Tips for shifting from normal life to 3rd shift

[EMPshockwave82]

Anyone have any tips? I'm switching again from a fairly normal 8-5 kind of schedule to 10pm to 8am. Anyone have tips they've used to help adjust their bodies to a midnights kind of lifestyle?

 

[Farang]

post some :camera:s of you doing various stretches so I can get an idea of your flexibility.. it is important to determine how to make your body adjust

 

[amicold]

You'll adjust, use melatonin to sleep through the day. Don't sacrifice sleep for a social life. Learn to value your weekends.

 

[zerocool84]

Make sure you have blinds that block out the light. Hope that you live in a fairly quiet area. I did it many times. Working the 3rd shift is cool cus you can get so much done and no traffic on your way to work and you have your whole day to take care of stuff when other people are at work. I saved a lot of money cus I always brought lunch. I had time to make lunch before I went in. The only way to adjust properly is just to do it. I got used to it after a couple days. I lived on Monsters the first couple nights.

 

[Xylitol]

listen to the john and jeff show - download podcasts if you don't have internet access / radio access to them
google them

 

[BoomerD]

Learn to drink your breakfast...at least for the first couple of weeks.

Everytine I've had to work graveyard, the only way I could sleep during the day is if I had "a few drinks" after work...then off to bed for 6-8 hours.

After a week or two, your body should start to adjust to the new schedule and you can forego the drinking. (if you choose)

 

[TallBill]

Depends, what is the job? I was a 3rd shift cop for a long stretch and ended up really liking it.

 

[Kadarin]

I can't stress enough the importance of both blocking out both light and sound where you sleep during the day. It would suck if you were trying to sleep and just outside you had a mess of kids playing very loudly. Make sure your friends and family understand also.

 

[will889]

I worked it for about 10 years in the past. I really liked it because when I got home I could run errands to anywhere not practically no crowd. One thing though - if you're not working weekends at the same time slot to might want to still stay mostly on 3rd shift hours as not to have a jet-lag type syndrome by trying to stay up during the days on weekends then shifting back come Monday. Do get some sunlight though. I used to stay up late sometimes after I got home from work in the summer until 1-3PM and get some sun on the skin to stay healthy. You do need some sun just not too much. Just enough to get the Vitamin D under your skin.

 

[olds]

I work Midnight to 8 AM or 7 PM to 7 AM depending on weather.
What I do.
Drink lots of water. Limit it before bed time so you don't keep getting up to pee.
Go to bed on a full stomach. Otherwise I wake up early because I am hungry.
Make sure the room you sleep in is dark. Hang a blanket over the window if you have too.
Try to develop a sleep habit. Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time. It helps your body adjust. This one is difficult for me as I work two different shifts. I use benadryl, sleepy time tea, beer, wine and hot showers to get me relaxed before I go to bed. Not all at the same time.
If I have breakfast when I get home, I drink tea. If I have dinner, I drink some alcohol. Too much alcohol and you won't sleep long or well.

Some times I take a benadryl an hour before I get off so I am sleepy by the time I get home. Depends on if I have sleep to catch up on or not.
Exercise can help relax you.
When you leave for work, make sure you are fully awake. A couple of weeks ago I left still sleepy and it was foggy out. I crashed and totaled my truck.

At work, I try to stay away from coffee towards the end of my shift. Eat like you normally would, don't skip a meal because you are at work at night. I try to avoid sugar and the let down after the rush wipes me out.
When I start getting really tired, I stretch or do something physically demanding. If I am in the office, on the computer, I have a hard time staying awake. If I am out on the road driving, I pray.

 

[coreyb]

it's not that hard really. just make sure you have a dark, quiet place to sleep and stick to a schedule. I work 10 - 6 and I generally go to bed at 7:30 and get up at 4. If I stay up sometimes or get up early it ends up wiping me out.

 

[Jeff7]

To reset yourself to the new schedule, take a day or two, and stay awake several hours longer than usual. Set an alarm clock so you don't oversleep. If I need to reset my circadian clock, two days is usually all it takes.

 

[EMPshockwave82]

Thanks for all your tips. Any additional info helps and I hadn't seen this thread before but figured it might be helpful for others as well.

Originally posted by: Jeff7
To reset yourself to the new schedule, take a day or two, and stay awake several hours longer than usual. Set an alarm clock so you don't oversleep. If I need to reset my circadian clock, two days is usually all it takes.

I'm not using an alarm clock, just letting myself wake up whenever it's ready (which was after about 4 1/2 hours yesterday so i went back to sleep). But this is basically what i've tried. Tuesday at 10pm is the first day of the new shift. I stayed up til 4 am last night and am shooting for 4 or 5am tonight.

