Working the graveyard shift

PeppermintPatty said:
My husband did rotating shifts. Either 7:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. and he did this for 27 years. It was hard on his body. He did 4 shifts on and 3 days off. He never adjusted to it.
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That was my cousin's husband's work schedule from his mid-20s until he retired at ...I think 63. He was a firefighter. A captain when he retired. They had 6 kids, and my cousin has always been jovial and fun to be around, so I assume he adjusted ok.

I think she probly took really good care of him. She's pretty awesome.
 
MountainRa said:
I worked a 3rd shift in my late twenties. I did not like it. Seems like all I did was work and try to sleep while life passed me by.

I donā€™t know how anyone ever adjusts to working swing shifts.
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Swing shift is an absolute nightmare if you have kids. I noped-out after 4 or 5 months. I just couldn't make it work with school schedules and the kids' sports and dance class and parent's night and all that.

I actually took another job. It paid less at first, but it was worth it for the kids' sake.
 
I worked graveyard shift from 1995 until I retired in 2023 from the nursing field. I loved it for my line of work because you didn't have to deal with the doctors (unless there was an emergency), you didn't have to deal with families (unless there was an emergency), you didn't have to deal with administration, or ancillary departments. I didn't get good sleep a lot of time, but the tradeoff was worth it. I like working with patients without being interupted.
 
KSav said:
I worked graveyard shifts my junior and senior years of college while still taking classes during the day. It was brutal. I think the only way I was able to handle the lack of sleep is because I was in my early 20s. I spent my days off sleeping.

My ex had to do rotating shifts (i.e., a mix of swing shifts, graveyard shifts, and days) when our kids were growing up, and that was pretty hard for him because of the kids, especially when they were very little and we lived in an apartment, not a house. I'd try to keep them outdoors so he could get some sleep, and he used a white noise machine, but it was still tough.

He'd spend days off trying to get back on schedule. The constant switching of shifts was pretty tough.
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because of my tourette syndrome i can't do rotating shifts. i become a psychological mess.
 
When I worked for six months in Lexington, Kentucky,I was on back shift Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night. In some ways it was nice because I had weekdays off and could do stuff I wouldnā€™t normally be able to do.

However, it became pretty clear how much of a toll was taking on me when the check I had sent off to pay for something came back to meā€¦ I had put a blank check in the payment envelope. Ok, so time to go back to days and recover my brain šŸ™„
 
I think rotating shifts are the absolute worst on your body. You just get used to one sleep schedule and BAM everything is reversed.
Then just as youre getting used to that one it changes again.

Some people cant handle sleeping during the day and staying awake all night. This happened at the husbands company.
Luckily for them there were people who would trade afternoon shift. No body would trade their day shift. :D
 
While in the service, I did 2 yrs of night shifts. They were 12 hr shifts 8 PM to 8 AM, and 3 days on and 3 days off. It was nice in that my crew and I would hustle and get our work done, and no brass around, so we could just play cards the rest of the night. Then after the shift ended, I would get breakfast at the chow hall & head back to the barracks. It was generally pretty quiet with the day shifters gone, so not bad.

The problem was on my days off I would often lose sleep going to visit friends in Chico, and we would party a lot, then I would have to drive back to base. It's a miracle I'm still alive. I drove drowsy way too many times. There were No Doz pills (Caffeine), but I only took them when I knew I was severely sleep deprived.
 
Veronica said:
I think rotating shifts are the absolute worst on your body. You just get used to one sleep schedule and BAM everything is reversed.
Then just as youre getting used to that one it changes again.
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Yes, I read somewhere that it's physically better to continually work one sort of shift rather than constantly be switching.

My younger daughter is a nurse and has been working graveyard shifts for about 2 years because of the extra/differential pay. She's trying to pay down her student loans. It worries me though, and I've been trying to convince nagging her to try to switch to days. She finally just did. For the time being, at least.
 
The woman next door has worked the night shift at the local hospital for at least 10 years; probably longer. She gets home around 7 AM, then all is quiet over there for 4 - 5 hours most days. After that, she's on the run again, either working outside, visiting her mother across the street, or going here and there in her car. So, it appears she's functioning on a maximum of 5 hours sleep each 24 hours. That would never work for me.
 
AI:
"Gravediggers worked at night primarily to protect new burials from grave robbers (body snatchers) who sold corpses to medical schools in the 18th and 19th centuries. Additionally, this "graveyard shift" was used to listen for bells attached to "safety coffins" for people feared buried alive, while also allowing workers to dig without interrupting daytime funeral services."
 
