Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with nightshift

Day shift versus night shift: FIGHT!

sperose — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 02:54:39 -0800

Which would be better for someone in my situation, day shift or night shift? The situation: I will be finished with graduate school in approximately 2 weeks. I am attempting to find a professional job. I have one interview lined up at the moment and will hopefully have more calls coming in soon. My job currently operates on a day/night shift schedule.

Details on the schedule: Both shifts have different start times every day (for example, this week my start times are: 7pm, 5am, 6pm, 9am, and 8am). Both shifts are unpredictable in terms of shift length (ranging from 3-12 hours). Day shift starts between 5am-10am. Night shifts start between 5pm-11pm.

The problem: I'm getting tired of the constant backing and forthing (as you can tell from my start times for this week) due to my other job (which I have since left) and school (which is going to be over really soon). My sleep schedule is completely dicked and I'm a cranky mofo all the time.

The question: Which shift should I stick with?

If I take day shift, I'll have a hard time scheduling interviews. (I sometimes have one day off a week, but that's not a guarantee and I don't know what day it will be. I've attempted to get the scheduler to just pick one day and stick with it, but somehow I feel like that is possibly not going to work for interviewing purposes.) If I take night shift, I'll have my days free, but I've heard that this shift is especially hard on people.

Publicly available research/data is always appreciated, along with personal anecdotes.

Blogs by night shift workers?

jayder — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:35:04 -0800

I am looking for blogs written by low-wage, night-shift employees (such as convenience store clerks) who use their blogs to chronicle interesting experiences from their working lives. Any suggestions?

How do I flip my sleep/wake schedule?

cilantro — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 08:42:45 -0800

Just got a new job and I took the night shift for the extra 1.50 per hour in my paycheck. I'm normally an early to bed/rise kind of girl, so I'm looking for any tips on completely flipping my sleeping schedule. My shift is from 12 a.m. until 8 a.m. five days a week, and it involves sitting at a desk in a dorm checking ID's with nothing but a radio and whatever reading material I might have to keep me company. Any tips on staying awake all night that don't include 23 gallons of coffee would be appreciated, too.