THE 7 PAINS OF WORKING NIGHTS

PAIN 1: INSOMNIA - One of the major pains of working perpetual nights or even short term night shift work is Insomnia.

 Insomnia – is defined as the prolonged and abnormal inability to get adequate sleep. Why is it a factor? For the longest time, humans have been known to sleep in the evening and stay awake during the day. Our circadian rhythm has been programmed such that we feel sleepy once the sun has set. Then the industrial revolution has introduced the concept of working at night which has totally screwed up with our regular programming. Our poor and confused body forces itself to wake up when the sun is up, and tells itself to sleep once the stars start to twinkle.  This is a difficult pain to manage, you have to make sure that you are able to discipline yourself and truly get some sleep, 6 to 8 hours worth. Family support is also very vital, unless you live alone, you would have to meet family and friends to respect your sleeping time.

PAIN 2: WEIGHT GAIN / METABOLIC CHAOS - Another pain in working nights is the noticeable weight gain you experience when working nights. Though I know it’s different for everyone, and there have been some among you who are not affected with this phenomenon, but this applies to my personal experience.  I recommend that you watch what you eat, and try to minimize changing your diet, simply reverse your meal times. (My recommendation – Breakfast at 7:00-8:00 pm – Lunch at 12:00 midnight – 2:00 am and Dinner between 6:00 am – 7:00 am) Also retain the types of food (“Bacon at Night”) – Expect to still gain a few pounds more, which could easily be shaken off by regular exercise.

PAIN 3: BODY CLOCK? – I HAVE A BODY CLOCK?  - Sleep is a vital function for us to live. Sleep regenerates our cells back to health. The problem why shift workers find it difficult to sleep is because when we change our work schedule we naturally change our waking time. These changes normally affect our circadian rhythm or “body clock”. It can be likened to JET LAG.

Much like the difficulty in sleeping when we travel to a different time zone.  This effect disrupts our circadian rhythm much that we eventually start developing insomnia. A host of other factors like weight gain, irritability, high blood pressure can result from this constant change.

 How do we fix this or else avoid the ill effects of disrupting our body clock? Simple SLEEP properly. Sleep as if you are sleeping at night. The following article can help you fall asleep the right way.   http://www.wikihow.com/Fall-Asleep

PAIN 4: IRRITABILITY – this pain really affects me, specially my relationships with my wife and eight year old daughter. If I lack sleep due to my insomnia, I get highly irritable. It could be my body reacting to my now destroyed body clock. I tend to lose my temper quite early and usually for very minute things. My family understands this and they are now a bit forgiving. But how can you stand shouting at your eight year old just because she wants to play with you? That’s why it’s a major pain.

PAIN 5: UNCONSCIOUS APATHY - The lack of emotions in most night shift workers is attributed to their lack of sleep. We look at it as apathy most of the time, but they just can’t help it. Part of your brain which controls emotions shuts down because the body clock thinks it still sleeping time. So technically it’s not that they don’t care. It’s just that their minds are asleep.  Or as my friend call it, walking zombies.

PAIN 6:  MICRO NAPS AND DRIVING SAFE – I drive to work every day. Possibly one of the most dangerous pains of working nights is when you go home you feel sleepy. Too much lack of sleep can cause our system to temporarily shut down, as a way for forcing your body to get some needed sleep.  This phenomenon is called MICRO NAPS. This is very dangerous especially when you drive.  You never know when a micro nap hits you, and well sometimes, some will never do. A tip would be for you to stop on the side of the road and get a quick nap. Better yet, if you feel sleepy grab a power nap even before you drive home. A 30 minute to 1 hour nap is enough sleep for you to drive home. If you live far (a 3 to 4 hour drive is already considered far) consider sleeping more.

PAIN 7: TRAVEL RISKS – apart from falling asleep while driving there are other travel risks especially if you travel at night. Here are some which I personally experienced while on the night shift;

1.       THIEVES / PICKPOCKETS – Criminals prefer the cover of the night to do their dirty work so when commuting to work, be mindful of pickpockets and thieves who may be out to steal from you and worse hurt you in the process.  Tip: If possible, never commute alone. Find a friend or office buddy whom you can ask to join you on your way. If that’s not possible, vary your route to work daily. You can also get a cab from a reputable cab company to pick you up from your place instead of taking the train or bus at night.

2.       MUGGERS – These guys are either thieves who want to steal from you or those who simply want to hurt anyone who passes by their territory. The tip above also applies to muggers. An added tip is for you to avoid poorly lighted streets or alley ways. Bring noisemakers like whistles to call the attention of authorities.

3.       ACCIDENTS – Some accidents happen at night because of the lack of sleep. Much because we lack sleep. So be careful. Refer to PAIN 3.

There you have it. 7 Pains while working nights. I hope this helps you first time night shifters in adjusting to your new world. Feel free to comment and share your pains. Till next post.

Time for me to sleep.

4 Perks for Working the Nights for First Time Shift Workers

4 Perks for Working the Nights for First Time Shift Workers

In my last post, I talked about Stronger Relationships - which for me is the ultimate perk. But wait there's more. I've gathered 4 Perks for working Nights for First Time Shift Workers. This comes from almost 10 years of hard nosed experience. I hope you'll find it usefull.

