How do I flip my sleep/wake schedule?

August 22, 2005 8:42 AM

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.

posted by cilantro to Work & Money (13 answers total)

To change your sleep schedule, don't try to get extra sleep, but rather stay up the first night. You might try waking up going to bed a bit later for a few days before the first shift.
posted by kindall at 8:51 AM on August 22, 2005

I'm constantly fooling around with my sleep schedule. I've always been a 4am person but that doesn't work too well for my current job (plus, it sucks that Walmart is about the only store open after 10). So my advice is to do the opposite of everything I do :).

I'd suggest that you start taking naps from 6:00 to 9:00pm. Eat a meal around 10pm and another around 2:00pm. Reading a good book can keep me awake, so try some fast paced ones (if you can stomach his writing, I'd suggest Dan Brown). Can you bring a laptop with a DVD player? The local video stores carry a lot of TV shows now; one disc of the West Wing has 6 hours worth of content (let's not talk about what that's done to my sleep schedule).

I'd just suggest taking it slowly and keeping yourself engrossed in something. If you sit there and count the minutes until you're shift is over then it's going to feel like forever.
posted by sbutler at 9:07 AM on August 22, 2005

errmmm... make that 2:00am.
posted by sbutler at 9:08 AM on August 22, 2005

dark shades and a quiet room (or, a sleeping mask and ear plugs) for sleeping during the day
posted by ThePants at 9:16 AM on August 22, 2005

I did this for almost a year at an all-night Kinkos, but I ultimately couldn't take it anymore.

It's easier in the winter. Make sure that you go to bed as soon as you can when you get home (and for the first night, do just skip sleeping. It'll make it easier to reset). When you wake up, make yourself a meal (fruit is good) that feels like breakfast. Make sure when you're sleeping that your room is totally dark, and for me having white noise helped too.
Try to make friends who have similar schedules. Not being able to go out is really hard.
When you wake up in the evening, using a sun lamp can really help your mood. Same with taking vitamin D. A little bit of physical activity can be nice too.
As for staying up? Well, ultimately, I was having to drop acid almost every night in order to deal with the mind-crushing tedium, so I might not be the best one to offer advice there.
posted by klangklangston at 9:20 AM on August 22, 2005

I worked a night shift for a while. My biggest problem was having my friends call me at 2:00 pm to find out waat i was doing when they got off work. It never really sunk in that i might be asleep, even after repeated yelling on my part. So make sure you turn off your cell and unplug your land line.
posted by doctor_negative at 9:23 AM on August 22, 2005

I find that talk radio helps keep me awake, unlike music which eventually puts me to sleep.

Ooohh... Coast to Coast AM is about the best program on late night radio.
posted by sbutler at 9:27 AM on August 22, 2005

melatonin can be really helpful in resetting the body clock. other recommended remedies i have not tried: valerian, inositol, passionflower.
posted by judith at 9:49 AM on August 22, 2005

I've read that it takes a full month for your entire body to adjust to a radically different sleep schedule, and that you can actually feel sick for the duration of that month (decreasing in severity). The only way to avoid this is by changing your sleep schedule by 15 min. at a time. It sounds like that is impossible. [the above was from PhDs studying sleep, not some quack on Channel 12 at 2 AM].

Food seems to be a big deal -- adjust meals to your new schedule pronto, to help begin the shift. And try complete darkness when you sleep, it makes a giant difference from what I've read. If you have any control, make sure the place where you work is very brightly lit. If you have a hard time getting up in the morning, try and schedule bright light first think and exercise.

Realize that if you are not a natural night owl, it is quite possible that you will never fully adjust to a night shift so that you really feel comfortable with it. I am a night owl, and I can never be completely content working a "normal" AM shift. This type of thing seems to be at least partly inborn, modern research suggests.
posted by teece at 10:42 AM on August 22, 2005

Exposure to sunlight (or bright light). If you get sunlight during the first half of the time you normally sleep, your schedule shifts forward. If you get sunlight during the second half, it shifts backward.

Which is why you have to be careful if you're making a large shift so that you don't move in the wrong direction.
posted by mcguirk at 10:53 AM on August 22, 2005

My husband has worked nights for 15 years.

His schedule: He comes home at 7:00 am and unwinds for an hour. He naps in a dark, dark room (Our bedroom is decorated in browns with special dark shades and heavy velvet curtains) with some backround noise; air conditioning in the summer, fan in the winter. He gets up around 12:00 noon and eats lunch with me at about 3:00. We watch one hour of TV and then after a shower, he goes back to bed until 8:30.

On the weekends, he extends his Saturday morning nap until 3:00pm or so and then stays up until 2:00am in the morning. Sunday and Monday mornings we sleep in until around 12:00 pm. This way we have some semblance of a normal weekend together.

Dave's advice: Try not to let it dictate your life more than a regular job would. Try to make time for fun and family.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 1:43 PM on August 22, 2005 [1 favorite]

If you have health insurance, you might want to ask your doctor for a Provigil prescription to ease the transition. A tablet of that stuff will keep you awake without any side effects. An alternative is Adrafinil, which requires higher doses but is still pretty effective.
posted by exhilaration at 2:40 PM on August 22, 2005

Don't try melatonin to stay awake at night or sleep during the day - isn't it supposed to trigger you to be awake when there's light?

No useful advice. I'm naturally almost entirely nocturnal, have been working days for 5 years now, and have hated and ached through every minutes of it. I get my real sleep on weekends; during the week I rarely sleep more than a 5 hour stretch, and that not well.

Consider how badly you need the extra money - being broke sucks, but it can get hellish working when your body knows it should be asleep, and sleep deprivation can be dangerous.
posted by dilettante at 3:34 PM on August 22, 2005