I slept better for the 15 years I worked nights than I have since I switched back to working days. Never had a problem falling asleep, never used blackout blinds or anything like that just always found it easy to get in a good 8 hours.
When I wanted to switch my sleep schedule I would do what another commenter called a reset where I would basically just stay up for 24 hours, be over tired then go to sleep at a “normal” time so I could switch back to day time waking hours for a weekend. Then in reverse I would usually have a nap from 20:00 - 00:00 then wake up and stay up the rest of the night before going back to sleep at my usual work time to flip back the other way.
Same. When I was on 5 week offshore rotation I usually did the night shift. It’s quieter, fewer people around, and my arctic ass doesn’t like the equatorial sun. Beyond my lifelong affliction of inability to fall asleep in a timely manner (fixed by audio books), I slept better then than I’ve ever done since.
Yeh I miss the calm of the night so much, working alone with no idiots trying to talk to me about stuff I didn’t care about, the commute back home in the morning on my bike before most people were awake especially when it was just getting light. Even on my days off riding my bike around d town at 2am when it is a different place, so peaceful!
My mental health however is definitely better for not working nights. In the winter I’d often go weeks without ever seeing the sun which as much as I didn’t want to admit it at the time definitely negatively impacted my mental health.
I slept better for the 15 years I worked nights than I have since I switched back to working days. Never had a problem falling asleep, never used blackout blinds or anything like that just always found it easy to get in a good 8 hours.
When I wanted to switch my sleep schedule I would do what another commenter called a reset where I would basically just stay up for 24 hours, be over tired then go to sleep at a “normal” time so I could switch back to day time waking hours for a weekend. Then in reverse I would usually have a nap from 20:00 - 00:00 then wake up and stay up the rest of the night before going back to sleep at my usual work time to flip back the other way.
Same. When I was on 5 week offshore rotation I usually did the night shift. It’s quieter, fewer people around, and my arctic ass doesn’t like the equatorial sun. Beyond my lifelong affliction of inability to fall asleep in a timely manner (fixed by audio books), I slept better then than I’ve ever done since.
Yeh I miss the calm of the night so much, working alone with no idiots trying to talk to me about stuff I didn’t care about, the commute back home in the morning on my bike before most people were awake especially when it was just getting light. Even on my days off riding my bike around d town at 2am when it is a different place, so peaceful!
My mental health however is definitely better for not working nights. In the winter I’d often go weeks without ever seeing the sun which as much as I didn’t want to admit it at the time definitely negatively impacted my mental health.