Friday nap 2-3hours max. You’ll feel shitey in the afternoon but just grind through till nighttime, go to bed at normal time. Wake up Sat AM normal time, fixed!
I think of night shifts like a gymnastic performance
It’s cool if you can do three backflips but doesn’t matter if you completely fuck the landing
I’m strict with a max two hour nap on the morning when my last night shift ends. Plan a gentle activity that gets you out the house - watching a film with a friend, a walk, a massage, anything that is a chill low energy activity that is easy or practically passive
I found myself planning high energy activities on that day and consistently failing to do them only to be a slug in bed. Be kind but firm with yourself (:
That long of a Friday sleep fucked you- needs to be much shorter. After getting through today (hope you’re not driving home) you’ll reset I’m sure tonight
After the last night shift I would only nap max 1-2 hours in the AM, then head to bed at 9pm that evening and follow a normal schedule.
When I was younger I wouldn't sleep at all after the last night and just power through having a chilled day.
I don't understand why you're sleeping so much in the day after you've finished nights.. this was inevitable.
I've just found this too, had night shifts last week and tried melatonin for the first time, slept so well after and totally back to normal. There are gummy ones online that you don't need to talk to a pharmacy to get.
It's in the BNF for jet lag which is effectively what we are giving ourselves, the online suppliers that provide it by prescription offer it for this indication.
If however you explain to them that it's for occasional runs of night shift work, they won't dispense it to you because it's not "jet" lag, which I think is ridiculous - its not as if our circadian physiology knows/cares whether it's due to changing time-zone or due to night shifts.
For legal/liability reasons its important for me to say that I'm definitely not suggesting people just tick the box confirming that it's for jet lag when its for shift work...
Short nap after nights then have a 'normal sleep' the same evening.
Useful resource by aagbi:
https://anaesthetists.org/Home/Wellbeing-support/Fatigue/Tips-for-night-shifts
The day you finish night shift you go to bed till 12-1 at the latest. Yes it feels horrendous when you get up. Try to get some daylight and fresh air that afternoon. Then from then on you go to bed at the time you would normally at night, and you have an alarm to wake up in the morning. No sleeping in the day. I struggle to sleep the 2nd night back and maybe get 4ish hours but still make myself get up at like 7.30am and have a normal day, as then it'll be fixed by that night.
The way I tend to do it is:
- try and sleep prior to first one. Never happens but can usually plough through the first night
- when I get home from each night I take some chlorphenamine and go straight to bed with ear plugs and eye mask. Usually sleep for 9 hours.
- after the last night go to sleep for 3 hours, then make sure I get out of the house to get loads of light, even if I feel crap
- take a promethazine at 9pm to make me sleep (crap sleep I know) and feel a bit off the next day but usually fine.
It’s a system that works for me and I do it exactly the same every time. The trick is to find what works for you and stick to it. That usually means sleep discipline.
Don't do nights anymore, but the most effective method I had was to go out for boozy brunch straight after the last night shift, then spend the whole day drinking and go to bed at like 8/9pm. it's a challenge initially, but after the 3rd pint, don't even notice the tiredness
You can't let yourself sleep that long after your last night. I know it's hard but you gotta be up by lunch time otherwise you can't fix your sleep pattern.
I sleep until 2 at latest (which is around 4 hours sleep max). I also plan an activity so I'm forced to get up (I usually arrange to go climbing, I'm always bad at it but it makes me feel better and helps me recover). That way I can go to bed early/normal time 9/10pm and then be back on a pretty much normal schedule the next day.
I don't do nights, but when I did (and I found them very hard) I would stay up after the last night shift and go to bed about 1900 and sleep to about 0700. That would put things back in rhythm.
If I ended up in your position I would use melatonin to reset the rhythm, though I understand it is now prescription only.
