soulhalshall
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Post by soulhalshall on Dec 17, 2020 7:36:30 GMT
Has anyone any experience of night work/shifts? I've been offered a night job (reference permitting) 9pm - 5am cleaning at a hotel four days on four days off. I'm keen on it, to combine daytime parenting with earning to some extent but I imagine it could be an ordeal.
Does anyone with experience have advice on times to sleep/eat etc or anything general?
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Post by scooterboy on Dec 17, 2020 9:21:47 GMT
I never worked nights but worked shifts from 1987 to 2019 the biggest benefit was driving to and from work outside the rush hour, I also found it useful for childcare when my wife was working. I found the biggest downfalls was when and what you eat as meal times were irregular and you tend to eat rubbish also after a week of earlies your shattered. But I guess nowadays any job you can get is a blessing Good luck hope it works out for you
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neilmc4
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Post by neilmc4 on Dec 17, 2020 11:49:02 GMT
Since starting a rural paper round at age 12 (start time 5.00am) just about EVERY job I`ve ever had has been nights or early mornings - by a strange circular twist of fate I`m back doing a paper round again in my fifties!
Personally I`ve always preferred these kind of hours - the time seems to pass a lot quicker than on a daytime 9.00 to 5.00 for some strange reason , the wages usually tend to be a bit better , and (depending on the job of course!) you often get a more relaxed working environment. The down sides , however , CAN be serious. After all , if night work was so great then everybody would be doing it. Your natural body clock tells you that when it`s light you should be alert and active and that when it`s dark everything should shut down so that you can go to sleep. Decades of research have led to the conclusion that roughly 20-25% of people have the ability to override their body clock without creating serious health problems for themselves. Unfortunately the only way to find out if you`re one of the lucky 20-25% is to try it and monitor what it does to your mind and body , if anything. A good tip is to try and get into a regular routine. For the last 7 years I`ve been getting up at 4.00am seven days a week , and before that I was a milkman for 23 years usually getting up around 1.00am ; I`ve found that eating your main meal at the same time each day and going to bed at the same time on a regular basis is a really good idea , as is avoiding the twin evils of too much caffeine and alcohol. If you can manage it , I`ve always found a mini-sleep of between an hour and an hour and a half during the day can also really help to recharge the batteries ; otherwise I would have spent half my working life going to bed before the Six O`Clock News!
Good luck and please let us know how you get on.
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kentishu
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Post by kentishu on Dec 17, 2020 13:12:07 GMT
I have recently been working nights for four days a week and it is tough. Despite being extremely tired after a long night working, I found it difficult to sleep during the day which meant I was even more tired the following night. And just when I thought I was adjusting, my body clock became horribly confused during the three days that I wasn't working.
In relation to food, I got a cooked breakfast at work at around 6pm which was weird but kinda enjoyable, and another meal around midnight. Food wasn't really a problem.
Overall, it is not impossible if you really need to do it, but it's no fun either.
Kentish
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lesj
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Post by lesj on Dec 17, 2020 13:43:04 GMT
It's been thirty years since I did nights, but it was on a 3 shift system .
The biggest problem that I had in the summer was just getting off to sleep when the grass cutters came round with their gang mowers and woke me up . I have since had double glazing fitted which may of helped at the time.
On a different note, more recently I had trouble waking up early in the summer because of the light mornings and having a job to get back to sleep again.
I have since had blinds fitted. Cured the problem.
If you haven't got blinds and can afford them I would recommend them
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Post by champair79 on Dec 17, 2020 15:01:01 GMT
I used to do nights as part of a rolling shift pattern when I was younger. I didn’t find them too bad but I’m a proper night owl. I used to find 4am till 6am the worst but if I kept on my feet, I could power through. I found in the winter it was relatively easy to sleep as it was still dark when you got home. The summer was much tougher to sleep but arguably easier at work as you had more daylight to fool your body clock. The worst shifts for me were earlies. After just 3 or 4 I’d be absolutely destroyed but I’d still struggle to sleep enough for the next shift. More often than not, I could sleep fine in the day after a night shift. It’s funny how different people react isn’t it? A big thumbs up to blackout blinds or good curtains!
In my current job, one of the perks is that I don’t do nights (I’m a pilot) but some of my colleagues who fly longhaul do and it’s tough especially as you get older. Some people cope better than others. If you really want the job, give it a go. Re-assess after a few months to see how your body is coping. If you’re feeling absolutely destroyed even on days off, give it up. It’s not worth it.
