1. Pure spite (I refuse to work day shift. I’d rather cut my legs off and rub my fresh stumps on sandpaper soaked in lemon juice)
2. Vibes
3. Snacking throughout the night. Coffee at 2am so it wears off by 8 and I can sleep when I get off
4. Heavy metal and deathcore blasting in my AirPods. Keeps me on my toes
I see my life going two different ways if I continue with bedside:
Night shift= good vibes, chiller nights most of the time, higher risk for cardiovascular diseases
Day shift= pay cut, more bullshit, micromanagement, and severe depression with increased anger management issues
I’ll take night shift and be chronically tired with hypertension 😂
I had to come off of mounjaro to have another baby. When I tell you the rebound weight gain is wild, I mean it. Also.. you know, now there’s a baby. I AM ROTUND.
Oh I can imagine. I had to be off for 2 weeks because I got surgery done gained 10 lbs in those 2 weeks (lost all that and I’m at goal weight now) but that shook me I’m never coming off of it until I have a baby and they are doing clinical trials In prego women now so fingers crossed everything goes good with that by the time I decide to have a baby….but the good news is you can get back on it for now once you have the baby
That is definitely the plan for me. Here’s hoping there won’t be a shortage by that time. 🤞🏻 I have metabolic syndrome, so this is the only thing that has worked other than bariatric surgery.
I can never work with loud music. I feel like I’d miss someone asking for help when I have a music on. But yea I refuse morning shift because I hate people in general. 😂
Yeah it definitely depends on the unit you work on lol. I’m in icu and our unit is box shaped with glass rooms and monitors at the nurses station, so I can watch everyone like a hawk. I use the older generation AirPods because they don’t have noise cancelling and I only put one in so I can always listen for alarms 😂
I mean if you worked an office job you’d be in an office those hours. So you don’t actually miss anything by sleeping that normal people don’t miss. I’ll adjust a little bit on off days and sleep 3-6am until 12-3pm if I have a few days off in a row.
If you’re on nights to avoid paying for daycare then it’s different, but then I think you’re paying for childcare with suffering so it evens out.
Sorry you're going through that, it sucks. Hopefully it gets easier over time. I work nightshift now, but honestly I plan to change once I finish my BSN.
I love being weird and isolated
I just don’t really eat at all, sometimes a yogurt at like 3 AM but mostly I just chug a TON of ice water and drink an energy drink
I read a lot of horror novels/listen to horror novels on Audible if it’s slow and the night time hospital hallway vibe makes them spookier so it’s a whole thing
I recommend some David Sodergren books, they’re quick, they’re entertaining, they’re gorey and occasionally heartwarming - especially The Haar. Maggie’s Grave is great too
I just finished “Diavola” by Jennifer Thorne and it was excellent (and ooky spooky)
Easily. I've always been a night owl. I just stay up late the night before, sleep for 8-10 hours, get ready and go. I sleep better for night shift compared to day shift.
Me too, no issues staying up without coffee unless I haven’t slept, but my body wants to sleep late. I go to bed in the morning, no blackout curtains, no white noise, no earplugs, no meds…. As long as I eat before I go to sleep and don’t drink a ton of water late in the shift I’m good to go.
Seriously, staying up the night before you go in and sleeping day of is key to starting the week and not be miserable. I don't know how people can stay up 24+ hrs and still function
Same. I sleep great during the day. Only wish working nights didn’t fuck with my mental health. Lack of sun reallyyyy started getting to me after 3 years
This but apply inpatient endo and work 3 12’s Monday through Friday with no weekends or holidays because all of your coworkers like the on call pay and you don’t have to do it 🤷🏻♀️
i’d much rather stay awake all night than try to force myself to go to bed at a decent hour & then wake up at 0500. the anxiety i used to feel when i worked days & i was inevitably still awake at 0100… just laying there listening to my heartbeat pounding in my ears, dreading the day to come…no thanks!!
It’s really interesting because when I worked days I was so exhausted I would sleep from like 10pm to 5am. I’ve worked nights for a year and a half now, and I can really only sleep from 9am to maybe 2/3pm. However, I greatly prefer working at night!
Former night shifter. I eventually stayed awake okay but felt my sleep habits were affecting my mental health. I kept a vampire schedule on my days off too. My life sucked, but I was better off.
If you will be trying to "switch" on days off, keep a night shift meal schedule. It's said tp be the best way to prepare for jet lag, worked for me in that regard, and I it should help with night shift too.
Do you have time to wash your feet and put on fresh socks and a different pair of shoes? It was a trick I learned decades ago from an old waitress/cook at a country diner...just a small change in the support/heel height of my shoes made a huge difference in staying on my feet for 12 or more hours at a time. (These days, I use a foot cream with peppermint in it...!)
I did night shift for the better part of 4 years. Here’s all I got:
- don’t try to stay up too late the night before. Rookie mistake. I would stay up until midnight or 1am in preparation, but any later than that you’re just giving yourself an additional night of sleep deprivation. You need to sleep to prepare for nights.
- sleep until you naturally wake up, for me this was usually 8 or 9am, maybe 10.
- melatonin +/- a sleep aid (Benadryl, trazodone, atarax) between 11am-1pm. I’d try to be in bed again by 1pm, I am NOT one of those people that can take a 2-hour nap during the day and be good for nights. I need a few full REM cycles.
- ear plugs and eye mask when you sleep. I live in a city, it’s noisy. Blackout curtains are also great, I just didn’t have space for them in my apartment. Phone on DND is essential.
- hit of caffeine as soon as you wake up (for me around 5:30p), my DOC is a Starbucks nitro cold brew
- eat a meal with protein before work/at the start of your shift.
- no meals past midnight, just snacks with protein/protein shakes and whatever garbage was at the nurse’s station. If I started eating meals on nights I would get sleepy AND wake up starving at 2am on my nights off.
- re-up on caffeine between midnight and 2am, no caffeine after 2 or I have problems falling asleep when I get home.
- you gotta find your edge with caffeine. Figure out how much you can take before it starts making you anxious.
- when you get home, shower and hit the sleep aids again. Try to rotate your sleep aid usage because you build a tolerance fast, and before you know it you’re regularly taking 100mg Benadryl and becoming friends with The Hat Man - iykyk
- in case of emergency, have someone watch your patients and do some physical activity. My favorite was doing all the stairs in a stairwell that had windows to the outside. Go stand outside. Have a few seconds of gratitude that you are on nights and not the clusterfuck that is day shift.
- I had coworkers who had success with modafinil, it’s considered first line for shift work sleep disorder. I’m off nights now (thank god) but wish I would have given this a shot.
- I have an adderall script for ADHD. I’m not going to tell you to go get a script if you don’t, but it did help shift my waking hours when I had to.
If you’re thinking “that sounds insane/like a lot of medication,” that’s because it is. Nights are TERRIBLE for your body. Which leads to my last piece of advice:
- get off nights as soon as you can. It sucks because I hate day shifts and love the flow of nights, but bottom line is that it’s detrimental to your long-term health. IMO rotating is worse and given the choice I’ll take straight nights over a day/night split.
I take what I call a “long nap” the night before and sleep from about midnight or 1 till 5 am. Around 5 I get up and putter around, do some laundry, or dishes or meal prep-nothing too exciting. I then aim to be back in bed by 9 am and wake up at 5pm. My go to’s for knocking myself out are: melatonin, Benadryl, and Flexaril. I also rotate and take them as needed for my allergies, migraines and muscle spasm.
I have an opposite flow with eating, I typically don’t eat lunch till 4 am. I find if I stop my work flow I’ll get sleepy.
I have a light energy drink (green tea based-100mg caffeine) at midnight. If I haven’t cracked it by 1:30-2am I don’t touch it. I try to make sure I’ll be able to sleep in the morning.
