shifting to a night shift

Technically I've been working nights since about May, but I feel like only recently have I truly slipped into a true night shift--all its pros and all its cons.

Let's put it this way, only a night shift has you tearing the sheets OFF your bed at 11:40 p.m. and tossing them in the washing machine, while cookies are baking in the oven.

I managed to stave this off for awhile, sleeping pretty soon after I got home (usually before midnight) and waking by 9 a.m., sometimes earlier. That way, I got the morning to do errands before going into work at 2 p.m.

But recently I've been unable to sleep until closer to 2 a.m....and waking up around 10:30 or 11 a.m. Perhaps I still could get errands done, but I usually just eat breakfast, clean myself, watch some TV, eat a snack and go to work.

There are all sorts of oddities to the night shift that I never quite understood before--I honestly thought you would still be able to get all sorts of morning errands done, etc.

Here are a few things I noticed:

--Doing laundry at midnight
--Strange eating schedule. For me, it's breakfast/lunch at 11:30 a.m., Some sort of food at around 4:30/5 p.m. and another snack when you get home from work. Meals don't really have names.
--Never having groceries because the store closes at 10 p.m. and you just can't get yourself up in the morning.
--Baking cookies at 1 a.m.
--Taking out the trash at midnight
--General cleaning in the middle of the night.
--Rarely going out to dinner/meals with friends.
--Not watching regular primetime TV like most people.
--General downgrade in social activities.


Basically, all the stuff you would do in the evening, night shifters do in the middle of the night. The problem is a lot of those things aren't available in the middle of the night.

I wonder why the body feels the need to stay awake so many hours after work? To unwind? What better way to unwind then toss yourself in bed?

All in all, though, night shift is pretty cool. The social downfalls aren't that big of a deal since I don't have too many friends here, but perhaps that is why I haven't made a lot of friends too. I especially like working nights on the Sunday through Thursday shift because I still get Friday and Saturday nights to go out, but I also get all of Friday off. It totally feels like an extra day off.

Of course, I'm sure I'll feel different once I have a family, husband, kids, etc...