Is working night shifts bad for your health?
I work the night shift, well half of my time at work is doing a 12 hour night shift from 6pm until 6am, this is on a computer. I actually prefer them but I am a night owl and can find the peace that I enjoy only at night.However I can tell my body doesn't like it, it is less social as the only people I get a chance to talk to are the people that I work with who sometimes are boring and don't talk, after a while this has a pretty depressing effect from a lack of social interaction.There is the problem aswell that I usually fall asleep around about 8am and wake up at about 3pm, which during the winter months you will know means that I get a peak of about 45 minutes sunlight if I go outside, that's 45 minutes a day at most and chances are I will not get this unless I wake straight up and head straight outside.When I finish at 6am I go back to my room and wait for an hour to have breakfast at 7, I go to sleep at wake up at 3/4 pm where I will wait for 15 minutes and have lunch I will shower and change watch a bit of TV and walk to work (which is at most a 4 minute walk) I start at 6pm and can go straight for dinner which I do. Then I might have a snack at about 2am to help tie me over until breakfast before having a 4 minute walk back to my room to repeat the process.So what can you learn from this I miss having a social life for 1 week a month, I struggle to talk to my girl friend as we only get a couple of hours worth of messages a day. I don't see any friends or family in this time and rarely get a conversation with anyone worth talking to.I get no sunlight which is vital for the human bodies emotional and physical well being. I love the stars but you need the sun and its warmth to make you feel alive.My diet is awful as I eat before I sleep, I eat food in the middle of the night, I drink coffee to keep me awake at night and then ontop of all of that I don't get to do much fitness, many gyms are closed its dark and not as safe to run in the middle of the night.It's suprising how much a week of night shifts can change your mind and body but it does.
Are working night shifts and weekends as an RN really worth it?
It really all depends on you're lifestyle. My girlfriend and I are both RN's and we have both been nightshift, as well as dayshift people. For me, working on the nightshift starting out, was wonderful. It's usually less hectic, the group of nurses and personnel are in general more tight-knit, you get the sense that everyone has each others back. You're all going through this together, and the outside world is non-existent, there are no people for you to text at 3am so you can ignore your coworkers. That, being said, I grew to hate nightshift. I learned that around 4am is when I hit a wall, and it seemed that everyone did. The nurses station would go from being upbeat and chatty to an erie silence. I just wasn't a nightshift person, no matter how hard I tried to be.My girlfriend on the other hand loves the nightshift. She loves the change of pace, loves the actual hours (not having to wake up at 4am to get ready for work) and she definitely loves the pay.Overall, I would say, if you can handle nightshift, or have any inclination of actually liking it, working those hours, and getting that shift differential is definitely worth it.The real answer here is; don't do it just for the money. But the money is nice.
Is night shift work worth it?
I never worked the night shift, but my cousin's husband works the very-early morning shift. He starts work at 4:00 a.m. He gets off at 1:00 p.m, so then has the rest of the day to be with his family. Since my cousin has irregular hours, I'm sure they can get about 2 hours of alone time before they need to pick up the kids from school. So in some ways, I can see how the night shift would work if you have a family, trying to avoid day care costs.
Pros and cons of working night shift?
i've been on graveyard for 2½ years now, so here are my pro's and con's Pro's:No customers; set schedule; weekends off (for me); guaranteed hours; easier to make plans; no dress code; get to skip mandatory store meetings; stocking can make for a good workout; don't need product knowledge, just location; don't have to worry about a curse word or two slipping out cons: sleep during the day; minimal contact with dayshift associates; usually forgotten when it comes to store functions; getting blamed by day crew; if a weekday errand needs to be done, sleep is compromised; phone calls and visitors during sleeptime; when mandatory store meetings can't be skipped there aren't too many cons. 2 years on days were quickly ended when my request for overnights was approved. hope you enjoy it
Do computer programmers work the third shift?