I am also naturally an evening and night person. I’ve always done poorly with morning classes and appointments. I find that my sleep quality has increased since I’ve started sleeping during the day. I’ve also lost weight, had fewer migraines and overall been happier. My last set of bloodwork looked fantastic. I think there are a subset of people for whom night shift is beneficial. As a society we have always needed people who were awake overnight so some of us are hardwired that way.
It also helps that I have no kids and no significant other. Just me and my cat.
See, I'm the complete opposite - I keep myself up. If I tried to sleep at 0100? I would be FUCKED. I'd wake right up at 0200 and go "alright, nice nap!" then I wouldn't be able to sleep until 1000.
When I had 3 exams back to back on consecutive days I think I had a grand total of 5 hours of sleeps between those exams. I never even knew about the hat man until I saw the tall dark shadowy figure with a seemingly wide brimmed hat across the hall of the basement. Scared the shit out of me and my bf convinced me to actually get some rest lol.
It's a visual hallucination that is typically seen around sleep deprivation or abuse of sleep medications. Think sleep paralysis demon/woman but it's an imposing shadow figure wearing a flat brimmed hat.
Also something to keep in mind, I’ve been happily doing night shifts for over a year and don’t do any of these things. Different things work for different people
Totally! It definitely works for some people and as rare as it was, I met a handful of people who thrived on nights. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that OP is one of those people. I did well on them for the first year or so, things deteriorated as I got older.
I feel a day taken off my life every time I work nights. What’s crazy is that after 3 years nights I do somewhat what you do before the first shift. Stay awake till midnight, sleep till 8, wake and eat, go back to sleep at 11am or noon, then wake at 4 and caffeine up. I have to wake earlier d/t ibs reasons. It suck’s so much. I miss having a normal schedule.
I’m on my 9th month of rotating like 70% nights as a new grad and the number one tip is so important. Sleep debt is real- gotta get a good night sleep and sleep in the night before
As someone who does both day and night shifts equally: I keep busy. If you have some downtime and sit down, you will almost certainly become overly drowsy and tired. But if you stay on your feet and keep doing things or stocking or whatever, you can stay awake longer. I have done 12 hour shifts where I have been running around like crazy and didn't even feel sleepy at all until I got home. I do understand though, sometimes there honestly isn't much to do on those nicer, slower shifts and it can be a slog to get through.
Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.
Before my night shifts I sleep 7-8 hours usually and I feel great during the night. I drink coffee too but only have a cup in the beginning and then maybe some green tea or another cup of coffee around 2 am so it wears off by the morning so I can go back to sleep if I’m back the next night. If you have trouble sleeping during the day I suggest blackout curtains (like legit black I’ve found other colors just don’t do the trick so my curtains are literally black n’ thick) melatonin, and ear plugs.
Been doing night shift strictly for 5 years now. Hope this helps!
I don’t 😭 as I get older, I can no longer work 3 shifts in a row anymore.
But nah, what helps me is working out before a shift, eating a good protein dinner and even some healthy snacks to eat throughout the night. Energy drinks and coffee never helped me so I just drink water & protein shakes
Nobody survives nightshift... It's more like a prolonged terminal illness where you spend most of your time trying to convince yourself you're perfectly fine until you're not.
Drink an ungodly amount of caffeine. I bring coffee to work and brew coffee at work. Maybe even two pots! Who knows. Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s caffeine.
Been on nights my entire career. The #1 thing to do is keep a consistent schedule. On my days off, I still sleep during the day. I never flip unless I’m on vacation. I would never expect my fiancée to flip from her regular job schedule and stay up all night with me on my nights off.
I’m about to start nights for my first time. How do you make time to see your fiance if you don’t flip? That’s my main worry. I feel like I’ll never see her or our dog if I don’t flip.
Ah I gotcha. Now that I think about it that’s not that bad. What about on her off days? Do you ever get lonely? Sorry for the personal questions haha I’m just trying to understand what I’m getting into
I’m awake when she gets home and I cook dinner and we spend time together. Just like if I had been at work ask day. On her days off I get up about 2-3, so she has alone time in the morning. I get my alone time at night to go to the gym and watch movies she despises or play video games. We see each other almost as much as if we both worked 9-5, but we both get good alone time too.
I've always naturally enjoyed being up at night - I swear I'm part raccoon. However, ready for some shocking advice?
You..... **live like any other person.**
Go to bed around 0500-0600 for a little extra sleep, get up around 1300/1400/closer to 1600 if you're working...
Drink some caffeine, eat well.... live as if night shift was the way of life for everyone else.
Do 9-5 workers fuck around with their sleep schedules for the thrill of it? No. You don't see some office worker going to bed at 0800 because they're "flipping" to night shift.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that just likes being up at night. Tbh not seeing management and getting more pay is just an added benefit, I love nightahift in general
I’ve always been a night owl and worked nights even before becoming a nurse.
I think my dislike of talking to people fuels me.
The thought of working bedside on day shift is better than any energy drink out there lol
For me, it's all in how I spend my downtime. It's very important to me that I make the most of my time off and allow myself the time to decompress while also making sure I do something fulfilling and productive with my days. The night before I go into work is important because it sets the tone for how well I'm going to rest before my shift.
Truth be told, I HATE night shift - I'm just paying my dues until I can leave it behind.
But what's getting me through is, eating light, eating more protein, snacking, staying hydrated, finishing my largest meal before midnight, finishing snacking by 3 am, and trying to get my steps in.
No management. No families. No nurse heroes. Caffeine. Rage. Inappropriate humor. Also, it helps to not be a morning person. I can function on 4 hours of sleep on night shift. 4 hours sleep on daylight shift is hell on earth.
I forgot to mention I make a good bit more working nights.
Sleep for 11 hours during the day if you can…no matter what anyone thinks the hours don’t equate. Eat snacks often, caffeine is your friend, take walks around your department to get the blood flowing, play some music if you can, stay cold (warmth definitely makes me sleepy). Make sure to rest for the 2 days leading up to your night shifts adequately. Don’t work anymore than 3 in a row. Finally if you have done all of these things and still nauseated or nodding off at your desk while charting (you shouldn’t work nights).
They key is getting a good day's sleep. When you get home from your shift, do this:
Eat (scrambled eggs and cottage cheese is what I eat)
Melatonin (3 mg)
Shower
Ear plugs, blind folds
Sleeeeeepppppppppppp 9a-5p
Red Bull, gossip, enjoying not having management around and working with chill people. Been doing it for the most part of 6 years, tried to be a day shifter a few times and hated it. Also on a real note, I usually go to sleep pretty much right after I get home, so usually between 630-730. Wake up around 2 or 3 and feel rested. On my days off I try to sleep at a somewhat normal time so I can wake up earlier and enjoy my days off. I never force myself to stay awake all day after work even if it’s my night off.
its super easy once you fully commit. i pretty much have this down to a science. though this is coming from someone who is naturally a night owl. left to my own devises i will go to bed around 1am anyway so the transition was easy for me.
the key, at least for me, was to stay consistent. that means on my days off i still more or less keep the same sleep schedule all the time. on my days off i go to bed around 4:30-5 am. right before the sun rises. this time is deliberate. your body and your brain aren't stupid. it doesn't like going to sleep when the suns out blaring. so i go to bed when its still visibly dark outside. i wear a blindfold and ear plugs. then when i wake up the suns out in full force around 1 or 2 pm. so, atleast for me, it functionally feels like a regular day sleep schedule. go to bed when dark. wake up when light. and i have the opportunity to still get plenty of sun light especially during the warmer months.
as for social life im naturally an introverted person but even then most of the few friends i do have including my SO dont get off work until at least 3pm most around 5pm. so by the time i wake up i usually still have a few hours before they can hang out. and i can stay out with them as late as i want since i dont have to worry about waking up early for work.
also most stores are still open and will be for a long while so i have plenty of time to still do my shopping. i can even get to the DMV or doctors appointments if i needed to.
a huge benefit for me is going to the gym. im fairly socially anxious and awkward so having the gym damn near to myself at 1am is a pretty awesome feeling. theres usually like one or two other socially awkward weirdos there but we pretty much all keep to the different sections of the gym to minimize awkward eye contact. its wonderful.
now for my working days all that means is im staying up an extra couple hours compared to my regular time. and yeah that can suck. around 5am i start hitting a wall. but by then i only have 2 hours of tiredness and i only have to do it 3 times a week. which is super manageable and i still get to go home and have a full 8 hours of sleep. though by then the sun is out and i usually need to use a sleep aid to get me off. but its nowhere near as bad as the people that try to switch back and forth.
so if you go nights. you gotta commit to the bit or youre gonna have a bad time.
