your first day/night off doesn’t really count as time off because you have to figure out how to transition to day time and spend time with normal humans or you have to sleep and then just be up at night again. You can figure out a strategy for your days off and as long as your body agrees to sleep when you tell it to, you should be fine. I’ve spent several social events as a zombie trying to be a day person and interact with people.
The moral of the story is, nights are great if you’re able to take care of yourself and get enough rest. When it starts taking a toll on you, time for a change, which is what I’m doing after my next 90 days are up.

[greenmood]

I work a mix of days and nights. I tend to sleep immediately following a night shift until around noon (latest 2pm) and then get up and go about my day. If I'm working again that night I treat my noonish wakeup as the morning, have breakfast and coffee, do normal things. If I'm on my last night before being off I will avoid caffeine after I wake up and attempt to go to bed before midnight. That way the next day I can usually function and it limits my transitional time to a single afternoon/evening.

 

The problem is when I try to squeeze normal day person things into that AM sleep time. I had to do this after my last string of nights and I felt very unwell. Had some mild visual hallucinations, gaps in memory, even some speech disturbances. So I really try not to do that.

[EMEDPA]

I think I have the ideal night shift job now: low volume, high acuity with a call room. getting paid to sleep is awesome. most 12 hr night shifts I get at least 6-7 hrs of sleep and then maybe take a short nap the next day. Of course I occasionally am up all night, but that is very rare.

[Guest ral]

When I worked straight nights, I would typically average three to five hours of sleep per day.  Wasn't healthy for me, even though I did it for years.  If I wasn't moving around at 0500hrs (like walking, doing rounds, etc.) I would doze off quickly wherever I sat.  Don't care to ever go back to them but, I agree that all the cool kids worked nights, no admin headaches, much looser attitudes, and heck of a lot of fun.  

[JMPAC]

I think I have the ideal night shift job now: low volume, high acuity with a call room. getting paid to sleep is awesome. most 12 hr night shifts I get at least 6-7 hrs of sleep and then maybe take a short nap the next day. Of course I occasionally am up all night, but that is very rare.

Oh my gosh, that is ideal! I️ think I’d be golden if I could do that, but I’m busy pretty much the whole time I’m at work. I feel like I️ spend so much time trying to schedule when I️ can sleep, these days. It’s harder than you’d think, haha.
One caveat so as not to scare the OP, too much: I️ do have a toddler and have to schedule a nanny in order to sleep, so have a set amount of available sleep time during the day and if I️ can’t get myself to sleep during it, I’m screwed. Night shift was much easier pre-baby when I had all day to relax and sleep.

[EMEDPA]

I started doing night shifts to get some sleep when my kid was a baby. I was sleeping more at work than at home.

[JMPAC]

I started doing night shifts to get some sleep when my kid was a baby. I was sleeping more at work than at home.

Haha, that’s amazing. I️ really wish I️ could sleep at work. Sometimes we’ll have a patient who is snoring so loud that you can hear them down the hall and I️ feel like they’re just really rubbing it in my face.