Has anyone here to change their sleep schedule completely? If so, how?

Yeah, I don't know if it would be better or worse to switch back and forth. I definitely couldn't hang with it, but maybe that way you don't get in a set routine like I've been for the last 15 years.

 

If you have time, I found the best approach to switching from nights to days was staying up 1-2 hours, or longer if you can manage, later every day until your body is fully adjusted. So you stay up until 5am now, try 6:30 or 7 tomorrow, then 8:30 or 9 the next day and so on. It takes longer to do and the sleep quality is pretty poor for the first couple days but you get into the rhythm fairly quickly and then you're set. I'll have to do this in 8 months once my program ends, currently in night school going into work that's very much a day-job, unless I can manage to find an employer who does later starts like 2-10pm or similar.

 

So if you are staying up later, how do you start going to bed earlier?

 

I was starting work at 0200 -> 1300, Crashing at 1700

 

Well, I entered service when I was 24 and didn’t deploy until I was almost 29, so if you figure my body was on the “day” schedule for all those years, I adjusted fine.

I don’t recommend the stay up for 24 hours plan. You pay for it somewhere. Instead of a ramped adjustment with no sleep deficit, the 24 hour deal results in a deficit that your body will ask you to pay back within the subsequent 2-3 days. And you’ll feel like crap.

 

Eventually it comes full circle depending on how long you keep yourself awake every day. Eventually you'll go to sleep at say 9pm, wake up at 5am and have your full 8 hours. Then you just keep it at that schedule, don't nap during the day and don't over-consume caffeine in the afternoon.

 

yes simply set 2-3 alarms to wake up

15- 20 min apart

get in bed 8 hours b4 ................. no TV

U wont fall asleep than early yet U will get some rest

after a while from being tired out of Old schedule

the body will adapt & adjust...............................takes months

 

So I basically went from working 7am-7pm to a 7pm-7am schedule at the hospital. Coming off day shift for FIVE WHOLE years and being thrown into having to stay up kinda fucked me up for the first few months. I thought I was gonna be sick almost every 3 weeks or something! And the night schedule is only 3 nights out of the week. Sometimes one after the other..sometimes a day or two off in between. I've found that coming home in the morning and eating SOMETHING was better than nothing. I used to wake up by lunch because my body was saying it was time to eat. Blackout curtains also helped because I stayed asleep longer into the afternoon. If I'm coming from work and don't work that night I usually try to wake up around 2pm instead of 3pm so that I have to do more stuff. Otherwise, I tough it out and don't sleep til the night time. I think over time our bodies adjust on their own too and we slowly adapt to a routine.

 

D'oh. That's not what I want to hear, I was hoping it would be a super easy quick transition although I realized I'd be fooling myself.

And I have heard other hospital working friends that they get the same messed up schedules. I don't envy you guys
up schedules

 

I mean every person varies...I have co workers who have zero to little problems transitioning to the night shift.