Hey guys. Tonight is my first of a week's worth of night shifts, and as usual I'm finding it hard to adjust. Running a crane on an industrial site maintenance shutdown, so as per, it's more waiting than working. Spent the day trying to sleep but failed miserably, it's now 9pm of a 7-7 shift (plus an hour's travel each way) and starting to hit the wall. Any tips you might have for lasting the night will be gratefully received.... It's not my first time doing nights, but I never get used to it.
UNTIL you get used to it, they sell caffine pills & liquids across the counter at the stores. I know that's a cowards way out, but falling asleep at work isn't any better. & IF you do get caught sleeping, you'll have PLENTY of time to catch up on your rest, as your looking for another job.. Good luck.
Got access to plenty of coffee here plus a couple cans of coke in my lunch bag, so trying to stay away from the pills etc. I could probably sneak in a nap tonight, as it's looking doubtful there will be any lifts..... But as you say, not a good look and I'm not keen on a disciplinary. 11pm now - only 9 more hours until I can be in bed!
Take it easy on the caffeine late in the shift. It will keep you awake when you do get to bed in the morning. What helped me to sleep during the day was a totally dark bedroom. A very small amount of light would keep me awake if I woke up for any reason.
Agreed on darkness making day sleeping far easier, and in general for me, a cool room with a fan (hot natured) helps me sleep. If people are in the house making noise, earplugs.
Stay away from No Dose, they are usless.
Yep, darkness is a necessity... Although the damn body clock gets me up early every morning too, weekend or not. The house is empty during the day, cept for a cat who will no doubt sleep on top of me. A good meal before bed usually helps too, it's just the motivation to cook it that's lacking.
One thing somewhat off topic is be very careful outside in dark. The few times I had to work late or over night at the quarry made me realize how different a place can be in the dark no matter how familiar it is during the day time. The tunnel vision of only seeing what the lights on a machine or building light up can be very disorienting! I worked at the quarry for over 40 years and every time I had to go outside in the dark it felt like it was the first time I had been there! I'm sure if you stayed on the night shift for days or weeks at a time it would not be a problem but the first few days could be a problem.
That's a good point, but it's not so much of a problem here. The crane sits in one spot and there's plenty of floodlighting in the plant.... You almost can't tell it's nighttime.
I've found that getting out and walking around the crane a little, fresh air and some movement, will help me stay awake if I'm getting sleepy. A good walk when getting home, and a good breakfast/ meal, and I can usually go to sleep. I found the worst to be if I got to bed/ sleep about 3 am. Then I would still wake up at the usual time. A day or two is okay, but after a week you can really be dragging. Sometimes just getting up, and trying to catch a afternoon nap helps.
Plenty of walking around tonight has kept me going. The good news is... The Sun's coming up and there's less than an hour to go until I can head home!
Try getting some chocolate covered roosted coffee beans.
Chewing gum keeps me awake when I must stay up. Counting as follows puts me asleep quickly: 10, 1, 9,2,8,3,7,4,6,5. Just add 10 to the set when the first one is mastered.
I worked 10 years of nights, the trick to sleeping in the morning..is when you get home go right to sleep, do nothing else or your mind will start up and keep you awake thinking about the day, get your food at work and eat before you get home...and if at all possible dont use any of the drugs or high caffeine..if you get your sleep you will stay up at night..
5 hours sleep... Not bad for the first day, but not ideal. 6 nights to go!
I just re-read your original post.. so its temporary.. I wouldn't go thru all the hassle of changing my life style for a weeks worth of inconvienence.. A thermos full of coffee, maybe a few energy drinks to make it thu the nite.. some cardboard or thrash bags taped to my bedroom window & before you know it, your back on days.. & have to get used to THAT all over again.. WARNING> your going to be grumpy for about a week after all this is over, so watch your tongue. Lol
Doesn't matter, I'm grumpy anyway!
Has that ever worked for you Pumpguy?
I end up on nights for snow shifts, 7pm to 7am. Usually after a partial day shift at my usual shop. Its coffee, energy drink and such to keep me awake thru the night along with trying to find little projects to do around the shop, try to keep your brain workin and you'll stay awake better. Have even brought brain teasers and such to work with me so I'm awake the entire shift. The the dark room and make sure nobody bothers me when I get home in the morning.
I work evenings and often pick up an overnight shift on a day off. The key for me to get some sleep is a dark room. I hang blankets or whatever I have over the windows. Then, a good low volume white noise. This can be a fan or youtube even has videos of 10hrs of fans, rain, oceans, basically anything you can imagine. As for staying awake, brings healthy snacks. I don't love carrots, but I have never fallen asleep chewing on food. Peanuts m&m's do taste way better, but I could go through a 5lb bag of them and that just isn't a good thing. Stand up, stretch, and walk around when able. Caffeine is your friend. I don't like to sip the coffee, when I need the boost I chug it. So I intentionally don't have piping hot coffee with me. About 0330hrs is the toughest time for me, once I break passed that I am on a second wind.
Long night tonight. 0230hrs and no lifts yet. Looking doubtful that there will be one at all. The forums are keeping me occupied.
Are you getting paid night differential or something?
Nope, normal rate. Just this client requires a crane around the clock, and I drew the short straw
I worked a lot of nights at several different jobs, sometimes days that turned into nights and back into another long day again. Coffee nips, sunflower seeds and got real good at 5 minute catnaps - those were the real savior. I never did get used to it, some guys were more natural night owls and did better. I pretty much drew the line a few years ago after seeing far too many accidents happen at night that most likely wouldn't have during the day, part for visibility, part for humans needing sleep rather than work in the wee hours - not worth the $$, impact to my health, plus having to push out yet more time to cover for injuries and/or lost time. I was always catching cold/flu/etc. when otherwise I rarely get sick working even super-long day stretches. I can push into the night and mostly be fine, it's the getting up at 11p. or midnight and heading into a 14 or 16 hour shift that's tough. Good luck pushing this duty out, if you can somehow keep physically busy helping out around the jobsite the time will pass easier.
