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Night shift sleep schedule example


Optimize your schedule for night shifts - Sleep Guides

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by Dr Sophie Bostock

Even if you can’t change your shifts, what you do before, during and after the shift can make a huge difference to your sleepiness and your general mood. These tips can be helpful for both night shifts and late shifts. Look down the list for things that are in your control. Test out what works for you, and try to do it more often.

Before your night shift:

• Most people can cope with up to a 2-3 hour shift in their sleep-wake cycle. If you have a few days before you start night shifts, gradually taper your sleep and wake times towards the new schedule, for example, by rising 2 hours later each day and going to bed 2 hours later.

• Take a nap before your shift to reduce sleepiness when you’re at work.

• If you’re a natural early bird, try a long nap for up to 3 hours to reduce your sleep debt. If you’re a night owl, you’ll find it more difficult to sleep in the afternoon but try at least a 15-20 minute nap before you get ready for work.

• Be aware that if you nap for more than 30-40 minutes your body will enter deep sleep. The advantage of deep sleep is that it will help to reduce a sleep debt, but it can take around an hour to be fully alert again, so allow time to wake up afterwards.

Staying alert while you’re at work

• Seek out bright light before and during the early part of a night shift. Even if work areas need to have dim light, break areas should still be well lit. If your workplace feels too dark, speak to your employer about increasing the brightness of the lighting.

• When you have the same shift for at least a few days, eat a meal or snack at the same time each day to promote regular body cycles. If you working nights for several days, eat ‘lunch’ mid way through your shift.

• A mid shift power nap of up to 30-40 minutes is more effective than coffee for improving alertness.

• Caffeinated drinks like tea and coffee can be helpful stimulants to promote attention in the first half of a shift, but taken within a few hours of bedtime could result in a longer time to fall asleep, reduced deep sleep and fewer sleep hours.

Getting home after your night shift

• Do you need to drive? You are at higher risk of having a car accident if you drive after a night shift. If public transport, carpooling or cabs aren’t practical, vary your route home so that you’re less likely to be driving on ‘autopilot’. If you’re very tired, take a short nap before setting off.

• Daylight is a signal to the body to stay awake. Wear dark glasses on the way home to encourage the production of melatonin and prepare the body for sleep.

Protecting your sleep after a night shift

• Follow the same routine to prepare for bed on day or night shifts. This will encourage pattern recognition and get the body ready for sleep – a light snack, a warm bath, brushing your teeth, soothing music, relaxation exercises or meditation could be part of a wind down routine.

• Avoid having a clock or alarm clock where you can see it during your rest time. Looking at the time may make you feel anxious.

• Use blackout curtains or drapes to make your bedroom as dark as possible. Alternatively, a good eye mask may do the trick.

• If you live in a noisy environment, look at soundproofing your bedroom with double-glazing, carpets, heavy curtains and even wall insulation. Ear plugs could also help to preserve your peace and quiet.

• Keep a visible record of your sleep and work schedule somewhere so your partner, family or housemates can see it, so that they don’t inadvertently wake you up.

Recovering between shifts

• Try and find time for exercise. If you can stay physically fit, your body will be better able to cope with changes to the body clock, and you’ll feel less fatigued overall.

• If you’re trying to return to a natural day shift pattern, remember that bright light boosts alertness. Light alarm clocks and light boxes that mimic the sun’s spectrum and intensity can help to reset wake cycles (aim for ~2500 lux vs. normal lighting of ~150 lux).

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The Best Sleep Schedule For Night Shift

When you work a schedule that demands that you work a night shift, it is no easy task. Not only due to the difficulty of staying awake throughout a night on the job. It is also difficult due to having a flipped schedule than your family, friends, and loved ones. We want to help make things a little bit easier on you. Which is why we are sharing our top tips on how to get better sleep and stay awake during your night shift.

You may also enjoy: How To Stay Awake At Work

Occasional Night Shifts vs Always Working Nights:

One thing we are always preaching when it comes to maintaining great sleeping habits, is to be consistent. This is just about impossible for you if you are having to periodically do a 180 with your sleep schedule. Which is a silver lining to always working nights, while it is different from the usual work/sleep schedule for most people, the consistency does have it’s benefits for your sleep and energy.

