Nightshift discussion

Cheapshot

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Moving to nightshift for the first time in my life. Done 4 days so far. Just looking for tips or tricks to make it easier on the body. So far im not tired but dropped from normally sleeping 7 hours to about 5hrs of decent sleep. I know there was a bloodwork post about raising cortisol? Lets hear some info, open discussion
 
I didn’t sleep much working nights. I wasn’t training then so I just slept less because it didn’t matter as much.
I just got used to it after a while.
 
I hated working nights. Messed up my stomach bad and I ended up getting really bad headaches. Fortunately I work straight days now. Feel for you, hope you handle them better then I did! I found nothing helped me…I’m also on medication that has to be taken before bed every night…that didn’t help either.
 
I work 12’s. There’s different approaches. Some stay up after work same as a dayshift. Some go to bed for a few then nap before work. I personally head to bed shortly after getting home in the am. I have a cpl tricks for sleeping. Darkness. Don’t underestimate the value of a dark room for day sleeping. White noise. I run a fan when I sleep. I also set an alarm even if I don’t need to get up. My brain will turn on and make me think I’ve over slept. The alarm tells my brain to stay asleep until it’s called.
Eating is another thing many do differently. And it will obvi be different depending on your current goals. I try to eat the same. Most of my eating is done before work. Except maybe dinner. Depending how long I slept. Keep in kind, eating can set reset your circadian rhythm. So if you’re on rotating shifts like me then it will be different than if your on straight nights.
Nights definitely isn’t for everyone. But it works for me. Hopefully you figure out what works for you sooner than later.
 
I alternate between days and nights. I hate nights to be honest. But I don’t have a hard time sleeping if anything I can’t ever feel rested. So during my night shift days my routine is just work eat sleep eat train eat work and repeat
 
4 day's... your still a virgin.🤣
Jesus fuck why would you start this thread... i really thought about ignoring it lol ....i just can't

Why do i feel im experienced to make a comment. Well 20 years iv worked nights/days the last 6 years have been directly night shift, no sun , all vampire just recently 9 months ago i hung up the gloves for night shift. I said no more. My night shifts were 15 to 16 hr shifts and there not easy shifts, i work in the oil patch not the cabbage patch so its full tilt all night long.

Night shift has been researched to lower your life expectancy, thays a researched proven fact.

Your body functions around your circadian rhythm, everything evolves around that, your circadian clock means at bedtime 🌙 your cortisol is lowest this isnt your bedtime in the morning if thats when you sleep, this means when the sun goes down and around midnight your bodys cortisol is the lowest, so you can sleep this means your melatonin is the highest at this time to help you sleep, Theres so many body functions that are designed to work based on your circadian Rhythm, your thyroid for one is based on your circadian rhythm and when your tsh is supposed to release its hormones etc to cortisol and to blood surgar and all your hormones, all based on your circadian rhythm.

This means when you work nights you throw that entire sytem off balance, you shift and move and change your hormones, as an example of one, lets use cortisol, think of a water bed, sit on one side and what happens to the other? That's what happens when you shift your hormones especially cortisol, if your cortisol is supposed to be lowest at night before bed and you are now working and being stressed or stimulating your acth and producing and using your other hormones then you are now raising that cortisol. That means that in the morning when your cortisol is supposed to be the highest its now the lowest, but this takes time to throw it off, as you can imagine all other systems amd hormones now change during this time. Blood sugar is another, now your eating at night when your supposed to be sleeping... as you can imagine over time alot of this stuff is going to fuck you up, i can personally garuntee it. I could talk hrs on this but ill just leave it short as possible i think you get the point.

TIPS AND TRICKS
1. don't work nightshift.
2. Don't fucking work nightshift
3. If you must work night shift, then alternate day shift and night shift , meaning 7 on days then 7 on night's or 24 on dayshift then days off and 24 on nights.
4. On the days your off , RESET YOUR CIRCADIAN RHYTHM, use melatonin at night before bed and restart your clock, this is a proven fact and one of the best ways to get back on track.
5. Avoid high glycemic foods at night, switch to ither low or high fat diets at night , do yoir very best to always use the basic knowledge of your circadian rhythm and keep it as natural as you can.
6. DO NOT DRINK CAFFEINE AT NIGHT. caffine alters cortisol and over time will just make you more exhausted.
7. Help your self and take some decent blood surgar supplements well your on nights, cortisol and bloodsurgar are extremely tight like best friends so if your stressed often or stressed at times you shouldn't be like when your supposed to be sleeping then theres going to be issues like insulin resistance. So take some supplements to help, little berbine or ginger or Cinnamon cylon something to help.
8. Incase i didnt say it already, learn aboit circadian rhythm, stay as true to it as possible and always work on resetting your self back , and never stay on night shift, longer then a month without going back on days for at least the same amount of time you were on nights.

Hope this helps.
 
I went about 6 or 7 months of sleeping 3 hours a night, now I'm.geting between 5 and 7

Sunglasses is a must as dark.as you can get, put them on before you go out to your car and wear them even around the house until bed time, it seems weird but it does help

I alternate 2 weeks melatonin with 2 weeks unisom, I take zma all the time

Napping is a must even if it's just power naps

Don't eat heavy over night, It will affect your sleep, I eat cottage cheese with celery and a protein shake with coconut milk unsweetened, last heavier meal is around 9pm

And adding hgh helped me a lot not with sleep but with being able to recover from my workouts and get on with my daily life

You may have to start supplementing some vitamins so after about 3 Months get a vitamin panel done and do so every 3.montha for the year, don't be alarmed.that shit is getting out of whack because it probably ly will
 
I've worked 3 days 3 nights for the better part of 15 years and I find it is getting harder as I get older, I only ever get 4-5 hours sleep period on my nights.