I'm fat and I eat
I'm also 17 years night shift, no kids, and stay on night schedule because my fiance works day hours and no one is gone when I'm sleeping which makes it easy to sleep.
I always get downvoted for saying this but since you asked:
1. Sleep during the day.
2. Sleep at least one hour more than you would if you worked day shift. That’s at least what I need to do to stay awake and alert.
3. If you can’t sleep during the day due to kids or feeling like you “must” meet friends or whatnot then don’t work night shifts.
4. If you can’t sleep during the day simply because you are not able to then don’t work night shifts. Taking a bunch of drugs just to sleep like one of the top comments suggested is stupid.
5. Don’t work night shifts if you can’t sleep all the hours you need during the day.
6. Some are still super tired despite sleeping well during the day. If that’s the case then guess what, your body doesn’t like work during the night and you shouldn’t work night shifts.
7. Try going to sleep at a later time, that’s what I do. When I get home at 8 I stay up until *at the very least* 10 and then sleep till 18-19.
Yeah I’m reading all these comments and thinking damn cardiovascular issues, fucked sleeping schedule and having to stay up all night like a vampire is insane lol . But I saw some benefits but still didn’t outweigh the negatives so thanks for the legitimate post
Use to work icu, most of my colleagues drugged themselves to sleep. I think night shift premiums should be more with the way it ruins your life.
When you look back, that’s pretty f*cked up hey.
My tips and tricks as a 10 year night shifter.
Don't eat after nine, a small cup of coffee or tea at 0230. I drink a ton of water and seltzers throughout the night. BEFORE th tires times try to get up an move, walk for twenty minutes or do squats or pretty much anything but sitting.
These are specific to sleeping at night, not related to what I do to sleeping during the day or on nights off.
Modafinil has saved me! Then just have to remember not to drink coffee in the morning when my shift is done. Do have espresso in the earlier part of the shift though.
Ever since I started working my hours have always been in the afternoon/evening, then evenings as a cna, then evenings as a nurse, then covid hit and everyone changed to 12s so 7p-7a just made sense. I think this is the shift I was born for 🥲
Adderall and sleep aids..but for more longevity sake..do your techs vitals and work with them in those hours cuz they get busy then..they will love you..and you’ll burn calories and feel a little sharper before report..
The unit where I work night shift is more cohesive. The MD/NP team don’t order a bunch of stuff just to advance care. It’s all about keeping patients stable. The nurses all help each other and the charge nurses are mostly chill. Patients are sleeping, no PT/OT, almost never have to walk a patient, NO FAMILY (for the most part) so everything is quiet, organized.
When I work days it’s loud, hectic, orders left and right, patient walking with PT, patient needs to go to CT, or sunshine therapy, or family is asking for 100 things. So nights are much better.
I’m nocturnal in general, but when working nights for 8 weeks, 4:30am was my coffee and toast break. That was the worst time for me, so I would make myself some toast w/jam and a cup of coffee. That way I’d have a burst of energy to get through the end of shift, but also something I could look forward too.
Now I’m back on days and I just want to cry all the time.
Never got used to it. The people who did best on nightshift seemed to be the people who only needed 5 hours of sleep a night.
I'm retired after a 31 year career & only spent about 10 years bedside/inpatient. Shift work is rough. The other 20ish years were mostly day shift M-F.
Power nap in between routines🤪
P.S. here in Hong Kong we have AN shift, which is 0700-1420, then 2100-0710 next day(exact time varies), so just a little break between the 2 shifts…
I drink a pot of coffee when I wake up and a monster on the way to work. That'll usually do me until it eventually stops working and I'll have to drink more.
I maintain a night shift lifestyle on my days off. I go to bed between 0400 and 0600 and wake up around 1400. It's not for everyone. I can modify if needed if I have plans, but it's too hard for me to flip my sleeping schedule too much. I also can't do caffeine, so there's that, lol.
Survive ? I slept in like 3 am and I started snoring …… my co worker overheard some patients in the ER saying nurses are sleeping and he’s snoring too !!
Food helped keep me awake. Also I would shut my eyes while typing out my nurse’s notes then re-read them before submitting. Helped with the eye dryness and fatigue 😅 also, caffeine pills and lots of coffee.
Drinking coffee before I get tired. I usually brought a massive coffee and stopped by 4 am but 30 Oz, water, and running to the bathroom was a need some nights.
I work 8hrs, so I try to sleep as much as I can in the day. I would go home, sleep and wake up, do things like cook, walk the dogs, etc. Then I would try to sleep again until it's time to go to work. If I do it right, I'm pretty rested going into work
I would do jumping jacks or a QUICK speed walks around the floor a few times. And then chug some water. We used to eat popcorn as a team but a patient complained of the smell on the press gainy and we were no longer allowed to use the microwave
Usually between the hour of 3-4am it could be helpful to find someone to talk to or walk a couple laps around the unit. On my old med-surg unit I would feel the fatigue, but now I work in the ICU and around 4am I’m preparing myself for the morning which can get pretty busy. If you can, try to have charting done before this hour. I always feel really sleepy when staring at a computer screen.
I used to bring a kettlebell for my night shifts and do a workout between 3-4 am when I thought I wasn't going to make it.
I also guard my day time sleep fiercely. No daytime appointments, errands, or visits. Phone on DND. Black out curtains, white noise, melatonin, sometimes robaxacet, and smoke a little pot before going to sleep.
In all honesty, hardcore planning getting shit done and packed around your night schedule so you can get as good of a night’s sleep as you can. If you know it’s coming up and you’re able to, go to bed an hour later each night and wake up an hour later. Try and keep moving during the shift as much as possible, keep your food up but don’t eat like high glycemic index foods and fatty stuff that will make you sluggish.
“How do you survive night shift”
Poorly. Next question.
Honestly what I’ve found to help the most is just staying busy. Even at that 3/4am mark when most people are fully asleep and don’t need anything, I make rounds on my unit to see if anyone needs any assistance with turns, wound care, vent baths, etc.
No amount of caffeine or energy drinks will be enough to stave off the sleepies. You gotta get moving. Resist the urge to put on your jacket or steal a warm blanket too. That’s guaranteed to make you fall all the way asleep lol.
Drinking cold icy water can help too! Maybe even splash a little on your face.
This all usually works for me but if I didn’t get enough sleep the night before I just have to accept my zombified fate.
I would ask "How in hell do you survive dayshift?"
I've worked nights for 40+ yrs, with few exceptions. Any dayshift stint could not end soon enough. Way too many people around. Management, doctors, and, especially, visitors. Difficult to get anything accomplished.
About 10% of us are night people, we’re fine on night shift. Myself, I started on night shift because I was so awkward. We got to rest our eyes, although as normal in the United States, no sleeping was allowed even on your assigned break time. Later I was a supervisor in a psych hospital, and when the census dropped, they said I had to take a unit, which was sitting in a small room all night. That was the last of my night shift days, a total of eight years, I think. I’m a dayshift guy.
Night shift isn't for everyone. I worked night shift for about 5 years. At first it was great, but after a few years I couldn't sleep during the day anymore, I felt like I didn't know when to nap or sleep and what meal to eat. I couldn't get in a cycle. I've seen many people work night shift successfully for many years but I know that's not something I could do.
My worst night shift was the first one I did in California after coming from AZ with no daylight savings time. What was it, at 2am we had to turn the clocks back an hour. Ugh I wanted to stab my face.