However, only having to work nights every once and a while, it allows you to keep a normal work sleep schedule which allows you to see friends and family during usual hours. There is not doubt that each has their own benefits. However, if you can choose when to schedule night shifts, bunching them together can make it an easier transition in and out than having them sprinkled throughout your usual work schedule.

Blackout Curtains & Eye Mask:

Daylight is an enemy to all those who work night shifts. When you are having to sleep throughout the day you need to block out daylight. Or else you will end up getting little to no sleep because the sunlight will simply keep your mind alert.

Blackout curtains are a great way to shut out light and get some much needed rest. Eye masks are also a great option as they are cheaper, and portable so you can take them anywhere you need to get some shut-eye.

White Noise Machines & Ear Plugs:

Another great tip for getting great sleep when you work nights is to block out unwanted noises. A noise machine is a great way to do this. White noise drowns out noise disruptions from outside. Many noise machines can play a large array of different noises from nature sounds to static.

If that simply isn’t enough to block out the rest of the outside noises, then ear plugs are a great backup. If your roommate refuses to quiet down or the construction is driving you crazy, ear plugs are your go to.

Learn more about the many benefits of white noise in our post: Pros & Cons of White Noise Machines

Workout Regularly:

Again, staying healthy is important in order to have as much energy as possible. When you work out regularly not only will it help you to wake up in the morning, and get to sleep after work. It will also increase your stamina.

If your work is physically demanding, even if it most consists of walking around or standing, exercise can give you the ability to do your job for longer without tiring out.

Learn more about how exercise can help your energy and sleeping habits in our post: Exercise & Sleep.

Find Ways to Stay Positive:

When your schedule is turned upside down, it can get rather isolating. When you have time off, often your family and friends are all busy either sleeping or at their day jobs/school. Which is why we suggest finding ways to stay positive.

First off, make the most out of the time that you do have with your loved ones. Really soak it up and make sure it is quality time, tv off, phone down and actually talking and bonding together.

Our next suggestion is that you have something you do in your off time by yourself. Whether it is starting a blog, knitting, writing a book, crafting, whatever it is that you really love doing and finally have time to do with all of your new found alone time. By giving yourself something fun and productive to do, this helps to keep you feeling positive and makes the alone time feel a little less isolating.

Don’t Stress Over Lack of Sleep:

There are going to be days when your schedule simply does not work out for getting a full sleep session in before work. Don’t fret too much about it. Yes, you will be tired. However, as long as you don’t make a habit of it, you will get off your shift and get some great sleep afterword.

Stressing about the lack or sleep you’re getting or beating yourself up because you cannot fall asleep, will only make it more difficult to get to sleep. In other words, the stress of needing sleep, can actually keep you awake. So just relax and know that your body can handle running on less sleep than you would imagine.

Think you may be suffering from insomnia? Learn more about it in our post: Guide To Insomnia

Stay Busy at Work:

Night shifts are notoriously slower than day shifts in all different lines of work. Typically, the bulk of busy hours is during the day time. This means the night shift can get a bit boring.

While a slow day is often a welcome break for a rush, it can make it more difficult to stay awake and alert. We recommend creating an in-depth check list of things you can do to stay busy whenever it is slow. Businesses always have something that can be done.

Something to be cleaned, organized, and so on. There are often a number of jobs that are not vital or time sensitive and often get left on the back burner. These are the perfect jobs to knock out whenever things are slow. These kinds of jobs are not always the most engaging, but they are much more helpful with keeping yourself awake than doing nothing at all.

Make Work Friends:

Surrounding yourself with positive people makes a world of difference when it comes to keeping spirits high and passing the time. Which is why we suggest making the extra effort to connect with your coworkers. Especially if they are not who you typically work with during day shifts.

It is going to make surviving night shifts far easier. Even if it only a brief “hello” when passing. Any/all positivity and connection you can get is beneficial.

Talk to Your Roommates:

Whether your roommates are you friends from college, your boyfriend/girlfriend, or your husband/wife and kids. It is vital that you talk to them about what you need during your time working a night shift.

If you are going to be working nights, you need to have understanding and considerate roommates and/or spouse. Which requires an open line of communication. Discussing your work hours with the people you live with and what you need at different days. Quiet time during your daytime sleep hours is likely going to be the most difficult for everyone to navigate. So be sure to discuss ways to communicate when you are sleeping and what you need from them.

