coping with night shift

[Turkey75#]

Hello everyone, I work a permanent night shift schedule at a factory of 2 nights on, 2 nights off, 3 nights on, then 2 nights off, 2 nights on, 3 nights off, of around 12 1/2 to 13 hours per shift, roughly 5:45 p.m. until between 6:15 to 7:00 a.m. the next morning and currently have to drive about half an hour from my apartment to get to work. I've had a really difficult time with getting enough sleep and getting good enough quality sleep ever since starting this shift nearly 7 months ago, and my family misses me being available to do things with them during the daytime because even when I'm off work I've needed to still sleep in the daytime to have enough of a consistent routine to even be able to sleep at all. I already use an eye cover and dark curtains to block light coming into my bedroom and I take 50 mg of Trazodone that I have a prescription for but still am really struggling. I'm looking for any ideas (can be pharmacological or non-pharmacological) for improving my ability to sleep during the daytime and also ideas for coping with times when I need to split my sleep into shorter fragments to be able to do things with my family during normal hours that they're awake. I've been chronically exhausted for a long time and I think it's taken a toll on my physical and mental health. I'll be grateful for any and all suggestions. Thanks in advance.

 

[Opi_Kid_Rock]

You try CBD gummies to help relax you and help you stay asleep for longer? I have been moving from Quetiapine 10mg/night to 20mg CBD (one single gummy).

And I knew some people who have taken Modafinil to promote wakefulness when they had to do work during graveyard-shift hours.

 

[Snafu in the Void]

Trazodone could be contributing to your lingering drowsiness. I never found it that useful for sleep but also made me feel groggy. I didn't like that medication.

Try melatonin, it's the hormone your body releases at night time to sleep, so it's particularly good for people who have to sleep during the daytime, for example. Do not take more than 3mg. Don't buy those products with more than that, waste/counterproductive.

if kratom is available to you, it's a great stimulant for overpowering sleepiness, but is addictive and should be used responsibly

just my 2 cents

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

i did graveyard for a year when i was about 24 and it started off ok, but after a while, it took it's toll on me - they ended up firing me for sleeping on the job

 

[Turkey75#]

i did graveyard for a year when i was about 24 and it started off ok, but after a while, it took it's toll on me - they ended up firing me for sleeping on the job

Yeah that's one of my concerns. So far I've been able to get by with lots of caffeine, but often times I still feel mentally slow and somehow out of it and my job requires that I use machinery that could be dangerous if ever I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing

 

[Turkey75#]

Trazodone could be contributing to your lingering drowsiness. I never found it that useful for sleep but also made me feel groggy. I didn't like that medication.

Try melatonin, it's the hormone your body releases at night time to sleep, so it's particularly good for people who have to sleep during the daytime, for example. Do not take more than 3mg. Don't buy those products with more than that, waste/counterproductive.

if kratom is available to you, it's a great stimulant for overpowering sleepiness, but is addictive and should be used responsibly

just my 2 cents

I took melatonin for a while in the past but did take a higher dose, I think it was 5 mg. I can start it back at 3 mg, maybe take it right before leaving work so it can start kicking in by the time I get home. I don't know how or where to get the kratom, but thanks for the suggestion. I've also gotten the idea to wear sunglasses during my drive home after work to avoid the sunlight waking me up too much too close to the time that I need to get sleepy

 

[Turkey75#]

You try CBD gummies to help relax you and help you stay asleep for longer? I have been moving from Quetiapine 10mg/night to 20mg CBD (one single gummy).

And I knew some people who have taken Modafinil to promote wakefulness when they had to do work during graveyard-shift hours.

