Most people, whether they are a shift worker or have a salary job, work day shift. Their shift starts between 7am and 9am, they work during the day, and then they are home at night. For those of us who work at jobs that operate after 5pm, there are two other options; afternoon shift and night shift. Afternoon shift, in my opinion, is the less desirable shift. You got into work around 3pm and clock out at 11pm. That means the only time you have to get things done is in the morning and that is it. The last option is night shift. You clock in around 11pm when the world is shutting down, work through the night, and clock in at 7am when the world is deciding to wake up again.
Most people in my life know this, but for those who don't, I work night shift at the medical examiner's office. Yes, I know working nights in a morgue sounds creepy, but I swear to you it is not bad. I am naturally a night person, so changing my schedule wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I also have an awesome partner on that shift who helps make things fun and interesting. With the exception of training and a 3-month stent on afternoon shift at the end of 2021, I have been working nights since I was hired. I am used to this life now and am continuing to adapt to the best of my ability. And, like all shifts, nights can be great, but it does have its drawbacks.
Let's talk about some of the positive aspects of night shift. Now, I know everyone has different feelings and experiences with this shift, so these are my personal night shift pros. First, I get to spend the evenings with my husband who works during the day. My favorite part of my day is getting the chance to have dinner with him and spend time with him before I head in for the night. I don't have the option to switch to day shift, and I don't see that happening anytime soon, so I like that nights allows us to have that time together. This shift also allows me to do things in the evening before work which is nice. I am able to go out to dinner with my friend who lives 45 minutes away, spend a decent amount of time with her, and still be able to make it back home and get ready for work without feeling rushed.
Another pro is that night shift is full of pretty cool people. It takes a special kind of person to work this shift, so when you find other people who work nights, you bond over the struggle. The nurses, police officers, and detectives that I work with at night are some of the funniest and most chill people I have ever met in my life. Plus, we tend to have the same sense of humor which also makes things fun. There is unity among night shift workers and we band together in order to survive whatever the night throws our way. Also, bonus pro, one of my friends is a night shift nurse, so we are able to share our nighttime experiences together. Working the same shift has also allowed us to get closer as friends and I think that is pretty awesome.
A third pro is that night shift allows me to have time to myself that I wouldn't have on other shifts. When I am off during the week, I tend to keep my sleep schedule the way it is, so I am up all night while my husband sleeps. That time alone allows me to focus on myself and re-center my mind and body so that I can continue to function as normal as possible. Let me tell you, naps hit different in the middle of the night than they do during the day. Also, it helps that Planet Fitness is open 24/5, so when I am motivated to go to the gym, I can go at 3am and not have to worry about it being full of people. It's all about self-care people, no matter the time of day.
My final night shift pro is that the people in my life understand and respect my schedule. My husband is the master of making sure I get enough sleep. He gets that some days I need to sleep a little longer than normal and he is always the first to tell me to turn off my alarm and sleep as long as I need. If my family needs to talk to me in the evening, they will text me to see if I am sleeping and allow me to call them when I am awake. When I visit my family on the weekends/weekdays I am off, they know that when I get into town I will be asleep most of the afternoon and that naps will happen during the visit. And my friends are amazing at working with me so that we can make plans that won't completely destroy my sleep schedule.
Now, we move onto my personal list of night shift cons. First and foremost, I am chronically exhausted with a caffeine addiction. While everyone does their best to make sure I get enough sleep, that doesn't always happen. There are short spans of time where I will have no problem sleeping and life is great. However, a majority of the time, I struggle to fall and stay asleep. Blackout curtains only do so much and sometimes the smallest bit of noise wakes me up. Safe to say melatonin is a good friend of mine. There are days where I consider myself lucky if I get 4 hours of sleep. That sleep deprivation is the driving force behind my need for caffeine to survive. I am always drinking coffee at home and I have k-cups and creamer at work so I can make cups of coffee there. Energy drinks also make their way into the mix when I know I need something a little stronger than coffee. Safe to say, caffeine runs through these veins and that won't be stopping anytime soon.
Another downside is that the world doesn't cater to this shift. Any appointment you need to make, whether it's dental, medical, or business, has to happen during normal business hours. I do my best to schedule the earliest appointment possible, but sometimes that doesn't happen. That means, I have to deal with deciding whether to stay awake until my appointment and lose a few hours of sleep, or wake up, go to that appointment, and pray I can fall back asleep. And long drawn out processes, like buying a home for example, means a lot of sleep is lost.
A third downside is that my nights off during the week sometimes feel unproductive. When people with a normal schedule have weekdays off, they spend their time going grocery shopping, cleaning the house, and catching up on that have been neglected due to work and life in general. I unfortunately don't have that luxury. Grocery stores aren't open past midnight anymore. I can't do a deep clean of the house because my husband is asleep and I don't want to wake him up. I even feel bad putting away dishes because plates and glasses clink and I'm afraid I'm being too loud. The only chore I can do is laundry. I also can't do any yard work because it is dark and I run the risk of disturbing my neighbors. I have to constantly remind myself that I'm not being lazy and that I physically can't do what I would like to do, but in the end I still feel bad.
A final con of night shift, and I saved my joking one for last, is that when I do have to be a normal person, it feels like an out-of-body experience. For example, I took this past weekend off for my friend's bachelorette party, but my days off from work happened to be Thursday and Friday. I decided to be productive during those days, and it just felt weird. First off, I feel like a vampire when I am up during the day because the sunlight hurt my eyes. Second, I was annoyed by how many people were out and about during the day. But most of all, it felt weird to actually get a lot of things accomplished that I normally wouldn't be able to do. No matter how long I have been doing it, going from being a child of the night to a normal person never gets any easier.
Overall, I love working night shift. It does come with some perks and I have made good friends on this shift. However, it definitely comes with its own fair share of problems and struggles that you just have to get used to. There is no way of avoiding that sleep will be lost, people won't understand your schedule and ask you to do things during the day because they know you aren't at work, and people might feel slighted when they don't get attention right away. In order to make this shift as painless as possible, it is important, no, essential, to set up and maintain boundaries, such as sleep schedules and allowing yourself to tell people no if they request your presence during the day. If you can learn to accept that your life and schedule won't be perfect, remember to take care of yourself, and establish a support system of family and friends, I promise you that night shift won't be too bad in the end.
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