I don’t know, it’s 10:26 PM and I’m waiting for a long database report to generate, does that count as the third shift?For what it’s worth I started work this morning… which shift was that?Programmers don’t work shifts, although our close friends, the network administrators, usually have to be available 24/7. And to the untrained eye, we look amazingly similar.Normally there’s no need to organise the work of a team of programmers into shifts, because if you need to have such a continuous output of new code, it simply means you’re managing the project horribly wrong.But there are days (like today is for me) when you just can’t afford to stop.By “afford” I’m not only thinking of the bank account, but also about the fact that if I stop now, it’ll take me a lot of time in the morning to remember all the threads I would’ve left unraveled.
What are the downfalls of working the graveyard shift?
I worked nights (swing shift or graveyard) for many years when I was younger. While it is a much easier shift to work if you are going to school or if you have young children, it has many drawbacks in my experience. These might include:Lack of sleep - Some people are unable to sleep during the day.While some are able to drown out ambient noises and cut out light and interruptions, many are not and working on a night shift becomes intolerable for them.Injuries - Since you are often tired, you can become careless when working a night shift. That carelessness , in the wrong environment can lead to injuries.Lack of supervision - Most supervisors/managers work during the daytime. If you have problems or issues at night you can always call them. But some issues require hands-on supervision which may not be available working at night.Lack of advancement - Few night workers have the ability to advance in the same manner that day workers do. Since they can't get in "face time" with the boss and since they may miss opportunities which day workers may be able to avail themselves of, they often miss promotion opportunities.Personal danger - Depending upon what type of job you are working at you may be in greater personal danger on a off or night shift. Cashiers,cab drivers,police officers and ER personnel often find that night shifts are far more dangerous than working during the day.
How can I get a good nights rest working graveyard shift?
I have worked nights now for awhile & the only way I can do it is to stay on the same schedule on my off days also. Not sure what your school schedule is but think of it the same as a day shift job, work, then come home & (or go to school for 3-4 hrs) then go to bed. It is just like if you worked days & went to night school. Never come home home & go straight to bed, since you will wake up 8 hrs before work time & if you stay up, you will be tired at work. Like I said, follow the same schedule on your days off to. Just have a regular sleep time like you do when you work days.
What does it feel like to work during the graveyard shift?
I worked the graveyard shift for about 3 months at a tech startup. The startup required use of a sophisticated multi-million-dollar machine that was located at a remote national lab. The lab that owned the equipment had use of it by day, but it was free for us to use at night which we utilized fully, with operation of about 12 hr a day 6 days a week. The nature of our work required continuous operation of the tool, which I imagine quite like flying a surveillance jet -- much of the time one needs to concentrate on the mission but from time to time one can switch to autopilot and take a break or two. I was the lone operator, away from HQ on a remote mission.After a shift I'd return home in the morning just as my family (who had come out to the national lab with me) was getting up. I'd have breakfast with them, upload the data, and teleconference with my team back in San Francisco before going to bed. My family would then go about their day and I'd then wake up around dinnertime, eat with them, maybe watch a movie, snuggle and put wife and kids to bed, then head back to the lab for another cycle on the tool.My efficiency was through the roof because I had exactly zero interruptions every single night (my guess is a 3x gain over a normal 9-5 gig). The overnight feedback cycles allowed the team to operate twice as fast. I could operate and then take breaks whenever I needed, for example taking naps on the floor while the machine was transitioning states. I could stuff myself with cheesy-poofs or mix up a little delicious ramen in the wee hours of the morning whenever I wanted. I rather enjoyed driving home with the birds chirping and warm morning sun lighting up the interior of the car. All social obligations became compressed into one day a week, yet with only one opportunity a week I made them count and I never felt them lacking.Overall an incredibly satisfying experience, and the routine and clarity of purpose was quite freeing. The only thing I really missed was falling asleep every night with my wife, that was a really hard thing to give up for a time.