Thanks for the suggestion; I know there's a local place where I could legally buy CBD oil so long as it's from hemp and maybe they've also got gummies

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

Yeah that's one of my concerns. So far I've been able to get by with lots of caffeine, but often times I still feel mentally slow and somehow out of it and my job requires that I use machinery that could be dangerous if ever I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing

i was towing and fueling corporate aircraft all over the airport - another guy and i were the only 2 running the place, and we would get everything done, and then try to get some sleep in...well, that guy ended up leaving for another job, and then i had to work with somebody new and i think him and a pilot snitched on me

It was a Monday thru Friday gig (sunday night thru friday morning) from 11pm - 7am - i couldn't even think right anymore, so by the time i was fired from it, i knew their was a chance my new co-worker would snitch but i didn't care

i worked a few other jobs where i would be done by 3 or 4am and that was fine - i'd sleep from 5am to noon, and that worked out fine - but not getting to sleep until 9am just would not work for me - i couldn't get more than 4 hours sleep in usually


all i can say is that it was definitely detrimental to my health and i would never do it again - temporarily i can do it, but that cant be my permanent hours


if i were you, i would get a different job with better hours instead of trying to beat your circadian rhythm, because you're usually not gonna win that fight if you're not doing well with it - coffee, drugs, whatever - it's a losing battle

 

[Eligiu]

Trazodone could be contributing to your lingering drowsiness. I never found it that useful for sleep but also made me feel groggy. I didn't like that medication.

Try melatonin, it's the hormone your body releases at night time to sleep, so it's particularly good for people who have to sleep during the daytime, for example. Do not take more than 3mg. Don't buy those products with more than that, waste/counterproductive.

if kratom is available to you, it's a great stimulant for overpowering sleepiness, but is addictive and should be used responsibly

just my 2 cents

I've found high dose melatonin very useful, and it's been professionally recommended to me by my sleep specialist as an alternative to klonopin and Seroquel (Seroquel makes REM sleep behaviour disorder worse and I continually found myself awake in weird places engaging in activities like cooking and eating). I routinely take between 3-12mg depending on what I have to do the following day and use it following stimulant use to get to bed faster at high doses which works extremely well. High dose melatonin is also recommended for ADHD as many people with ADHD struggle sleeping at normal hours, as do people with autism.

I also know a guy who took like a whole bottle of melatonin on a plane once and he was dead to the world lol.

@OP if you need a good cheap source for melatonin use 'iHerb' which is a website and an app you can get off the play store or Apple store. There's various different brands but I get one which is 180 3mg pills for I think $9 or $13 AUD, plus I get 10mg dissolvable tablets for $15 when I want to really get some rest.

 

[Snafu in the Void]

Just going off what all the papers on it say. Some even claim that the most effective dose is 300ug.

I once took 100mg or something and didn't even feel the least bit tired.

dunno

 

[Eligiu]

Just going off what all the papers on it say. Some even claim that the most effective dose is 300ug.

I once took 100mg or something and didn't even feel the least bit tired.

dunno

I've met people who it just doesn't do much for but I can definitely testify to the fact that for some people high doses can definitely be a very useful medication. Thankfully it is fairly cheap online from iHerb (in Australia, 3mg melatonin is prescription only incredibly and costs $39 for a months supply) so I don't really much mind using higher doses. I definitely notice that I get off to sleep earlier with a larger dose, like I can take my meds at 8pm and be asleep by 8:30 or so with 9mg but with 3mg that tends to not work that well. And it absolutely works wonders for me at the end of my stimulant run even if I'm not that tired if I dose 10-15mg I'll be out within 15 min

 

[Turkey75#]

i was towing and fueling corporate aircraft all over the airport - another guy and i were the only 2 running the place, and we would get everything done, and then try to get some sleep in...well, that guy ended up leaving for another job, and then i had to work with somebody new and i think him and a pilot snitched on me

It was a Monday thru Friday gig (sunday night thru friday morning) from 11pm - 7am - i couldn't even think right anymore, so by the time i was fired from it, i knew their was a chance my new co-worker would snitch but i didn't care

i worked a few other jobs where i would be done by 3 or 4am and that was fine - i'd sleep from 5am to noon, and that worked out fine - but not getting to sleep until 9am just would not work for me - i couldn't get more than 4 hours sleep in usually


all i can say is that it was definitely detrimental to my health and i would never do it again - temporarily i can do it, but that cant be my permanent hours


if i were you, i would get a different job with better hours instead of trying to beat your circadian rhythm, because you're usually not gonna win that fight if you're not doing well with it - coffee, drugs, whatever - it's a losing battle

yeah, I'll likely be taking your advice of trying for a different job with better hours in the long run. In the short term I'm kind of holding out for a while to see if a better position might come open within the same company

 

[jasperkent]

One summer many years ago I worked in a produce warehouse 10pm to 6am, 5 days a week. Stacked boxes/crates/bags of fruits & veggies on pallets to be trucked to grocery stores all over east TN.

