Adjusting to the "Night" Shift?

Lots of sound advice here...
Are you doing local shift work? That's my gig, working Sunday-Thursday, most shifts 22:30-whenever (usually about 07:00). I've been working nights for a little over two years now (after spending 18 years with one of the largest LTL carriers, and a cushy 07:00 start time for the last 15 of those...), and I'll tell you, I still struggle at times. It's extremely important not to get your brain fired up with too many activities or "to do" lists, which is what happens to me. As said by some here, keep your room cool and dark (following some of my coworkers' lead, I even resorted to putting aluminum foil inside the window; my room is so dark now, the first couple times I woke up on the afternoon, is was actually a little disorienting!)
And as long as you're not tired, keep rolling, but as soon as you are, pull over for a nap. I usually nap during my 30 minute lunch, and sometimes on a 15 minute break (I've never liked taking breaks, but I've learned the value of them since switching to nights). I thought run between 200-400 miles per night, with anywhere from 1-5 stops, depending on my route that night.

 

East coast...I ran at night when ever possible to avoid the heavy traffic.

West of the Mississippi........ran any time.

 

I work from 10 pm to 10 am usually, and you never really get 100% conditioned to sleep during the day.

The first day back from the weekend is roughest for me, as I usually can't force myself to sleep the day before, so I find myself dozing around 3-6 am. If I start to doze, I pull over and use a small pillow I keep in my daycab for a 30 min -1 hour nap. (yes, on the clock). That usually does me for the rest of the shift.

Upon coming home from this sleep deprived shift, sleep in the daytime comes pretty easy. The rest of the week goes pretty good because you'll be tired coming home each day.

As for your sleeping environment- black out the bedroom windows *completely*- not even a pinhole of sunlight. You want to imagine to yourself it's night outside, and that's hard to do with a ray or two of sunshine coming in. Keep the climate in your room just how you like it- get a little window unit with heat and cool if you can, and keep it at the temp you sleep best at- do not compromise here. Plus this will provide some white noise to drown out outside sounds. Make sure if you have family, they know to be quiet and not disturb you. I'm lucky enough to live alone.

And if a couple hours goes by and you haven't fallen asleep yet, a little nip of nyquil and a boring book under a reading light works wonders.

I'd say once I get to sleep, the two main things that cause me to wake up too early are 1- too hot in the room, or 2- hearing the cell phone ring in the living room, so keep your phone off if you can and maybe put a sign on your front door to try and deter people from knocking.

That's about all I can add now, it's past my bedtime.

 

melatonin works to,but only on occasion.

 

Can we revive this topic? I'm a local tanker driver switching to nights. Start 8pm sunday, work 14 off 10. So 8,9,10,11,12 by the last day. Wife just bought me black out curtains and I've been using my breaks for naps in my daycab. I do 450-550 miles a shift doing one load of asphalt oil.

 

You need two days to swap your body clock between night and day. And you need a sleeper that can be made dark, as in really dark in a quiet place away from lumpers etc to make it happen. I cannot remember what I did to swap night and day, but day one was a total 24 hour up time no sleep and then day two was a very carefully established bed time at whatever hour followed by a 8 hour alarm. No caffeine etc. And most assuredly no technology like the internet, computer screens etc. Those emit a light capable of keeping you up.

If you live with family or a wife, at home you need to lay down the iron rule that when you are asleep, short of a house fire or a armed intruders crashing the front door you must not be disturbed.

Im a night owl. Always has been, mornings were dealt with by a 4 hour nap which will return some extra driving hours later that day in the logs somehow. Sometimes I keep going. Ive done 6 days and 5 nights without rest in situations approaching war. But those of you young ones sqawking about Elogs etc, forgetabout it. Im talking back when there was no computer anything to tell you what to do.

Mark my words. Chemical dependance on caffinee pills, boosters or other substances over time will cause your brain to shut off and put you into dreamland at 70 mph and whatever happens after that people stand to be killed or mashed into something else. Don't be that idiot, driver. If you cannot handle the hours without popping pills or snorting drugs then find something else to do in life besides trucking.

It is a extremely demanding situation to be in and the best way to deal with it is to literally sleep anywhere, any time and no matter how short or long it is. Get some sleep right where you are because there will be time to drive again soon enough.

Driving while tired to me is the same as driving drunk. Something I refuse to do anymore. Age has nothing to do with it.

 

I did nights for years 7p to7a. The thing that worked best for me is sticking to "night" shift even when I was off. I also had my bedroom blacked out completely.

Its very important that friends and family understand your sleeping hours. Don't expect me to attend that pool party on my Sunday off because i will be asleep.

I had to get snippy with a couple of them. "Don't come by my house for a visit at 2pm and I wont come knocking on your door at 3am"

 

Aside from the good advice you already have here, i will add be careful around twilight, when i was a night driver, the hour before dark and before light in the morning were the worst. Something about the soft light. I wore blue tint sunglasses, (night driving/anti glare) any will do. Most days i would take a 10n2 during morning daybreak to refresh the blood.

 

I pull all nighters but usually get to sleep in a blacked out hotel room when I'm out on the road. Daytime sleeping in the truck is the worst, especially during the hot months. It doesn't come up too often for me but that's always a bummer when it happens. When I come home from a night run I usually just stay awake all day tired and go to bed early-ish that night, maybe around 10-11pm after having been awake 24-30 hrs and sleep for like 12+ hours. When I know I have a night run coming up I stay up late like 2-3am the night prior so I end up sleeping till noon-1pm which gives me plenty of juice to go truckin all night.

Kind of a wonky schedule but it actually suits me much better than slamming alarm clocks at 5-6 am like the day job guys. I'm a night owl anyway and have never been a big fan of waking up early to an alarm.

 

Coffee