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Do they go out and cut the grass at 2am? Or work on the el camino out in the garage?
How do people live who work the night shift without waking up the neighbors?
- Thread starter The motor guy
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Maybe they live away from people like I do?
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Yeah, but that's not the case for everyone.
I worked grave for years; got off work and drove to college. After about 4 years, they put me back on day shift. I found it was really easy to sleep when it was dark outside.
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lmao. They have a lot of sleeping problems from people who do shift work and that kind of thing.
At work?
Define night shift.
If you work 4-12 - you come home, sleep, then mow the lawn in the morning before work.
If you work 12-8 - you go home, mow the lawn, then go to sleep.
I have run into a few small towns that have a bar that opens at 8AM - to cater to the midnight shift which is mostly young guys, just getting off work. I assume only certain states allow it - I think Texas was one place I ran into one.
If you work 4-12 - you come home, sleep, then mow the lawn in the morning before work.
If you work 12-8 - you go home, mow the lawn, then go to sleep.
I have run into a few small towns that have a bar that opens at 8AM - to cater to the midnight shift which is mostly young guys, just getting off work. I assume only certain states allow it - I think Texas was one place I ran into one.
dnewton3
Staff member
I've worked shift-work before.
You adapt. And if you're working nights, you typically have your mornings or afternoons to get stuff done pre or post sleep time.
There's still 24 hours in a day, after all.
You adapt. And if you're working nights, you typically have your mornings or afternoons to get stuff done pre or post sleep time.
There's still 24 hours in a day, after all.
dnewton3
Staff member
When I worked 5pm to 3:30am (10 hour shifts 4 days a week; plus OT days), I would get home and if it was a nice morning outside, I'd be grilling burgers at 6am and drinking a beer. Then head to bed around 10am and sleep until 4pm.
When I was right out of college I made friends / acquired a mentor during a project with the 2nd shift manager in the manufacturing plant that adjoined our R&D center. He worked 3 -11, and had done so for 20 years. He would leave work at 11, go to the bar, stay till it closed at 1, sleep, household chores in the AM, then back to work. If I ever needed to find him I knew exactly where he would be at about 11:20PM just about every night
You get used to it eventually. I worked with a guy that worked 4pm-12:30am and gamed until the sun came up and went to bed. He didn't have much of a home life and it worked for him. I like second shift because I run my own business during the day and this makes that possible.
Many people on my shift go home and go straight to bed. Where you might be off at 5pm and eat dinner, mow the yard and still have time for a movie, I try to be in bed within an hour or two of the end of my shift. On the rain days where I don't have much side work I will sometimes sleep in of I don't have other obligations. I can sleep till noon if I want to as long as I'm at work by 4pm.
Many people on my shift go home and go straight to bed. Where you might be off at 5pm and eat dinner, mow the yard and still have time for a movie, I try to be in bed within an hour or two of the end of my shift. On the rain days where I don't have much side work I will sometimes sleep in of I don't have other obligations. I can sleep till noon if I want to as long as I'm at work by 4pm.
We suffer and force ourselves to destroy our body clock on days off.
I've been on night shift for almost 10 years, usually working the following schedule.
All 7pm-7am 12 hour shifts
Mon - Work
Tues - Work
Wed - Work (OT)
Thurs - Off
Fri - Work
Sat - Work
Sun - Work
Mon - Off
Tues - Work (OT)
Wed - Work
Thurs - Work
Fri - Off
Sat - Off
Sun - Off
On the days when I have 1 day off during the week, in the summer I will force myself up at about 1300 and do any "outside' work that needs to be done. I do the grocery shopping and usually have a Walmart cart ready to pick up at 0800 the days I'm off.
During the winter time, I'm more inclined to sleep later on those '1 days' and just keep my schedule the same.
The 3 day weekends, I will usually force myself up at noon and we'll go out of town on a 3 day camping weekend.
I'm approaching 50 and I probably don't have many years of doing this schedule left. It ages you for sure.
Days I work there is just sleep. I wake up at 1600, eat dinner, if the family is home I'll spend a little time with them, but I'm out of the house at 1730 on the way to work. Home at 0730 it is basically straight to bed. If I do anything at all it will be a minor chore, like load the dishwasher or something. No mowing, no outside chores, nothing involved.
I've been on night shift for almost 10 years, usually working the following schedule.
All 7pm-7am 12 hour shifts
Mon - Work
Tues - Work
Wed - Work (OT)
Thurs - Off
Fri - Work
Sat - Work
Sun - Work
Mon - Off
Tues - Work (OT)
Wed - Work
Thurs - Work
Fri - Off
Sat - Off
Sun - Off
On the days when I have 1 day off during the week, in the summer I will force myself up at about 1300 and do any "outside' work that needs to be done. I do the grocery shopping and usually have a Walmart cart ready to pick up at 0800 the days I'm off.
During the winter time, I'm more inclined to sleep later on those '1 days' and just keep my schedule the same.
The 3 day weekends, I will usually force myself up at noon and we'll go out of town on a 3 day camping weekend.
