Working night shifts

annie2005

Pink_fluff wrote: »

Eye mask. Sleep for as long as possible during the day.

Invest in some good earplugs as well as the eye mask. Eliminating sound and light will help enormously. Also your body will tell you when to eat. I personally when moving to shift work found that smaller meals/sandwiches worked out better than the full cooked meals that I usually ate. It's really easy to put on a lot of weight as your body loses it's old routine.

Also as stated above not all people can adjust to shift work. Some people's bodies just can't cope with the continual readjustments. Personally I found that working shifts meant that I slept less overall. Six hours plus a nap was the usual. It was fine and I never felt tired or out of sorts once I altered my eating to smaller more evenly spaced potions.

The trick is to design your own routine once you know how it's going to hit your body. A friend swears by home, shower, plate of cereal and 8 hours sleep no matter what shift they are working.

The hardest thing is often maintaining a social life. Especially if both of you work shifts.

GonzoAston

Ive worked nights for 8 years too.

I found (through lack of sleep at first) that Ear Plugs are a must. Especially in summer when its warm, the windows are open and people start mowing their lawns.

Eye mask is a must too, unless you have blackout blinds.

I normally go to bed when I get in around 8am (after a shower, that helps to relax me to sleep) and get up around 4ish. Have my tea about 7-8pm and normally have a butty or similar around 4am.

Your body will adapt to it in time, it may be hard at first though. Just try to sleep a good 8 hours and you should be ok.

Good luck

roxalana

Echo what others say about getting blackout curtains and seeing what works for you in terms of eating and sleeping.

I would like to add - have a look at the batch cookery threads which might be on the oldstyle board - i can't remember!

My OH works variable shifts and he would eat nothing but crisps and peanut butter/cheese sarnies if I didn't cook for him. If he is going to need to eat when I'm not around I try to leave him something proper that he can microwave. he never has the energy to bother making something from scratch and it is very easy to put on weight when you work shifts

ceemilarra

You can also try Sleeping masks at day time Sleeping. and Eat Before 30 min to Sleep.

ariba10

The closest we came to a divorce was when I came down from sleeping after a night shift and the OH put a cooked dinner in front of me.

She only did it the once.