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Night shift is making me mental


dangerous brain

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Used to do shift work in IT. I went mental one month when I did 31 shifts in a row. 7pm to 7am.

 

Tax man liked me next payday I can tell you!

 

Not meant to be good for long term health shift working. Whilst money and shift allowance is good, you really need to work 9-5 which is more suited to how society works (i.e shops opening, daylight, people around etc).

 

What do you do for work out of curiousity DB?

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Not meant to be good for long term health shift working. Whilst money and shift allowance is good, you really need to work 9-5 which is more suited to how society works (i.e shops opening, daylight, people around etc).

 

That is only because that is what your body is used to and what people think is normal.

 

Whilst i was on tour the first time round, i was working 24hrs on 6 hrs off and i did that for 5 months, i then went onto 4 hrs on 1hr off.

Then night shifts for 6 nights whilst working 3-4 hrs in the day for a couple more months.

 

You're body gets used to it but its all mental.

if your mind can take it then its alright

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That is only because that is what your body is used to and what people think is normal.

 

And because we've spent millions of years evolving as day dwelling creatures. IIRC everything that your body does like repairing itself to keep you healthy, happens at night.

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IIRC everything that your body does like repairing itself to keep you healthy, happens at night.

 

It happens when the mind is at rest.

You dont need 8 hours sleep either every day.

 

I got used to only having 3 or 4 hours a day if i was lucky.

And i was healthy,fit and still managed to do my work out in Iraq.

 

As i said its all perspective with the mind

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It happens when the mind is at rest.

You dont need 8 hours sleep either every day.

 

I got used to only having 3 or 4 hours a day if i was lucky.

And i was healthy,fit and still managed to do my work out in Iraq.

 

As i said its all perspective with the mind

 

I understand where you're coming from, but I can't agree with your first point (it happens when the mind is at rest) - the research says otherwise.

 

Here's a couple of examples:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7945145.stm

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4466555.stm

 

Notice the bit in the second story about levels of melatonin, that's just one of the scientific reasons why we're designed to be awake in the day time, and asleep at night.

 

The 8 hours of sleep thing I agree with - I felt healthy, fit etc too and was very good at my job - but having done shift work for so long I didn't realise how much it was dragging me down until I stopped.

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I'm currently working as an aircraft technician on the fabled mk3 chinook reversion program. There's not enough of us qualified to do the job in this country so we end up pulling big shifts in a bid to get these aircraft out to Afghanistan. The front liners aren't the only ones putting the effort in lol.

 

where you working at the moment then? and before they go to afghan, i've got to get my hands on them yet.... ;)

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The other day, there was a news storey about irregular work/sleep patterns giving women breast cancer. Seemed a bit tenuous to me.

 

doesnt everything give you cancer of some form these days?:rolleyes:

 

nights......I love em.. I would sleep all day and be up at night if I could. Its the best time of day, everything is peaceful, roads are quiet, and its nice not being around busy crowds.... thank god for 24hr shopping is all I say! lol

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I've been working night shifts now for 18 years :blink:

 

When I worked 8hr shifts I used to do 7 shifts followed by a quick change over (finish at 0630 and return to work at 1430 and finish at 2230) followed by 2 days off. I did that once every 6 weeks. Now I work 12 hrs and never do more that 3 shifts of nights. I much prefer 12 hr nights but I do struggle with the 70 odd mile drive home at the end.

 

Nights rock though, I always get my best sleep during the day, and there's no bosses about at work.

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last year i did some intensive lorry driving.

 

strictly speaking it was a bit naughty as i was going over my hours. I was doin 6pm to 5:30 am seven days a week for 6 weeks i did that. Granted it wasnt non stop driving, I was doin maybe 6 hours driving a day and the rest was waiting around to be loaded / unloaded. I was minted, but i started to go a bit loopy towards the end, it also took me ages to get back into any normal sort of routine. I found i was either driving, sat waiting to be loaded or sleeping.

 

I also put on about a stone too in weight, so I wouldnt advise it to anyone to consider! lol

 

Decided after that, I was more a daytime person! lol

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I once went with a boy 'friend' who did security to see what doing a night shift was like. I've got this thing about being in office buildings when there's no one else there, it's cool.

 

Anyway it totally knocked my sleep pattern out, it took ages to get back to normal. And it made me ill. Oh and I fell asleep during the course of the evening. I'd make a rubbish night worker, but I'm my most awake at about 12am!

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I'm currently on the last day of my nightshift, hurrah. Except I've got overtime tomorrow. Well, tonight. Er later today :blink: You know what I mean.

 

I think some people can do it and some can't. I've always been able to stay up to 5am so I didn't worry too much. I'm not exactly chipper when I go home at 8am though, but I'm still functional. I wouldn't want to do more than 4 days in a row and it's a 4 day 4 off 4 night 4 off shift pattern which means more whole days off for me :D So I love it. And nights are quiet, you can get stuff done...

 

The hardest thing I found with the transition was coming off nights and getting back into a routine. I was going to bed at like 4am and sleeping 10 hours and feeling terrible afterwards, it wasn't good sleep and I was tired when I got up. The fix to that was to go to bed at 8:30am after my last night and get up at 2pm no matter how bad it felt. Then mong around in a daze watching episodes of CSI or blowing stuff up on the computer, and you're ready for bed at midnight and feel ace the next morning :D I'm keeping up the running when off shift and sometimes after a day one, and eating as well as I can to try and avoid turning into one of the fat bastads I work with :D

 

But I love the extra £££s and the huge amount of full days I get off. I never liked the 9-5 grind because I'd always stay up late and feel crap for the next day, repeat until Saturday. And I'm not wishing away the week to get two days off.

 

-Ian

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I loved nightshift when I done it, for some reason it never bothered me going into work at night but I did love the journey's home!! Me heading for my bed and other people heading for a hard days work.

 

I always found it went quick too compared to day shift that dragged too much.

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I'm currently on the last day of my nightshift, hurrah. Except I've got overtime tomorrow. Well, tonight. Er later today :blink: You know what I mean.

 

 

 

-Ian

 

Thats the hardest bit for me figuring out what the hell day it is and wether I should be saying good morning or goodnight :)

 

We are moving over onto 4 on 4 off as the weekday shift augmented with supposedly occasional weekend, in reality 2-3 a month is not sustainable. I've just bunged 68 hours in this week to match the last 3 weeks. One guy cracked a ton last week.

 

Well I just got in from yesterdays night shift I left the house at 17:45 for :) I am in no way tired so I'll just sit and hang out with you guys on the forum til I pass out woot woot :D

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