Get more tips and tricks on how to sleep with loud roommates and neighbors in our post: Sleep & Noisy Neighbors

Prep Your Bedroom for The Night Shift:

There are a few small changes that you can make to your bedroom in order to maximize your ability to sleep during the day. Blackout curtains are a must, they block out the daylight so you can create a soothing pitch dark sleep environment. A sound machine or box fan is a great way to blur out distracting noises outside of the bedroom.

You may find that there is more sound than you ever thought imaginable throughout the day. Sounds that simply don’t go on at night. Whether it is your neighbor/roommate getting ready for their day, neighbor kids laughing and playing, construction noise, and so on.

Light based alarm clocks, with all of those blackout curtains it can be difficult waking up. Which is why we suggest creating your own sunrise to wake up to with an alarm clock that uses light. A lot of smart lights can also be scheduled to slowly turn on in order to mimic the sunrising. This way you wake up naturally.

Click the link to learn how to turn your bedroom into the ultimate sleep space: Creating The Perfect Sleeping Space 

Create Your Bed Time Routine:

When you get off of work and the sun is shining and the birds are chirping, even when your body and mind are exhausted, it can be difficult to get to sleep. This is because our circadian rhythms kick in and tell us that it is time to wake up and get moving. This is engrained in our biology and it makes it hard to go to sleep.

Which is why we suggest having a routine that you do each night you finish working to help yourself prepare for sleep. The routine will help reinforce that it is indeed time to go to sleep.

  • Close all your blinds
  • Make a cup of caffeine-free tea
  • Listen to a favorite relaxing podcast
  • Turn on your favorite music to sleep to
  • Take a shower/bath

Get more tips on relaxing activities to do before sleep in our post: Stress Free Nightly Routine

Eating & Drinking:
Caffeine Intake

When you are not used to working a night shift, caffeine can seem like literal life line. Just be mindful of how you use it. Try to restrain from drinking caffeine 3-4 hours before you are hoping to get back to sleep.

Caffeine can remain active in your system for up to 8 hours and you are going to need to get to sleep. Keep in mind that it is physically possible to create a new sleep schedule, and work nights without caffeine. (Although, it is arguably much more difficult to do.)

Learn more about how to cut out caffeine with our post Caffeine Free: The Benefits of Quitting Caffeine

Staying Hydrated

Hydration is important in order to maintain energy. When you are dehydrated it in much harder to remain alert. Dehydration can happen to just about anyone and it isn’t always easy to keep track of how much you’re drinking. Especially when your schedule is all topsy turvy.

We suggest keeping a water bottle with you that has a way to track how much you have had to drink. Also, drinking the cold water periodically can be helpful when trying to stay awake.

Click the link to learn more about the relationship between Hydration & Sleep.

Eat Breakfast Before Work & Dinner Before Bed

This sounds completely normal until you put it in context with a night shift. However, we are all creatures of habit, which means different meals make us feel like it is either time to wake up or get ready for sleep.

Which is why even if you are waking up at 5pm and getting off work at 7am, eat breakfast foods at 5pm and dinner food at 7am. This will help to reinforce your new sleep schedule. It also keeps your routine somewhat normal, even when it is entirely turned around.

You May Also Enjoy: Does The Ketogenic Diet Affect Your Sleep?

Eat a Healthy Balanced Diet

Eating healthy is vital for anyone working night shifts. When we stay up late for some reason eating cheap fast food and junk foods become far more tempting. However, they often make you feel sluggish. When you are unhealthy it becomes more difficult to maintain energy. Which of course makes working a night shift far more difficult.

Packing small healthy snacks that you can eat on throughout your shift is a great way to keep yourself moving without weighing yourself down. Big meals tend to make you feel tired, while healthy snacks give you good bursts in energy when you need them without weighing you down.

Click to read: Best & Worst Foods to Eat Before Bed.

Night Shift Sleep Tips – Final Thoughts:

Working throughout the night is no easy task. Just about anyone who has worked through night shifts will know that it is not for the faint of heart. There are very good reasons as to why it tends to pay more. Most people have a hard time working these kinds of hours. However, it can be a great way to make extra money if you are willing and able to take on the night shift. If you do, we hope these night shift sleep tips help you get the best sleep possible so that you can continue working hard and feeling great.