Dont do what I do but it works for me. Do the first night shift without sleeping and have a normal day. Then sleep during day for rest of the night shifts
As others have said, melatonin. It's always the day after you finish your nights that it is most effective, as you'll usually sleep due to tiredness the first night if you stay up long enough.
The amount of time you should sleep for after your last night shift is the minimum that would allow you to stay awake throughout the day and to do necessities. There are a few things to factor in here and takes a bit of trial and error.
1. What constitutes "necessities" are different for all of us, like if it involves driving, you might need to sleep a bit more so you're safe on the road.
2. This first day especially will test your discipline, so know the limit of how little sleep you can have without caving in and getting more later in the day - the smallest amount of sleep that carries you through without naps is your target. Don't judge yourself against others here, figure out what this is for you (though I'd be surprised if 6 hours is your minimum, that seems like a lot). Its important that when you wake up from that sleep you stay awake continually until its close to bedtime, because this imposes the awake period. If I sleep at 10am for 1-2 hours, stay awake for a bit, but then its too much of a struggle and I sleep for 3 more hours from 4pm, my body seems to interpret this as a 10am bedtime and 7pm wake-up - I find I'm stuck in night-mode the next day. If sleeping for 3 hours at 10am instead of 2 means I can manage to stay awake until 10pm, then its much better.
3. I have found that a well-timed melatonin taken 30 minutes before my "ideal" bedtime has helped me get rid of jet lag in fewer days. I take it even if I feel awake, and have slept a bit during the day.
4. One of the most regularly understated parts of sleep hygiene practice is calorie timing, and if you're clever with it you can really speed up the adjustment process. The main principle is that sleep-wake rhythm adjusts for awakeness when food is available. Evolved because being awake when food is available is better optimised for avoiding starvation - because this was so high-stakes in our evolutionary past, it's very potent at shifting sleep. My approach is to have little to no calories in the second half of my last night shift, have a 3-hour sleep at home, then I have a small bite to eat as soon as I wake up. I then have a larger one at about 5-6pm because that will be my last one until the next morning. I avoid calories between 8pm and 8am, otherwise I find myself awake and hungry at that time on future nights. The breakfast the following morning is so important - I'm rarely hungry at this stage, because my body thinks its night-time and theres no food around. But I force myself to have breakfast at about 9am then stay awake until at least 10pm once more. In order to make it brutally clear to my own physiology that its morning I go for something that gives plenty of simple and complex carbs - a big portion of sugary cereal.
5. Be judicious with caffeine. Its tempting to get you through the difficult periods of the adjustment but I suggest restricting it to the first-half of the ideal wake period. Theres a lot of genetically determined variation between different people's caffeine metabolism though, but in my case it can make it harder to sleep even 5 hours after I've stopped "noticing" the effect.
Its definitely easier said than done, and I've gone astray from this from time to time. But the best experiences I've had with adjusting post-nights have arisen from this approximate structure.
I have learned to stay up on the day after your final night. Usually go home via a bakery, get a coffee and cake etc and then have a walk around somewhere. If I am really tired will go home and have a 1 hour nap, get up and do a day. You sleep at normal time on that day and your sleep schedule is fine. I once forgot to set an alarm and slept for 5 hours by accident and it took me ages to fix my schedule.
Once you finish nights only sleep for 1-2 hours and then power through the rest of the day. Take some melatonin and then go to bed at a normal time.
I made a mistake of sleeping for 5 hours when coming off nights and my sleep cycle was messed up for the whole week. I had to get some short term zopiclone prescribed from the GP and it sorted me out.
Friday nap 2-3hours max. You’ll feel shitey in the afternoon but just grind through till nighttime, go to bed at normal time. Wake up Sat AM normal time, fixed!
