One of my coworkers say she sleeps about 3 - 4 hours every night and I actually believe it's true when it comes to her. She's 68, has been working in the same retirement home since she was 17, first in the day and in the last 20 years or so nights. She can retire at any time she chooses, and she already has enough money without pension to probably be set for life.

She goes to bed around 8 and wakes up 11 or 12, then she does things during the day like go to birthday parties, shopping, meeting friends and seeing her grandchildren etc. Then she goes to work again and works the entire night, and I've never seen her sleep at work and she does not seem very tired either. She works full time which is about 15 - 16 nights a month 22 - 07.

For me, I've been working nights for about 10 years and I always have brain fog and I'm constantly tired even on my days off. I work about 12 nights a month, take sleeping medication every time I get off work or else I only sleep 4 hours even though I'm still tired. With the sleeping medication I often sleep until 19 - 20 in the evening. Off days are about recovering, since I have a bad schedule where I'm usually only off 2 - 3 days at a time. Brain fog eases after maybe 5 days off for me with day-rhythm, which I never get.

The work in itself is not easy with many things to take care of and a lot of walking over a big house. It's pretty draining mentally and physically, and I know a lot of people feel that way about this particular elderly home.

So how does she do it? Does she have enormous will power? Great genetics? Drugs? Great attitude towards work that keeps her awake? Strong sense of duty? Nocturnal?

Hi

I (22F) will be working night shifts soon

I'm currently overweight and I wanna fix that as well

I usually sleep by 3am (thanks to all the instagram reel scrolling) but yeah I wanna change my lifestyle and make it healthy (i already have a desk job) so I was thinking of this schedule I just want to know if there's a that I can change/ stop doing

So 6pm-3am is my shift I'll reach by 4am

4-6am I'll study/upskill myself

6-7 workout

7-8 swimming

8-8:30 : breakfast

8:30am-3:30 pm: sleep (7hrs)

3:30-5: lunch + get ready for office

On weekends also I was thinking of following the same schedule (except for maybe Sundays idk when to sleep as I'll have to go to church in the morning at 9 )

So is this schedule good to go?

I've heard people saying that after night shift you have to sleep immediately something like that or else its not good for your body (night shift is already bad😭🙏)

Any suggestions are welcome

Thankyou!

I've been on graveyard shift (fri - mon 5:00pm - 5:30am) for one year, ever since I got my CNC machining job for aerospace stuff. It was pretty nice. My routine was to bust out parts Friday to Sunday, and into Monday I would prepare the entire CNC area for the weekdays crew including basic machine maintenance and coolant.

It felt fine, until a couple of months ago. I started experiencing paranoia, heightened anxiety, hallucinations, reduced coordination, ect during my shifts. My sleep wasn't that awful, typically 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 hours per night.

I decided that for many other reasons as well, I'd request to be moved over to weekend dayshift. I've been on it for 4 weeks. I feel better, I missed the sun! I'm doing other activities outside of work and able to run normal errands. I've always stuck with my work schedule so I don't have to screw up my circadian rhythm every week, so this change was a great improvement. And I prefer the dayshift crew, I'm more productive too without even trying. But it really sucks that I can no longer do the favors for the weekdays crew! The increased amount of work gives me less time for machine maintenance and organization.

Does this make me a traitor?

So i work in mental health, lone work, never used to mind it too much but lately... It's not even the fact that it's nights and I'm by myself a lot.

We're getting a lot of shit we are not equipped to deal with. Then if it goes south we're the ones to blame.

We deal with people who are at rock bottom, but if they don't communicate it's our fault. I say this with respect but you can't make people talk.

Then if one of them has a crash out the other staff freak the fuck out.

The staff themselves (not all) are toxic as all hell and just make things worse.

I'm tired lol, fed up and probably need a lil crash out myself but Jesus Christ.

It just seems to be getting worse and more intense.

Anyone else had this?

I'm in my 30s, working night shift, and I'm starting to feel it hit different than it did in my 20s.

In my 20s I could pull a 12 hour night, sleep 4 hours. Now? One bad sleep and I'm useless for 2 days. Energy is lower, recovery is slower, and the social isolation is real.

Family / friends are all on day shift life. Relationships, health, diet, mental health everything feels harder to manage on nights now.

For those of you in your 30s doing nights long term:

• How are you managing sleep? Blackout curtains? Actual routine?
• How's your health? Weight, gym, diet what actually works on nights?
• Social life / relationship / kids how do you not drift apart from everyone?
• Do you plan to get off nights or have you made peace with it?
• What’s one thing you wish you did differently when you started?

Honestly just looking to hear how other guys in their 30s are navigating this, because right now I feel like I'm just surviving the shift, not living a life.

Would appreciate any real advice, not the usual "just sleep 8 hours lol" stuff.

Day shifters: “We get one extra hour of sleep!”
Night shifters: “We get one extra hour of work.” 🫠

where are my NY nightshifters out. upstate here

Glad to hear I’ll be paid for the extra hour! Woo hoo! lol

I am too friendly and too helpful. I have other people constantly talking to me when I just want to do my job and go home.

I'm contractually obligated to be around these people. They all have friendships with each other that I'm not included in, but they constantly talk to me while I'm at work. I just want them to shut up and leave me alone, but there are also times where I need their help. I need to learn how to be the curmudgeon without giving them a reason not to help me. Any ideas?

Feeling good lately and planning to start going to the gym. Maybe someone could share their gym and healthy diet routine?

Thanks!❤️

I’m 20 years old and as long as I can remember I’ve never been able to get much sleep. Working days was a nightmare and often would take days off just to catch up on sleep I had missed from not being able to get to bed till about 5am.

Anyways, since April I’ve been working nights and it’s been so much better for myself, no days off, getting good sleep and plenty of time in the day to do stuff. However some days I feel like absolute crap. My good friend at work says he takes vitamins as we lack sunlight this time of year (here in England it’s dark when I arrive, even by 5pm, and dark when I get home). I just wanted to know how you guys handle it?

Usually I feel fine but on these days I don’t wake up till 5pm and it really annoys me seeing no sunlight and only having 5 hours to myself. I like to sleep at 6-7am and wake up 1-2pm and usually have no issues.