shift work sleep issues

[blackribbon]

Mork,

You asked about shift work sleep tips. Is yours a rotating shift or does it stay the same day to day? And is it day to day or like a 12 hour every other day type schedule?

Basically, so far, the tips seem to include:

1) take a short nap before going to work (one study says 30 min and another says 90 min)
2) avoid caffeine the last 4 hours of work to encourage the ability to fall asleep when you get home
3) avoid sun exposure as much as possible on the ride home...wear wrap around sunglasses and do not stop to run errands but rather go directly home
4) make your home as distraction free as possible...unplug/turn off the phone, hang a sign on your door so that no one knocks, if you live with people (do you?), please ask them to refrain from vacuuming and to wear headsets while listening to music, etc..
5) use room blackening curtains and drop the temperature slightly (I bought black sheets (doubled over) to throw over our curtains when my husband had to work nights...it helped darken the room significantly more without adding too much expense but wasn't terribly fashionable. We also put a small window a/c unit in his window to drop the temperature in that room to "hotel cold" in the summer).
6) try to keep your schedule on off days as close to your work day schedules
7) actually keep record of when and how much you sleep because you often are sleeping less than you realize.
8) pay attention to your lifestyle ... eat healthy, exercise regularly...and I'm going to add stop smoking if you do. (Smoking is being linked to so many seemingly not related health issues like bladder cancer but I know you also wake up from sleeping when your body needs a "hit" of nicotine.)

If you can choose to stay on the same hours, then try not to switch from days to nights.

If you do have to rotate, understand that going from days to nights is easier on your body. So if you are going from nights to days, you will need to schedule more sleep time.

And like I said before, if you work consistently a certain shift...keep that same schedule as much as possible on your off days.

 

[miss-a]

All good coping skills. But let's not forget number 9: Make job hunting a priority and pray for a job with normal hours. I worked overnigts full-time for seven years. It destroyed my health and took a decade of diligence and a ton of money to get it back. There are immune processes the body goes through when sleeping at night that it does no other time. Our bodies were made to sleep at night.

Please don't feel your financial welfare depends on working overnights forever or even for a long period of time. God does not require you to destroy your health to have a financial security. I learned this the hard way and pray you won't have to.

Prayers,
a

 

[mjmcmillan]

Hmmm..... Think I should tell about my "schedule"????

Hint: I keep a "Fireman's Schedule". When the phone rings, I go. That makes planning anything a bit of a challenge, but there it is.

My last job--- the phone rang at 10:30 at night, for a pickup at 11:30--- to be delivered ASAP 300 miles away. Two stops on that run. I had been up all day just hanging around and had gone to bed only an hour and a half before the phone rang. I don't exactly keep regular hours, you know.

Strange thing: This is THE BEST "job" I've ever had, and giving it up just because of weird hours-- ain't gonna happen. Even if the pay is just about the worst I've ever had.

 

[blackribbon]

Some industries are 24 hours industries. Someone has to work those off hours. I personally want the night shift when it comes to nursing. I am a late night person...and the work isn't as intense...and less family and doctors to deal with.

 

[miss-a]

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, just warning you about what could happen. It may be that it won't happen to you, but it is a biological fact that it could. I think the thing to factor in is grace. If Jesus leads us to such a position, He will give us grace to withstand it. If it's our own idea and not endorsed by Him, there can be a serious price to pay. I lost a decade plus of my life. I can look back and see that being in that job was most of the time about me and not about Him. A ten year Job experience was enough to change my mind. I lost nearly everything, not just my health, but also the money that was keeping me in that job and my house. It's a big deal. I'm still in the process of building it back.

I don't think working a night shift is really an issue, as long as you go home late in the night and get to sleep while it's sitll night. But overnights are without question an issue, a serious one, and doing them for any length of time can destroy your health. the adrenals cannot handle it, and they are involved in dozons of biologically crucial processes, all of which get compromised if the adrenals go out of balance--unless the Lord gives you a pass. So be sure He has.

 

[mjmcmillan]

The absolute worst, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, is an evening shift. I had one for several years. The shift started at 2:30 in the afternoon and ran until 10:30 at night. Those hours are MURDER on any other life you have. You're working when your friends are otherwise available, and they're working during your available time. Truth, I think I'd rather have the 10:30 night to 6:30 morning shift, at least that way I could have had friends and attended Wednesday Night services and so on. Add the fact that we often had a six-day work week then--- imagine not being able to be with any friends on Saturday evening because you have to work-- and I think you can see that the evening sift is the undisputed champ for the "worst" title.

