hey all, I’m switching shifts from days to midnights (11-7am) and I’m looking for some sleep aid options that do not include pills. Any of you that work this shift have some ideas? In the 911 call center I can not afford to be tired. Thanks all.
I worked nights for years. A few things that help: Keep your bedroom as dark as possible. I hung a comforter up over my window. Limit exposure to light after you clock out. Tinted car windows helped me a lot with that. Limit activity after you clock out. Personally, exercise energizes me and makes it harder to sleep. Melatonin. Yeah, it's a pill, but I look at it more as a supplement than a drug. Good luck!
What ground hog said. Ive been doing two weeks of days then transition to two weeks of night and back for over 10 years. The best way for me to transition to sleep during the day is to stay up the whole day then work all night. Then youll be tired enough to sleep through the day. Be warned; you never achieve ideal sleep. Ever. Until you retire....or die.
Make your room as dark as possible. When I worked a shift like that I would stay up til 8-9 hours before time to be at work then sleep. No different than going to work in the AM. Some folks go home and immediately go to sleep, but i never was able to do that. Its pretty nice being off during they day though for running errands and such. Everything is open and most everyone else is at work. Makes doing pretty much anything a lot less stressful.
Yep, Melatonin is what you need for swapping your sleep schedule around. Your body naturally produces melatonin when it’s time to go to sleep. But your “body clock” will be all messed up for a few days. Taking melatonin when you want to go to sleep will help swap it around. I use it the first 3 days when I get overseas.
I used to work night shift a lot and what did the trick for me was tin foil. Tape tin foil to the windows in the bedroom then get blackout curtains to further keep light out. With the tin foil I was able to get it pitch black in my bedroom. Surprisingly it is hard to even notice when you are looking at the house from the outside. A side effect though is it makes it really hard to get out of bed because it’ll be pitch black when you wake up too.
Like everyone else said... dark room. I liked mine cold as well. I went so far as to go crackhead mode and put up aluminum foil to cover the windows. It faced my backyard so nobody could see it. When to sleep will really depend on how you are doing at the end of your shift. If you sleep 9-5 but are always dragging ass at the end of shift, you probably should stay up longer after work and get up closer to going to work.
Dark room, melatonin, benadryl, cough syrup, Herbal Essence Sleepytime tea, the movie Clear & Present Danger all work well for putting me to sleep.
I have had a lot of trouble sleeping lately. Most pills do leave you zombie like in the morning but melatonin is a bit different. I find myself waking up in the middle of the night but I just take another and focus on going back to sleep. Unless you want to try some more popular methods, this should be the way to go.
3 droppers of melatonin in a beer and read a book till I pass out works for me. No video screens in the bedroom.
I work nights, the last 4 weeks has been swing shift 12pm-12am but normally I work 2nd shift (3:30pm-2am) or 3rd shift (5;00pm-5am) depending what project I’m on I’ve had to: Black out our bedroom Noise machine 100% of the time in the bedroom Noise canceling headphones which are bulky and annoying to sleep with. But even ear buds piss me off trying to sleep with them on a pillow but when you’re actually tired enough none of really that matters Readjust my eating schedule. On 3rd shift my schedule is : Breakfast is at 230pm, lunch is around 8:30pm, dinner is around 230-3am and I usually eat a snack or supplement when I get home. Don’t forget to eat! This was a big issue for me since I can’t keep weight on and I dropped from 205 to 165 in 4 months. I’ve been struggling the last 5 months to put 20 of those back on. If you don’t eat properly especially on this shift your energy levels tank off hard. Ive drank every energy drink under the sun and when I’m working six days a week 12 hour a day the struggle is real. So for caffeine my routine is hot tea w/ breakfast, Yerba mate before lunch and then I drink any of the popular energy drinks from monster to red bull to bang! Hydrate!!! I can’t stress this enough, you’re going to be super dehydrated and you’re not going to think straight. Make sure you’re drinking a lot of water. I work in a clean room environment and I’ve had to more than double my normal water intake. I feel like shit when I’m not downing water all night. It took me 2~ weeks to properly adjust. YRMV.
Have a sixer of beers while you hang blackout curtains, eat a shit load of carbs, crank one out and get in bed. Should be sufficient the first couple days to get you sleeping. After that your golden.
Yeah I would say what do you consider to be a "pill". If by pill you mean an actual pharma drug then of course no. If you are OK with over the counter supplement then... 1 - 5-10mg of melatonin 2 - 200mg of L-theanine 3 - mix up a little batch of grapeseed oil and lavender extract. Massage that into your upper chest/neck/shoulders and a dab under each nostril a little before bed, great for relaxation That knocks me on my ass and I sleep great. I usually only need it for when I have to catch an early AM flight or have to hit the road before the sun's up to get to the track. This usually means I have to try to get to bed a lot earlier than I normally do, and get up out of bed around 3:30-4AM. Without that stuff I'll just be laying there staring at the ceiling. FYI, only use the melatonin on an as needed basis. I would only use it maybe once in a blue moon. The theanine and lavender is fine to use whenever you feel like.