I have roman blinds in the room but I think I may have to hang a blanket to block more light....

Usually there isnt too much noise that I've noticed during the day. My roommate has been made aware of the change and said he will try to not make too much noise to help me out.

I'm going to try to keep a drink of some kind nearby. I seem to stay more awake when I'm drinking liquids (and if I do fall asleep I'll have to wake up soon to pee... or pee myself)

 

[EMPshockwave82]

Originally posted by: TallBill
Depends, what is the job? I was a 3rd shift cop for a long stretch and ended up really liking it.

I'll be kind of like a cop. This is a short term project using a radar gun to gather data.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: EMPshockwave82

Originally posted by: TallBill
Depends, what is the job? I was a 3rd shift cop for a long stretch and ended up really liking it.

I'll be kind of like a cop. This is a short term project using a radar gun to gather data.

Just set the radar gun to audible mode and take a nap

 

[SirStev0]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Learn to drink your breakfast...at least for the first couple of weeks.

Everytine I've had to work graveyard, the only way I could sleep during the day is if I had "a few drinks" after work...then off to bed for 6-8 hours.

After a week or two, your body should start to adjust to the new schedule and you can forego the drinking. (if you choose)

not that that is a sign of alcoholism or anything...

 

[Colt45]

there's no adjusting to graves... you sleep all your time off. fucking brutal.

 

[Fayd]

first you push in the clutch...

 

[IGBT]

..I did it for 18 years. I kept the same schedule on my days off which made it nearly effortless. same sleep sched.7 days a week. If you have a noisy n.hood it may be a problem. earplugs and wideband white noise work well.

 

[Beanie46]

Worked 11P-7A for over a decade......adjusted fairly well.

Lived like I was working a "normal" day job.....got off, did NOT go right to sleep, but instead went out, did whatever, went to sleep around 1P. Got up around 8P-9P. After all, if you work a day job, you don't run home and go right to sleep, do you? So why try that with a night shift job? Doing that and you'll only wake up way early before you go to work and by 3A, you're ready to die.......

 

[Zee]

sleep is for the weak. just have some will power and DO IT. dont need all this bullshit melatonin, alcohol, benadryl, whatever.

Eat good food, sleep when you have to, get some ass from your woman, and have a little bit of will power and you'll be fine

 

[will889]

Originally posted by: Beanie46
Worked 11P-7A for over a decade......adjusted fairly well.

Lived like I was working a "normal" day job.....got off, did NOT go right to sleep, but instead went out, did whatever, went to sleep around 1P. Got up around 8P-9P. After all, if you work a day job, you don't run home and go right to sleep, do you? So why try that with a night shift job? Doing that and you'll only wake up way early before you go to work and by 3A, you're ready to die.......

This. It's exactly what I did because I wanted the same "just got up" freshness that morning workers had and I found that getting up too early didn't allow for that. I learned to use the natural sounds of the day to make me sleep better -- the mowing of lawns and leafblowers became like nature sounds essentially putting me to sleep. Also getting a house fan for white noise/air helps.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: Colt45
there's no adjusting to graves... you sleep all your time off. fucking brutal.

I didn't find it to be that bad... you just gotta pick a new sleep schedule and stick to it.

I worked 12 am - 8 am for like a year and a half... I'd sleep from 10-11 am till 7 pm, which worked out pretty well even on my days off, since I could wake up at my normal time and go out with my friends -- the only real difference being that at the end of the night, they'd go home and go to sleep while I'd go home and still be up for another 8-10 hours.

just stick with the schedule -- the people I see really suffering on overnights are the ones who try and flip back to a regular, 9/5'er daylight schedule on all of their days off and end up being tired as hell/half-asleep when they're on the clock.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Beanie46
Worked 11P-7A for over a decade......adjusted fairly well.

Lived like I was working a "normal" day job.....got off, did NOT go right to sleep, but instead went out, did whatever, went to sleep around 1P. Got up around 8P-9P. After all, if you work a day job, you don't run home and go right to sleep, do you? So why try that with a night shift job? Doing that and you'll only wake up way early before you go to work and by 3A, you're ready to die.......

I do 11-7 and sleep 8-4 without any problems, and even though I feel a bit tired at the end, I still don't feel all that tired, and it keeps my free time in the "normal" slot of 4-11.

 

[Strk]

It depends entirely on the person. All the tips in the world can only get you so far. Personally, I can fall asleep in a well lit room with plenty of noise.