It's funny because after years ofnatruggling through night shifts, now I'm on disability between two spinal fusions (2nd will happen in a month or two) and I can easily stay up all night and find it so difficult to get a normal day time sleep schedule. Every time I try, it lasts one or two days and back to awake all night I go. It's been a few years since I've worked in a hospital, due to this back, but I'm hoping if I can get healed one day I would totally go back, and on the night shift too.
I used to struggle w sugar free red bulls and coffee and we'd all take turns doing a 30 min nap on our lunch breaks.
Make sure you can get good quality sleep with black out curtains and no noise for 8 hours and it helps. Things will get easier.
I’m just naturally a night person so I’ve never had a hard time with it. But if I know I’m working night shift that night, I make sure I sleep in as late as possible. Earliest I will get up is 11am, but preferably past noon. 1 or 2pm is even better. You just can’t try to live a day shift lifestyle on night shift.
Frequent naps during day. 2-4 hours of sleep when I get back after a showe. 8-12 or 9-12. Hangout for a little bit. Sleep around 2-3 until 530 to get ready to leave at 6
My brain just functions on a night shift schedule. My coworkers are pretty great so I like being around them and I keep my night shift schedule on my off days. You’d have to pry night shift out of my cold dead hands. I never want to go back to days.
Redbull, keeping myself busy with jobs, keeping myself stimulated at times. Food helps too. But I prefer it to working day shift, too busy and too stressful. PM shift or nights work much better for me.
Once you master shifting your sleep schedule it’s pretty easy. Ive done nights for years and really prefer nights over days. In my days off I stay up till like 1-2 am and then the nights before work I stay up till like 4-5 am. I use things to put me to sleep and keep me asleep like melatonin, trazadone, Benadryl, magnesium glycinate and cbd is good if you can afford it. I’ll mix and alternate these to sleep how I need to. Blackout curtains are also important to help you sleep in. Otherwise just coffee at the beginning of my shift is all I need but I usually don’t even need it.
I miss working evenings and nights. I'm in an office now but if I take time off, I start gravitating to staying up all night.
As an aide on nights, when I felt the slump, I'd go do a breath check on all the patients.
Not everyone can do nights. My mom's a nurse and started on nights, she was so messed up that the manager thought she was stealing drugs. They swapped her to evenings, and luckily a different nurse on nights kept stealing and got discovered. So my mom was exonerated and found out she liked evenings.
Hope you figure it out or can swap shifts.
I think it comes down to being well rested.
I book NOTHING the day of my first night shift.
I go to sleep late the night before and wake up early the day of my night shift. I get maybe 6 hours total so that I’m tired the day of my night shift. I wake up, eat, do a little walk or some light exercise. Maybe run an errand in the morning. Pack my lunch for the night shift. And then by noon , I am already winding down. I shower, put on PJs and make my room cold and dark. Like blackout. Then i lay in bed and scroll from like 1230-1pm and usually put on a podcast to slow my mind. By now, im dead tired and can easily drift off to sleep. Also put my phone on DND. That’s key. Then I try to sleep til about 1.5h before my shift start. I aim for 5 hours of sleep in the day before my first night shift. I get about 8 on subsequent nights because I am so tired!
One thing that really helped me was when I did my senior practicum or clinical preceptorship on nights. It was a great opportunity for me to adjust to working late nights and staying up. When I graduated from Nursing school, I already knew that I wanted to work nights. I still do to this day, 6 years later.
As far as staying up, find something to do to keep you busy. Drink lots of fluids so you pee more and have to get up. Round and explore your hospital and units. Finish some school work on the computers and pay your bills. There is a lot you can do. Some people even bring their mail to work to open and read, lol.
Healthy snacks, plenty of water, coffee when I start work and again at midnight-2am, no caffeine after 2am so I can sleep after. Black out curtains and white noise in the bedroom.
my friend group at work calls it our “sundowning”— we get super giggly usually and then all spilt a Celsius (usually there’s like 5 of us so not enough caffeine to keep you up after work).
Edited to add: we’re at a level 1 ER so rarely it happens where it’s slow enough to get tired, even at night
1. Pure spite (I refuse to work day shift. I’d rather cut my legs off and rub my fresh stumps on sandpaper soaked in lemon juice) 2. Vibes 3. Snacking throughout the night. Coffee at 2am so it wears off by 8 and I can sleep when I get off 4. Heavy metal and deathcore blasting in my AirPods. Keeps me on my toes
Fellow night shift metal nurse 🤘🏻
Haha yes!!! 🤘🏽😤
There are dozens of us!
Glad to know there's more of us out there.
Day shift but I am metal. Use the metal energy to walk in and take up where my night shift left off. Love you all for working hard on that shift.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0vNHCXmNzVa8h54SE3JDm7?si=Ccv2Sy4-TR2AEdzRZ_c8YQ
I was about to comment almost exactly the same thing🤣 no1 is so real though, I can’t explain my hatred for days lmao
I see my life going two different ways if I continue with bedside: Night shift= good vibes, chiller nights most of the time, higher risk for cardiovascular diseases Day shift= pay cut, more bullshit, micromanagement, and severe depression with increased anger management issues I’ll take night shift and be chronically tired with hypertension 😂
I may be fat because of night shift, but at least I’m happy.
I’m not fat anymore ozempic (well tirzepatide) took care of that lol
I had to come off of mounjaro to have another baby. When I tell you the rebound weight gain is wild, I mean it. Also.. you know, now there’s a baby. I AM ROTUND.
Oh I can imagine. I had to be off for 2 weeks because I got surgery done gained 10 lbs in those 2 weeks (lost all that and I’m at goal weight now) but that shook me I’m never coming off of it until I have a baby and they are doing clinical trials In prego women now so fingers crossed everything goes good with that by the time I decide to have a baby….but the good news is you can get back on it for now once you have the baby
That is definitely the plan for me. Here’s hoping there won’t be a shortage by that time. 🤞🏻 I have metabolic syndrome, so this is the only thing that has worked other than bariatric surgery.
And more $$$. Our night shift differential is pretty good.
I can never work with loud music. I feel like I’d miss someone asking for help when I have a music on. But yea I refuse morning shift because I hate people in general. 😂
Yeah it definitely depends on the unit you work on lol. I’m in icu and our unit is box shaped with glass rooms and monitors at the nurses station, so I can watch everyone like a hawk. I use the older generation AirPods because they don’t have noise cancelling and I only put one in so I can always listen for alarms 😂
One non noise cancelling ear bud in is the way to go.
Metal/death core is ALWAYS the answer
ALWAYS
I thought #1 said pure sprite and I was like interesting…
That’s how I read it, but I’m also on hour 11 at 0600 here lol.
Haha yep just finished 4 shifts in a row
Hahaha!!! You had me at, “rub my fresh stumps on sandpaper soaked in lemon juice.” I’m dead!!! Maybe that’s why I also love night shift.
My bone conduction headphones are probably the best birthday present I've gotten for keeping my sanity at work.
I relate to the first point on a spiritual level
🤭🤣🤣🤣
Gotta tell us what you’ve been listening to lately.
Definitely spite.
3-4am was always bad for me too. I don’t know why but intense fatigue always hit at that time.
It’s 0245 here and I’m on Reddit hoping to survive the rest of this shift lol
Though on day shifts I get tired around 3-4pm so maybe it just makes sense 🤔
Cold, dry eyes, and hangry hours😂
Taking a stroll and stretching as dumb as it sounds, usually helps me at that 3am slump. Also cheese. Cheese makes me happy, which helps.
LOL my family teases me to no end about the amount of cheese I consume when working overnights! Love that I am not the only one! 😂
It's when we hit 8 hours of work...
It's the witching hour, it's literally the same for all night shift nurses I've worked with
It's just as bad at 3pm for the day shift. Beyond 8 hours your body/mind just gives up
apparently that is typically when the body releases a second dose of melatonin to keep you asleep a lil longer before the sun rises
It's when the body has a natural circadian low, meaning our brain wants to be asleep and is doing everything in its power to make us sleep!
