How do others get out of night shift mode?

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Absolutely correct, in health and emergency services a night shift is the one (8hrs or 10hrs or 12hrs) that goes through to the morning finishing between 5am and 8am, for some years I did evenings that started at 4pm and ended at 2am and another that started at mid day and ended at 10pm but I rarely ended going home till after midnight but it was still an evening shift.

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Our night shifts are 14 hours, often blowing out to 16 or 17 if a late job comes in. I do 2 of these every 8 days, the body doesn't really get an opportunity to get into nightshift 'mode', or out of it. If there's a way to make it easy on the body, I haven't found it in 17 years. Except perhaps in the early days when workload was relatively light and there was often opportunity to get some sleep at work, just a fond memory now. I think perhaps 4 months of long-service-leave this year should help, might be feeling human by the end of it. Like other shift workers have said, it has it's advantages. I do like having the RDOs during the week, get the opportunity to do things like going up the bush when no-one else is around. Wouldn't like to go back to a normal 5-day routine.

Melatonin - now legal in Aus.
Or get a mate in US to send over some as its stronger content. Pilots have been taking it since the 70's.


Melatonin is used to treat insomnia. But there are two ways that you can use it. The first is as a sedative, to make you feel sleepy. This is the most common use. The second is to help reset your internal body clock to a different time in conditions where it is out of synchrony with time of day, such as with jet lag or advanced or delayed sleep phase syndrome. In these cases melatonin therapy at night is often combined with Bright Light Therapy, applied in the morning (usually using outdoor light) in the case of jet lag or delayed sleep phase syndrome or in the evening (using special lights) in the case of advanced sleep phase syndrome (see also Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome).

Not going to addd to the advice, despite 30+ years as a worker on rotating shifts.
However, we found day/late afternoon (all including weekends and RDOs) were more bearable when worked week-about rather than six-weeks.

The key to re-setting body clock, or just plain surviving is to get Good Quality Sleep, preferably in total darkness. Ideally the bedroom should be light-tight, but a good compromise is a well-fitted eye-shade thingy. Cheap & nasty ones let light leak around the edges, and I found the $$$ ones totally sealed whilst not cooking your face. :o You get what you pay for.

Latest research indicates the sleeping brain is still affected by light, even a bedside clock.

Being born under a certain star sign, there is no way I can sleep under a bright moon.... even a cheapie keeps the wolf at bay, so to speak...:twisted:

Edit:- Working late shifts in a photographic (printing) had some advantages...

For me when I was on 8hr shifts x 7 and now on 12hr shifts 6-6am sleep about 6hrs each morning until after last one , then only sleep 3-4 , get up around 10am and have a normal day. Do not eat after midnight on any night shifts,(unless doing overtime doggy day , 11pm-3pm, then eat brekky, lunch ) As others have said leave work with the sunnies on , go home, STRAIGHT to bed and sleep in a dark room.
Don't do what one of my co-workers used to do and "sedate" yourself with a bottle of scotch each morning, he wondered why he had such bad gout at 50 :eek:
Other things that help after the last night shift are to have an active day after you get up at 10am and some physical activity before/at bedtime;):D