How to prepare for working midnights for a week?

[bmacd]

it's 8:30am right now and i start midnights tonight for a week. I had a full night of sleep last nightm but i'm going to have to goto bed soon so that i'm rested up for the long haul. Any tips? It's been almost two years since i've worked midnights on a regular basis

-=bmacd=-

 

[Chaotic42]

You have to go to work at midnight? I'd try going to sleep at about 5 or 6pm. Before you do, eat, drink some warm milk, and take a shower. Make sure there's cool, fresh air in the room, and that it's dark.

Breathe deeply to help you sleep. Working midnights sucks.

 

[AdamDuritz99]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
You have to go to work at midnight? I'd try going to sleep at about 5 or 6pm. Before you do, eat, drink some warm milk, and take a shower. Make sure there's cool, fresh air in the room, and that it's dark.

Breathe deeply to help you sleep. Working midnights sucks.

I just got off of my 7p-7a shift. Let me tell ya, working midnight really does SUCK.

peace
sean

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: AdamDuritz99

I just got off of my 7p-7a shift. Let me tell ya, working midnight really does SUCK.

peace
sean

Midnight-Noon here. I slept in today, my roomate covered until 2.

 

[bmacd]

i'll be working from 9pm to 7am. About two years ago when i first started this job, i worked 10pm to 6am.

-=bmacd=-

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: bmacd
i'll be working from 9pm to 7am. About two years ago when i first started this job, i worked 10pm to 6am.

-=bmacd=-

That's going to be harder then. Do you do sit-down-menial-crap work like I'm doing now? If so, you might be able to last the 24 hours. If you're doing construction or something, you should just chill all day and sleep when you can.

Sorry dude.

 

[bmacd]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42


That's going to be harder then. Do you do sit-down-menial-crap work like I'm doing now? If so, you might be able to last the 24 hours. If you're doing construction or something, you should just chill all day and sleep when you can.

Sorry dude.

I'll mostly be throwing freight all night long. We get paid lunch since we can't leave the building and an extra dollar an hour incentive, PLUS, three of the days will be overtime since i've already worked my butt off this week putting in extra hours. (FWIW, the schedule starts Thursday and ends Wednesday night

-=bmacd=-

 

[murphy55d]

I work the 10-630 shift overnight at Wal-Mart...what I do on my last day off, I wake up around 6-7 am, do whatever until 4 pm or so, go to sleep til 9, get up shower and leave for work.

 

[Aceman]

How to prepare for working midnights for a week?

Nothing I could do would prepare me. I did them for 2 1/2 years. Never did get used to them. They "age" a person like nothing else!

 

[Geekbabe]

There's no preparing dude,you just try to live thru it

 

Yesterday morning I woke up at 7:00 a.m. to go to a high school cross country meet (my former high school). Then, I stood up for 3 hours at a Michigan football game (AWESOME game), and then I went across the street to the Dept. of Public Safety and did vehicle patrols from 6:30 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. I was up for 20 hours yesterday, and I'm tired as fsck.

The moral of the story is that if you have to work long, don't do other strenuous stuff during the day.

 

[bmacd]

First night down, only a handful more to go. I slept as i normally would from saturday night to sunday morning, then sunday afternoon, fell asleep around 4:00pm and woke up at 7:45pm. I made it fine the whole night (thanks to Mountain Dew), but the pop made my stomach feel like turning. When i got home @ 6:45 am, i slept until 1:30. I'm still tired and i go back to work in a couple hours. Hopefully, i can get a little more sleep.

-=bmacd=-

 

[Aceshigh]

I worked midnights for two years. The best thing to do in order to sleep during the day is to black out your windows (tin foil works well) and get a small oscillating fan (the noise really helps you fall asleep).

 

[Aceman]

Originally posted by: bmacd
First night down, only a handful more to go. I slept as i normally would from saturday night to sunday morning, then sunday afternoon, fell asleep around 4:00pm and woke up at 7:45pm. I made it fine the whole night (thanks to Mountain Dew), but the pop made my stomach feel like turning. When i got home @ 6:45 am, i slept until 1:30. I'm still tired and i go back to work in a couple hours. Hopefully, i can get a little more sleep.

-=bmacd=-

That's exactly what most people go through. Try it for over two years straight. I worked from 7pm-7am 4 nights a week. I tried to got to bed at about 9-10am and I always got up at 2pm. I felt sick to my stomach and like a zombie. Then on my days off, it wasn't worth "changing over" to "normal" hours. I'd sleep most of the time and then I'd be out drinking and partying. My friends would pass out or got to bed about 2am, leaving me wide awake and drunk.

Now, since that time, I volunteer for every night shift when told we need to do 24 hour operations. I don't get tired and my body now would rather be up at night than it would during the day.

 

[911paramedic]

I used to work 6PM to 6AM (was a great shift for the summer heat in las vegas) but it sucked for me because sleeping during the day is hard. I remember being on a call, passing one of those bank themometers and it said 101 at 4:45AM, and I ended up working days for the next two summers, ugh.

I have always had a hard time sleeping during the day, in fact I have never been a late sleeper. The only thing I can suggest is staying up as late as you can (turn on ALL the lights) for two days before your shift starts. I used to cover my windows with black sheets and make it as dark as I could, and run a fan for some "white noise". I am assuming you get at least the weekend to get ready for this. Sleep during those days to get ready for your shift, just make sure you stay awake the same hours as you are supposed to work. It will suck, trust me, but when your shift starts you will be "semi" used to it.

Good luck.