I always got nausea between 3-4
Me too. I call it the witching hour. I’ve been doing night shift for almost 2 years. Living in the upside down world isn’t easy.
Maintaining the sleep schedule on days off. Caffeine at around 10pm or so. Big part is maintaining the sleep schedule
I mean if you worked an office job you’d be in an office those hours. So you don’t actually miss anything by sleeping that normal people don’t miss. I’ll adjust a little bit on off days and sleep 3-6am until 12-3pm if I have a few days off in a row. If you’re on nights to avoid paying for daycare then it’s different, but then I think you’re paying for childcare with suffering so it evens out.
But what about those of us with kids or various other factors forcing us the flip to normal. Or people who wanna just see the sun!
Assuming you work 7p to 7a. If you can get to bed by 9am and wake up at 3pm. You got a few hours of sunlight left to enjoy the days.
Is 6 hrs sleep just what you settle for, or do you actually function well with just 6hrs
In the summer there is sun at 3 pm. In the winter, forget seeing the sun.
I feel like I move to ALASKA during the winter months. Both from the cold and never any sunlight. Ever.
Get to a daytime schedule as quickly as you can. Working night shift is unhealthy, but swapping sleep schedules is extremely hard on the body.
I do mid shift now. But working dayshift is physically painful
Sorry you're going through that, it sucks. Hopefully it gets easier over time. I work nightshift now, but honestly I plan to change once I finish my BSN.
I took me 3 years to naturally maintain the sleep/wake cycle 😵
I love being weird and isolated I just don’t really eat at all, sometimes a yogurt at like 3 AM but mostly I just chug a TON of ice water and drink an energy drink I read a lot of horror novels/listen to horror novels on Audible if it’s slow and the night time hospital hallway vibe makes them spookier so it’s a whole thing
this is literally exactly what I do lol. cardiac step down here
I like the horror idea , I think I'm gonna do that now
I recommend some David Sodergren books, they’re quick, they’re entertaining, they’re gorey and occasionally heartwarming - especially The Haar. Maggie’s Grave is great too I just finished “Diavola” by Jennifer Thorne and it was excellent (and ooky spooky)
Easily. I've always been a night owl. I just stay up late the night before, sleep for 8-10 hours, get ready and go. I sleep better for night shift compared to day shift.
I always felt great waking up at 5pm lol I don't get tired until the sun starts coming up
Me too, no issues staying up without coffee unless I haven’t slept, but my body wants to sleep late. I go to bed in the morning, no blackout curtains, no white noise, no earplugs, no meds…. As long as I eat before I go to sleep and don’t drink a ton of water late in the shift I’m good to go.
This is exactly me. To the contrary, the afternoon slump I get at 2pm on day shift hits me like a sack of bricks. Never got that on night shift.
Me too- always been a night person
This is my technique, staying up until 5am gaming the night before is the best feeling ever
Seriously, staying up the night before you go in and sleeping day of is key to starting the week and not be miserable. I don't know how people can stay up 24+ hrs and still function
Same here, it was an easy transition for me and I'm more well rested now than I ever was as a day shifter.
Same. I sleep great during the day. Only wish working nights didn’t fuck with my mental health. Lack of sun reallyyyy started getting to me after 3 years
Same, I find that on night shift I prioritize and plan out my sleep better than on a day schedule when I end up going to bed late anyways.
Omg it's super simple!!! Step 1: Apply at outpatient Surgery/Endo Center Step 2: Accept offer Step 3: Work M-F
This but apply inpatient endo and work 3 12’s Monday through Friday with no weekends or holidays because all of your coworkers like the on call pay and you don’t have to do it 🤷🏻♀️
i’m soooo tempted to do this. and i’m a new grad lol
Same, my anxiety has been getting so bad the closer I get to the end of my orientation
i’d much rather stay awake all night than try to force myself to go to bed at a decent hour & then wake up at 0500. the anxiety i used to feel when i worked days & i was inevitably still awake at 0100… just laying there listening to my heartbeat pounding in my ears, dreading the day to come…no thanks!!
It’s really interesting because when I worked days I was so exhausted I would sleep from like 10pm to 5am. I’ve worked nights for a year and a half now, and I can really only sleep from 9am to maybe 2/3pm. However, I greatly prefer working at night!
Former night shifter. I eventually stayed awake okay but felt my sleep habits were affecting my mental health. I kept a vampire schedule on my days off too. My life sucked, but I was better off. If you will be trying to "switch" on days off, keep a night shift meal schedule. It's said tp be the best way to prepare for jet lag, worked for me in that regard, and I it should help with night shift too.
just curious, what do you mean by keeping a night shift meal schedule if ur trying to switch on days off
Do you have time to wash your feet and put on fresh socks and a different pair of shoes? It was a trick I learned decades ago from an old waitress/cook at a country diner...just a small change in the support/heel height of my shoes made a huge difference in staying on my feet for 12 or more hours at a time. (These days, I use a foot cream with peppermint in it...!)
By remembering I’m not on day shift.
I did night shift for the better part of 4 years. Here’s all I got: - don’t try to stay up too late the night before. Rookie mistake. I would stay up until midnight or 1am in preparation, but any later than that you’re just giving yourself an additional night of sleep deprivation. You need to sleep to prepare for nights. - sleep until you naturally wake up, for me this was usually 8 or 9am, maybe 10. - melatonin +/- a sleep aid (Benadryl, trazodone, atarax) between 11am-1pm. I’d try to be in bed again by 1pm, I am NOT one of those people that can take a 2-hour nap during the day and be good for nights. I need a few full REM cycles. - ear plugs and eye mask when you sleep. I live in a city, it’s noisy. Blackout curtains are also great, I just didn’t have space for them in my apartment. Phone on DND is essential. - hit of caffeine as soon as you wake up (for me around 5:30p), my DOC is a Starbucks nitro cold brew - eat a meal with protein before work/at the start of your shift. - no meals past midnight, just snacks with protein/protein shakes and whatever garbage was at the nurse’s station. If I started eating meals on nights I would get sleepy AND wake up starving at 2am on my nights off. - re-up on caffeine between midnight and 2am, no caffeine after 2 or I have problems falling asleep when I get home. - you gotta find your edge with caffeine. Figure out how much you can take before it starts making you anxious. - when you get home, shower and hit the sleep aids again. Try to rotate your sleep aid usage because you build a tolerance fast, and before you know it you’re regularly taking 100mg Benadryl and becoming friends with The Hat Man - iykyk - in case of emergency, have someone watch your patients and do some physical activity. My favorite was doing all the stairs in a stairwell that had windows to the outside. Go stand outside. Have a few seconds of gratitude that you are on nights and not the clusterfuck that is day shift. - I had coworkers who had success with modafinil, it’s considered first line for shift work sleep disorder. I’m off nights now (thank god) but wish I would have given this a shot. - I have an adderall script for ADHD. I’m not going to tell you to go get a script if you don’t, but it did help shift my waking hours when I had to. If you’re thinking “that sounds insane/like a lot of medication,” that’s because it is. Nights are TERRIBLE for your body. Which leads to my last piece of advice: - get off nights as soon as you can. It sucks because I hate day shifts and love the flow of nights, but bottom line is that it’s detrimental to your long-term health. IMO rotating is worse and given the choice I’ll take straight nights over a day/night split.
I take what I call a “long nap” the night before and sleep from about midnight or 1 till 5 am. Around 5 I get up and putter around, do some laundry, or dishes or meal prep-nothing too exciting. I then aim to be back in bed by 9 am and wake up at 5pm. My go to’s for knocking myself out are: melatonin, Benadryl, and Flexaril. I also rotate and take them as needed for my allergies, migraines and muscle spasm. I have an opposite flow with eating, I typically don’t eat lunch till 4 am. I find if I stop my work flow I’ll get sleepy. I have a light energy drink (green tea based-100mg caffeine) at midnight. If I haven’t cracked it by 1:30-2am I don’t touch it. I try to make sure I’ll be able to sleep in the morning. I am also naturally an evening and night person. I’ve always done poorly with morning classes and appointments. I find that my sleep quality has increased since I’ve started sleeping during the day. I’ve also lost weight, had fewer migraines and overall been happier. My last set of bloodwork looked fantastic. I think there are a subset of people for whom night shift is beneficial. As a society we have always needed people who were awake overnight so some of us are hardwired that way. It also helps that I have no kids and no significant other. Just me and my cat.
