Nightshift tips A.K.A. How to stay awake and function 10pm-6am.

[Cobbs]

Ok escapists, I'm starting night work in the immediate future and recently I found myself thinking "Great Holiest of Fucks, I need to function from 10pm-6am stacking shelves, how the flying duck am I s'posed to pull that off?"
Should I chug-a-lug gratuitous amounts of energy drinks and coffee? Eat alot before hand to bolster my energy? Nap whenever I get the chance?

 

[Shnoogle]

I've worked the same shift for a number of years now and I find that eating my meals in reverse order helps a lot - large dinner before work, a lunch while I'm there and a light breakfast cereal when I get home help. Also, stacking shelves is going to be boring, so maybe stack your mp3 player with audio books and music to keep you occupied?

Another big thing is to try to either get to sleep before the rest of your neighbourhood wakes up, or wait until they've gone to school/work. Otherwise you'll find yourself lying there cursing the cars starting up and the kids chatting on their way to school. Napping at work is a killer, you get a little sleep but feel like crap afterwards.

Also, don't consume any caffienated drinks after about 3am or you will struggle to get any sleep. Lastly, if you are intending on doing night shift for a good while, you might be able to get a health check up through work as nights can be detrimental to your health.

 

[StormShaun]

1. In the morning before you work I would sleep until mid-day or later until you want to get up.
2. Prepare, buy energy drinks (a pack of 4, one for each two hours).
3. Have fun for the rest of the day.
4. Prepare for work.
5. And then work until due time.
6. Get home, then sleep
7. Next day, tell your work you can't do any more nightshifts.

Also stacking shelfs can get boring, so try doing that in different ways or have a music device with you (with permission of course).

This may not be the best advice due to my lack of experience. (I worked from 6-8, so thats nothing compared to you!)
But it's my opinion.

 

[Angry Camel]

You're sleeping habits must change, if nothing else. Don't let you naps go on for over 40 minutes (otherwise, your body thinks it's bed time). Also, glucodine powder is very good for giving you energy.

I wouldn't be doing that work for too long if I were you. Humans are not nocturnal, after all (despite what frat boy videogamers would have you believe).

 

[meepop]

Best advice: Do not drink too many sugary drinks. If you have a sugar crash, you'll feel even more tired. And it's like climbing with cinder blocks on your back: You're getting tired until someone lifts them up (I.E. sugar helping you move) before they get dropped and you fall down lower than you were. Of course, that's if you don't do well with sugar.

Other things to do include, as other people have said, music. Or do it differently. Mental stimulation helps keep your brain working. You could also come up with a small game to play in your head, like estimating how many cans you will need to stock of a certain item of a shelf, or how many are in a box. Small stuff that kind of helps.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

You'll adapt. The first few shifts may be a bit exhausting but your sleep schedule should adjust. For the first couple of days though I would suggest caffeine. Maybe not coffee though just in case. Make sure to sleep when you get home though, preferably before noon until...whenever I suppose. I say before noon because it may be difficult to get right to sleep once you get home. Some people can't just plop down, you know?

Congrats on the new position and best of luck to you!

 

[Breywood]

My work schedule: Two 12-hour day shifts, 24 hours off, 2 night shifts. How I manage best?

When I finish the day shifts, I stay up until 2AM or later that night. Sleep until noon or so. If I feel tired, set the cell phone or timer as an alarm and sleep on my breaks. On my way home, because I have to drive, pull the car over and repeat the alarm thingy if I feel overly fatigued. Be sure to take a few minutes to wake up before resuming your trip home. Most importantly? Don't try to be a hero and see if you can do it without pulling over. Sleep until 4 the next day and repeat. Done night shifts, weekend will now commence.

First day off. I avoid sleeping all day, if I can, I'll avoid it altogether and coast, trying not to do stuff too demanding like driving or operating power tools. Sleep at 8:00 or 9:00. There may be a difference here because I have 4 days off, but I don't want to waste them, so I'll try to avoid sleeping on the first day off so I can get back into a day routine ASAP. 4 hours sleep if I must.

 

[Teh Jammah]

Since you'll need to sleep during the day, sespecially if this is a permanent thing, I recommend tying an old T-shirt around your head as a rudimentary blindfold

 

[Robert0288]

Stay far away from energy drinks and coffee as a crutch for staying awake. You will become dependent on them. (speaking from personal experiance) The thing you have to change is your sleep schedule, and it will take some trail and error to get right.

