Covering night shift

safcforever

safcforever

Striker
How do you do it? I come home, stay awake for a few hours then go to bed.

How do you do your days off? I struggle to sleep properly on days off and end up wasting them either being a zombie when I’m awake through the day or I sleep them away and I’m awake through the night when nothing is open or nothing going on
 


Never really sympathised with me Step Dad doing shifts when I was a bairn like, but it musta been shit trying to kip all day, getting up for the tea me mam's cooked at teatime for what's essentially ya breakfast, then having to gan out to work at 9pm.

I think his routine was get in about 7 in the morning, see to the dogs, gan to bed all day. Me mam'd get him up for his tea about 6ish (often a source of tension when he couldn't be arsed to get up for it :lol:), see to the dogs, gan out to work about 9pm.

Musta been a twat adjusting from dayshift one week to night shift the next.
 
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chriswallace85 said:
Never really sympathised with me Step Dad doing shifts when I was a bairn like, but it musta been shit trying to kip all day, getting up for the tea me mam's cooked at teatime for what's essentially ya breakfast, then having to gan out to work at 9pm.

I think his routine was get in about 7 in the morning, see to the dogs, gan to bed all day. Me mam'd get him up for his tea about 6ish (often a source of tension when he couldn't be arsed to get up for it :lol:), see to the dogs, gan out to work about 9pm.

Musta been a twat adjusting from dayshift one week to night shift the next.
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I’ve never worked shifts thankfully but sounds awful.
 
Done different shifts in years gone by. Week of nights, then evening and finally day shifts then repeat. After the last night, think I just grabbed a couple of hours kip and then tried to stay awake until midnight and go to bed to try and get back into normal days. Didn't always work as obviously you're used to being awake during night by then! Certainly plays havoc with your body clock for years afterwards. Also have done 2 x 14 hour nights followed by 2 x 10 hour days, then 4 days off. Absolute killer those nights! Get home after the first and pretty much straight to bed, 6 hours sleep and back up and out to work. Days off were great but never again! Definitely played havoc with sleep patterns for many years not to say eating shite and at wrong times! I pity those on long term shift variations. Think I did approx 4 years mixed nights/eve/days and then (5 years later) a few years of the 4 long nights/days with 4 off. Thankfully not done any shifts for 15+ years!
 
Shack said:
Done different shifts in years gone by. Week of nights, then evening and finally day shifts then repeat. After the last night, think I just grabbed a couple of hours kip and then tried to stay awake until midnight and go to bed to try and get back into normal days. Didn't always work as obviously you're used to being awake during night by then! Certainly plays havoc with your body clock for years afterwards. Also have done 2 x 14 hour nights followed by 2 x 10 hour days, then 4 days off. Absolute killer those nights! Get home after the first and pretty much straight to bed, 6 hours sleep and back up and out to work. Days off were great but never again! Definitely played havoc with sleep patterns for many years not to say eating shite and at wrong times! I pity those on long term shift variations. Think I did approx 4 years mixed nights/eve/days and then (5 years later) a few years of the 4 long nights/days with 4 off. Thankfully not done any shifts for 15+ years!
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I’m currently doing 4 x 13-14 hours with 3 off.

6pm until 8am. Depending on how well the hand off goes. It’s a killer
 
Chubbs said:
Nights permanent far easier than rolling shifts. Trick is to just listen to your body.

I get more sleep than when I did permanent earlies but it's not for everyone
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This would make a huge difference. If I was on nights permanently I’d adjust my life to it.
I’m covering right now because we have no staff to hold the shifts together
 
I’m on permanent nights, 10pm till 6am I have 2 sleeps during the day one in morning, then another in late afternoon have done this shift for 15 years now, on my days off can sleep normally must be used to it.
 
I know a few lads who used to do night shift at our place, finished at 07:15 then used to have a few cans when they got in the house. Dunno if I could bring myself to do it like.
 
Treat it like a day shift.
If you work days, you don't come home and go straight to bed. Get in, have food, fuck about for a couple of hours, then go to bed.
Couple of hours here and there fucks up your sleep pattern. Just reverse a day routine.
I do a mix of 12 nights and days. Coming out of the nights into the days is the killer.
 
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I do 3 shifts, 6am - 2pm, 2pm - 10pm and 10pm - 6am. Although on earlies and lates its a shorter friday shift and on nights its a shorter monday shift (start at 00:45 on the Monday morning)

I tend to try get a lie in Sunday and stay up for the first night shift. Then its usually 6:45am when i get home, try get into bed for 7am, sleep till 2:30/3pm. And i'm usually good. Friday i try get up at 11:30, so that come friday night im ready for bed, but often takes a few days to fully pull myself round. Thankfully nights is followed by late shift, so don't need to worry about getting to sleep early.

Prefer nights to early shift, i usually stuggle to get much more than 5 hours a night, so often have a nap on a Wednesday cos i'm struggling :lol:
 
I worked 4 on 4 off 12 hour shifts at Heathrow for many years, 7am to 7pm for a couple of days then 7pm to 7am for the next two nights. It meant I worked a LOT of weekends and public holidays but for many years I loved it. As i got older I found I could not sleep so well after the nights, to the point I'd be in bed by 8am and awake before 11:30 so I felt like shite for a couple of days, then back on shift.

Loved it at the time, would not go back to it now.
 
Georgewhitt said:
Treat it like a day shift.
If you work days, you don't come home and go straight to bed. Get in, have food, fuck about for a couple of hours, then go to bed.
Couple of hours here and there fucks up your sleep pattern. Just reverse a day routine.
I do a mix of 12 nights and days. Coming out of the nights into the days is the killer.
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I couldn’t do it like that when I used to do nights.
Literally went straight to bed as soon as I got in and slept until pretty much had to get up and get ready for work again.
Fortunately I only did it for a few years and hated it.

When I finished set of nights I always got up at lunchtime and made sure I had a good drink that evening to knock me out and get back into a normal sleep routine
 
Al Bundy said:
I couldn’t do it like that when I used to do nights.
Literally went straight to bed as soon as I got in and slept until pretty much had to get up and get ready for work again.
Fortunately I only did it for a few years and hated it.

When I finished set of nights I always got up at lunchtime and made sure I had a good drink that evening to knock me out and get back into a normal sleep routine
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I did this for a bit too. It helped that when I started working nights I was living in a place with my best mate who was a London Ambulance QAP also on weird shifts. Just through sheer luck, our shifts often used to align so 'breakfast' would be a burger and a pint in the local at midday before an afternoon on the lash in the Anchor over the road which was a bit of a biker's pub but it had a pool table and a cracking jukebox. Plus a landlord who Al Murray could have modelled his entire act on.
 

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