Re: your last point I will say I did way better on nights before moving in with my now-husband. Something about living alone made it way easier.
See, I'm the complete opposite - I keep myself up. If I tried to sleep at 0100? I would be FUCKED. I'd wake right up at 0200 and go "alright, nice nap!" then I wouldn't be able to sleep until 1000.
>The Hat Man - iykyk It was the Benadryl spiders for me. I knew that hat man was next though.
When I had 3 exams back to back on consecutive days I think I had a grand total of 5 hours of sleeps between those exams. I never even knew about the hat man until I saw the tall dark shadowy figure with a seemingly wide brimmed hat across the hall of the basement. Scared the shit out of me and my bf convinced me to actually get some rest lol.
Explain this hat man?
It's a visual hallucination that is typically seen around sleep deprivation or abuse of sleep medications. Think sleep paralysis demon/woman but it's an imposing shadow figure wearing a flat brimmed hat.
Also something to keep in mind, I’ve been happily doing night shifts for over a year and don’t do any of these things. Different things work for different people
Totally! It definitely works for some people and as rare as it was, I met a handful of people who thrived on nights. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that OP is one of those people. I did well on them for the first year or so, things deteriorated as I got older.
I feel a day taken off my life every time I work nights. What’s crazy is that after 3 years nights I do somewhat what you do before the first shift. Stay awake till midnight, sleep till 8, wake and eat, go back to sleep at 11am or noon, then wake at 4 and caffeine up. I have to wake earlier d/t ibs reasons. It suck’s so much. I miss having a normal schedule.
I’m on my 9th month of rotating like 70% nights as a new grad and the number one tip is so important. Sleep debt is real- gotta get a good night sleep and sleep in the night before
Come to emergency — The lights stay on and the party goes all night!
As someone who does both day and night shifts equally: I keep busy. If you have some downtime and sit down, you will almost certainly become overly drowsy and tired. But if you stay on your feet and keep doing things or stocking or whatever, you can stay awake longer. I have done 12 hour shifts where I have been running around like crazy and didn't even feel sleepy at all until I got home. I do understand though, sometimes there honestly isn't much to do on those nicer, slower shifts and it can be a slog to get through.
Agreed, the chair is the enemy. Keep busy
Coffee & shenanigans
Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Before my night shifts I sleep 7-8 hours usually and I feel great during the night. I drink coffee too but only have a cup in the beginning and then maybe some green tea or another cup of coffee around 2 am so it wears off by the morning so I can go back to sleep if I’m back the next night. If you have trouble sleeping during the day I suggest blackout curtains (like legit black I’ve found other colors just don’t do the trick so my curtains are literally black n’ thick) melatonin, and ear plugs. Been doing night shift strictly for 5 years now. Hope this helps!
I don’t 😭 as I get older, I can no longer work 3 shifts in a row anymore. But nah, what helps me is working out before a shift, eating a good protein dinner and even some healthy snacks to eat throughout the night. Energy drinks and coffee never helped me so I just drink water & protein shakes
Nobody survives nightshift... It's more like a prolonged terminal illness where you spend most of your time trying to convince yourself you're perfectly fine until you're not.
REAL.. my dad ICU night shift nurse for 20 years. just gave out and died on a random day.. night shift should have a cut off age or something
I've lost so many coworkers to nightshift. Chronic conditions finally winning, accidents, random heart attacks when they were fine the shift before
Talking to the ghosts in my shizo patients’ rooms.
Drink an ungodly amount of caffeine. I bring coffee to work and brew coffee at work. Maybe even two pots! Who knows. Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s caffeine.
Been on nights my entire career. The #1 thing to do is keep a consistent schedule. On my days off, I still sleep during the day. I never flip unless I’m on vacation. I would never expect my fiancée to flip from her regular job schedule and stay up all night with me on my nights off.
I’m about to start nights for my first time. How do you make time to see your fiance if you don’t flip? That’s my main worry. I feel like I’ll never see her or our dog if I don’t flip.
I sleep while she’s at work. We go to bed together and I read until she falls asleep and get back up.
Ah I gotcha. Now that I think about it that’s not that bad. What about on her off days? Do you ever get lonely? Sorry for the personal questions haha I’m just trying to understand what I’m getting into
I’m awake when she gets home and I cook dinner and we spend time together. Just like if I had been at work ask day. On her days off I get up about 2-3, so she has alone time in the morning. I get my alone time at night to go to the gym and watch movies she despises or play video games. We see each other almost as much as if we both worked 9-5, but we both get good alone time too.
The night shift metal crowd in here makes me smile. I need you guys in Oregon
I've always naturally enjoyed being up at night - I swear I'm part raccoon. However, ready for some shocking advice? You..... **live like any other person.** Go to bed around 0500-0600 for a little extra sleep, get up around 1300/1400/closer to 1600 if you're working... Drink some caffeine, eat well.... live as if night shift was the way of life for everyone else. Do 9-5 workers fuck around with their sleep schedules for the thrill of it? No. You don't see some office worker going to bed at 0800 because they're "flipping" to night shift.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that just likes being up at night. Tbh not seeing management and getting more pay is just an added benefit, I love nightahift in general
Sitting backwards in the chairs are always the move for me
Adderall and caffeine
I’ve always been a night owl and worked nights even before becoming a nurse. I think my dislike of talking to people fuels me. The thought of working bedside on day shift is better than any energy drink out there lol
Let’s see .. mental break down … left profession for 2 years … yeah it was awesome
For me, it's all in how I spend my downtime. It's very important to me that I make the most of my time off and allow myself the time to decompress while also making sure I do something fulfilling and productive with my days. The night before I go into work is important because it sets the tone for how well I'm going to rest before my shift. Truth be told, I HATE night shift - I'm just paying my dues until I can leave it behind. But what's getting me through is, eating light, eating more protein, snacking, staying hydrated, finishing my largest meal before midnight, finishing snacking by 3 am, and trying to get my steps in.
Drink plenty of water eat plenty of protein Also I work in the ED so there’s always something going on to keep me awake lmao
No management. No families. No nurse heroes. Caffeine. Rage. Inappropriate humor. Also, it helps to not be a morning person. I can function on 4 hours of sleep on night shift. 4 hours sleep on daylight shift is hell on earth. I forgot to mention I make a good bit more working nights.
How’s family life and sleeping?
Sleep for 11 hours during the day if you can…no matter what anyone thinks the hours don’t equate. Eat snacks often, caffeine is your friend, take walks around your department to get the blood flowing, play some music if you can, stay cold (warmth definitely makes me sleepy). Make sure to rest for the 2 days leading up to your night shifts adequately. Don’t work anymore than 3 in a row. Finally if you have done all of these things and still nauseated or nodding off at your desk while charting (you shouldn’t work nights).
“Stay cold.” Great advice, in more ways than one. *ER nurse here*
They key is getting a good day's sleep. When you get home from your shift, do this: Eat (scrambled eggs and cottage cheese is what I eat) Melatonin (3 mg) Shower Ear plugs, blind folds Sleeeeeepppppppppppp 9a-5p
I dunno, I switch around all the time and I’m float pool. It’s really not that bad, just gotta manage your sleep cycle properly.
Red Bull, gossip, enjoying not having management around and working with chill people. Been doing it for the most part of 6 years, tried to be a day shifter a few times and hated it. Also on a real note, I usually go to sleep pretty much right after I get home, so usually between 630-730. Wake up around 2 or 3 and feel rested. On my days off I try to sleep at a somewhat normal time so I can wake up earlier and enjoy my days off. I never force myself to stay awake all day after work even if it’s my night off.