 

[memoriesbymichelle]

The absolute worst, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, is an evening shift. I had one for several years. The shift started at 2:30 in the afternoon and ran until 10:30 at night. Those hours are MURDER on any other life you have. You're working when your friends are otherwise available, and they're working during your available time. Truth, I think I'd rather have the 10:30 night to 6:30 morning shift, at least that way I could have had friends and attended Wednesday Night services and so on. Add the fact that we often had a six-day work week then--- imagine not being able to be with any friends on Saturday evening because you have to work-- and I think you can see that the evening sift is the undisputed champ for the "worst" title.

I agree! I used to work "swing" shift and I hated it. I couldn't go to sleep right when I got home and alot of times I worked overtime til about 3 in the morning. So I would have to sleep in and then when I did get up, there wasn't enough time to get anything done or do anything before I had to be at work again. The only saving grace was that it was M-F

 

[blackribbon]

I personally would like the 11pm to 7am shift. That has me home when my kids are awake...even if I am asleep, I am available to contact. I also do better during the dark hours than the wee morning ones. I am still suffering from the 6:30 am rotation I did...even though the following rotation was from 2-10pm. I wake up in a panic almost every morning about 5 or 6 am regardless of what time I went to sleep. Mentally, I was at my best on the afternoon/evening shift...so after the kids are gone, that might be my preference. 12 hour shifts are a different story. Regardless of which one you have..you either go to work in the day light and come home in the day light (summer) OR you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark (winter)...and never experience the outside weather beyond that on work days.

 

[MorkandMindy]

Mork,

You asked about shift work sleep tips. Is yours a rotating shift or does it stay the same day to day? And is it day to day or like a 12 hour every other day type schedule?

It goes wed thurs fri 12 hour days, weekend, mon tues 12 hour days, Wed off, thurs fri 12 hour nights, weekend, Mon tues wed 12 hour nights.

The advice we had was to eat less salt and less fat and to sleep consistent hours, and not to have any children.

Many thanks for your other tips - I had never slept more than 10 hours until I was moved onto this mad schedule, now on my first day off I often go to bed at 8:30 AM and sleep to 7 or 8 PM, and I'll do 10 hours the next night as well. I didn't realise until your tip 7 that I was sleeping less in between the shifts than I thought I was.

 

[MorkandMindy]

All good coping skills. But let's not forget number 9: Make job hunting a priority and pray for a job with normal hours. I worked over-nights full-time for seven years. It destroyed my health and took a decade of diligence and a ton of money to get it back. There are immune processes the body goes through when sleeping at night that it does no other time. Our bodies were made to sleep at night.

Please don't feel your financial welfare depends on working over-nights forever or even for a long period of time. God does not require you to destroy your health to have a financial security. I learned this the hard way and pray you won't have to.

Prayers,
a

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, just warning you about what could happen. It may be that it won't happen to you, but it is a biological fact that it could. I think the thing to factor in is grace. If Jesus leads us to such a position, He will give us grace to withstand it. If it's our own idea and not endorsed by Him, there can be a serious price to pay. I lost a decade plus of my life. I can look back and see that being in that job was most of the time about me and not about Him. A ten year Job experience was enough to change my mind. I lost nearly everything, not just my health, but also the money that was keeping me in that job and my house. It's a big deal. I'm still in the process of building it back.

I don't think working a night shift is really an issue, as long as you go home late in the night and get to sleep while it's sitll night. But overnights are without question an issue, a serious one, and doing them for any length of time can destroy your health. the adrenals cannot handle it, and they are involved in dozons of biologically crucial processes, all of which get compromised if the adrenals go out of balance--unless the Lord gives you a pass. So be sure He has.

Staying up all night long feels like death itself; it is certainly not from me.

The point on immune system could explain why I have another rotten cold that seems to go on forever. I'd get maybe one cold every five years I guess and now I've had two in a few months, and they are lasting longer too.

Many thanks for that. Meanwhile because the other 95% of the company is relying on us to work nights, some of them come around when we are on days and hold meetings and give us advice about how it isn't a health problem if we just eat right, take regular exercise and sleep correctly.

I noticed how they hold the meetings during the day despite their claims that there is nothing wrong with working nights.

 

[miss-a]

Staying up all night long feels like death itself; it is certainly not from me.

The point on immune system could explain why I have another rotten cold that seems to go on forever. I'd get maybe one cold every five years I guess and now I've had two in a few months, and they are lasting longer too.

Many thanks for that. Meanwhile because the other 95% of the company is relying on us to work nights, some of them come around when we are on days and hold meetings and give us advice about how it a health problem if we just eat right, take regular exercise and sleep correctly.

I noticed how they hold the meetings during the day despite their claims that there is nothing wrong with working nights.

Right, and are they working nights ever?

 

[MorkandMindy]

Right, and are they working nights ever?

