Working at night

[Starwars]

So I'm about to start working a few nights at a psychiatry ward at a nearby hospital. I'll be working from 9pm to 7am.

Anyone here have experiences from working at night? How did you prepare, how did you sleep, how did you eat etc etc? And how did you like it overall?

[Walsingham]

I've done some night work, but only on a limited basis. However, when I was studying I would sleep maybe a few hours a night.

 

I'd hit up my library for advice, but it's full of boxes I'm holding for a friend. And I mean FULL, so I can't reach any shelves.

 

Speaking from personal experience be wary of late night snacking. When you are tired you get stressed and you want to eat. Drink water, that will help flush toxins. I love coffee, but my understanding is that it doesn't help you stay awake. You decide.

 

My other advice is to keep busy. Night work is tedious, and that's one of the hardships, and one of the things which stops you sleeping at the end of your 'day'. If you can stay active in your work, then stay active. Push the bounds of what you can achieve in a night every night. If you can't be that active, then try learning a new skill, like a language; or burn calories with some simple exercises.

[Starwars]

Thanks.

 

Yeah, I'd been reading up a bit before and something that constantly comes up is the pitfalls of eating at night. I'd originally planned to make a little "lunch" to bring so to speak but I think I'll skip that. Though I think I'll bring some fruit or veggies.

I don't usually drink coffee at work because it tends to go right through me, but I think I'll be having some before I go to work since the effect is apparently long-lasting (I can't say I've ever felt a very real change myself but eh).

 

Yeah, staying active will be a problem I think. Unless there's a patient who's going a bit berserk, the night-shifts at the ward are very quiet as far as I know and there's just not that much to do since... well, patients are supposed to be asleep.

 

When I get home, I think I'll have some breakfast and then try and go to sleep.

[Gfted1]

I spent almost 8 years working nights in the Navy, either 7pm to 7am (while at sea) or 11pm to 7am (while shore based) and I loved it. It takes a bit of getting used to because when you get off its not like you go immediately to sleep, you do your normal after work things, so you wind up with a really wonky sleep schedule where in your case youre going to be sleeping from like 10am to 7pm. In my case there were several positives to that schedule: 1) the bosses usually arent around to muck things up 2) it free's up your day hours to take care of any errands 3) its not as hot (this sounds crazy but try working on a flight line in the middle of a summer day ). I know #3 has no bearing on you but 1 and 2 apply. One word of warning though, if you are in a relationship where your other half works days, it really strains the relationship as you basically spend zero time together.

[Gorth]

I've done way more night work than I care to remember, but that was usually because the day didn't have enough hours in it. Plenty of 24 and 48 hour work days. Thats why my hair started turning grey at 22

 

Coffee drinking from a cup that never runs empty and plenty of loud rock music springs to mind as stimulants.

[Guard Dog]

Don't go to sleep as soon as you get home. You need to treat your mornings like you used to treat your evenings. One of my favorite parts of working nights was the looks you get buying a case of beer at 8 am on a weekday morning.

 

Also, not having to deal with traffic is nice too!

[Starwars]

Well, for now I'll only be working nights every now and then and the majority of workdays will be during the days. So I think I'll try to stay in the normal rythm of things for now. I think I will get some twisted sense of enjoyment seeing all the people heading to work in the morning though while I get to go home and chill out.

 

But yeah, not in a relationship at the moment so if I enjoy working nights, I'll be shooting for that as much as I can.

 

haven't had a cold in a really long time now though and I usually get a really big one when autumn rolls around... So I kinda fear that I'll be hit with that.

[Orogun01]

Get your laptop and stay up all night playing.

[LadyCrimson]

Hubby worked 11pm-7pm (and other crazy varied start times, like 2am, 8pm, 10pm etc) a lot when he was in his early 20's. He drank lots of coffee, ate very little, took a nap an hour or two after getting off work, & another nap a few hours before having to go to work.

 

If you have a lot of friends who like to hang out, or lots of non-work stuff to do that requires normal retail type time hours, it can be hard to maintain a regular schedule, hence why he chose multiple naps/coffee instead of an 8 hour block of sleep time. It worked for him well enough, but not everyone can manage that I guess.

 

But...he never "liked it." I think it was more the dull job than the time of day, tho. The job didn't have lots of empty hours, but it was monotonous machinist type work.

