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Switch To Night Shift The Painless Way
By Mikey 777
Night shift. Graveyard. “Shift of the Living Dead”. What ever you call it, ya gotta be just a little bit nuts to even think about working at night. Switching to graveyard shift takes a couple months to get used to, but if you are committed to working these ungodly hours, here are some tips to make the switch to graveyard shift as painless as possible. **Alert Your Friends and Family** This change of shift isn’t just going to affect you, ya know. Before you do anything else, tell everybody you know that you’ve switched to graveyard shift. This little piece of advice will save you countless groggy wake up calls in the middle of the day. Just about the worst thing that could happen when working graveyard shift is to have your brother drop by for breakfast at 10 a.m., right in the middle of your dream about Disneyland. Working graveyard shift is bad enough, but trying to do it without sleep is terrible. Also, try to make sure that you can pay most of your bills either online or by phone. Remember, the middle of your day will be about 1 a.m. for the rest of the world, so it’s not like you can drop by the insurance company to pay your premium.
**The Shift Change** Sleep is very high up on my list of priorities for surviving graveyard shift. If you’re like most people, you’re used to being up in the day time, and your body isn’t gonna like you very much when you try to make it work when it’s supposed to be sleeping. The easiest way I’ve found to give your body a 180 degree shift change is to do it gradually. Hopefully your employer has given you enough time to adjust (4 or 5 days should do it), so the best way to change shifts is to stay up 2-3 hours later than you normally would each night, until you reach your target bed time. If your boss is a slave driver and wants you to change shifts on a couple days notice, you’ll have to try to stay up at least 4 hours later than you normally would. Be prepared, because you will be tired. Very, very tired. To go along with this little tidbit of info, I don’t recommend sleeping on your breaks at work to try to catch up on rest either, unless you want the day shift supervisor waking you up and handing you a pretty pink piece of paper. **Keep Your Shift On Your Days Off** I realize that most of us have kids, and a lot of the time this isn’t possible, but keeping the same hours every day of the week is the healthiest way to survive graveyard shift. Some of the people I work with switch to day shift on their days off, and doctors say that this is just about the worst thing you can do for your health. Constantly changing your biological clock is extremely stressful on your body and can lead to numerous health problems such as high blood pressure. Plus, it’s a lot harder to go back to work after the weekend, as you have to adjust to graveyard shift all over again. If you know what’s good for you, don’t switch to days on your weekends. You’re a night worker now–the few, the proud, the crazy.
**Find a Hobby** Night shift workers are a very lonely breed, especially on the weekends. Your friends won’t appreciate a call in the wee hours of the morning just to say hi. Nobody’s awake after midnight for the most part, so you’re pretty much in your own little world once you switch to graveyard shift. My advice is to get a gym membership to 24 Hour Fitness or another all night health club. If you’re not the workout type, make the best of your Blockbuster membership. You could even start your own blog. Now there’s something that will make those lonely hours just fly by! Just don’t sit there and watch TV, because I guarantee you’ll run out of money before QVC runs out of Elvis plates. Remember what they say about idle hands… **Don’t Eat Dinner Before Bed** I know you day shift workers are used to the norm. Breakfast, lunch, and then dinner. If you try this schedule on graveyard shift, you’re gonna feel like crap. Try to eat your biggest meal first, then at your lunch time (midnight or so), eat a lunch-sized meal. I know it’s tempting to eat all that lasagna that your spouse made when you get home from work, but the best idea is to have a very light meal before bed. When you eat large meals right before bed time, you’re gonna gain weight, as your body won’t be able to burn off all those calories. Not to mention the fact that you aren’t going to want to get up. Just look at Garfield in the morning. Don’t be surprised if you hate graveyard shift for at least 6 months. Night shift will completely flip your life upside down if you let it. Just remember, only the well rested survive graveyard, so ya better get to bed. |
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