Natural night owls who struggle a bit with night time driving

I prefer to run at night, often sleep from 2-5 am till noon, or so. Wake up w/o alarm, naturally. I’ve noticed as I’ve aged, that sleepiness hits me around 2 or 3. Always guess the time, before checking, usually pretty close. It crept up on me, I had to get accustomed to recognizing it. Never used to be a problem. It’s all got to do with zircadian? Rythems. There’s 2 different natural body clocks. Which schedule your body runs on, dictates whether you’re a night owl or day person. 9:30 at night, I’m getting ready to grill some steaks for dinner.Hit the sak around 3:00 am. Normal day.

 

Whenever I’d have to sleep in the truck I’d start late and run all night, it’s just more chill.

I’m not a graveyard shift guy though.

My perfect schedule would be second shift but that ain’t happening for me. I have to get up at 5:15 m-f.

 

I just got home, it's 01:36. I'll probably go to sleep around 03:30 and get up at 06:00 to take my daughter to school. Them I will come home, do what I need to do and go back to sleep around 10:00 and wake up at 14:00 to get ready for work. I find splitting sleep up works better for me.

 

It’s the 3 hours at delivery that gets you tired .. when you stay busy often you don’t get tired . Least in my case

 

You’re not a night owl, you’re a vampire trucker. Supernatural. Perfect in the darkness, only weakness is the sun.

 

I thought I would add a rant that pertains to this. You will have days like I am having today. I got about 2 hours of sleep before I had to take my daughter to school and can't fall back asleep so it's gonna be a rough night lol.

 

But then he'll have to stop to pee. Those energy drinks have to come out, too. I'm a morning person. I get up every day at 3 AM and go for an early morning walk. I am eager to see how becoming a truck driver changes my sleep patterns, because right now, I turn into a pumpkin at 9 PM.

 

I would think that being an early riser will be a big benefit to you. Getting a jump on the day is usually helpful in avoiding traffic situations and possibly arriving at your destination early.

Good luck!

 

I try to drive at night as much as possible. I find that I get a boost when the sun comes up if I'm feeling a bit tired. Take time to pull over and get out and get the blood pumping if you start to feel like you're nodding off. I definitely keep plenty of five hour energy around also. There are times when the demands of the job will flip me around the other way before I've had a chance to flip my sleep clock the other way. You have to prepare for things like that and it can be really exhausting.