Drink a cup of coffee before your shift and take a short nap. You could even strategize with a pre-shift “coffee nap,” according to the Sleep Foundation. If your schedule allows it, getting some bedrest before your shift starts helps, too.Ī nap of just 10 to 20 minutes is ideal because you won’t enter deep sleep and feel excessively groggy when it’s time to wake up, according to research. If you can eke out a 30-minute power nap during your lunch break, this will do wonders for the rest of your shift, Cline says. This involves sleeping several hours after getting home in the morning and then sleeping for several hours before your next shift’s start time. ![]() Some people find it easier to follow a split sleep schedule, Drerup says. Carney says.įurnish your bedroom with blackout curtains to block out sunlight seeping in and invest in a noise machine or earplugs you’re comfortable wearing so you can tune out the day’s events happening around the house.Īnd aim for as close to eight hours of rest as you can to mirror the slumber you’d get if you were on a daytime schedule. It’s stronger during the day so you can’t have proper sleep architecture,” Dr. You’re trying to sleep when your alerting signal for wakefulness is rapidly ascending. When it’s time for slumber, give your body its best shot for accumulating deep, restorative sleep, says Colleen Carney, PhD, an associate professor and director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory at Ryerson University in Toronto. This can be disruptive for social events, taking care of kids or other responsibilities, but you should have your family on board to support you, Drerup says. You don’t want to disrupt the sleep-wake cues you’ve built up and restart again. during the work week, that routine should hold on the weekends, too. That means that if you’re going to sleep at 8 a.m. “It’s hard advice, but it’s immensely helpful to keep your sleep schedule consistent,” he says. To successfully maneuver through the night shift, you unfortunately have to stick to your nocturnal schedule on your days off, Dr. “This way you’ll wake up closer to the time when you start the next night shift,” Drerup says. You may want to take a breath, meditate, read or catch up on your favorite show, just like you would if you’d finished a daytime shift. Instead of immediately going to bed after getting home from work, some people sleep better if they stay up for another hour or two. Maybe you’d freshen up with a cold shower, cook a hearty breakfast, and have a cup of coffee before heading into work.ĭevelop a post-work routine, too, Drerup says. When you wake up, consider how you’d start the day. Establish a Fake Daytime Schedule Overnightįlip the average daytime schedule around to accommodate your waking hours, says John Cline, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist based in Cheshire, Connecticut, who specializes in sleep medicine. Here’s a look at the top tips from experts. While your body and brain are hardwired to relax and reset at night, there are ways to safely get through the graveyard shift without too much fatigue. Because of this, they also lose out on deep, restorative sleep, Dr. Shift workers and those working overnight tend to be continually sleep-deprived, as they struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep while their bodies send alerting signals to wake up during daytime hours. When your sleep-wake cycle is going against this rhythm, you’re exhausted, fighting the urge to go to bed, Drerup says. Your sleep schedule is dictated by your circadian rhythm - a 24-hour cycle that influences when you’re alert, sleepy, and even hungry. It’s a mismatch between your internal body clock and your external environment,” says Michelle Drerup, PsyD, a psychologist and director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the Cleveland Clinic. “The difficulty of working the night shift is that it forces you to sleep against your body clock. ![]() While the graveyard shift comes with the territory for some occupations, such as doctors and nurses, first responders, security guards, and factory workers, it doesn’t make staying up late any easier. In 2017–2018, about 16 percent of Americans worked a nondaytime schedule, according to data from the U.S. Staying up late can be tough on the body, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.
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