I’m a nurse and I don’t do night shifts. The few times I did it I earned a 150% differential but it’s not worth the money: I’d go back home and have to use noise cancelling headphones to sleep, 'cause people are loud, I’d wake up rested at 04:00 pm, but completely destroying my circadian rhythm. I’d need a whole day or 2 to recover my regular rhythm because otherwise I’d be a zombie.

I hear my coworkers who do night shift complaining about this same issue, but they still pick up night shifts, which I don’t understand.

To me it was impossible to have something akin to a life while working night shift, but I’ve met some people that only do night shifts: the housewife that only works 4 nights shifts per month, the single mother or young wife or husband who work 14 night shifts per month and have the next 2 weeks for him/herself…

I don’t understand why they do it. It’s extremely taxing and not worth it imho.

But if you do, how do you have a life? And how do you keep yourself healthy?

  • MelonYellow@lemmy.ca
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    7 hours ago

    Hello! Fellow nurse here who’s always been a night owl. I’ve been doing nights since I first started working. 5 8’s are godawful and soul-sucking. I got depressed, lonely, crabby. Only put up with that as a new grad, I would never do that shit again.

    3 12’s are much better. I could do that and manage a life actually. Helps that I don’t necessarily need daylight to do the things I like to do. I can still watch movies, play my video games, read, watch MMA and football, do home workouts, cook, go out for dinner and drinks, go to a concert, etc. I just need to plan around store hours. So I think in that aspect, it depends on the person and what activities they enjoy.

    Now, currently I’m per diem working nights. It’s the BEST. I mean I’m so fortunate lol. Plenty of work. I set my own schedule. No management around. Shift differential. I can take off for vacation whenever I want, just as long as I fulfill the 4 shifts/month minimum. So let’s say I take a month vacation, I’d come back and grind out the shifts, put in overtime, pay the bills and credit card or whatever. Just when I’m getting real sick of work, I’ll go on vacation again even if it’s just a roadtrip.

    So that’s how I manage my work-life balance. It works bc I’m happy doing it. Helps that my partner and best friend is also an RN picking up the same schedule. No kids, no mortgage, just renting nearby work.