If you have any questions or simply want to reach out, feel free to Contact Us. We would love to chat and help you out with anything you need.

Sleep mode with shift night schedule. Sleep Secrets

In the US, one fifth of all jobs are in shift positions, including night shifts. In Russia, these figures are hardly less: many of us also work at night. At the same time, the doctor on duty, the security guard and the metallurgist standing at the open-hearth furnace have one common problem: poor sleep due to work, which arose as a result of a violation of circadian rhythms.

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TV channel "Culture". Lecture by R.V. Buzunova "How to overcome insomnia by limiting sleep." Watch here!

Ideally, our wakefulness should correspond to the light part of the day, and sleep to the dark part. According to this, our internal clock works, biochemical and physiological reactions occur in the body. While the sun is above the horizon, all organ systems are actively working for us, metabolism “accelerates”, body temperature rises. By night, all these processes slow down, the hormonal background changes, the synthesis of enzymes, the activity of the nervous system, and so on; we feel tired and want to sleep.

Night shift disrupts the biological clock. Moreover, for a shift worker, day and night do not always simply change places. A person may have a floating work schedule at night and during the day: a chaotic alternation of day, day and night shifts. As a result, disruption of circadian rhythms occurs and gradually worsens. Circadian rhythms (internal clock, biological clock) are fluctuations in the intensity of various biological processes associated with the change of day and night.

Circadian disorders may be caused by more than just shift work. If you've ever taken a long-haul flight, remember how it felt to be a few hours "before" or "after" your usual time. Approximately the same thing is experienced by an employee who has an uncomfortable schedule, with the only difference being that he does not “jump in time” occasionally, but several times a week.

Daytime sleepiness, trouble falling asleep, low mood, tendency to depression, digestive disorders - symptoms of circadian rhythm disturbances significantly impair quality of life. Ideally, to improve sleep and maintain health, you should give up working at night. But if leaving a shift night schedule does not work, you can at least try to reduce its harmful effects. The following tips will help.

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Assess how you feel during the day to see if you have any sleep disturbances.

Work with a shift schedule. Before the shift

  1. If it is within your power, try to plan your schedule of employment so ...
  • So that you do not have "one and a half" shifts when you work day, night and the next day. Only a day or 12 hours, and after that - rest. Otherwise, poor sleep due to work is simply guaranteed.
  • So that night shifts alternate with day shifts not randomly , but in the prescribed manner. For example, it is convenient to plan a shift night schedule in the “day after three” or “one night shift - rest - two day shift” modes.
  • To rotate the chart "clockwise". Example: one day you work during the day, one in the evening, one at night. This will make it easier to adapt.
  1. On the day before your shift do not drink alcohol .
  2. If you have to work all night, and even more so the night and the next day, then you must sleep at least 2-4 hours immediately before going to work .
  3. If the shift lasts only until half of the night, it is better not to sleep for a long time before work - there is a great risk of not falling asleep until the morning. Alternatively, you can take a 20-30 minute nap to freshen up.
  4. If a night shift is scheduled, try to get a good night's sleep the previous night .
  5. Before leaving for work, prepare your own meal, so that you can have a quick bite to eat and go to bed when you return.

Shift work. During your shift
  1. Sleep at work if possible. Representatives of some specialties (on-duty fire brigades, watchmen) are allowed to do this. If you're not allowed to sleep long hours on a shift schedule, you can take a 20-30 minute nap in the middle of the night during your work break.
  2. It is best not to eat after ten o'clock in the evening; the digestive organs are not set up for vigorous activity at night. If you allow yourself to snack, avoid large meals, as well as any heavy, fatty food.
  3. If you eat at work, don't do it on the run . Sit down and eat slowly. Otherwise, there is a great risk of unwittingly eating more than planned, and this will aggravate the consequences of a sleepless night.
  4. Caffeinated foods and drinks are allowed only in the first half of the night . Stop taking them 6 hours before you are supposed to go to bed (that is, about 5 hours before the end of your shift), as this may prevent you from falling asleep after returning home.
  5. If you feel sleepy near the end of your night shift, but you can no longer drink coffee, use other methods to cheer you up
  6. During your night shift, drink water (0.7-1L per night) to prevent dehydration that exacerbates the effects of circadian rhythm disturbances.

