As many of you may know, I work a lot of weird hours for my job. Anywhere ranging on the 24hr spectrum is fair game. Recently I’ve kinda been a bummer with regards to being away during the holidays, but the majority of that ‘bummed-out-ness’ stems from the fact that this time I’m on graveyards. Now I can’t complain too much….it doesn’t happen often. I haven’t worked nights since April, lucky me! So when it comes to me working nightshift, I have several things I do to prepare myself cause unfortunately I don’t find it easy.

When I work nightshift it’s for a relatively short amount of time. Never much longer than 10 days in a row. So I try my best to not completely change my usual daily routine. I’m just simply changing the hours that I sleep. I know a lot of people suggest splitting up your sleep schedule and waking up to eat lunch at a still normal time, but thats not a normal sleep pattern. You’re bound to screw yourself up for awhile with that one. So I keep it simple:

– I work from 10pm – 6am so I sleep from about 7am – 3pm .

– I eat breakfast after 6am, a late lunch around 3pm, and a late dinner before my shift starts at 10pm. I don’t try to move my dinner to the early morning

– First thing I do at 3pm when I wake up is open the blinds wide. It’s the only two hours of day-light I get to see.

– I never have caffeine after my shift starts.I want my body to continue to think “holy smokes, it’s 6am! Long past bedtime”

– When switching to nights, I stay up as late as possible, then sleep as late as possible. I try not to add naps.

– Switching from nights back to days will see me a little sleep deprived, but after two days I’m back to normal.

If you’re like me and have a pretty regular sleep schedule, then make sure you stay very hydrated. You’re body will thank you. It’s gonna take a while to get over the ‘hey!! what are you doing to me’ phase. And I, unfortunately, always get really nauseous after about day two. Either way, I try to change as little as possible when I switch to nightshift. But no matter what….nightmare. Just stick it out….only 4 nights left!

Have you ever had to work the nightshift before? Any tips or tricks for this old girl?

Check out my tips and tricks for early 3am wake ups here