Nathan said:
I worked rotating shifts for the better part of 35 years, with Graveyard shifts being a 3rd of the work schedule. Graveyard trashes your circadian sleep cycle,
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I worked 12 hour rotating shifts... covering 24/7/365.... My circadian rhythm marches to the beat of a different drunk flue player....
Most of my 36 years was 4 nights Fri-Mon, off 3 days, then the tough one... 72 hours in 7 days, 3 on days, off one, then 3 nights. Then 4 days Mon-Thur, with the next week off, then start over. On nights you could sleep (once all duties were done) but you had to be rolling out the door in 90 seconds. For fun you can try sleeping in a recliner in your clothes, have someone wake you, and time yourself getting into your car.... 3 times a night...
Many of my days between night shifts included a 2nd job depending on how the night went.
Family issues... 1/2 of the weekends I was at work, missing the kids ballgames and stuff... Birthday and holidays too. But also some advantages. DW would work 4 tens, taking off Friday then the next Monday and we had a 4 day weekend about every month.
The week off every month was nice, but you worked 14 12/hr shifts in 21 days....
 
old medic said:
Most of my 36 years was 4 nights Fri-Mon, off 3 days, then the tough one... 72 hours in 7 days, 3 on days, off one, then 3 nights. Then 4 days Mon-Thur, with the next week off, then start over. On nights you could sleep (once all duties were done) but you had to be rolling out the door in 90 seconds. For fun you can try sleeping in a recliner in your clothes, have someone wake you, and time yourself getting into your car.... 3 times a night...
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You gotta wonder sometimes, who come up with these kinds of schedules?
 
Worked the night shift as a nurse in Surgical and Trauma ICU, 7P-7A for a few years. Yes, the pay was better and as @TeePee wrote,
TeePee said:
I loved it for my line of work because you didn't have to deal with the doctors (unless there was an emergency), you didn't have to deal with families (unless there was an emergency), you didn't have to deal with administration, or ancillary departments. I didn't get good sleep a lot of time, but the tradeoff was worth it. I like working with patients without being interupted.
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but I never managed to sleep much during the day. And it isn't truly 7P-7A. Add in drive time and the fact that many times the relief nurse would come in 15-20 minutes late and it mostly ended up being 6P-8:30/9A. One morning on the drive home, I fell asleep at a stop light. The driver behind me honked and woke me up when the light turned green. Scary.

When a day shift position opened, I jumped on it. Never wanted to work nights again. However, after six years of ICU, I transferred to OR day shift. Night shift had much less staff so on holidays and weekends, I would volunteer to work that shift because the pay was so very much higher.

There were some, however, who worked nights for years and loved it. Different strokes...
 
GoodEnuff said:
Worked the night shift as a nurse in Surgical and Trauma ICU, 7P-7A for a few years. Yes, the pay was better and as @TeePee wrote,


but I never managed to sleep much during the day. And it isn't truly 7P-7A. Add in drive time and the fact that many times the relief nurse would come in 15-20 minutes late and it mostly ended up being 6P-8:30/9A. One morning on the drive home, I fell asleep at a stop light. The driver behind me honked and woke me up when the light turned green. Scary.

When a day shift position opened, I jumped on it. Never wanted to work nights again. However, after six years of ICU, I transferred to OR day shift. Night shift had much less staff so on holidays and weekends, I would volunteer to work that shift because the pay was so very much higher.

There were some, however, who worked nights for years and loved it. Different strokes...
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One of my pet peeves working night shift was dayshift strutting in at any time they wanted to. It's almost like they thought their time was more valuable than mine. I've always been punctual, so it really got on my nerves, but I tolerated it. What are you going to do?

I'm like you, there were mornings that it's a wonder I even made it home due to being so tired and sleepy. One time I got home and parked in front of the garage, fell sleep for a few minutes then woke up. It's a wonder I didn't hit the accelerator and drive right through the garage. That sobered me up! I remember in the wintertime and it being freezing out and having my air conditioner on full blast to help keep me awake. It barely worked. Having said that, I worked night shift by choice and really enjoyed it.
 
bobcat said:
I don't know how that name ever originated, but it has distinctive differences from the dayshift.
It can seem strange driving home just as everyone else is going to work. Even eating breakfast before bed.
Some enjoy it while others hate it.
Sleeping during the day can be challenging, and even the phone can be a nuisance, along with other noises.

Have you or a loved one ever worked the graveyard shift?
How did it affect you or them or families?
How were days off managed?
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I worked that shift at Krispy Kreme as a young adult. Hated it and hated donuts for many years after.
 
We worked 16+++ hours over night shifts fighting forest fires. It was brutal. In most cases one showed up to the fire exhausted from travel just getting there. There really was no rest or recovery btwn shifts. Days were spent in an open field in fire camp, in the sun and heat, listening to vehicles, helos, and fixed wing aircraft buzz around all day. Eventually they added a r and r day after 14 days and a max deployment of 21 days in my last couple years.
 
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