Shift work. After shift
  1. On the way home , if it's sunny outside, put on sunglasses ; darkness contributes to the production of the sleep hormone, and this is exactly what is needed at the time of preparation for rest.
  2. If it’s far from home, it’s better to get there by transport , otherwise, firstly, you will lose time that you could spend on sleep, and secondly, because of fast walking, you will cheer up and may not want to sleep at home .
  3. If, due to night work, you slept less than 5-6 hours per night, it is recommended to sleep after it . At the same time:
  • Do not fall asleep in transport on the way home ; sleep after a night shift should not be interrupted, it is better to sleep once and for a long time than several times a little.
  • Provide yourself with complete conditions for relaxation : good darkening of the bedroom, silence, sleep without outerwear and in your own bed. If necessary, you can use an eye mask and use earplugs.
  • If you feel hungry, before going to bed you can have a light meal consisting of porridge, fruits, vegetables.
  • Take Melaxen tablet 40-60 minutes before bed; It is an artificial sleep hormone that exhibits hypnotic and adaptogenic effects.
  • Determine the optimal amount of "after work" sleep so that you sleep approximately as much per day as your body usually requires. Agree, if you take a nap for a couple of hours before work, and then come home in the morning and sleep from 8 to 16 in the evening, it will hardly be easy for you to fall asleep the next night. In such a situation, it would be better to limit your rest after the shift to 5 hours of sleep.
  • When you sleep off your shift, set an alarm or ask someone to wake you up at the time you scheduled to wake up . Otherwise, you can oversleep, and this will further knock down your already suffering “sleepy” schedule.
  • The duration of sleep after work should be a multiple of the duration of one sleep cycle (it lasts 1.5-2 hours). This will help you wake up easily, without headaches, heaviness in the head and drowsiness, and then you can spend the rest of the day fully.
  1. After waking up, take a shower, exercise, drink coffee - this will help you to “fit” into everyday life faster.
  2. Talk to your family about the specifics of your job and explain that you need to rest after your shifts . Silence during your daytime sleep, planning important events for the moments when you will definitely be in good shape, helping with some everyday moments - all this is very important so that an uncomfortable shift schedule brings you as little discomfort as possible.
  3. On days when you are not working, keep a regular and correct routine : go to bed and get up at the same time. Even on weekends!
  4. Exercise regularly , it increases the adaptive capacity of the body, improves the quality of sleep and well-being in general.
  5. Try to avoid stress as it exacerbates the resulting circadian disturbances.

Working hours at night are very inconvenient. But by using the tips above, you can make sure that sleep and quality of life suffer as little as possible from night shifts. Although, ideally, of course, you should seriously think about whether working with a schedule at night is worth the suffering that you have to endure because of it.

One should not work at night. It is unnatural, hard and dangerous. Night work is isolation from the family, poor health and health problems in the future. So, it was found that a shift night schedule increases the incidence of hormone-dependent tumors, especially in women, and diabetes, especially in men. In general, all shift workers can be advised to look for alternatives.

I wish you all such work that brings pleasure and does not interfere with sleep!

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Owl or lark?

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So that night shifts do not harm: how to build a schedule correctly including at lunchtime? Big cities "do not sleep", and with them representatives of many professions who are forced to work at night. These are drivers, waiters, sellers, bartenders, cleaners, managers of nightclubs and many others. About how to build a schedule with night shifts, as well as how to cure snoring and who should not drive a car, we talked with Vladimir Dorokhov, head of the laboratory of neurobiology of sleep and wakefulness at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Some somnologists claim that the human body never adapts to shift work. Is it true?

- Shift work is really bad, because man is a diurnal animal and all his rhythms are day-oriented. But since we are genetically very different, there are "larks", "owls", "doves", not everyone is equally adapted to work at night. Some can, some can't, and if life makes them work that way, they don't recover very well. It is impossible to speak unambiguously.

The term "chronotype" was introduced by the Russian physiologist Aleksey Alekseevich Ukhtomsky. It denotes the nature of daily activity typical for a particular person. Circadian rhythms are fluctuations in the intensity of biological processes depending on the time of day. For example, the sleep-wake cycle.

