I thought I was doing good on night, but then....

CinnamonSugar

CinnamonSugar

A Quiet American
Still working as a travel nurse (but poking retirement with a short stick); my last assignment was nights 3 out of 7 days. I thought I was doing pretty good adjusting and keeping it all together. Then I rec'd a letter back from an over-seas mission organization I support. They returned my check from the month before because... uh... I forgot to fill it out! Yeah, I mailed a blank check (no signature, either, lol). Hmmmm

If you've worked nights, what's the funniest thing you've ever done while sleep deprived?
 

CinnamonSugar said:
Still working as a travel nurse (but poking retirement with a short stick); my last assignment was nights 3 out of 7 days. I thought I was doing pretty good adjusting and keeping it all together. Then I rec'd a letter back from an over-seas mission organization I support. They returned my check from the month before because... uh... I forgot to fill it out! Yeah, I mailed a blank check (no signature, either, lol). Hmmmm

If you've worked nights, what's the funniest thing you've ever done while sleep deprived?
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Years ago I fell asleep at my dispatch station while working the graveyard shift it was about 3 o’clock in the morning and I ended up putting my chin on my microphone and snoring into it everyone in their cars heard it and thought it was hysterically funny, I don’t think my boss thought it was very funny though, it was during my pregnancy though so I had reason for my exhaustion.
 

Lc jones said:
Years ago I fell asleep at my dispatch station while working the graveyard shift it was about 3 o’clock in the morning and I ended up putting my chin on my microphone and snoring into it everyone in their cars heard it and thought it was hysterically funny, I don’t think my boss thought it was very funny though, it was during my pregnancy though so I had reason for my exhaustion.
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I haven’t worked a graveyard shift sense!
 
I worked third shift for 32 of my 37 years with the PSP. I fell right into the shift and actually, it seemed just as normal to me as dayshift to those that worked those hours. My shift was scheduled for 8 hours, however, if I would answer a call, like an hour before the end of my shift, I could end up doing as many as 16 hours. Driving home was terrible. I would put the windows down and I kept a small spray bottle of water that I would use to spray my face.

Like I wrote earlier, my worse time was driving home, especially if I had to leave from the Barracks, which was 50 miles from my house. If I went home after I signed off the radio, no problem. There were even a few times that I did pull over and sleep a few hours before finishing the drive home.
 
911 said:
Like I wrote earlier, my worse time was driving home, especially if I had to leave from the Barracks, which was 50 miles from my house. If I went home after I signed off the radio, no problem. There were even a few times that I did pull over and sleep a few hours before finishing the drive home.
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50 miles is a looonnnggg drive when you have been awake all night! I will have to remember the spray bottle =)
 
CinnamonSugar said:
50 miles is a looonnnggg drive when you have been awake all night! I will have to remember the spray bottle =)
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We had 1 Trooper that kept a box of Honeynut Cheerios in his cruiser and would pick at them through the wee hours of the night and when he felty a bit sleepy. He said that his doctor recommended doing it because that’s what he did while in college and burned the midnight oil while studying.
 
I stood eve and mid watches for a couple of years while I was in the Navy. It is hard on the body and disrupts meals and family and social life. Particularly irritating were those times when the "powers that be" wanted us to hang around the next day to stand a formation or attend a lecture on some trivial subject.

Now on the subject of working odd hours and getting super tired, the worst I ever experienced was when I went on a month long exercise with the Army in South Korea during the winter. I was Cold, wet, tired, hungry, and generally ticked off but I did acquire a lot of respect for Army troops that month.
 
Worked 4 PM - 7 AM, Yellow Cab, Chicago. They let me keep the cab, most of the time. I'd pull up in front of downtown hotels, and usually catch a few winks, around 4 AM.

One morning, I was out cold, in front of the Playboy Towers Hotel. Dan Greenburg, a very well-known humorist, actor, and writer, got in my cab. He had to shake me, to wake me up. I was dazed, not knowing where I was. I tried to talk, and everything came out gibberish. My shirt was wet with saliva. I had been in deeeeeeeep sleep. Anyway, I finally got my wits about me, and drove him to O'hare. He was a very funny guy, great stories, and a decent tipper. (He's still around, at 83. 72 books, translated into 20 languages.)

I changed my sleep routine, after that morning, avoiding cab stands, .
 

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