It was a pretty decent gig. Good pay, cool temperatures, lots of free fruits&veggies, and I got in the best physical shape of my life.

But the night shift hours took their toll. I never could get used to sleeping during the day and I felt like I was in a grouchy mental fog all of the time. I only lasted 4 months.

Never again for me. I do so much better when I keep in step with my natural circadian rhythms.

 

[Turkey75#]

One summer many years ago I worked in a produce warehouse 10pm to 6am, 5 days a week. Stacked boxes/crates/bags of fruits & veggies on pallets to be trucked to grocery stores all over east TN.

It was a pretty decent gig. Good pay, cool temperatures, lots of free fruits&veggies, and I got in the best physical shape of my life.

But the night shift hours took their toll. I never could get used to sleeping during the day and I felt like I was in a grouchy mental fog all of the time. I only lasted 4 months.

Never again for me. I do so much better when I keep in step with my natural circadian rhythms.

I'll leave out the details of my job to ensure anonymity to be able to post about other topics freely without worry that anybody would ever recognize me, but suffice to say, my job is also in some ways a pretty good deal but in a few other ways it's awful. I've discovered that light/dark in my eyes is gonna be the most important thing to control to be able to get enough sleep to be able to cope with this job even in the short run, more important even than any meds or supplements I can take. Including sunglasses during my longish drive home after work and a high intensity light therapy lamp on nights when I'm off work.

 

[Phoenix_03]

I worked night shift full time for 3 years. It’s too much of a mental and physical toll and if you have any other stressors in your life, it makes life so much worse. That job resulted in my first, and last, suicide attempt that landed me in a coma for almost a week, followed by almost two weeks of waking up into severe psychosis. Not sure if it was the particular drugs I chose to take which caused the psychosis but it was extremely unpleasant and bizarre.

 

[nznity]

I worked night shift full time for 3 years. It’s too much of a mental and physical toll and if you have any other stressors in your life, it makes life so much worse. That job resulted in my first, and last, suicide attempt that landed me in a coma for almost a week, followed by almost two weeks of waking up into severe psychosis. Not sure if it was the particular drugs I chose to take which caused the psychosis but it was extremely unpleasant and bizarre.

Shit man, that sounds awful. Thank God you're still with us. Yeah even tho in night shifts u get paid double it's not worth fking up ur circadian rhythm over sum $$$. Someones gotta do it, just like the ppl who pick upthe garbage. Here in South América that job is badly remunerated and they pick up the garbage with their hands .

 

[Phoenix_03]

Thank you, I’m glad too. I’ve never had suicidal ideations but my job, the hours, sleep cycle and personal life were all shit and one little thing (my meds being delayed) just flicked a switch and I just started gobbling pills thinking I just wanted to escape for awhile. The cherry on top, when EMS came and saw me (by then I was out and seizing), they assumed it was a narcotic OD and hit me with Narcan. No narcotics taken, but I take methadone daily, so my then spouse was screaming at them not to use the narcan. When I didn’t come out of it they hit me AGAIN and when I made it to the ER the staff there hit me with it a third time. That’s when I stopped breathing and my ex made a huge scene saying they were killing me.
Anyway, back on topic, I kept that job because of what you said: the $$$. Plus if I did weekend nights the $ was even higher. Not worth it, at all, I will never work third shift again. It’s been almost a year since my hospital stay and I’ve made (and am still making) drastic changes in my life because I learned how precious life is and I have so many reasons to stay here and ride it out til the natural end.

 

[G_Chem]

IMO there’s no getting used to work like this. You eventually burn out and they replace you with someone else that hasn’t yet experienced what you’re about to.

I’ve tried it multiple times. The only thing I miss is watching the sunrise.

-GC