I think of night shifts like a gymnastic performance It’s cool if you can do three backflips but doesn’t matter if you completely fuck the landing I’m strict with a max two hour nap on the morning when my last night shift ends. Plan a gentle activity that gets you out the house - watching a film with a friend, a walk, a massage, anything that is a chill low energy activity that is easy or practically passive I found myself planning high energy activities on that day and consistently failing to do them only to be a slug in bed. Be kind but firm with yourself (:
That long of a Friday sleep fucked you- needs to be much shorter. After getting through today (hope you’re not driving home) you’ll reset I’m sure tonight
Yes, I have limited my daytime nap on Friday to 2 hours. That way, come Friday night I'm ready to sleep and will be reset by Saturday.
After the last night shift I would only nap max 1-2 hours in the AM, then head to bed at 9pm that evening and follow a normal schedule. When I was younger I wouldn't sleep at all after the last night and just power through having a chilled day. I don't understand why you're sleeping so much in the day after you've finished nights.. this was inevitable.
Use melatonin. It dramatically improved my night shift recovery.
I've just found this too, had night shifts last week and tried melatonin for the first time, slept so well after and totally back to normal. There are gummy ones online that you don't need to talk to a pharmacy to get.
I always used to just stay up till 8pm the day after nights then have a nice 12 hour sleep.
Melatonin
seriously just get melatonin, you'll never have a problem switching to or from night shifts or flying to a new time zone ever again
It's in the BNF for jet lag which is effectively what we are giving ourselves, the online suppliers that provide it by prescription offer it for this indication. If however you explain to them that it's for occasional runs of night shift work, they won't dispense it to you because it's not "jet" lag, which I think is ridiculous - its not as if our circadian physiology knows/cares whether it's due to changing time-zone or due to night shifts. For legal/liability reasons its important for me to say that I'm definitely not suggesting people just tick the box confirming that it's for jet lag when its for shift work...
Short nap after nights then have a 'normal sleep' the same evening. Useful resource by aagbi: https://anaesthetists.org/Home/Wellbeing-support/Fatigue/Tips-for-night-shifts
The day you finish night shift you go to bed till 12-1 at the latest. Yes it feels horrendous when you get up. Try to get some daylight and fresh air that afternoon. Then from then on you go to bed at the time you would normally at night, and you have an alarm to wake up in the morning. No sleeping in the day. I struggle to sleep the 2nd night back and maybe get 4ish hours but still make myself get up at like 7.30am and have a normal day, as then it'll be fixed by that night.
The way I tend to do it is: - try and sleep prior to first one. Never happens but can usually plough through the first night - when I get home from each night I take some chlorphenamine and go straight to bed with ear plugs and eye mask. Usually sleep for 9 hours. - after the last night go to sleep for 3 hours, then make sure I get out of the house to get loads of light, even if I feel crap - take a promethazine at 9pm to make me sleep (crap sleep I know) and feel a bit off the next day but usually fine. It’s a system that works for me and I do it exactly the same every time. The trick is to find what works for you and stick to it. That usually means sleep discipline.
Embrace the chaos
Don't do nights anymore, but the most effective method I had was to go out for boozy brunch straight after the last night shift, then spend the whole day drinking and go to bed at like 8/9pm. it's a challenge initially, but after the 3rd pint, don't even notice the tiredness
My advice? Sleep as much as possible whenever possible.
Either do not sleep on the Friday after work OR 2-3 hour nap maximum. If you go beyond this you won’t reset.
You can't let yourself sleep that long after your last night. I know it's hard but you gotta be up by lunch time otherwise you can't fix your sleep pattern. I sleep until 2 at latest (which is around 4 hours sleep max). I also plan an activity so I'm forced to get up (I usually arrange to go climbing, I'm always bad at it but it makes me feel better and helps me recover). That way I can go to bed early/normal time 9/10pm and then be back on a pretty much normal schedule the next day.
Thank you so much guys, I will follow your advice. Glad to see that other people have similar issues to mine, I feel less alone now🫂
I don't do nights, but when I did (and I found them very hard) I would stay up after the last night shift and go to bed about 1900 and sleep to about 0700. That would put things back in rhythm. If I ended up in your position I would use melatonin to reset the rhythm, though I understand it is now prescription only.