In terms of eating, I used to eat at ‘dinner time’ for my breakfast. I can’t remember what I used to eat. I think it was just normal non-breakfasty things as if it was my evening meal. I’d try take something to work to eat around midnight or 1am. Don’t fall into the trap of reaching for sweets and unhealthy snacks otherwise it becomes a habit. By all means drink some coffee but don’t overdo it otherwise you’ll become a caffeine addict and struggle to sleep when you get home!
Finally, as has been mentioned before, it’s a scientific fact that it’s terrible for your health. I’ve worked with people who do permanent nights and I’m not generalising when I say most of them just look ill - pale and aged mostly. I understand needs must and all that but if you must do them, do it for a few years and branch out into something else or do different hours after that. The problem most people have is they find they get used to the extra night pay and kid themselves that they can’t do without the extra.
The above are just my thoughts and experiences. Only you know and are responsible for your own health. Try it out first and find what (if anything) works for you. Parenting when you’re desperate to sleep is an added complication - something which I never had to consider when I was young and single doing them. Remember as well that as a night worker, you’ll probably have very little social life during your block of work (but then at the moment, what’s a social life anyway?).
Nick
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imp566
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Post by imp566 on Dec 17, 2020 19:02:31 GMT
I worked for 4 months during Gulf War 2 in a hot and dusty desert, 15 hour nights for 4 months without a day (or night!) off. Trust me, sleep wasn't a worry, didn't take long to nod off and needed a good alarm to wake me, even with noisy planes flying overhead all day long. The hardest thing was getting used to eating what was everyone else's dinner for my breakfast! My body rhythm changed after a few days - a week at most and I quite quickly got used to my routine.
I have worked shifts at different times during my career, in various patterns. 2 days, 2 nights, 4 off was great, 3 days, 3 nights 3 off wasn't! The first shift pattern didn't allow you to lose your body rhythm really, helped by the chance to grab a crafty 3 or 4 hours kip during the shift if there were surplus workers in to allow it. Having 4 days off afterwards was brilliant as a youngster, free holiday every week, socialising at will! The second shift was awful; I lay in bed some nights when I was working the next day, trying my hardest to sleep but often managing 2 or 3 hours at most due to my body clock being screwed up.
Having worked nights, both in a mixed pattern and on their own, I got used to them and adapted, but I know its not for everyone. I think the key to making it work is being busy when you are work. If you have a sedentary job, you will get tired and drowsy. Staying active doesn't allow time for dozing!
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Post by shaggy09 on Dec 17, 2020 22:30:47 GMT
i currently work nights every 2 weeks. It is not ideal but you sort of get used to it. I find trying to sleep a few hours before the first night helps and after the last night i normally sleep until lunchtime otherwise i don't sleep that night. You do tend to eat less healthily on night shifts but i try to make up for it on rest days and days. As i said it's not ideal and i've found that the older you get (i'm 57) the harder i find doing nights. Hope this helps.
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Post by c130uk on Dec 18, 2020 6:45:30 GMT
Been on night shift at Marshall aerospace since 1983 and I think its great although we have had some lads come on shift and didn't , it is a total life change but it suits me and obviously always has ,here's just 2 points of which I consider benefits one you get the whole bed to yourself and two you can fart when you want when there.
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cambcam
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Post by cambcam on Dec 18, 2020 8:54:50 GMT
I’d managed to avoid shifts and be 9-5 for years and years until a (another) restructure suddenly catapulted me into that world in my mid-40’s. I was put on ‘double-days’ (first week 6.00am til 2.00pm and the following week 2.00pm until 10.00pm).
I have to say I struggled immensely and absolutely hated it. I tried to take the positives but I honestly couldn’t find any. Someone mentioned earlier that you avoid the traffic on your commute and that is very true to be fair but that was about it. People would say ‘early’s’ are great during the summer, but honestly, when you walk out of there at 2.00pm after being up at 5.00am you are absolutely knackered and in no place to go and enjoy the sunshine. Your eyes sting and your eating habits are all over the place. You are too tired to stay awake but a small nap leaves you groggy and buggers that bit of the day you are supposed to be taking advantage of. If you can recall the feeling you have when you get up in the middle of the night to catch a very early flight, the stinging eyes and grogginess, before eventually giving in and keeling over, well, that’s shift work. ‘Late’s’ have other challenges. You try to discipline yourself to use the morning constructively but you can never relax and always have one eye on the dreaded clock ticking. You come home late and need time to unwind, you eat later and later, go to bed later and later, and start to wake up later too, and so the supposed benefit of the free time in the morning evaporates and it all becomes a confused mess.