My first day off I sleep my usual 5 hours and get up around noon and pound some preworkout to hit the gym and I'm usually good for the day then and I will take melatonin to help sleep that first day off, I prefer a nice hit of live resin to sleep but because of work I can't.

Eating is horrible on my short change because I can't sleep all day and then I work 12 hours so I always find myself over eating because I'm up for like 20 hours but it is what it is.
 
Lots of great replys. If anything postive I wont really be working hard or at all unless something breaks...lol. Im the supervisor, so, I will be mostly sitting inside and go out in the field once and a while.
My schedule is gonna be 2 weeks on nights, then back to days for 6 weeks
 
Lots of great replys. If anything postive I wont really be working hard or at all unless something breaks...lol. Im the supervisor, so, I will be mostly sitting inside and go out in the field once and a while.
My schedule is gonna be 2 weeks on nights, then back to days for 6 weeks
Ffs... you should have said that before i went out and gave you all my heart ❤️ up there... geez i was worried for you my son 🤣

2 weeks nights and 6 weeks days, youll be perfectly fine. Its the more permanent long time strict nights that get you.

I wanna job where i get to sit inside all day and not do anything where do i apply
 
Moving to nightshift for the first time in my life. Done 4 days so far. Just looking for tips or tricks to make it easier on the body. So far im not tired but dropped from normally sleeping 7 hours to about 5hrs of decent sleep. I know there was a bloodwork post about raising cortisol? Lets hear some info, open discussion

My uncle did it for 20 plus years. He said the key was maintain the sleep patterns even on weekends. So weekends he would stay up and go to bed at 5 am or so. He said it was like going to bed early
 
I'm in the same boat I don't work physically hard and I'm fortunate enough to have an amazing group of guys on the floor so my nights go by quickly, they are talking about putting us on 7 days 7 off 7 nights 7 off so we will see how the 7 nights go, I love training at 1 in the afternoon though the gym is usually pretty dead when I get up for my nights.
 
My uncle did it for 20 plus years. He said the key was maintain the sleep patterns even on weekends. So weekends he would stay up and go to bed at 5 am or so. He said it was like going to bed early
That's a commitment right there, said fuck it ill be nights forever lol he should have moved to Alaska. More night there lol.
 
Ffs... you should have said that before i went out and gave you all my heart ❤️ up there... geez i was worried for you my son 🤣

2 weeks nights and 6 weeks days, youll be perfectly fine. Its the more permanent long time strict nights that get you.

I wanna job where i get to sit inside all day and not do anything where do i apply
Well thats the plan eventually that will be the shift. For now it will be 2 weeks on/off

You gave me more then enough information, appreciate it
 
Blackout curtains and maletonin. Also watch your BP and blood sugar levels sleep patterns effect these. Ur better doing straight nights then switching back and forth. Also ear plugs to block out noise when u sleep
 
I used to work it pretty frequently up until a few years ago.
-First night shift I typically would stay up all
Day then work all night to help get me tired enough to go to bed right after my first shift.
-I’d take some NyQuil or before bed to keep me asleep for the first couple shifts.
-Make sure I blackout my room. No light comes in at all otherwise I’m up for the day.
-Silence everything on my phone except my alarms. You can also give privileges to anyone in your contacts list to get through when your phone is set to silent if they call 2x in a row. My wife was the only one that had that privilege for emergencies only, she never needed it.
-Changed my routine so I could get things done before work instead of after work because the longer I stay up in the morning, the harder it is to go to sleep.

Night shift has its perks. No calls from the office and no surprise visits. If you have a good cross shift day guy, logistics should be covered and Night guys should just be able to get shit done.
Summer times isn’t too bad, winter time can suck as you never get to see the sun.
 
I used to work it pretty frequently up until a few years ago.
-First night shift I typically would stay up all
Day then work all night to help get me tired enough to go to bed right after my first shift.
-I’d take some NyQuil or before bed to keep me asleep for the first couple shifts.
-Make sure I blackout my room. No light comes in at all otherwise I’m up for the day.
-Silence everything on my phone except my alarms. You can also give privileges to anyone in your contacts list to get through when your phone is set to silent if they call 2x in a row. My wife was the only one that had that privilege for emergencies only, she never needed it.
-Changed my routine so I could get things done before work instead of after work because the longer I stay up in the morning, the harder it is to go to sleep.

Night shift has its perks. No calls from the office and no surprise visits. If you have a good cross shift day guy, logistics should be covered and Night guys should just be able to get shit done.
Summer times isn’t too bad, winter time can suck as you never get to see the sun.
Winter I use the tanning beds at my gym, and supplement vitamins D, and it actually helps a lot
 
Well so far so good. A few simple things you guys told me worked. I put some towels over the blinds to eliminate the little cracks of light shining in the bedroom. I also wore sunglasses as soon as the sun started coming up. Went from 5hrs sleep to 7.5hrs. You guys are awesome
 
It's pretty interesting actually I don't know if it's true I just heard Stan efferding say it but apparently if any light even touches your skin your body knows and will stop producing melatonin to wake you up. So black out any lights on devices too
 
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