[Hurlshort]

I used to work the night shift at an Egyptian museum. I would carry my maglight on my shoulder so I could swing it easily in case I was attacked by thieves or mummies.

[Walsingham]

If we really want to help him stay awake, surely we should put together a compendium of creepy asylum centred films.

[LadyCrimson]

Listening to a chipmunked version of the original Oompa Loompa song would probably keep me awake all night. Unfortunately it might also have other, less desirable effects...

[Orogun01]

Listening to a chipmunked version of the original Oompa Loompa song would probably keep me awake all night. Unfortunately it might also have other, less desirable effects...

Of course listening to that one would go from being the caretaker to being taken care of.

[Shryke]

i worked from midnight - 8am for about 6 months and started going a bit loopy after a while

 

i'd get home about 9am and not be able to sleep at all. eventually i'd collapse from exhaustion about 7pm, only to get up again at 10pm to get ready

 

but on the bright side, work was really quiet, so i'd sit there playing guitar or reading a book most nights, and there were no managers to be looking over my shoulder

[Enoch]

I'd think that the greater problem would be sleeping during the day rather than staying up at work during the night. The outside world is usually a lot brighter and noisier during the day (depending on where you live, of course).

 

I suggest some very heavy drapes to block out outside light and noise.

[mkreku]

I used to work nights at a newspaper press when I studied. My job mostly consisted of watching machines to make sure they ran smoothly (which they almost never did).

 

My only advice: try to eat as little as possible. Apparently your body hoards the food you digest during the night and you gain a lot of weight very easily.

[Starwars]

Well I finished the shift and things went just fine and dandy. It started out pretty hectic with two new patients arriving, everyone wanting to go to sleep and get their medicine at the same time and two people that we had to watch extra carefully.

Other than that, nearly everyone slept through the night.

 

It was pretty cozy to work at first actually. I did fall to the temptation of having coffee but it was rather nice to sit in the quiet ward sipping coffee. The temptation of eating was huge but I managed to stick to my carrots only, hehe.

Things got *really* slow at around 3-4AM up until 6AM or so. When dawn starts to break, you really get a new surge of energy.

Got home and slept for about four hours. Gonna stay awake now and try to sleep like I usually do during the night.

 

Didn't love the experience but can certainly see myself hopping in every now and then to make some extra money. But I don't think it's for me to become a full-time night worker. But hey, who knows what'll happen.

[Walsingham]

Well, as I'm sure you'd agree. At least it's work.

[Nepenthe]

I used to work the night shift at an Egyptian museum. I would carry my maglight on my shoulder so I could swing it easily in case I was attacked by thieves or mummies.

 

Sigged.

[Tale]

I used to work the night shift at an Egyptian museum. I would carry my maglight on my shoulder so I could swing it easily in case I was attacked by thieves or mummies.

That reminds me, I need to finish my new Doom 3 replay.

[Gfted1]

Heh, I really enjoyed those movies.

[Walsingham]

If it's not a rude question, how did you get the gig in the first place?

[sorophx]

oh, I got here pretty late, so I guess my advice isn't gonna really help

 

anyways, I worked night shifts for 7 years so I do have some experience to share

 

the biggest problem was to stay awake. I kept struggling for years, you'd think that after a couple of years your brain gets used to it... well, it never does but there are ways to go around it. the most common tactic is to take short naps throughout the night, 20-30 minutes every hour will do wonders.

 

after a couple of weeks of this self-torture your brain shifts into an alternative mode to help itself. actually, three's a whole system based on this (the Uberman schedule, I believe), when your brain gets used to it, it becomes easy to sleep only 2-3 hours a day and still feel fresh. of course the rest of your body doesn't get the much needed rest, and it can hurt you in the long run.

 

coffee never helped me, eating did. make the meals small but eat often. every hour or so. don't stuff yourself.

My only advice: try to eat as little as possible. Apparently your body hoards the food you digest during the night and you gain a lot of weight very easily.

this isn't exactly true. people gain weight because their body thinks it's starving. when you eat only two or three times a day, your body gets used to it, and every additional meal, especially when the meals are far apart, gets treated like the last before a very long break, the body then switches it's gears and "hoards" 80% of all food, putting it into fat. the trick is to eat often.

 

this applies for everyday eating, if you're dead serious on controlling your weight it's better to eat 5-6 times a day, always make sure you're left a little hungry after every meal. this way your stomach keeps working all day long.