Have Any of you Ever Worked a Night Shift?

[Turd Ferguson]

I might have an opportunity opening up where I'll be working for a major bank in Boston doing foreign stock exchange trading. The hours would be something like 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., Sunday through Thursday.

My question for you guys who have worked a night shift like this, how did your sleep schedule shake out? How did you make time for things like the gym and other daily activities? Did you ever feel burnt out, and is it possible to get a normal sleep pattern going?

 

[CH David]

I do the Night Shift on Friday and Saturday nights. I sleep til probably 1:00 or 2:00, get a few things done, and then take a nap before going to work. If you can sleep during sunlight, you can get a normal sleeping pattern. That was the biggest thing for me, sleeping during the day time.

If NSL ever stops in he could tell ya how to get through it during the week.

 

[Buffalo Dave]

I never had to work a night shift, but have a few friends that do. One of things you can do, to get things done during the day is just stay up when you get off of your shift, wait for things to open like stores, gym, or whatever you have to take care of, then get your sleep. Basically sleep untill its lmost work time or how ever long you sleep.

Its gonna be hard for like a week or two getting into the routine, but your body should respond. Trick would be to get very dark blinds and a curtain for your room, so it gets rather dark and will be easier to sleep.

 

[ABMorales787]

I work the closing shift at Mc Donalds at least twice a week. Its really tough to keep up during the next day. My tip is to sleep whenever you get the chance and always have an alarm clock handy so you don't miss anything important. Drinking lots of water also helps to keep me awake.

 

[Rhonda Rousey's Sports Bra]

I work second shift right now and it really only leaves time for sleep and sitting around. I'm always tired and burned out and rarely get to do anything, be it with friends or go out myself. It also fucks with shopping and forces you to pretty much stick to the supercenter.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

For about the last 5 years, yes lolz.

You do everything the same as you would on dayshift, except in the dark. Easy. Same hours and everything, just flip the am / pm.

You do the gym at 6pm now, well then 6am should be fine. Becuase if you do it right, 6am will feel the same as 6pm does now.

Make sure you blackout your room though. Tinfoil, trashbags, then heavy curtains. good to go.

 

[HBK-aholic]

Gyms open at 6am? WTF?

I would NEVER be able to do nightshift. I like the sun, and sleep, and people.

 

[CH David]

Gyms open at 6am? WTF?

Some around my area are open 24 hours.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

The sun and people are highly overrated.

You get plenty of sleep. And ya, a lot of gyms are 24/7

 

[Tastycles]

I used to work nights in a factory from 6-6. I used to get up between one and two, and do all of my daily business before going to work. If you're starting at ten, 8 hours to do stuff on a work day is actually pretty good compared to the usual grind.

 

[Lee]

My Dad has done night shift for 20 years. He works 9pm until 7am sleeps from 7:30 until about 12 then goes back to sleep at 4pm until 8:30pm

 

[Muffin Top Merkley]

I'm working a nightshift right now.

My work schedual is 2 days followed by 2 nights. 4 days off. Repeat. It's a sweet gig.

 

[Ty Burna]

I used to work 4 pm to 1 am for a tech support center. Was pretty cool because our entire group went and partied til 5 am after work every night afterwards.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

Doing the night shift last year was actually better for me on sleep. You see, the most comfortable environment for me to sleep in is a very dim light, I had these thick, beige curtains in my room that blocked out a lot of light, but I got the nice beige color floating around -- shit put me right to sleep.

The thing with the night shift is, you mellow out pretty quickly. Night shift people don't really get a lot of interaction with people outside of their co-workers, seeing as there's never anyone on the road. I would imagine this would especially be bad on you because no one wakes up at 3:30 in the morning and trade stocks. So you drive to work when no one's on the road, you hang out with your co-workers assuming you have any, drive back home with nobody on the road, sleep during the days, hang out on the intarwebzies, then sleep.

 

[Ty Burna]

The crazy thing about night shifts, are that all the crazy people work it. So if you hang out with your coworkers after work or outside of work, you never know what may go down.

That and the crazy (in a good way) women.

 

[LigerBomb]

Not saying this happens to everyone but screwing with your circadian rhythms can disrupt your endocrine and/or immune system. Were I to find myself w/o sun long-term I would make sure to supplement with Vitamins D3 and K2, and the mineral Calcium.

 

[LigerBomb]

Gyms open at 6am? WTF?

I would NEVER be able to do nightshift. I like the sun, and sleep, and people.

One Gym I worked at opened at 5am... which meant for about 2 years I had to be there to open the doors and set up each morning by 4am.

 

[Freddy4190]

I work 5-1/2 constantly and it fucks with my sleep pattern. I sleep during the day, go to work, and come home. Don't really do shit else. It sucks. I still can't get a good sleep pattern going and it's been 7 months.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Working nights is for students, however I did do one night as a bouncer. Well paid, but I don't feel the need to stand outside in the cold for work.

 

[Spaceman Spif]

I was 10pm-7am for a month and a half this winter, I got used to it in about a week. I'd get off work, do my crap I needed to do, bank, bills, gas, food, whatever, watch some tv, crash about 1pm, wake up about 8:30-9pm, shower, eat go to work. It wasn't too bad, but I was fucked the first week while my body got used to the change, once it did, I was fine.

 

[Loveless]

I used to do security at the airport here and worked from 6pm-6am, that would have been bad enough but it was taking me 2 hours to get to and from work. It was 4 days on and 4 off, I did it for a month and that was more than enough for me. I mean, I'm nocturnal and I don't sleep at night anyway but that was just too much.
If you're going to do this job, make sure you've got something to keep you entertained. I had a pool table and a TV.