Getting used to operating at night...any advice for downtime routine and sleep?

It typically takes a few weeks to develop a new routine, but after a while you'll stop being so fatigued at night when your body is used to the schedule.

 

One more tip for vampires:

Always overdress, especially during the winter. Between the hours of 2-4 AM, your body will start to shut down and your body temp will drop a little. Wear a snowsuit if you have to to stay warm while you drive, then take it off after 4.

 

This is something hard to get used to... I am lower on the seniority pole in my department at work.. So at the beginning of every New Year every year I have to go on a short stint of nights for roughly 1-2 months... Let me tell you the transformation from Days to Night kicks the crap right out of your body.. It is even worst when your like me and you are only doing a few months of it because by the time you actually get somewhat used to night (you never really get used to it, you just deal with it) I am shifted back to days..

When I first started having to do this (at first I didn't have to do this for a few years) I would finish work, go home and I would stay up for a few hours before I went to bed.. I figured that it was like day time shifts.. Finish work, go home eat dinner, have ME time and then go to bed.. Well that was ok but then I found I was wasting the day away sleeping within hours of my shift start (which was pretty much night again - say 5pm).. So then I switch to coming home right after my shift and going right to bed.. Then I could wake up at around 11am-Noon and still have daylight hours to enjoy and get things done if I needed too.. I find this more rewarding especially when it came to my last shift that would end Friday morning.. Because Friday my old way I would be waking up late on a Friday night and waste away my Friday.. With the new way I was getting up around 10-11am so I can enjoy the day..

Come Sunday when my shift starts back up for the week this is what I do.. I am in a bowling league in the morning.. So I get up for the bowling league do my thing.. I go home stay up for a few hours then I go get 5-6hrs of sleep in before my shift starts.. This is probably the hardest day for me because I'm up early Sunday (1 - because I bowl and 2- because I don't want to waste the day away), but I deal with it...

The hardest parts I find on doing nights is that I am psychically at work 6 days of the week on a 40hr week rather then 5 days a week. So day shift M-F but nights starts Sunday and finish Friday which mean my only full day off is Saturday.. So being on nights makes you time off seem short.. On the day shift I get away with only sleeping 5-6hrs a day to make the most out of my after work time off, on the night shift I need 8 or more hours to function if I only got 5-6hrs everyday on night shift I wouldn't function..

NIGHTS SUCK!!!!