Rotating Shift Work And Tiredness

Kimberley

I'm not sure what board to put this on. Do any of you do rotating shift work? How do you cope with sleep and healthy eating?

I do 5 days on earlies then have 2 rest days then go onto middle shifts then 2 rest days then onto late shifts etc I have trouble fitting in sleep and eating. Sometimes when on lates I'm having a main meal at say 8pm. I'm always tired. It's the tiredness I want to sort out.

Have you any tips?

kingfisherblue

My daughter works rotating shifts. She spends some time on her days off preparing healthy meals that can be reheated quickly, to avoid going down the junk food path. She also has a wide variety of fruit, salads, cold pasta salads, sliced meats, etc for making lunches for work, although she sometimes takes in meals to microwave (home cooked, from the freezer - she uses plastic lidded boxes from Home Bargains and reuses them).

As for tiredness, she saw the doctor for other reasons early this year and found out that she has a vitamin D deficiency, so is on medication. She seems to be permanently exhausted but has had to cut down her dosage due to pregnancy, even though she still has the deficiency. She manages by batch cooking, ironing only what is necessary, and taking an hour or half hour nap whenever she can.

getmore4less

if they are normal length shifts what are you doing the rest of the time.

Kimberley

getmore4less wrote: »

if they are normal length shifts what are you doing the rest of the time.

When on lates the latest I'd finish is 2am, I go straight to bed and up by 8am in the morning, I can start as late as 4pm when on lates.

When I'm on earlies I can start as early as 03.30am and finish at 11am. I don't go straight to bed but have a nap about 3pm and then go to bed at 10pm to start about 03.30. Times are all different.

notanewuser

Sounds like you need to sleep more.

My sister does 5 on, 5 off, 12 hour shifts. Pattern is 3 days, 2 nights, 7-7 each day. Days are straightforward - in bed by 10:30 and up at 5:30am. She gets home at 7:45am off the night shifts and is in bed by around 8:30am. She has blackout curtains and earplugs and will sleep until around 3:30pm. Then she has a couple of hours to do what she needs to and get ready for work again. That's usually her last shift so she sleeps from around 8:30am till 1pm, so that she's tired enough at 9pm to go to bed and catch up.

She's done it for 10 years, which amazes me!

getmore4less

I think you need to review your work, rest, sleep patterns.

Time shifting is an issue, but so are sleeps that are the wrong length.

Extend the main sleeps to around 7.5-8.5 hours and have short ones around 4hr(+-)

adjust to find what works best and slip in the odd snooze.

If the job is a bit stressful(even if not) have some wind down time when getting home even on the late shifts before crashing the sleep will be a lot better quality.

Avoid a quick catch up on a bright screen(phone, tablet, PC).
Avoid wake up food but don't go to bed hungry

The classic pattern is 8-8-8 for normal workers or at sea 4-8-4-8.
although the natural cycle may not be this it is the closest that worked for years.

If you find yourself nodding off you are not sleeping enough.

Daylight is also important for the control of sleep cycles so you have to be careful between summer and winter.

Sponge

I've been doing shifts for nearly 15 years, but not the system you're on. I do 4 on, 4 off: 2 days, 2 nights, 0700-1900/1900-0700.

How long have you been doing it? It took me a while to find out what worked for me, but as I've got older it's got harder and I've had to tweak it a bit.

In the last year or so I've substantially reduced the amount of caffeine I consume. I now drink decaf tea and coffee. Only when I'm really stuggling at work on a night shift will I have a caffeinated coffee.

I try to be in bed before 2300, but as it can sometimes take a while to nod off, 2215-2230 is better. Don't start watching a film that starts any later than 2100 and then only after checking how long it is.

After a night shift I get home about 0715 and I go straight to bed. In the past I'd be asleep quickly, but now I have three kids it's not until they're all out of the house at 0840 that I have any chance to actually get to sleep.

I'll then sleep as long as I need to. I usually wake around 1200-1300. I may grab a cat-nap before I start again at 1900; maybe an hour around 1600.

I'll sleep a bit longer after my second night, maybe until 1300-1400, but I try not to sleep too long as it makes it harder to get to sleep that evening. It's so easy to fall into the trap of staying up late and sleeping in later, but then you're screwed for the 0530 wake-up call for your first day shift.

It also helps if your family are understanding. Sometimes I have to remind my wife that spending half the day in bed is not being lazy and being on nights does not mean I have the entire day to do jobs around the house.

My employer is changing the shift system to something more akin to yours - a mixture of earlies, lates & nights and it's my idea of hell. They say it's more efficient and flexible, but cannot adequately (for me) actually explain why. I don't think it helps the people actually working the hours, but as they're closing my site in 6 months I won't be doing it. So, depending on where I go employment wise, I may be back to the 9-5 routine. Even with all the down-sides of shift (night) work, I'm not sure I'll like it.

lamb1102

Been doing shifts for over 30yrs and have never got used to them, I think I've just got used to being cream crackered all the time.