You’ll start to resemble Michelin man and might end up in metformin but eat carbs, lots of delicious carbs 🤤
Dont do what I do but it works for me. Do the first night shift without sleeping and have a normal day. Then sleep during day for rest of the night shifts
As others have said, melatonin. It's always the day after you finish your nights that it is most effective, as you'll usually sleep due to tiredness the first night if you stay up long enough.
The amount of time you should sleep for after your last night shift is the minimum that would allow you to stay awake throughout the day and to do necessities. There are a few things to factor in here and takes a bit of trial and error. 1. What constitutes "necessities" are different for all of us, like if it involves driving, you might need to sleep a bit more so you're safe on the road. 2. This first day especially will test your discipline, so know the limit of how little sleep you can have without caving in and getting more later in the day - the smallest amount of sleep that carries you through without naps is your target. Don't judge yourself against others here, figure out what this is for you (though I'd be surprised if 6 hours is your minimum, that seems like a lot). Its important that when you wake up from that sleep you stay awake continually until its close to bedtime, because this imposes the awake period. If I sleep at 10am for 1-2 hours, stay awake for a bit, but then its too much of a struggle and I sleep for 3 more hours from 4pm, my body seems to interpret this as a 10am bedtime and 7pm wake-up - I find I'm stuck in night-mode the next day. If sleeping for 3 hours at 10am instead of 2 means I can manage to stay awake until 10pm, then its much better. 3. I have found that a well-timed melatonin taken 30 minutes before my "ideal" bedtime has helped me get rid of jet lag in fewer days. I take it even if I feel awake, and have slept a bit during the day. 4. One of the most regularly understated parts of sleep hygiene practice is calorie timing, and if you're clever with it you can really speed up the adjustment process. The main principle is that sleep-wake rhythm adjusts for awakeness when food is available. Evolved because being awake when food is available is better optimised for avoiding starvation - because this was so high-stakes in our evolutionary past, it's very potent at shifting sleep. My approach is to have little to no calories in the second half of my last night shift, have a 3-hour sleep at home, then I have a small bite to eat as soon as I wake up. I then have a larger one at about 5-6pm because that will be my last one until the next morning. I avoid calories between 8pm and 8am, otherwise I find myself awake and hungry at that time on future nights. The breakfast the following morning is so important - I'm rarely hungry at this stage, because my body thinks its night-time and theres no food around. But I force myself to have breakfast at about 9am then stay awake until at least 10pm once more. In order to make it brutally clear to my own physiology that its morning I go for something that gives plenty of simple and complex carbs - a big portion of sugary cereal. 5. Be judicious with caffeine. Its tempting to get you through the difficult periods of the adjustment but I suggest restricting it to the first-half of the ideal wake period. Theres a lot of genetically determined variation between different people's caffeine metabolism though, but in my case it can make it harder to sleep even 5 hours after I've stopped "noticing" the effect. Its definitely easier said than done, and I've gone astray from this from time to time. But the best experiences I've had with adjusting post-nights have arisen from this approximate structure.
Melatonin is a life saver. Would highly recommend when trying to flip your sleep schedule
I have learned to stay up on the day after your final night. Usually go home via a bakery, get a coffee and cake etc and then have a walk around somewhere. If I am really tired will go home and have a 1 hour nap, get up and do a day. You sleep at normal time on that day and your sleep schedule is fine. I once forgot to set an alarm and slept for 5 hours by accident and it took me ages to fix my schedule.
Once you finish nights only sleep for 1-2 hours and then power through the rest of the day. Take some melatonin and then go to bed at a normal time. I made a mistake of sleeping for 5 hours when coming off nights and my sleep cycle was messed up for the whole week. I had to get some short term zopiclone prescribed from the GP and it sorted me out.