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sleep patterns disturbed by night shift

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spoox

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Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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Location: Juneau, AK
sleep patterns disturbed by night shift
Posted: 03-04-08 07:00am

I am a full time nightshift worker and work from 10:30 pm till 6:30 AM Sunday through Thursday. During the week I sleep decent, from about 8 AM to 2PM. I usually am still quit tired when I wake up because I could use more then 6 hours.

My problem is in the weekends. I try to go to bed at normal times so I can spend time with the family but boy is it hard to sleep! No matter how tired I am, sleep just won't come! I try to socialize and watch movies with my boyfriend but I am struggling so incredibly hard to stay awake all day that I get all dizzy from trying to keep my eyes open. Once we go to bed I usually fall asleep after watching tv for over an hour but after 2 or 3 hours I wake up again thinking I been sleeping all night but only little time has passed. I try to go back to sleep but end up dozing of and on waking up every 10 to 30 minutes. I toss and turn and get extremely warm. My brain keeps grinding on and on about daily life and my heart starts pounding. I get up and stay up since I can't sleep anyway. I try napping in the afternoon but even that is hard to do. I feel groggy, feverish and super sleepy all day and have moments that I could just black out and fall asleep. My hands are shaky and I feel like I have absolutely no energy at all.

I just had a 3 day weekend behind me and I feel like I have been hit by a train! My body feels like it is overheating, my heart is pounding, I feel extremely anxious and my eyes feel super dry and are burning.

Should I just stay up all night in the weekends and keep my regular sleep pattern?

Any advise or hearing from others experiences would be great!
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MandMs

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Posted: 03-19-08 03:17am

You have trouble sleeping and you are severely tired due to night shift work, so, you are experiencing shift work disorder.
Do you feel that the quality of your sleep is very poor?
Do you feel a strong urge to take a nap during work?
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spoox

New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 13
Location: Juneau, AK

Posted: 03-21-08 05:34am

I never have problems staying awake at night. It is more the quality and lenght of sleep. I don't really have a problem sleeping during the day but it is just too short. Sometimes I wake up and my heart feels like it is pounding out of my chest almost. I also have short but very intense dreams at times.

I just have a hard time staying awake in the evenings, especially the weekends. That is also when I switch around to sleeping at night and being up during the day.
During the week I take a short 30 minute to 1 hour nap before I go into my nightshift
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MandMs

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Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Posts: 1969
Location: Strumica, Macedonia
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Thanked:10
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Posted: 03-27-08 04:16am

Have you tried taking naps in the afternoon on weekends, too?

Taking naps for 20 minutes or longer can be helpful and you can stay longer awake in the evenings on weekends.

And, you can't fight the reality that daytime sleep is less rejuvenating for whole body than night sleep (night workers get less sleep than daytime workers do, and the sleep is less restful).
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