That's the interesting bit. The 50 of us who do the work are all on rotating shifts, the other 470 in the company who supposedly help us in one way or another do not.


There were 2 day shifts when I started but to increase production another shift was added and we were put onto 3 rotating shifts. That would increase production by 50% and allowed the company to add on more people in the offices and promote a lot of people in the offices and pay larger bonuses, mainly to people in the offices.

There is a bit of a morale problem right now because the production area is hot and the higher ranking higher paid more respected people 'working' days in the offices are all air conditioned, in fact individually climate controlled.

The report before adding nights was that it would not affect morale or health or safety, and that report is correct because it was written by higher ranking people in health and safety.


The reason the shifts had to rotate was because the pay department had a payments scheme already worked out for rotating shifts but not for fixed.

It was also stated that our night shift would never get to health and safety meetings if we were permanently on nights. I asked why the health and safety people couldn't come in on nights if it doesn't affect morale or health or safety and the answer was that they don't want to and don't see why they should.


I think the class structure is going to destroy this country.

 

[miss-a]

Yes, the class structure. It was so interesting where I worked overnights. I was a Counselor Associate, as opposed to a Counselor with letters after my name (by choice, I didn't want to be a counselor). So whenever there was a big storm coming, they would call us Assciates and try to get us to work days, because the faciltiy was residential and therefore could not close down. There needed to be staff there, and they didn't want the credentialed counselors to drive on dangerous roads. It was okay for us, though. I've never been squeamish about winter driving and I know where to draw the line, so it never bothered me in that respect, but that it never occurred to them that they were essentially calling and saying, "You losing your life in bad weather is preferable to our day staff dying," was unbelievable. But to them it was totally normal. People are weird.

As for you, I do hope you'll put out feelers for other jobs. I'm living proof that none of us have to harm ourselves to make a living. I walked away from that job, but sadly not until my health was trashed. I did go through a for real Job experience, but the Lord is building it back. My health is back. I'm in a job where within perameters I can make my own schedule. I actually have three part time jobs, all that allow that, and when I peice them together I'm employed full time. The work is pleasant. I work independently, so there's little politicking or pecking order activities. I do my job, come home, get paid. Imagine that!

Now I quit mine old job cold turkey, because it was either that or a long term hospital stay that I was convinced would only make things worse, as I had a condition not recognized by most allopathic docs, and the thought of being a guinee pig was more than I could fathom. But you still have your health, though it sounds like your body is speaking to you. You could start looking around. Don't let the economic nay sayers keep you from looking if you are open to doing so. God opens doors that no man can open and closes doors only He can shut. I believe He opened doors long before I got sick, but I was too afraid to make the move. As soon as I was well enough, He slid me into a field I enjoy, and currently, there's so much work available that I have to turn down work every week. If I dd it all, I'd be working 50-60 hours every week, and I'd get sick again. But it's nice to know the extra assignments are out there, and will be if I ever should need them.

Blessings and prayers,
a

 

[dayhiker]

great testimony, a

 

[MorkandMindy]

I appear to be fully recovered and recharged on sleep, so I'm a bit puzzled why I slept 11:30 PM last night to 2 PM today, allowing 1/2 hour for being up in the night, that's 14 hours which apart from my recent cold is a record for me.

 

[dayhiker]

That is a long snooze .. I can't remember sleeping that long.

 

[blackribbon]

It might just have to do with how restful the night was...if you didn't hit the deep REM sleep for whatever reason (environmental noises, breathing issues, strange dreams that awoke you mid-cycle), you may have just needed the couple extra hours. Often, we are not aware when we are brought into shallow sleep so you may never know the cause.

 

[Sophrosyne]

I appear to be fully recovered and recharged on sleep, so I'm a bit puzzled why I slept 11:30 PM last night to 2 PM today, allowing 1/2 hour for being up in the night, that's 14 hours which apart from my recent cold is a record for me.

Must have been sleep deprived somewhat, stressed perhaps and the cold finally hit you hard while you slept and tired you out during that time while it was fought off. I have found when I get sick and sleep deprived I can sleep a lot longer than usual 2-4 hours longer.
My record for sleeping is 15.5 hours straight.

 

[mjmcmillan]

I'm still on weird "hours". Yesterday, I left here at 7:30 in the morning. I got back just about 45 minutes ago-- you can do the math from there I fancy, just keeping in mind that we're talking CDT throughout.

I did get some sleep in broken segments, having made the delivery at 10:30 last night I took some time to sleep in the van before rolling back home. Then a couple of naps at rest stops and a truck stop. For me, that's "normal".

Expedited in a van is like living under a bridge-- only on wheels. I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[dayhiker]

mjm ./.. good to see you know to pull over and get a nap in rather than trying to drive tired.