Any 12 hour night shift workers?

[ramsdude47]

I’m going to ask my night shift question here that’s bugging the piss out of me.

I have experimented quite with a fluid cutoff time and volume restriction a bit with no appreciable difference. I generally drink around 2L, at least 90% of that before midnight. Regardless of my efforts, I wake up to pee some time between 11 and noon. Any thoughts on what I should change? After my initial wake up my sleep quality is pretty hit or miss, and a lot more miss these days.

I have no problem sleeping 10 PM to 6 AM paying very little attention to my fluid intake

 

[Rob5589]

I’m going to ask my night shift question here that’s bugging the piss out of me.

I have experimented quite with a fluid cutoff time and volume restriction a bit with no appreciable difference. I generally drink around 2L, at least 90% of that before midnight. Regardless of my efforts, I wake up to pee some time between 11 and noon. Any thoughts on what I should change? After my initial wake up my sleep quality is pretty hit or miss, and a lot more miss these days.

I have no problem sleeping 10 PM to 6 AM without paying very little attention to my fluid intake .

Same for me, around 11. I stop drinking around midnight, off at 0400, in bed at 0500, gotta pee at 11'ish. Totally kills my sleep as I get up at 1230 or 1 and usually can't get back to sleep.

 

[Frank Grimes]

I work 4 on 4 off, days then nights. I used to work 2 days then 2 nights then 4off. All 12 hour shifts.
I find the best way to deal with nights is to take a nap at work. I also don’t go to bed right away. I usually get home then walk the dogs then go to bed. I try to get about 5-6 hours of sleep at home and an about an hour nap at work.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

I did 4-10's and 3-12's 3rd shift and overnights for a bunch of years. Never had an issue at night and still don't, but it's damn near impossible to go to sleep at "normal" hours now and equally impossible to wake up on a normal schedule. Luckily I have flexible core hours but I sure would love to login and start work at 8am like a normal human being, I just can't. I need to go back to nights, it was great driving 1000 miles overnight and rolling into the mountains at noon to setup camp. I've been on day shift now for roughly 9 years and still to this day if I don't have a trip planned or a reason to get up I'll sleep til 4pm on a Saturday.

 

[kkp005]

I’m going to ask my night shift question here that’s bugging the piss out of me.

I have experimented quite with a fluid cutoff time and volume restriction a bit with no appreciable difference. I generally drink around 2L, at least 90% of that before midnight. Regardless of my efforts, I wake up to pee some time between 11 and noon. Any thoughts on what I should change? After my initial wake up my sleep quality is pretty hit or miss, and a lot more miss these days.

I have no problem sleeping 10 PM to 6 AM paying very little attention to my fluid intake

Man I have the same problem. When I’m on nights I get up 2-3 times a day to freaking pee. When I’m working days l, I can sleep through the night and never have to get up to pee. I work in a steel mill melt shop and it is pretty extreme with heat, so I can’t just stop drinking water at a certain time or I’ll get severely dehydrated.

I work a DuPont schedule with lots of swing shifts and it flat out sucks, except for the 8 straight days off every month.

I don’t sleep well in the day even with the room blacked out. I’ve found that staying up later and taking melatonin helps.

 

[Brunson84]

If im in bet at 7, by 9-10am like clockwork I will be up to pee.

Ive always been told the Dupont schedule is better on your body than any other swing shift schedule. I can’t relate, never worked it.


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[fishsticks]

I worked 10 years of 4 on 4 off. Ours was 2 days, 2 nights. It’s been a few years now that I’ve worked straight days and my sleep has never recovered. I really liked having 4 days off especially when it fell during the week. I don’t know that I ever had more free time in my adult life, but I also think it took years off my life. It’s a tough schedule and everyone has a different way of trying to make it work. Our bodies were meant to be awake during the day and sleep at night and not doing that messes with eating and all kinds of stuff. I feel for folks that have to work these kinds of schedules and also understand why they do it - it’s usually good money and provides a lot of free time.

 

[ceejay]

I’m going to ask my night shift question here that’s bugging the piss out of me.

I have experimented quite with a fluid cutoff time and volume restriction a bit with no appreciable difference. I generally drink around 2L, at least 90% of that before midnight. Regardless of my efforts, I wake up to pee some time between 11 and noon. Any thoughts on what I should change? After my initial wake up my sleep quality is pretty hit or miss, and a lot more miss these days.

I have no problem sleeping 10 PM to 6 AM paying very little attention to my fluid intake

Same for me whenever I work 12hr midnight shifts. Regardless of what I do with fluid intake, I wake up 11a-12n and have to piss like a racehorse.

 

[Azone]

Yeah having a good women at home makes a huge difference especially when she’s dealing with the “night shift monster” haha, I also try to eat well and limit coffee.


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The night shift monster is real!
She knows the first day home off nights that I’m not gonna be doing much or very talkative. I generally stay up all day and read or screw around in the garage that first day off, then sleep like someone drugged me at a bar that first night home. Helps me to reset faster as cat napping through out the day just screws my sleep up.

 

[OKHunter84]

I'm working a 2-3-2 shift as well and it's 7p-7a. Just switched from days a few months ago for a promotion. I usually get there by 6p to get my laptop fired up and get my pre shift meeting notes ready to go, walk the floor and everything. At the end of shift when I get my report sent out and talk to the director it's 7:30a by the time I'm walking out. I've worked nights in the past and it was usually nights for two weeks straight, then a week off and that was way easier then having to switch back and forth a few days at a time.