We once worked with a bus fleet, they had six shifts. According to the law, night work is paid more, but at a certain number of hours per month. And car depots are cunning - they change the mode of operation so as not to overpay. As a result, a person works first in the morning, then in the afternoon, then in the evening. He is knocked down by the rhythm of adaptation, which is very bad.

There is a well-known phrase: “The daily routine must be observed” – this also applies to shift work. It is important that a person gets used to a certain schedule, under which, in about a month, all the rhythms, genetic mechanisms that ensure our biochemistry will be rebuilt.

In addition, for 10 years we have registered accidents at the car depot. We have seen drivers have chronotypes and circadian genes that are responsible for chronotypes. And it turned out that larks have accidents when they work evening shifts.

Do you mean that it is in the genes of a person whether a “owl” person or a “lark” person?

- Of course. It is these extreme types that are genetically determined. There are intermediate, as we call them, "pigeons", they are not so pronounced. The chronotype is determined not by one gene, but by several. Today we can very quickly analyze saliva and find out whether a person is a “lark” or an “owl” and which regimen suits him. This can be determined by special questionnaires. They work well too.

People with what sleep disorders should not drive?

- First, sleep apnea. If a person snores, it may be a pathology, it may just be snoring. In the case of obstructive sleep apnea, snoring occurs because the mucous membrane inside the throat is compressed, and the air passes with difficulty. The walls of the larynx can become so closed that breathing stops and oxygen supply to the brain becomes difficult. In some cases, several such stops can occur in an hour, and because of this, a person does not get enough sleep. If a person did not get enough sleep at night, he is a potential emergency worker, even a healthy person.

There is a non-stop driving curve, where continuous driving for 10 or 12 hours in a row is already equal to certain doses of alcohol in terms of the risk of an accident. The probability of making a mistake is the same. And if the presence of alcohol in the blood of the driver can be determined, then the level of his drowsiness is not. And this condition can accumulate.

There is a test for the level of sleepiness, when a person is asked to fall asleep and see how quickly he falls asleep. The faster he falls asleep, the more he needs to sleep.

So people who snore are potential emergency workers?

- With serious pathologies - yes.

Apnea is being treated today?

– There are many somnological centers in Moscow that make a diagnosis. People sleep in the laboratory, they have the number of pauses in breathing, the level of oxygen drop in the blood, and they are prescribed CPAP therapy. At night, a person is put on a mask similar to the one that is worn during artificial respiration. It closes the mouth and nose, and air is forced into the throat under pressure to expand the walls of the larynx. In good cases, a person will be treated for a month and can breathe calmly at night for some time, but often the therapy needs to be repeated. This is individual, but in both cases the quality of life increases dramatically.

Now there is such a service - laser surgery in the sky. Is this an effective way to fight snoring?

- Parts of the soft palate, uvula and larynx are surgically removed, but in most cases this is done, unfortunately, without control of night sleep. Then the tissues grow again, in successful cases, the effect persists for a long time. If you do this operation, you need a very experienced specialist, it all depends on the skill of the surgeon.

Daytime sleep - good or bad?

– Short naps improve the quality of life of those who do not get enough sleep at night. There is an opinion that a good daytime sleep from one day makes two. It is desirable that it be after lunch, around one in the afternoon. The duration should be a maximum of 40 minutes. Personally, 10-15 minutes is enough for me. If you sleep longer than 75 minutes, the so-called sleep inertia sets in, a person remains drowsy for a long time. Reaching the deep stage of sleep during the day is already superfluous.

What is the laboratory working on now?

- We are developing a methodology to influence a person with electromagnetic waves to improve the quality of his sleep. We started with mice - we have a good automated installation, we send eight experimental animals there at the same time. An encephalogram is written in all mice, and we can see the duration of sleep before exposure to electromagnetic waves and after, in order to determine the optimal mode. Now we choose the optimal mode of electromagnetic stimulation in terms of frequency, intensity, duration, and also determine when it is better to act - during the day or at night. There are few such studies in the world.

In addition, we are planning to work on the relationship between chronotype and parkinsonism - is it possible to determine a person's predisposition to parkinson's disease by chronotype.

In the case of humans, how will such therapy be carried out?

- Non-contact.

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