Circadian Rhythm sleeping help..

[cooter]

I am a second year police officer and I have a midnight shift sleeping question. My dept works three 8 hour shifts, 11-7AM, 7-3, 3-11PM. We rotate every 28 days. I am on the midnight 11-7 shift again now and I wanted to know if the veterans had any advise on how to tackle the sleeping question. I usually go to bed at 7:30 am when I get home and today I just woke up at 4PM and feel wasted. I know my Circadian Rhythm is all screwed up now and on my days off, I screw it up even more because I play hockey at 9AM when I am usually sleeping now. I'd like to know what others do, suggest, or don't do that helps with staying healthy and keeping my daytime energy up. I have no kids yet, so that really doesn't play into my schedule right now.

Also, my department voted down 12 hour shifts a few months back... I was one who wanted to try it out, but the veterans didn't, so we are stuck with 8 hours right now. Anyone working 12 hour shifts want to tell me the positives and negatives of it?

Thanks,

Jim

[Don]

I don't know Jim. All I can say is that shift work sucks big time. And a 28 day rotation sucks even worse. Just when your body is getting used to being up when everthing in the world is telling it to go to sleep, you change again.

All the years that I worked a rotating shift, I was a zombie when on graves. With the exception of when I was on straight graves for about two and a half years.

While I didn't really like it that much, I just sort of made my life revolve around the "dog watch." I've known guys who worked that for many years and loved it. :eek:

One thing I did try to do when the kids were little. I'd get home about the time they were ready for school, so I have a few minutes with them. As soon as they left, I hit the bed. Got up about the time they came home from school to spend a few hours with them and have dinner. Then caught a couple of hours worth of nap before going to work.

Actually, when the kids were little I hated swings much more than graves. Never got to see them at all, except on weekends. . .


Is it just me, or does everybody else find you spend more time TRYING to sleep and less time SLEEPING when you work graves?

[ 02-28-2002: Message edited by: Don ]

[JKT]

Originally posted by Don:
<STRONG> ...Is it just me, or does everybody else find you spend more time TRYING to sleep and less time SLEEPING when you work graves?</STRONG>


It's not just you, Don. Especially when you rotate every 4 weeks. We did that at one Department I worked for, and after a few years, we convinces the Chief to "try" rotating every three months.

That worked pretty well. The first few weeks after rotation were kind of rough, but after that, it was a breze.

We found that, on the three-month rotation, we were a LOT more productive.

We weren't fighting against our bodies, and were more alert and observant.

Cooter: I did it both ways; staying up after shift, running errands, etc. in the morning and going to bed around 1 or 2; and going to bed when I got home and getting up around 4 or 5 and just watching the tube until time to get ready.

Depended on what I needed to get done, but both worked for me at different times.

Experiment a little and you'll find a schedule that works for you.

[OneRobertFour]

I would NEVER work for a dept that has rotating shifts. Find something else, I say.