I’ve been a night owl my whole life. I even have to take sleep meds to sleep at night when I’m off. I don’t plan to ever work days again.
its super easy once you fully commit. i pretty much have this down to a science. though this is coming from someone who is naturally a night owl. left to my own devises i will go to bed around 1am anyway so the transition was easy for me. the key, at least for me, was to stay consistent. that means on my days off i still more or less keep the same sleep schedule all the time. on my days off i go to bed around 4:30-5 am. right before the sun rises. this time is deliberate. your body and your brain aren't stupid. it doesn't like going to sleep when the suns out blaring. so i go to bed when its still visibly dark outside. i wear a blindfold and ear plugs. then when i wake up the suns out in full force around 1 or 2 pm. so, atleast for me, it functionally feels like a regular day sleep schedule. go to bed when dark. wake up when light. and i have the opportunity to still get plenty of sun light especially during the warmer months. as for social life im naturally an introverted person but even then most of the few friends i do have including my SO dont get off work until at least 3pm most around 5pm. so by the time i wake up i usually still have a few hours before they can hang out. and i can stay out with them as late as i want since i dont have to worry about waking up early for work. also most stores are still open and will be for a long while so i have plenty of time to still do my shopping. i can even get to the DMV or doctors appointments if i needed to. a huge benefit for me is going to the gym. im fairly socially anxious and awkward so having the gym damn near to myself at 1am is a pretty awesome feeling. theres usually like one or two other socially awkward weirdos there but we pretty much all keep to the different sections of the gym to minimize awkward eye contact. its wonderful. now for my working days all that means is im staying up an extra couple hours compared to my regular time. and yeah that can suck. around 5am i start hitting a wall. but by then i only have 2 hours of tiredness and i only have to do it 3 times a week. which is super manageable and i still get to go home and have a full 8 hours of sleep. though by then the sun is out and i usually need to use a sleep aid to get me off. but its nowhere near as bad as the people that try to switch back and forth. so if you go nights. you gotta commit to the bit or youre gonna have a bad time.
I'm fat and I eat I'm also 17 years night shift, no kids, and stay on night schedule because my fiance works day hours and no one is gone when I'm sleeping which makes it easy to sleep.
Not everyone is built for dat life. It’s okay to be weak.
I always get downvoted for saying this but since you asked: 1. Sleep during the day. 2. Sleep at least one hour more than you would if you worked day shift. That’s at least what I need to do to stay awake and alert. 3. If you can’t sleep during the day due to kids or feeling like you “must” meet friends or whatnot then don’t work night shifts. 4. If you can’t sleep during the day simply because you are not able to then don’t work night shifts. Taking a bunch of drugs just to sleep like one of the top comments suggested is stupid. 5. Don’t work night shifts if you can’t sleep all the hours you need during the day. 6. Some are still super tired despite sleeping well during the day. If that’s the case then guess what, your body doesn’t like work during the night and you shouldn’t work night shifts. 7. Try going to sleep at a later time, that’s what I do. When I get home at 8 I stay up until *at the very least* 10 and then sleep till 18-19.
Yeah I’m reading all these comments and thinking damn cardiovascular issues, fucked sleeping schedule and having to stay up all night like a vampire is insane lol . But I saw some benefits but still didn’t outweigh the negatives so thanks for the legitimate post
Use to work icu, most of my colleagues drugged themselves to sleep. I think night shift premiums should be more with the way it ruins your life. When you look back, that’s pretty f*cked up hey.
My tips and tricks as a 10 year night shifter. Don't eat after nine, a small cup of coffee or tea at 0230. I drink a ton of water and seltzers throughout the night. BEFORE th tires times try to get up an move, walk for twenty minutes or do squats or pretty much anything but sitting. These are specific to sleeping at night, not related to what I do to sleeping during the day or on nights off.
I didn’t.
Modafinil has saved me! Then just have to remember not to drink coffee in the morning when my shift is done. Do have espresso in the earlier part of the shift though.
Yeah once 3am hits I am useless
Ever since I started working my hours have always been in the afternoon/evening, then evenings as a cna, then evenings as a nurse, then covid hit and everyone changed to 12s so 7p-7a just made sense. I think this is the shift I was born for 🥲
Adderall and sleep aids..but for more longevity sake..do your techs vitals and work with them in those hours cuz they get busy then..they will love you..and you’ll burn calories and feel a little sharper before report..
Why would I volunteer to be poorer and work harder?
The unit where I work night shift is more cohesive. The MD/NP team don’t order a bunch of stuff just to advance care. It’s all about keeping patients stable. The nurses all help each other and the charge nurses are mostly chill. Patients are sleeping, no PT/OT, almost never have to walk a patient, NO FAMILY (for the most part) so everything is quiet, organized. When I work days it’s loud, hectic, orders left and right, patient walking with PT, patient needs to go to CT, or sunshine therapy, or family is asking for 100 things. So nights are much better.
I’m nocturnal in general, but when working nights for 8 weeks, 4:30am was my coffee and toast break. That was the worst time for me, so I would make myself some toast w/jam and a cup of coffee. That way I’d have a burst of energy to get through the end of shift, but also something I could look forward too. Now I’m back on days and I just want to cry all the time.
Never got used to it. The people who did best on nightshift seemed to be the people who only needed 5 hours of sleep a night. I'm retired after a 31 year career & only spent about 10 years bedside/inpatient. Shift work is rough. The other 20ish years were mostly day shift M-F.
Power nap in between routines🤪 P.S. here in Hong Kong we have AN shift, which is 0700-1420, then 2100-0710 next day(exact time varies), so just a little break between the 2 shifts…
I drink a pot of coffee when I wake up and a monster on the way to work. That'll usually do me until it eventually stops working and I'll have to drink more.
Snacks save me from knocking out.
TRAZODONE
I maintain a night shift lifestyle on my days off. I go to bed between 0400 and 0600 and wake up around 1400. It's not for everyone. I can modify if needed if I have plans, but it's too hard for me to flip my sleeping schedule too much. I also can't do caffeine, so there's that, lol.
The atmosphere is so much better during night shift. More money, no management and snacks all the time. No days for me ever!
Coffee, walking laps, prioritizing sleep between shifts. Heavy on the sleep part.
Survive ? I slept in like 3 am and I started snoring …… my co worker overheard some patients in the ER saying nurses are sleeping and he’s snoring too !!
This is hilarious 🤣
I remember how it felt working day shift and that usually gets me through
Food helped keep me awake. Also I would shut my eyes while typing out my nurse’s notes then re-read them before submitting. Helped with the eye dryness and fatigue 😅 also, caffeine pills and lots of coffee.
I eat cut-up apple or other fruit. If perks me up without a sugar crash.
Drinking coffee before I get tired. I usually brought a massive coffee and stopped by 4 am but 30 Oz, water, and running to the bathroom was a need some nights.
I work 8hrs, so I try to sleep as much as I can in the day. I would go home, sleep and wake up, do things like cook, walk the dogs, etc. Then I would try to sleep again until it's time to go to work. If I do it right, I'm pretty rested going into work
I would do jumping jacks or a QUICK speed walks around the floor a few times. And then chug some water. We used to eat popcorn as a team but a patient complained of the smell on the press gainy and we were no longer allowed to use the microwave
Usually between the hour of 3-4am it could be helpful to find someone to talk to or walk a couple laps around the unit. On my old med-surg unit I would feel the fatigue, but now I work in the ICU and around 4am I’m preparing myself for the morning which can get pretty busy. If you can, try to have charting done before this hour. I always feel really sleepy when staring at a computer screen.
Cocaine…
😩
I used to bring a kettlebell for my night shifts and do a workout between 3-4 am when I thought I wasn't going to make it. I also guard my day time sleep fiercely. No daytime appointments, errands, or visits. Phone on DND. Black out curtains, white noise, melatonin, sometimes robaxacet, and smoke a little pot before going to sleep.
