Any 3rd shifters?

lilleah

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I accepted a third shift job, and will be working 10pm, to 5am, Sunday thru Wednesday. It's good pay, and I'll like it, but When Oh When will I sleep?

How do you third shifters do that? I didnt think I could ever ever do it, but obviously, I took the job, so there must be an inkling in me saying I can do it.

My SO leaves for work at 6:30 am...So I imagine, I'll get home from work, make his coffee and lunch, and go to bed at 6:30 when he leaves. My daughter gets up around 8 am, so there's almost 2 hours of sleep. I can nap when she does at 1pm, for 2 hours, that equals 4 hours of sleep.
When SO gets home at 5, I can sleep for another 3 hours. So that totals 7 hours of sleep, but mixed up during the day...
Is that even possible? How in the world am I supposed to be energetic (which is a very good quality of mine), when I'm running on like NO sleep.

I suppose lots of coffee?

Anyways-I was just wondering how you third shifters do it. Or even if you have SO's that do it...How do they deal?
 

phenomsmom

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You are going to be very tired until your body adjusts. You can do it! You will be able to tweak your sleep hours until you have a schedule that makes you feel rested.
 

theimp98

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depending on you body, i normaly like to sleep as soon as get home with in a couple of hours. so normaly i go to bed at 10-11 and get back up like 6 in the evning,

I would sugget you try to get someone to watch your daughter for you, at least 6 hours stright, or night shift will be very very rough. if you can, let them stay at your house, that way you know what is going on. the guard here has that same sched you just talked about, and he is always going to sleep.
 

katiemae1277

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I second what Bruce said, you need to get continuos sleep. breaking it up into 2 and 3 hour increments will not work, that's not enough time for your body to enter REM sleep and that's what you need to be "rested"
 
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lilleah

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That's what I was worried about...The REM sleep. And how increments wasn't going to work. I'm gonna have to figure something out.

The problem with finding someone to watch the kid, is just that. We just moved to Florida, and we only have a few select people we know for right now, and they are all bust during the day. Otherwise, I would have just gotten a day job. And day care is EXPENSIVE! Holy moly's man. It's like 160 a week, even if you miss a day or 2.

Yikes. Looks like one sleepy Leah for a while. We can get daycare assistance in 6 months, so I might just have to pull through for a while, untill then, then I can get a day time job, with normal hours.
 

mybabyphx

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Well, it is summer time... Maybe you could find someone in High School that is looking for extra money during their summer break? They could watch the kid at your house so you feel better about it.
 

april31

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With summertime maybe you can fing a college student? Opps someone had the same idea it took my awhile to send it.
 
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lilleah

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Originally Posted by mybabyphx

Well, it is summer time... Maybe you could find someone in High School that is looking for extra money during their summer break? They could watch the kid at your house so you feel better about it.
Very nice idea. I will check into that.
 

katiemae1277

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the high school and/or college kid is a great idea
even if its just until maybe noon or 1, that's a good 6-7 hrs, and then you could take a little nap when your SO gets home
 

carolpetunia

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When I was a DJ, I had the midnight-to-6am slot for awhile, and I loved it! I was living alone, so there was no coordinating to worry about... I liked the feeling of being the lone ranger, holding down the fort all by myself... I loved the freedom to play pretty much what I liked, which other shifts didn't have... and best of all, when I walked out of the building at 6:00 in the morning, day was dawning and the air was cool and the birds were singing and I had the whole day free.


I usually spent the day up and out, and then went to sleep in mid-afternoon, so I'd be rested and fresh on air. And I always took a lot of water and fruit with me -- all night jocks do, for some reason. Maybe it's a survival instinct... you know you're going to be cut off from the world for six hours and you just feel better with plenty of supplies!


I hope the job and the schedule work out well for you. Good luck!
 

natalie_ca

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Ahhh midnights! Here at the hospital it's considered "1st shift" because it starts the beginning of a 24 hour day.

I used to work a rotation that consisted of days and nights.

When I worked 12 hour shifts my nights started at 7:30pm and went until 7:55am the next morning. So my sleep time had to fit somewhere between the time I got home which was about 8:30am, and 7:00pm when I had to be up, ready and out the door. I found I couldn't sleep as soon as I got home and fell into a rhythm of going to bed between 10am and noon and waking between 3pm and 5pm. I was always, always exhausted! I worked in this particular position for 3 or 4 years.

Prior to that I used to work 8 hour shifts in a rotation that was 2 weeks of days and then 2 weeks of nights (Days ... 7 shifts on, 2 days off, 3 shifts on, 2 days off then switch to nights. Rinse and repeat) My day shifts started at 7:30am to 3:45pm. My nights were 11:30pm to 7:45am. I worked in this position for 2 years.

I found that for some reason when I worked the 8 hour nights that I could sleep when I got home and would find myself in bed by 8:30am and awake about 4pm. That gave me time to do laundry, cook, clean etc and still get to work.

I found 8 hour nights to be better on my system than the 12 hour ones, especially in the winter. I have "SAD" which is seasonal affective disorder and I get a mild depression in the winter because of the shorter days. With 12 hour nights I got home when the sun had just come out and then slept, and when I woke up the sun was gone, or setting. So 12 hours was exceptionally hard on me.

So far as sleeping goes, you will find a rhythm that works for you. For me I slept in the day until dinner time. But others I know stayed awake in the day and went to bed about 5pm to 10pm.

Currently I'm off work, but when I am working now I work a rotation of days and evenings, no nights, and that suits my body even better.
 
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