I'm approaching 50 and I probably don't have many years of doing this schedule left. It ages you for sure.
Days I work there is just sleep. I wake up at 1600, eat dinner, if the family is home I'll spend a little time with them, but I'm out of the house at 1730 on the way to work. Home at 0730 it is basically straight to bed. If I do anything at all it will be a minor chore, like load the dishwasher or something. No mowing, no outside chores, nothing involved.
I worked 7pm-7am briefly and hated it. It was 3 days a week so the last day I wouldn't go to bed most of the time to reset my sleep schedule for the rest of the week. It was a rough time for me and one I hope to never have to repeat.
They're at work so how would they mow at 2am ?
There's 24 hours in a day. You do "chores" when you're not at home, right ? Think about when you'd do those.... Now think about when someone working nights could do the same things.
Thats one weird shift. I know lots of guys that work 2 -12 hour days, then 2-12 hour nights, then 2.5 days off - half day due to day / night switch
Another common is 3- 8hour days, then 2-8 hour swing shift, then 2 days off.
Pretty common for LEO's in this area. If you're not working OT (and nights) it can be pretty nice since we effectively only work half the year. Add OT to that and the money is better, but pretty much everything else suffers.
Next county over flips day/night every 30 days. Screw that. We used to be on a 3 month day/night flip which was ok, but then the Sheriff decided we'd be on permanent rotations, so here we are.
Edit #1
I should also add. I sacrificed a LOT family-wise working that schedule over the years and I have a real gem as a wife that has put up with it. We're now at the point where things are a lot easier and we're enjoying our time together more. If I had several kids it would have been a nightmare and I probably wouldn't have survived it while staying married. I still missed a lot for my step-kid, but she's turned out fantastic and I made it to several of her sporting events over the years, so I didn't have to be completely absent.
Edit #2
A prescription for Modafinil/Armodafinil can do wonders. It is an interesting drug. I keep it on hand for when I either need to make a fast adjustment to days, or I'm particularly struggling to make it through a shift. One side effect is that it tends to offer a small bump in your brains ability to process things, so you are a little more 'intelligent' for about 12 hours until it wears off.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armodafinil
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil
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My wife is a nurse, and fortunately she now she's mostly straight days with maybe a one-off night shift once a year or so if needed.
Nights were pretty miserable when she was doing them, though. It would be two weeks out a 6 week schedule, and she was pretty much a zombie even though it was "only" 3 days a week.
When she would do two back to back nights it would basically be home around 8:00 or 8:30AM, get a bite to eat, be in bed around 9:00AM 9:30AM, sleep until 4:30 or 5:00PM, get up, eat dinner, and leave for work around 6:00PM. I'd barely get to see her-I'd often be gone for work before she got home(I'd stay to at least say hi if I could, but not always possible) and then depending on my schedule sometimes might only get to see her in passing before we left, although we did usually get to have dinner together.
She would usually try to schedule her 3 shifts for the week in a row so that she could get back to a "normal" schedule the rest of the week. If she had a day off in-between, she'd usually come home and sleep for a few hours before getting up for the afternoon/evening, sleeping again at night, and then getting a nap for a few hours before the start of her next shift.
Regardless, she made it work, but it definitely wasn't pleasant for anyone, much less her.
Now she's sporadically on 10-10 shifts, which aren't as bad as a full night bad but it's still awfully late to get home...
Nights were pretty miserable when she was doing them, though. It would be two weeks out a 6 week schedule, and she was pretty much a zombie even though it was "only" 3 days a week.
When she would do two back to back nights it would basically be home around 8:00 or 8:30AM, get a bite to eat, be in bed around 9:00AM 9:30AM, sleep until 4:30 or 5:00PM, get up, eat dinner, and leave for work around 6:00PM. I'd barely get to see her-I'd often be gone for work before she got home(I'd stay to at least say hi if I could, but not always possible) and then depending on my schedule sometimes might only get to see her in passing before we left, although we did usually get to have dinner together.
She would usually try to schedule her 3 shifts for the week in a row so that she could get back to a "normal" schedule the rest of the week. If she had a day off in-between, she'd usually come home and sleep for a few hours before getting up for the afternoon/evening, sleeping again at night, and then getting a nap for a few hours before the start of her next shift.
Regardless, she made it work, but it definitely wasn't pleasant for anyone, much less her.
Now she's sporadically on 10-10 shifts, which aren't as bad as a full night bad but it's still awfully late to get home...
I work night shift as a nurse 3 nights a week. I have an Ego brand electric mower which has a built-in headlight. I tested it and asked my neighbors if they could hear it. They all said no. I have mowed at midnight before and my neighbors had no clue. I am polite and try to be quiet. I am blessed to have good neighbors. Only thing that a lot do not understand is when they ask me to do things. I was recently asked to move furniture at 530 pm when I was walking my dog to get ready to leave for work. When I said no my neighbor looked upset. Would I ask you to move furniture at 6am? lol same thing to me
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