1. PRACTICAL MONEY MANAGEMENT - While the rest of the working class is sound asleep we 'Vampires' - (a term coined for us night people not including the grave diggers, shady characters and the medical community, since we walk the night and sleep through the morning.) earn a living and it's a true fact that we earn more thanks to night premiums. However, it's not just that. At night we spend less because most 'money magnets' during the day are closed. I recall that when I used to be a 'normal' person I would be window shopping after work and more often would end up buying on impulse. I am able to save around 20% of my salary because I'd rather go home and sleep than drop by the mall to grab that shiny new toy. I practically and automatically managed my finances better.

2. DISCIPLINE AND SELF CONTROL - One thing that changed me while working nights was the freedom from temptation to party after work. As I mentioned in my previous post, who needs a splitting headache after partying all night and nurse a hang-over in the office the next day. I was able to shy away from my drinking buddies with a valid excuse.."Sorry, I have to work nights..how about a rain check?" Yeah it was a bummer because I've lost a couple of buddies, but at least I was able to save around 5-10 years of my life by avoiding the night life. Though some shift workers down alcohol for them to sleep, but let me tell you now, it will only force you to drink more as your tolerance for alcohol increases, you end up drinking more and more just to put you to sleep so STOP IT RIGHT NOW! - All you need is DISCIPLINE and SELF CONTROL

3. FAMILY BONDING - My daughter loves the fact that I work nights, why? It means that daddy will fetch her from school. Sure it feels like waking up at 4:00 am rather than 4:00 in the afternoon, but hey I used to wake up at 4:00 am when I worked the day shift. I have to because the commute would take around 2-3 hours more from my place to my office, and who would choose that over an eventful talk about the kitten who followed her to school or the new word she learned in class or the tickling sessions when school's out. I would..ten times over...heck I'd choose it anytime. My daughter loves it to the point that at times when I had to work days, she would wonder why I was at home that night.

4. TIME FLIES FASTER AT NIGHT - For some strange reason, when I had the chance to compare working nights over the morning shift, time seems to run fast at night. I couldn't explain why but it always seem that way. I get more done when working nights because there's less distraction, less noise and time goes by so fast that you realize its already morning and time to call it a day.

There you have it 4 Perks for Working the Night Shift. I hope you enjoyed it as I enjoyed sharing it with you. Good luck on your new job and I hope you enjoy being a Vampire too. Till next post.

THE 7 PAINS OF WORKING NIGHTS

Welcome to My Survival Guide for Night Shift Dads

Welcome to the Survival Guide for Night Shift Dads

I am a nightshift dad. I sleep through the day (I wish) and work all through the night. I make it simple. I just pretend I’m on a different time zone.  I Eat breakfast at 6 pm, lunch at 12:00 midnight and dinner at 8 am. Easy isn’t it? Well I wish. I’m sure a lot of you also deal with the same thing every day. I am dedicating this blog to everyone like me. “A Night Shift Dad.”

I am a dad to a beautiful eight year old daughter, a full time husband to a lovely wife and a certified ‘vampire’. Let me begin by telling you a bit of background of why I chose the Night Shift life.

MY FIRST NIGHT SHIFT JOB

I’m a mechanical engineer by profession. My first job was at an aluminum wheel manufacturing company. I trained in Japan for a few months and brought the technology back to my home country. My first night shift job found me working on casting aluminum wheels, loading them onto CNC machines and painting and doing quality checks on them all at the same time. 

We were a team of four (4), yes four engineers working together and producing 200 wheels per shift.  It was not much different from the training we did in Japan. I truly believe that the Japanese have one if not the best work ethics in the whole world, but they hated working nights. Some superstitious Japanese friends of mine believe too much in ghosts which was probably the reason why they hated working nights.  

It was from that experience that I learned to like working nights because I felt the freedom from the morning traffic and hustle and bustle of working in the morning.

I worked for a year and a half in that company switching shifts every two weeks. Though there came a time when I had to work for 24 hours for 5 days straight due to a shortage in manpower.  I realized that I was human after all. I got sick after that and finally said “It’s not worth it.”

My other jobs in the manufacturing industry were regular day jobs, and I had several moments when I would work nights but it was not that often.

I got married a few years later, had a child. I started to look for more viable work. The service industry (particularly BPOs) was a big thing at that time promising bigger salaries compared to the manufacturing industry, and with me a new dad, found it really enticing to switch careers.  So I did and it was a decision I did not regret.

FOREVER NIGHTS

The shift to the service industry opened my eyes to the world of working nights. For almost five years to this day I have been working nights. I cannot complain, aside from the added premium mandated by law when working nights, I find it liberating.

I’m free from the early morning rush to work as I leave the office everyone else is just waking up or heading off to their day jobs.

I’m free from expensive lunches and dinner meetings or other after work activities. Sure I don’t have a night life but who needs it. I mean, I don’t need to go off and get drunk after work just to have a splitting headache when I go to work the next day. 

My world turned topsy-turvy but I just pretended I work on a different time zone. I work for technical support virtually assisting clients from North America so it fits the profile. It’s fun and rewarding at the same time.

PERKS FOR WORKING NIGHTS

Now for the one of the perks;

Stronger Relationships – working nights rebuilt my relationship with my wife. She has a day job. I took the chance to bring her to work from time to time giving me added quality time. Some say that a lot of relationships get broken when one works a different shift, but I think differently. It built a fondness for her since I’m not with her at work nights. Our weekends became more precious than before. Plus the chance to send her off to work before my day ends added glue to our ten year relationship to date, why? When I was at my day job, while we go to work together, my mind was already thinking of work. Unlike when my day is about to end, I am now focused on my wife and our ‘quality’ talks.

 More of my story on my next post..10 Perks for Working the Nights for First Time Shift Workers