 

[Vrach]

Switch night and day really. If you'd normally work from 10 am to 6 pm and sleep from midnight to 8 am, sleep from noon until 8. A week or so and you'll adapt.

Of course, you see how this kind of job completely eradicates any possibility of a social life... or life at all really >.<

My brother's worked similar hours before and it was a fucking nightmare. I'd suggest not to do this to yourself. Get yourself a day job, it can't be that hard.

 

[SpartanE58]

I've been doing night shifts for quite a while. I work from 23:00 to 07:00. I usually go to bed around 14:00 and get up around 22:20. I advise staying away from all caffeine, like energy drinks because when the crash hits, it's still dark out and the urge to go to bed is a powerful one indeed. I don't know if that sleep schedule works for you, buts it's the only thing that works for me. If I go to bed right when I get home around 07:15, I ALWAYS wake up at 11:00 and am unable to go back to sleep until around 19:30 - 20:00.

 

[sky14kemea]

Don't fall asleep in the break room, and if you do, set an alarm.

I did that, more than once... than goodness it was only a tempt night job. xD

Caffeine does help a lot too, but don't go overboard on energy drinks, or you'll end up having to rely on them all the time. They can get addictive. :/

 

[LilValky]

when i started working night shifts a few months ago i started by staying up later and later everynight leading up to me starting work and sleeping in later during the day. This helped to get me through the first few nights but i promise after the first few nights its easy, you'll get home the first morning and just want to sleep, hey presto, you have the sleep you need for the next day! Our shifts just changed to 12 hour night shifts and we're now allowed to have an hours sleep during the night but i tell you the first time i done that i felt awful! Much rather sit and up and get a decent sleep during the day. Also as someone said about meals. i eat my biggest meal when i get up in the evening, then have lunch at work and breakfast when i get home from work... it seems to work! It will get easy very quickly.. just don't skimp on sleep! i know a lot of the people i work with come to work after having no sleep for 24 hours and by the end of the shift they've made themselves really ill!

 

[The Eupho Guy_v1legacy]

Skip the energy drinks, keep the caffine to a minimum.

Really all you need to do is change your sleep schedule. You need to decide if you would rather come home and go to bed after 6am, sleep 8 hrs, then start your day mid day, or if you would rather go to sleep after lunch, then head to work when you get up.

Personally I'd recommend the sleep after work option as it leaves you awake in the evenings when you might want to hang out with friends before work.

Just don't skip or skimp on the sleep and you will adjust quickly.

It also makes sure you are awake and alert before the start of a shift (Which is a good thing).

I used to work on a 8 hour rotating shift at a major wine bottling facility in my area, operating a bottle depalletising machine. While I was on the night rotation (11pm - 7am) my after work routine was go get home, have something light to eat (cereal or a piece of toast), relax for a half an hour or so to make sure I was ready to sleep, then sleep. If I didn't wind down beforehand, I found it quite difficult to get to sleep.

 

[Cavan]

Try to block out natural light from you as much as you can 'edit' while you're actually sleeping during the day, it messes with your sleep schedule quite badly.

Do not go heavy on caffeine unless you intend to keep a steady stream of it+sugar+whatever else you like, otherwise you will hit hard on the first day. I'd personally suggest just cold water/juice and focusing on what you're doing. Try to stay positive, if you're around other people then talk or joke and if you're not and it's okay then listen to the radio or something that won't put you to sleep.

Be quite rigid about your sleeping over the weekend if you're not working over those days.

i know a lot of the people i work with come to work after having no sleep for 24 hours and by the end of the shift they've made themselves really ill!

A single day without sleep won't actually make you ill, although it will make you dizzy/headachey/uncoordinated and nauseous because of the way that lack of sleep affects your eyes and depth perception, it will also mess with your body's ability to regulate temperature somewhat. All of these symptoms are kinda classic for you to assume you'd picked up a bad cold or something, but it's not, and it'll usually go away after any amount of sleep over about an hour.

It will however do bad things to your immune system for a little while so it is true you are more likely to get ill if you for example got rained on on the way home from that nightmare shift.

 

[Who Dares Wins]

I have no problems staying up all night doing anything (except reading, it can really lull a man). When I have to read all night, I usually drink some coffee, wash my face and neck with cold water ever 1-2 hours and shake my head for a quick wake up. Sleeping days and staying up nights would also work. Also bananas.