Help With Night Shift/ Sleeping During The Day

[Finwiz]

Well I seriously am struggling with this. I work a high powered finance job. I work 11pm-8:30am... Its extremely difficult for me to sleep. I have a hard time staying asleep.. Its like once 5pm hits I am wide awake... Anything you guys recommend me taking? Its starting to get extremely tiring and unhealthy at this point.

 

[biffbelvin]

Blackout Blinds will help, as they can completely block out the light in your room.

I rent a flat and can't install my own blinds, but found this product to be really helpful. I work in the day time, but even the ambient light from streetlights and early morning sun where quite disruptive to my sleep patterns. For most of my life it would take 30-60minutes to fall asleep. With the blinds I can fall asleep in 5-15minutes, and i'll generally only wake when my alarm goes off, or slightly before.

That being said, your long-term objective should be to move in to a role where you're working in the Day shift. It's proven that people who work Night Shifts are much less healthier. The difficulty in arranging your social life really doesn't help either.

I'd also argue that taking a pay cut for day works would be a net benefit in your quality of life.

 

[CLASH]

@Finwiz
I just worked for a little over a year and a half of nightshifts in the hospital 7pm-8am. I lived on a night schedule the entire time never switching to days. Heres what helped me:

1) blackout shades
2) cold room when sleeping
3) light exposure upon waking, i used a red man light 600’s nm wavelength device and multiple par 30 75watt halogen floodlights.
4) eating meals the same time every night to set circadian rhythm
5) waking up and going to sleep the same time every night
6) orange glasses before bed and using an orange screen for computer work at night
7) working out the same time every night
8) not switching back to a day schedule on my days off or for holidays; always living on the night schedule
9) avoiding naps in the night, especially naps longer than 20 minutes
10) eating enough carbs, proteins and fats to help with the increased cortisol

Hope this helps.

 

[Braveheart]

I did 13 years night shift, running mainframe computers...the noise (lost some hearing), the florescent lighting, the electricity in the room, the stress...all bad, but the worst is the circadian disruption...this was probably the start of my leukemia and other health problems...what we won't do for money...get away from night shift!

 

[lampofred]

I think lowering cortisol via increasing gelatin intake, ensuring adequate calorie, vitamin, and mineral intake especially zinc and vitamins A + D, bag breathing, etc. might help.

 

[aussiebaldguy]

Reset: try not sleeping much in day maybe just get 4 hours..so you are really tired.. I could sleep in the day but only when I was tired.

You need to reset your body

I have heard that people take melatonin to help with jet lag. You are kind of doing the reverse but you could look into that line too.

Also what time are you sleeping

To me it looks like U could sleep from say 10_6
Or 1_9
Experiment with the other schedule

Or if you wake up at 5 10 to 5 is still 7 hours sleep?

 

[Elchapchapchapo]

Get your circadian rhythm to make your night shift truly your Morning. Your body sounds like it’s lagging to a different time zone. The biggest thing is light , use red light when you first get up and blast it on your skin as much as you can to help get your body adjusted and use it periodically throughought your shift to help your body get adjusted to this time frame