I used to look around at my colleagues and really worry. There were a few people that did not look well at all. I was always relatively slim, fit and healthy but that was changing rapidly. I struggled hugely psychologically and felt guilty about that, and was confused why I struggled so much when others seemed to just cope.
I’ve thought about that quite a bit over the years and have pretty much come to the conclusion that quite simply, for some people shift work ‘works’ and for others it just doesn’t. Character, temperament, circumstances. I’d been quietly engineering a significant lifestyle change for a long time but wasn’t quite ready at the point when the change to shifts came, so it felt unwanted and brutal. It was honestly the toughest time mentally I’ve ever had and do recognise that those circumstances perhaps give a distorted and overly negative view, but you have to say it as it is. The outlook you have and the reasons behind going this route are entirely different and could well be beneficial in your situation. Shifts clearly work for others too but I can’t stress enough the psychological challenges that go with this as much as all of the excellent points made by others.
So apologies if that seems a bit melodramatic and it might seem a bit odd to those that work shifts quite happily, but I just don’t know how they do it and have nothing but admiration for those that do.
One thing is absolutely sure, those 4 years made me look at things differently and appreciate every single day now.
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lesj
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Post by lesj on Dec 18, 2020 10:11:09 GMT
I have to say that I managed them ok and often did 12 hour shifts.
I do agree that when on afternoons I did have to clock watch to make sure I wasn't late for work .
As for earlies, that was my favourite shift, even in the winter when I often had to scrape the windscreen .
As for the the summer, I just loved earlies, getting finished and outside before it got too hot within those 4 walls
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soulhalshall
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Post by soulhalshall on Dec 18, 2020 11:35:11 GMT
Thanks for all the views, very enlightening. I was drawn to it because a) I was anxious to avoid a daytime 9-5 when I would see very little of my daughter and be paying out for childcare and b) I've found it hard to find any work at all, not surprising this year but for various reasons I am no longer entitled to any benefits so my wife's decent salary is only enough to cover overly expensive rent and bills etc.
I do see that the difficulty of managing body clock around the night work would then have a negative effect on the time and quality time spent with my daughter, but I suppose there is no way of having everything balanced in your favour, there has to be some sacrifice.
In the absence of anything else at the moment I will have to take it initially and see how it goes and if it is something which is knocking me out have an eye out for a way out...but then today the news seems to be that hospitality will be closing down again in Ireland just after Christmas so perhaps all this will be moot.
Thank you very much for the insights, if it goes ahead my eyes will certainly be open, figuratively if nothing else...
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utopia
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Post by utopia on Dec 18, 2020 23:12:20 GMT
Good luck. The four nights on, four off is attractive. Especially so you can see your kid.
People have mentioned health. It is a known problem. Some people booze too much working nights but that is probably occupation specific to an extent. Food has been mentioned. Cleaning is an active job so getting fat not as likely as sitting at a desk. Obviously sleep is vital. The other health concern is not getting any daylight. You might want to look at vitamin D. Whilst you can get some through eating meat, fish and some mushrooms most is made by the skin from sunlight. Supplements work out cheap.
Only through trying night shifts will you know how it affects your mood and relationships. Might even be positive.
I've never done nights. Early shifts, starting at 6am or slightly earlier are good. A lot of afternoon time to do what you want. I'm doing a couple of those between Christmas and New Year to cover for others. I've usually done those hours when doing Saturday or Sunday overtime too. Makes the most of the day as you don't waste any time in the morning. In my opinion they would probably suit your aims more. As you say jobs are hard to come by right now.
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soulhalshall
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Post by soulhalshall on Dec 19, 2020 6:33:02 GMT
I've a choice to make now, as another job offer came up last night, a kitchen porter job at a pub evenings and weekends so obviously the attraction of fairly normal sleep but probably not as secure a job.
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utopia
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Post by utopia on Dec 19, 2020 8:24:30 GMT
I've a choice to make now, as another job offer came up last night, a kitchen porter job at a pub evenings and weekends so obviously the attraction of fairly normal sleep but probably not as secure a job. Check out furlough rules. Would you be eligible as a new hire should there be a lockdown post Christmas?
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