Question about sleep hours..

blackredyellow

Growing up, my dad worked swing shifts for 10+ years... He worked 7 days of 8AM-4PM, 2 off, 7 days of 4PM-12AM, two off, 7 days of 12AM-8AM, three off, then start daylight again...

I honestly don't know how he did it... it's bad enough working 2nd or 3rd shift, but to rotate every week, your body would never get used to a sleep pattern.

LikeAnOcean

decides2dream wrote:

Arcticangel wrote:

I'm getting moved to night shift at the hospital in a couple weeks here... I work second shift (3-11) now.. and I'm getting moved to 11pm-7am. I'm not especially crazy about it.. especially because it's only part time so I know I'm never going to have a consistent sleep schedule. But.. the money is good and I know it's going to be a good experience for me. So I'll do what I gotta do for the next 9 months before I'm hopefully moving on to grad school.

i actually think 2nd shift is the 'worst' of the choices, as much as i loathe the late night schedule. i have never had to work anything outside of 'normal' hours.....ure, occasionally until 8 pm, some weekends.....and nowadays, strickly M-F, 9:30-6, outside of our busy seasons, then all bets are off. seriously tho, my husband has worked regular hours or overnights, NEVER 2nd shift b/c sure, while your sleep schedule can remain rather 'normal'.....WHEN do you have a social life? 3 to 11 PM? you are covering the hours that most of the world does stuff. yikes. so yea, all trade-offs.



good luck!

Not if you have cool coworkers.. working the second shift in retail can be fun! When I lived in the city we used to get off around 10 pm and head straight to the bars for a few hours. It was a blast! I'd rather work really late than really early, myself.

justam

Let us know how you're managing this next week.

strummers

blackredyellow wrote:

Growing up, my dad worked swing shifts for 10+ years... He worked 7 days of 8AM-4PM, 2 off, 7 days of 4PM-12AM, two off, 7 days of 12AM-8AM, three off, then start daylight again...

I honestly don't know how he did it... it's bad enough working 2nd or 3rd shift, but to rotate every week, your body would never get used to a sleep pattern.

I could never do that! When I tried working different shifts only for a few days my body would resist and I'd get seriously bad migraines. As long as I stick to the same hours every week I think I could adjust to working any hours of the day/night (although I'd prefer night).

decides2dream

LikeAnOcean wrote:

decides2dream wrote:

Arcticangel wrote:

I'm getting moved to night shift at the hospital in a couple weeks here... I work second shift (3-11) now.. and I'm getting moved to 11pm-7am. I'm not especially crazy about it.. especially because it's only part time so I know I'm never going to have a consistent sleep schedule. But.. the money is good and I know it's going to be a good experience for me. So I'll do what I gotta do for the next 9 months before I'm hopefully moving on to grad school.

i actually think 2nd shift is the 'worst' of the choices, as much as i loathe the late night schedule. i have never had to work anything outside of 'normal' hours.....ure, occasionally until 8 pm, some weekends.....and nowadays, strickly M-F, 9:30-6, outside of our busy seasons, then all bets are off. seriously tho, my husband has worked regular hours or overnights, NEVER 2nd shift b/c sure, while your sleep schedule can remain rather 'normal'.....WHEN do you have a social life? 3 to 11 PM? you are covering the hours that most of the world does stuff. yikes. so yea, all trade-offs.



good luck!

Not if you have cool coworkers.. working the second shift in retail can be fun! When I lived in the city we used to get off around 10 pm and head straight to the bars for a few hours. It was a blast! I'd rather work really late than really early, myself.

yes, that's the one exception...and not just the 'cool coworkers'...but more like, the utterly free and single lifestyle. that's who my husband has said always chooses that shift in his line of work, and it does absolutely make sense. but the minute you get into a serious relationship, with someone who works regular hours...then it sucks, except perhaps if you have shared days off. then again, it still all depends on your relationship. sure, i can handle time apart from my husband, no problem, but for regular day-to-day living, i like to see and spend a few hours together, share dinner, etc. not being able to do so would seriously infringe on our wants and quality of life. so really, that was/is my focus.....balancing your life with those outside your work shifts. and even outside of that, whenever you want to do things with the rest of the world, it becomes problematic as well. ANY shift is bearable/doable for a certain period of time, or time period in your life. i am merely focused on long-term.



about 4 weeks a year, broken up into 2 week increments months apart, i work INSANE hours, at least for me...16-18 hour days and i basically never see my husband during that time. it sucks, we both are miserable through it. we also both know it won't last long, is imperative for my job, so we deal. but if that were the case long term? i'd seriously have to look for other work. same thing when he worked nights. you've got to find the balance that works for you, and that will be different for everyone and their current life situation.