It always amazes me how an international company such as our client promotes safety above all else, yet allows such work to be carried out at night, for the reasons you listed JPSouth. There's working at heights, heavy/critical crane lifts (including many boom strike hazards) welding, grinding, confined space access, all in the presence of heavy machinery, flammable and toxic liquids, acids, etc. It's hazardous enough in the daytime, let alone running throughout the night. Safety is always number 2 to production, and number 3 to cost.
Before becoming self-employed, my last 15 years in the heavy construction industry was working for a large company that constantly stressed safety, but mostly in the sense that you had installed on your person a hard hat, safety glasses, steel toes and hi-vis PPE. Preferably memorizing the company safety manual on your off hours. I saw a pile of incidents get blamed on employees who weren't necessarily doing anything wrong, but mostly fatigued to the point of being punchy. Any some of those were not night-time, but just way long hours. People who put in normal work patterns have a hard time seeing how long hours and lack of sleep causes some pretty bad behavior. Were I a snitch, I could lay bare some industry practices that'd curl your hair, and I expect you could, too. After 35 years of goofy sleep patterns went by the board a year and change ago, my wife says I'm a considerably different person now, getting a more normal 6-7 hours a night.
Ought to try my last gig's hours. Worked a six section rotating shift 12/8 hour mixed schedule. Week one: 5 days 8 hour 7-3 eligible for +4hr overtime to 72 total or an 8 hour double two times, Second Week: MTW 12 hour Days 6:50-7p, 48 hours off, in FSSM 12 hour nights 6:50=7a, Week three: had SM from last shift then five scheduled days off, Week four: MTWT 8 hour days eligible OT +4hr OT prior to or after shift, can pull two doubles either end, in the week all previous off days eligible for any shift then six days off after and same conditions, Week five: TFSS 12 hour days, a 48 hour turn around and Week Six: *** 12 hour nights with basically a Friday morning off until Monday to start all over. Night shifts start 7pm day before the shown scheduled day. Refueling outages we worked 4 12s straight days or nights beginning to end the longest 67 days on schedule. Some weeks I could swear I passed myself going to or coming back from work. Sleep, is that really a necessity?? Did that schedule and a rolling 8 hour five section early in my career.
That sounds absolutely terrible! Hard on the body too, for sure.
I did a lot of nights a couple years ago. Biggest thing for me was forcing myself to stay awake until 10:00am. If I went straight to sleep at 8:00am when I got home, I'd be up at 2:30pm. If I went to bed at 10:00am I'd sleep until 5:00pm. Waking up that 2-3 hours later made a world of difference for me. I would catch a quick 20 minute nap during my midnight break too.
Working the shop nights, I hat a wall around 0300 to 0330, have to keep myself busy. End up making a lot of pig tails, pre-packing skid caster bearings for the plows, anything we use a lot of that is time consuming usually get done about that time as it turns to get moving or pass out.
Under the management I worked and rules of Nuclear power not Allowed to nap, not even for a moment. That as while walking by the Resident NRC inspectors office he had his feet on his desk 'DEEP' into a daytime nap that he explained away as just a momentary lapse NOT sleeping. Hmmm, double standard jackaxx. And he ONLY worked 8 hour days M-F. I know that pre-dawn wall really well, hard to overcome most days.
Night three is all but over, and I haven't even started the crane. On the plus side, I did manage to get in a little nap while everyone was on break, and felt much better after it. Hopefully tonights shift will see a little more action
Drink plenty of water. preferably cold water. That's what helped me to keep awake all night.
Melatonin might help you sleep. Doesn't work for everybody though. For me it's almost as good as taking a unisom.
Here we are, halfway through night 6, and it hasn't been as bad as I was expecting. Hit a wall around night 3, had a midnight nap and have been slowly adjusting from there. The hardest part has been that I haven't exactly been rushed off my feet... Only a lift or 2 each night, if that. It makes for a long shift. Sleeping pretty well though, was so dead to the world that I didn't wake when the cat brought in a bird, nor when my other half crawled into bed beside me for a Sunday afternoon nap!
Man very few guys get run out of plants for sleeping at night. I can barely stay awake during the day with the slow pace of work at industrial sites. You’ve already gotten some great tips though. I won’t do night work anymore though it’s just not worth it to me. You ask why they do work at nights get to know some of the people that operate the plant. Ask them what kind of money the place generates you’re know exactly why they work 24 hours a day at that place. Some of these bigger places generate millions of dollars a minute with the chemicals they produce. Therefore you get the place up and running as fast as possible when it’s shutdown.
Well, I got through unscathed. Unfortunately, one of my first jobs back on normal hours was dealing with the aftermath of a truck driver who wasn't so lucky. 50 ton of truck and trailer upside down in a river after falling asleep. Luckily, he walked out, but the dangers of night shift are clear.
I was the master of setting in my desk with my feet up. It became automatic when I was on the phone. When my boss said it didn't look good I told him. "Look at the size of my feet. I need them up to get some blood flowing to my head so I can think". Actually it helped keep the nerve pain down the last number of years.
That's a good answer, but, you should have claimed it as an ADA accommodation. They'd have bought you a custom pillow for the corner of the desk.
I guess, its really difficult but a person must be able to train his own mind and body so that it will become a regular or natural pattern.