Night Shifters: how do you sleep?

[Antisocial_Worker]

I am among the nightwalkers. Each evening as the sun sets (except during summer, when the sun is up until well past 9pm) I rise from my nest (of comforters and sheets bought on sale at Target) and set about to stalk the land of the living. I feed (either at Subway, Wendy's, or this kickass little Thai dive) and then I go to an evil place to do evil deeds until the daylight comes again to chase me back to my lair.

Specifically, I inspect plastic medical components at a factory. I do it for twelve hours at a stretch, five days one week and two the next, five the week after that and so on. And because I do not wish to live like a vampire on my days off, I reset my schedule, staying awake during the day and sleeping at night so that I can attend to pesky little details such as doctor's appointments, oil changes, lunch, etc, and all the other things the daywalkers take for granted. When another work week looms, I reset it again so that I sleep during the day and wake at night.

Naturally, this kind of back-and-forth really messes with one's internal clock and it's gotten to the point that if I don't use some kind of sleep aid, I don't sleep. For a while I switched back and forth between Advil PM and Tylenol PM. Then I switched to Tylenol Simply Sleep and used that exclusively until my boyfriend raised troubling questions about whether or not all this was causing liver damage. He suggested melatonin. I also saw a natural sleep aid made from valerian root or some such at the drugstore. I tried the melatonin yesterday and when I go to bed again in about half an hour I'll try it again today, in hopes that maybe it has an accumulative effect. It sure as hell didn't do much for me yesterday. Working twelve hours on four hours of sleep is a blast. By the time I go to bed I will have been awake for 21 hours.

So... you people who stalk the night with me, wherever you may be, how do you do it? Got any suggestions? Specifically, any of you who use sleep aids, what do you use and how? I've got all the other bases covered already -- blackout curtains, comfy bedding, earplugs, white noise, and all that jazz.

[Green_Fairy]

melatonin, while all well and good doesn't accumulate. if it doesn't work for you, it may never. other sleep aids aren't that great either. they can be addictive and harmful to your body.
i used to work nights as well. it's a hell of a thing. unfortunately, the only way to sleep regularly when working on such a schedule is to keep the same sleep pattern, no matter if you're working or not. that way you aren't throwing your internal clock all wonky by staying up odd hours and sleeping at different times. that'll just stress you out and cause illness. also, try only sleeping for 8 hours a day, working or not. if you can manage it, of course. it might take a bit to get used to...took me a few months.
hope you figure something out!

[Amina516]

I am a night owl as well.

I dont use sleep aids. I stay off the caffeine after about 3am (im off @ 0730). Go home and usually am on the comp for 15 minutes checking email and then I hit the bed. Fan on for white noise, and ABSOLUTE DARK is essential for me to sleep. Darkening shades and blankeys over to make them darker.

If youre looking for stuff to help you sleep melatonin, works well I hear. I know youre already taking it but you have to stay on a set schedule for it to work (that means nights u DONT work, youre still keeping a set schedule similar to nights you do work). Also try wearing dark sunglasses when you leave ur job in the morning to go home. The sunlight tells your body to wake up so going out as the sun is rising doesnt help.

I dont have an issue sleeping most of the time. On nights i dont work, I knock out early anyways (midnight -2am). I think Im half narcoleptic now.

[draftermatt]

I don't work at night but one of my good friends does.

He works every Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 7 PM to 7 AM (so technically into Friday too).

He goes to bed at 8 AM when he works, and wakes up around 4-5 PM.

On his days off he stays up till 6 AM (he always watches Lilo & Stitch on Disney at 5 & 5:30) and gets up around 2 PM.

He doesn't mess with going to bed before 5 AM and getting up before noon unless he has an appointment in the morning or early afternoon. Then when he does he forces himself to stay up to get back on his schedule.

[Gravekeeper]

Honestly? I don't. I use to do 5 days a week night shift but it eventually overwhelmed me. The reversal back to a day schedule was too hard to pull off and not worth it for just 2 days off.

I cut myself down to 4 shifts many years ago and haven't looked back since. 4 shifts lets me live exactly half my week as a daywalker and half as a nightwalker.