LikeAnOcean

So.. is it unhealthy to live in Alaska during the winter months when there's little to no sunlight??? Or northern Europe???

Maybe my body wouldn't be so effected by sleeping during the day, since I'm fair skinned of northern European decent anyways????

IrishJam

12-8 is definately the best shift.
I have worked all sorts of shifts and at leat you will have the evenings
free to do what you want.
You won't feel like you are missing out on much.

i can also sleep anytime i want regardless of shift pattern so i am lucky,

South of Seattle

It'll mess with you, but it's not too bad, especially if you're not doing it for awhile.

For the last 7 years I've worked 12 hour days. The last 4 years I've been working from 6pm to 6:30am. During my days off my body just re-adjusts back to normal time (kind of a night owl anyways)

LikeAnOcean

South of Seattle wrote:

It'll mess with you, but it's not too bad, especially if you're not doing it for awhile.

For the last 7 years I've worked 12 hour days. The last 4 years I've been working from 6pm to 6:30am. During my days off my body just re-adjusts back to normal time (kind of a night owl anyways)

I'm definitely a night owl. If I could I'd be up until 3 am every night I would.

I think working midnight to 8 will be the best option.. I just hope I get used to sleeping during the day.

Arcticangel

Well.. I survived night one. Only time and a little vampire like sleep in the middle of the day will tell me how I really feel about this...

LikeAnOcean

Arcticangel wrote:

Well.. I survived night one. Only time and a little vampire like sleep in the middle of the day will tell me how I really feel about this...

I can't imagine getting used to it.. I think I'm just going to be in bed by 7 every evening. At least it will be dark for most of the time I sleep.

Brisk.

So summer holidays, got till June-October off and i've slipped into the pattern of 4/5am and wake up around 12.30/2.30pm. I get the feeling this is pretty bad.

Would pulling an all nighter fix it?

mfc2006

I BrisK I wrote:

So summer holidays, got till June-October off and i've slipped into the pattern of 4/5am and wake up around 12.30/2.30pm. I get the feeling this is pretty bad.

Would pulling an all nighter fix it?

not sure if an all nighter would fix it. my sleep hours change during the summer when i'm not in class. what i usually do is i slowly start to go to be earlier. week one--1 hr earlier than now. weeks 2-2 hrs, wk 3- 3hrs. then, by the time classes start, i'm sleeping like i should be. not sure if that'll work for you, but it's always worked for me. monday is my start of week one.

Arcticangel

Arcticangel wrote:

Well.. I survived night one. Only time and a little vampire like sleep in the middle of the day will tell me how I really feel about this...

PS: I feel like ass.
Slept from about 7:15am to 1:00pm... which is a totally acceptable amount of sleep for me to get, the problem is that it wasn't quality sleep.. too much noise outside, roommates making lunch, light coming in the blinds...
It gets easier... right??

(Considering that I draw blood for my job, I'm starting to feel like all those vampire jokes are coming true.)

LikeAnOcean

Well week one is done. Not sure I'm completely used to it, but I have been going to bed around 8 pm. Its really hard to go to bed before sunset, so the summer hours are not helping things.

I slept in today.. It's 4 am and I feel refreshed!.. maybe I'll go for a sunrise jog.. That would be a first.

iluvcats

I always thought that musicians were like vampires (they only come out at night!)

just saying b/c you asked about sleeping in the day -- you should ask a professional musician.

my husband probably only averages 4.5 hours of sleep/night (not good for your heart but he won't listen to me.)

iluvcats

Arcticangel wrote:

Arcticangel wrote:

Well.. I survived night one. Only time and a little vampire like sleep in the middle of the day will tell me how I really feel about this...

PS: I feel like ass.
Slept from about 7:15am to 1:00pm... which is a totally acceptable amount of sleep for me to get, the problem is that it wasn't quality sleep.. too much noise outside, roommates making lunch, light coming in the blinds...
It gets easier... right??

(Considering that I draw blood for my job, I'm starting to feel like all those vampire jokes are coming true.)

I didn't see your vampire remark....I just mentioned vampires in my response.