My problem is that all the years I worked nights was before I was married. My wife has never worked nights and doesn't understand what it does to your body and how tired you always are. She still expects me to help as much around the house and with the kids as I did on days and it's just not happening.

 

[bama85]

Work at a shipyard. Night shift ever 3 months 12 half hour shift Monday to Thursday and 8hrs on Friday night.

 

[Gunaddict]

I get up at 12am. Get to work at 12:50am. Work at at least 49 to 51 hrs in 4 days. And then I volunteered to work Saturdays sometimes when needed, which is another 12 hrs at least. The best thing I did is black out my bedroom 100% so my sleep is alot better.

 

[Buffalo-Jo]

I have been working a Dupont schedule for a few years now. The pay is definitely the upside and the job is awesome. Nights can be a grind. Having a full week off every month is also awesome.
I work 5:30PM-6AM when I work nights which is only 7x per month. I use very small dosages of melatonin and use zinc-magnesium aspirate (ZMA) to improve sleep quality and try to help testosterone levels. Black out curtains, a fan, a sound machine, and sometimes even a mask help me get pretty good sleep. Takes two nights to get on the schedule but by the 3rd I can usually do it without caffeine. I make sure to not miss workouts on night shift. I will scale my workout to not fatigue me too bad, but I do want to make sure I move enough in a day that I am tired when I go to bed.

The importance of it being dark to get good sleep can not be understated. I think I actually have 3 layers of blackout shades with painters tape on some of the edges to keep all the light out.

Coming off of nights can be tricky. Try to get a quick nap and then get moving on some sort of house project or tinkering in garage to stay busy. I don't drink or operate heavy machinery on most transition days lol

 

[jjentringer3921]

I’m going to ask my night shift question here that’s bugging the piss out of me.

I have experimented quite with a fluid cutoff time and volume restriction a bit with no appreciable difference. I generally drink around 2L, at least 90% of that before midnight. Regardless of my efforts, I wake up to pee some time between 11 and noon. Any thoughts on what I should change? After my initial wake up my sleep quality is pretty hit or miss, and a lot more miss these days.

I have no problem sleeping 10 PM to 6 AM paying very little attention to my fluid intake

Couple things you can do that will help.
1. Wear knee high compression socks aka Ted hose.
2. Try to elevate your legs more when sitting if able.
3. If you don't like the above, a workout before bed will do it.

 

[Jakeb]

Coming off of nights can be tricky. Try to get a quick nap and then get moving on some sort of house project or tinkering in garage to stay busy. I don't drink or operate heavy machinery on most transition days lol

Man that transition day is rough, lack of sleep will really mess with you. Get up to go do something, make it half way, completely forget what you’re doing, go back try to figure out what you were doing and maybe remember what you needed.

I get super cranky too, I have to really focus and try to be normal around friends and family.

 

[miket]

Did it for about 3yrs and was absolutely miserable all day every day. Im not a night person. Had a wife and kids and had to do what I had to do, but at this point there is no way I would do it now. I cannot explain how miserable it was. The entire time I was in a daze.

At the risk of belaboring the point, if I was offered a million dollars to do it for a year, I absolutely would not do it. Would take several million to consider it, and Im not a rich man.

 

[Grizz208]

I work 12hr night shifts (1800-0600) with the occasional 16 hr shift (1400-0600). 4 on 3 off 3 on 4 off. It's rough. Even on my days off I wake up around 0100 or 0200 for a couple hours. I never sleep more then 5 hours. Unfortunately I drink a monster or 2 a night to help.

 

[DuckDogDr]

I’m on 14-16 hour nights depending on where I work (Fill in at 4 places)
One place will often “Turn and Burn”’us to a day shift one day after rotating off nights .

Not going to lie it sucks. I used to love it 9 years ago when I started but I my body is struggling now.

I feel the sleepiest at 530-7am
The past 6 months… I feel I can barely function on my off days and I feel soo sleep deprived.. i do one or 2 “chores and then nope i HAVE to sleep

So for the past week ..
Last week worked three 13 hr shifts.. rotated from a night shift to an immediate day shift as soon as I left the night gig.
Came home Friday after the day shift. Cooked with my gf .. slept 7 hours .. got up went to work at 7am to 8 pm Saturday .. ate supper and slept for 18 hours straight getting up at noon today.
went and hung with my buddy for an hour .. came home slept 2 more then now I’m back pulling a 13 hr shift

 

[Boarmaster]

I dated a lady back in the 90s for about 3 years that worked 12 hr swing shifts. I could see some advantages to that type of shift work but it was really rough on her sleep. She made great money and she had no financial pressures but it was not a great lifestyle. She walked around in a haze as did many others who worked there. She preferred the night shifts she worked over days as there less managers running around. She worked in a resource recovery control room at a paper mill.
We didn't live together so other than having different off times it didn't effect me much at all.

 

[MallardSX2]

I worked 6-10’s for a year in a machine shop. Went in at 6 and got out of work at 4. It was great for hunting. Not so great for a personal life.

The funniest part looking back at it is that I made $.50 more to work that shift.

I went to college and I make 8x more than I made in that shop and work half as hard.

I really enjoyed working in that machine shop though. I liked that kind of work. It was at least visually rewarding.