Categories: general
Tags: Work
Date: 31 January 2008 12:47:16
For about two weeks I am working on and off nights and days. I did nights at the weekend, I did a day yesterday, I've got a night tonight, I'm doing a day on Sunday and then nights on Monday, Thursday and Friday. After that lot I've got some days off and a couple of study days, before another day and 3 more nights. A lot of people recently have commented that they don't know how I do it. Constantly switching from days to nights - your sleeping and eating pattern is all over the place. I've never been jetlagged, but I believe it is a similiar feeling. To be honest, I don't know how I do it. But I think of it like a camel.
A camel has those huge humps so that it can drink lots when it gets a chance, and store up water for when it can't get any drink. Thats kinda like me, with my eating and sleeping pattern at the moment. Last night I slept for about 12 hours straight. But apart from possibly a brief nap this afternoon, I won't sleep now until 9am tomorrow morning. And somehow I keep going. Work tends to keep me busy, and yeah, I feel tired, but I can keep going. Its similiar with my diet - often when I'm on nights I live off snacks - fruit, geobars and sandwiches. But just before going on a night shift, I usually eat a main meal, and if I haven't eaten a big meal for a while, then it'll be a really big meal. And then that'll keep me going for a while.
I think the key to doing nights, especially when you're on and off them all the time, is to be flexible in your approach to sleeping and eating. I do try to establish a routine with when I sleep and eat, because that is the healthy way to do it, but when I'm on and off nights all the time, and sometimes I just *cannot* sleep after a night, then allowing times like this morning when I slept all morning, is crucial.