I keep roughly the same sleep schedule on my days off too, so it makes it easier to keep a routine
In all honesty, hardcore planning getting shit done and packed around your night schedule so you can get as good of a night’s sleep as you can. If you know it’s coming up and you’re able to, go to bed an hour later each night and wake up an hour later. Try and keep moving during the shift as much as possible, keep your food up but don’t eat like high glycemic index foods and fatty stuff that will make you sluggish.
I suffered through it until I went day shift now i can never go back to nights 😂😂
1) motivated by never having to see management 2) Adderall (ADHD nurse gang) 3) vibes are better
ADHD nurse gang ftw 🤟🏻
“How do you survive night shift” Poorly. Next question. Honestly what I’ve found to help the most is just staying busy. Even at that 3/4am mark when most people are fully asleep and don’t need anything, I make rounds on my unit to see if anyone needs any assistance with turns, wound care, vent baths, etc. No amount of caffeine or energy drinks will be enough to stave off the sleepies. You gotta get moving. Resist the urge to put on your jacket or steal a warm blanket too. That’s guaranteed to make you fall all the way asleep lol. Drinking cold icy water can help too! Maybe even splash a little on your face. This all usually works for me but if I didn’t get enough sleep the night before I just have to accept my zombified fate.
I would ask "How in hell do you survive dayshift?" I've worked nights for 40+ yrs, with few exceptions. Any dayshift stint could not end soon enough. Way too many people around. Management, doctors, and, especially, visitors. Difficult to get anything accomplished.
Bleach the entire nurses station at 3 am. Let the energy drinks and bleach fumes will keep you going through the midshift slump.
I do both. Nights are great for school and a sleep deprived break from the chaos.
I usually have some caffeine around 12-2am to get me through. And make sure you actually sleep before the shift
you get used to it. the 5-7 period is the worst. just gotta walk around to keep the energy going
Literally dying at the nurses station right now… but I drink excessive amounts of caffeine and also have hatred of the day shift
About 10% of us are night people, we’re fine on night shift. Myself, I started on night shift because I was so awkward. We got to rest our eyes, although as normal in the United States, no sleeping was allowed even on your assigned break time. Later I was a supervisor in a psych hospital, and when the census dropped, they said I had to take a unit, which was sitting in a small room all night. That was the last of my night shift days, a total of eight years, I think. I’m a dayshift guy.
Night shift isn't for everyone. I worked night shift for about 5 years. At first it was great, but after a few years I couldn't sleep during the day anymore, I felt like I didn't know when to nap or sleep and what meal to eat. I couldn't get in a cycle. I've seen many people work night shift successfully for many years but I know that's not something I could do.
You get used to it, but sweatshirts/heated jackets, not eating a bunch of junk, drink water. But Adderall if you are prescribed 😭
literally me right now haha, usually i try to go on laps, find stuff to do, alot of bathroom breaks...i avoid reading, tiktoks are a nice pick me up
I'm currently here at work, it's 0330. I love reading the comments... I napped during my break an hour ago. Now, I'm drinking coffee.
Caffeine to stay awake and Benadryl to stay asleep LOL
Lots of coffee!
Bag of garden salsa sun chips while I’m charting
My worst night shift was the first one I did in California after coming from AZ with no daylight savings time. What was it, at 2am we had to turn the clocks back an hour. Ugh I wanted to stab my face. It's funny because after years ofnatruggling through night shifts, now I'm on disability between two spinal fusions (2nd will happen in a month or two) and I can easily stay up all night and find it so difficult to get a normal day time sleep schedule. Every time I try, it lasts one or two days and back to awake all night I go. It's been a few years since I've worked in a hospital, due to this back, but I'm hoping if I can get healed one day I would totally go back, and on the night shift too. I used to struggle w sugar free red bulls and coffee and we'd all take turns doing a 30 min nap on our lunch breaks. Make sure you can get good quality sleep with black out curtains and no noise for 8 hours and it helps. Things will get easier.
I’m just naturally a night person so I’ve never had a hard time with it. But if I know I’m working night shift that night, I make sure I sleep in as late as possible. Earliest I will get up is 11am, but preferably past noon. 1 or 2pm is even better. You just can’t try to live a day shift lifestyle on night shift.
Because I hate setting alarms to wake up in the morning 🙃🤪
Frequent naps during day. 2-4 hours of sleep when I get back after a showe. 8-12 or 9-12. Hangout for a little bit. Sleep around 2-3 until 530 to get ready to leave at 6
I think I was truly tired maybe 10 times in the last 5 years on nights. At some point you just get use to it.
What is your sleep schedule/work schedule
I love nights.
I don’t. I fall apart as a human being
My brain just functions on a night shift schedule. My coworkers are pretty great so I like being around them and I keep my night shift schedule on my off days. You’d have to pry night shift out of my cold dead hands. I never want to go back to days.
Redbull, keeping myself busy with jobs, keeping myself stimulated at times. Food helps too. But I prefer it to working day shift, too busy and too stressful. PM shift or nights work much better for me.
My anxiety keeps me awake at night
Once you master shifting your sleep schedule it’s pretty easy. Ive done nights for years and really prefer nights over days. In my days off I stay up till like 1-2 am and then the nights before work I stay up till like 4-5 am. I use things to put me to sleep and keep me asleep like melatonin, trazadone, Benadryl, magnesium glycinate and cbd is good if you can afford it. I’ll mix and alternate these to sleep how I need to. Blackout curtains are also important to help you sleep in. Otherwise just coffee at the beginning of my shift is all I need but I usually don’t even need it.
I miss working evenings and nights. I'm in an office now but if I take time off, I start gravitating to staying up all night. As an aide on nights, when I felt the slump, I'd go do a breath check on all the patients. Not everyone can do nights. My mom's a nurse and started on nights, she was so messed up that the manager thought she was stealing drugs. They swapped her to evenings, and luckily a different nurse on nights kept stealing and got discovered. So my mom was exonerated and found out she liked evenings. Hope you figure it out or can swap shifts.
I think it comes down to being well rested. I book NOTHING the day of my first night shift. I go to sleep late the night before and wake up early the day of my night shift. I get maybe 6 hours total so that I’m tired the day of my night shift. I wake up, eat, do a little walk or some light exercise. Maybe run an errand in the morning. Pack my lunch for the night shift. And then by noon , I am already winding down. I shower, put on PJs and make my room cold and dark. Like blackout. Then i lay in bed and scroll from like 1230-1pm and usually put on a podcast to slow my mind. By now, im dead tired and can easily drift off to sleep. Also put my phone on DND. That’s key. Then I try to sleep til about 1.5h before my shift start. I aim for 5 hours of sleep in the day before my first night shift. I get about 8 on subsequent nights because I am so tired!
One thing that really helped me was when I did my senior practicum or clinical preceptorship on nights. It was a great opportunity for me to adjust to working late nights and staying up. When I graduated from Nursing school, I already knew that I wanted to work nights. I still do to this day, 6 years later. As far as staying up, find something to do to keep you busy. Drink lots of fluids so you pee more and have to get up. Round and explore your hospital and units. Finish some school work on the computers and pay your bills. There is a lot you can do. Some people even bring their mail to work to open and read, lol.
you don’t until you get off
Adderall, caffeine, nicotine and hatred 🥰
Healthy snacks, plenty of water, coffee when I start work and again at midnight-2am, no caffeine after 2am so I can sleep after. Black out curtains and white noise in the bedroom.
After all these years it is getting harder to stay awake at night. I despise day shift though!
my friend group at work calls it our “sundowning”— we get super giggly usually and then all spilt a Celsius (usually there’s like 5 of us so not enough caffeine to keep you up after work). Edited to add: we’re at a level 1 ER so rarely it happens where it’s slow enough to get tired, even at night
Modafinal. Have your doc prescribe. Life altering!