[Amina516]

I cut myself down to 4 shifts years ago and haven't looked back since. 4 shifts lets me live exactly half my week as a daywalker and half as a nightwalker.

Do canadian weeks have 8 days then?

[dalesys]

Do canadian weeks have 8 days then?

According to some™, the Brits do...
"Eight days a week, I love you..."

[cewfa]

I suppose I am one of those weird people who can sleep anytime and can go from a day schedule to a night schedule on a whim.

When I worked as a night manager at the hotel, I always had something off the breakfast bar and a cup of OJ around 5ish every morning, which has just enough sugar and caffeine to knock me out instead of keeping awake. I worked 7p-7a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights and then from 7-11p on Friday and Saturdays, so what I would do on Friday's was come home go to bed and sleep until about noon, get up and run my errands and stay up until my after my short shift on Friday night and then go to bed at 1 or 2 Friday night and get up on Saturday morning at my normal time. Oh I forgot to add that from 7-11 on my nights that I worked overnight, I was driving the shuttle van so if I had no runs I took me a couple hour catnap.

I used to take melatonin, but I developed a tolerance to it and quit taking it. I set my sleep timer for 90 minutes on my TV and fall asleep to whatever is on TruTV or TV Land. The Cosby Show works the best.

[Soulstealer]

I have dark curtains because the light bothers me, other than that I sleep the same way I've slept since high school. On my back.

[trailerparkmedic]

When I was working nights, I used Benadryl when I couldn't go to sleep. I would suggest cutting back on caffeine for a few hours before bed. I got off work at 6 so I'd stop drinking coffee around 2 am. I drank fruit juice on the way home to keep from getting sleepy during the drive--I think it was the sugar that helped.

I also found that my life was much easier when I just stuck to being awake at night/asleep during the day instead of switching on my days off. Of course, I was single with no kids and most of my friends were also working nights, so it wasn't too hard to adjust my life.

[Gravekeeper]

Do canadian weeks have 8 days then?

No. ;p

I work 4 night shifts. But I am awake all day before #1 and awake all day after #4. I have 3 days off, and thus am up all day the day before the first night back to work.

Hence half. I technically only have 3 days where I am trying sleeping all day during the day.

[Plaidman]

I work grave, go to class, grave, grave, class,, day.

I use to have to do all three shifts. The sun has always made me sleepy. It hurts me. Even when I was baby, I was a night owl.

However, now I rarely can sleep. I have to take massive dosages of sleeping pills, to sleep for three hours. then I'm up for another 30 hour plus day.

[Cats]

I have a very strange schedule. On my days off, I do stay up during the day and sometimes nap and sleep at night. So long as I can (as in it's not like right before I have to go to work), I sleep whenever I am tired. I'm one of the lucky few in that regard. I do sleep better after sunset than during the day though, and it sucks because my blinds only do so much and I get the morning sun, but on the other hand, as the day passes, the sun goes away from the windows and I get better sleep towards the end of it, which is of greater benefit to me.

I don't take any sleeping pills of any kind, and my diet is mostly void of any caffeine (I drink it maybe once a week on a day off, and maybe once a month at work if I'm having a tired night). It does help that on the days I work, I am tired when I get home, having worked 10 hours and all but my break on my feet and moving. It also helps my work schedule is consistant, so even though during the week I'm active at both day and night, it's always the same and my sleep schedule is consistant throughout the week, even though it changes day-to-day.


Frankly, I'm not sure how I've done it for the past several years, but I guess I'm one of the few where as long as I don't build up to much of a sleep debt, I'm fine.

[SG15Z]

I don't really. I switch between night, evening, and morning shifts so much that my internal clock is completely confused. Truthfully I just sleep when I can. Sometimes forcing your self to stay up for 20 hours and then crashing is the only way to readjust your sleep schedule. It's gotten to the point for me that if I'm tired I sleep. No amount of sunlight or noise can change that. Usually anyway.

[Evil Queen]

My Mom worked Night Audit at Hampton Inn for a while and swears by the 5 Hour Energy stuff.

Personally, I prefer to just keep on munching during my shift. It keeps me up.