Round and round we go, when we’ll sleep, nobody knows.
Have you ever walked outside on your day off and physically cringed at the bright light of the sun, like a blood-sucking vampire turning to dust? Do you have dark circles under your eyes and drag your flesh around the house like a zombie? My fellow night-shifters, my tribe.
Most nurses know the health risks of working night shift. Shortened life-span, insomnia, depression, cancer, and heart disease, to name just a few. But can we reduce the adverse effects of sleep deprivation caused by this circadian circus?
Is working the night shift really worth it? Well, night shift nurses are a necessity, and some nurses like to take advantage of better pay, better parking, and (sometimes) less active patients. For some nurses, the schedule just works better for their families. I like being home when my kids get off the bus and enjoy sleeping in and laying by the pool with my kids during the summer.
So, since we HAVE TO work the night shift, how do we cope? Can we fend off the nasty problems that come with it?! Good news: we can!!
Don’t Let the Graveyard Shift Put You in the Grave
When you work night shift, you obviously have to sleep during the day. But how do you recover on your days off? A study in Frontiers in Neurology identified 5 different sleeping patterns of night shift nurses and which ones were the best (and the worst) for promoting better health.
See where you fall in the sleep patterns below and whether you should consider changing your ways.
The Best Sleepers
The first two types are considered the most adaptive sleep styles, and those who use these schedules had fewer sleep disturbances, digestive issues, and cardiovascular problems (palpitations, chest pain, high blood pressure). This is incredible news considering all the nightmares we have heard!
The Werewolf
I call this the werewolf because they are master shapeshifters, switching back and forth between the shadows and the light. This sleeper adapts from nights to days by sleeping late before the first night shift. I consider myself in this category even though I can’t always sleep in because I have to take the kids to activities. But I always try to get some rest before my night shift by taking a nap in the afternoon. Some people don’t do this because they think it will make them groggy before going to work, but I have found it’s absolutely necessary to feel like a normal human on my night shift.
The Night Owl
These people must be natural night owls because they tend to stay up until 2am on their days off. I have used this schedule and really liked it. I could get some alone time catching up on a favorite TV show or watching a movie. Sometimes I even got some baking or housework done in the middle of the night (tip: don’t run the vacuum when your kids are sleeping – my 11-year-old daughter once came out and looked at me like I was crazy).
The Worst Sleepers
These sleep monsters wreak havoc on your circadian rhythm and your mental and physical wellbeing. In the study, they were related to more significant sleep disturbances, as well as digestive and cardiovascular symptoms.
The Vampire
Only the undead can defy human nature and continue to stay up all night and sleep all day on their days off. I’ve never tried this method, and it sounds hard to me, but I’ve known people who swear by it. It just never seemed practical (or even doable) because so much of the world shuts down at night, and you actively have to fight against your body’s natural circadian rhythm. I included it in the worst sleep patterns, but in the study, there just weren’t enough of them for analyses. Maybe the simple fact that very few choose this sleeping pattern is an indication of its inherent problems.
The Cat Napper
This is a half-way switching method in which you take long naps during the day on most of your days off. I’ve not really used this schedule much, but it seems like you may be sleeping too often and not for long enough periods to be well-rested.
The Zombie
This is plausibly the worst night shift habit. The zombie switches from days to nights by staying up the whole day before your first day of work. This basically means you are up for a full 24 hours before going to sleep. The walking dead struggle to keep their eyes open in the wee hours of the night. It’s actually miserable, and what’s even worse, it’s very dangerous. The authors of the study equated this kind of sleep deprivation to alcoholic-intoxication! Don’t do this! Since nurses are responsible for patients’ safety, we also have an ethical responsibility to get proper sleep before our shift. Plus, I’ve known people to get fired for falling asleep on their night shift. I have stayed up all day before a night shift but only once, out of necessity. Once, I even stayed up all day after a night shift. Never again. I felt that I might actually be in danger of falling asleep at the wheel, and it was scary.
Like all nurses, night shifters make personal sacrifices to care for others. I hope you know that I don’t think of night shift nurses as monsters (zombies and vampires) but as true heroes and martyrs. That is why I hope you make a decision to take better care of yourselves so that you can better care for others. I hope you’ve learned some things about the best sleep patterns and find one that’s right for you. And to those of you considering running off to join this circus, welcome to the night-shift life!
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Categories: Healthcare, Nursing, Careers
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