Internal body clock

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Diamond Jim

New member
Does anyones body get used to working nights ? I always have a few jobs a year that I've done and then become a Zombie for a few days . 3am seems to be the worst point of no return. When your body knows it should be sleeping.
 
My body doesn't know when it should be sleeping but it knows when it shouldn't be sleeping. If I get home at 4a.m. I am back up at 7. I can't sleep past about 7 no matter what time I go to sleep. A few years ago it didn't bother too much. Now I rarely will work 2 nights in a row.
 
I worked 14 nights in a row, I think it took 7 nights till I could sleep 8 hours in the day. A police officer told me the trick to sleeping during the day is to go to sleep before the sun comes up.It helped when i could get home before 6am. By the way strange things happen after midnight!
 
Mark 8262 said:
My body doesn't know when it should be sleeping but it knows when it shouldn't be sleeping. If I get home at 4a.m. I am back up at 7. I can't sleep past about 7 no matter what time I go to sleep. A few years ago it didn't bother too much. Now I rarely will work 2 nights in a row.
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That's how I am. I don't like working nights anymore. It's one of my goals for next year - get my guys trained to handle our night accounts on their own.
 
When I kept struggling with night-shift, I came across this passage:

Psalm 104:19-23

It's just not the time we are appointed to be up at work :)

The most success I had was with this method:

By the end of my shift, I was up for 16-18 hours, and very tired. Went straight from work to home to bed. Dark room with loud fan running.

I worked tired but at least got some zzz.

They say you need to keep your schedule consistent. If you alternate nights and days, it will be harder.

That all said, some people seem to do a lot better at it than others. They're kind of weird though :)
 
mike barrett said:
I worked 14 nights in a row, I think it took 7 nights till I could sleep 8 hours in the day. A police officer told me the trick to sleeping during the day is to go to sleep before the sun comes up.It helped when i could get home before 6am. By the way strange things happen after midnight!
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The trick if you work nights is to have a consistent schedule. Years ago when I worked nights I would immediately go home and go to bed, I then generally got up anywhere from 2-4, enjoy my evening then go into work. Other guys I worked with would stay up, eat breakfast, run errands till noon, then sleep till 8 or so and then go into work. I never had issues getting a decent amount of sleep (never 8 hours, but decent enough) unless I did not immediately get home and go to sleep. God forbid if I got delayed getting home. Just one hour and I was up all day. I was exhuasted, but could not find sleep.

I know it is different for people doing PWing with the types of jobs and hours to work but it is really best if you are on one schedule. My hat is off to the guys who do it all residential, commercial, KEC, etc... opperating on different hours depending on the day. Working nights for 2 days, followed by a bunch of day work, followed by periods of day and night work combined is a killer.
 
Johnson said:
That's how I am. I don't like working nights anymore. It's one of my goals for next year - get my guys trained to handle our night accounts on their own.
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I am also the same way. Often times, no matter what time I go to bed I am up at 7 at the latest. A couple of weeks ago we got back into town late night (around 5 or so, I got into bed at 6) I was awake at 6:45 without the alarm going off.
 
Xanax...done
 
KGILL said:
My hat is off to the guys who do it all residential, commercial, KEC, etc... opperating on different hours depending on the day. Working nights for 2 days, followed by a bunch of day work, followed by periods of day and night work combined is a killer.
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We had a lot of shifts like that earlier this summer. Here's an example:
Work till around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Come home, shower, see the wife and kid, have dinner, take a 1-1/2 - 2 hr power nap then head back out around 9. Back by 3 or 4 am. Another shower then 30 min of tv and fall asleep. Then back up at 6:30 or 7am and do it all over again.
I swear we worked about 45-50 days in the 30 day month of June. I do recall having 1 actual day off that month but that was it. July was really slow and I didn't complain about that at all.
 
You just have to train your body is all. If you are tired enough then you will sleep. I've been working nights for the last 15 years so maybe I'm just used to it. When I was in towing we had Police Department contracts and sometimes I would have to be on call at home with a truck during the day even though I worked nights. The phone rings, you get up, comb your hair, get in the truck and be on the other side of the city all within 10 minutes.

Driving tired sucks though. Once I was so tired I wound up on the other side of the city where my Police Department call was supposed to be for the wrong city. Basically I was in east city limits of city 'A' when I was supposed to be on the west side of city limits for city 'B'
 
I worked nights for most of my cop career. I was straight nights for my last 20 yrs and mostly for my first 5 yrs. I loved the nights. No bosses really to deal with and between cat napping I was able to go home @ 7am sleep for 2-3 hrs most and then Powerwash 8 hours then back into the night shift to basically relax. When I swung out I would stay up all day and powerwash so when I got home I would fall asleep around 9pm and then back on regular schedule for the next 3 days off.

The night shift was golden to me. To make that happen you have to be able to catnap and fall asleep on the drop of a dime and wake up just as fast.

If you dont have the right type of job where you cant do this then if your going to powerwash then working night tours can wear you out.

Incidently where working again thru the night doing yet another parking garage. I follow the money trail:)
 
Doing the work is no problem. Driving after is an issue and becoming a Zombie for few days sucks. Maybe we can start an organization of Pressure Cleaning Zombie's!
 
Lol, my wife just made a comment. I told her I really slept well last night. She reminded me I just get horizontal and I'm out. Nothing wakes me, the house could burn down around me. I don't even wake when she kicks me.

The day and night thing makes no difference to me. I don't take naps , I will wake up At 430 no matter what time I went to bed. Rarely sleep more that 4 to 5 hours a day. Oh if you ever called me in the afternoon sleeping that's not a nap. Most likely the first time I've slept in 24 hours.

I don't work nights much, I do go out and check on things once in awhile.


Text me anytime for question 480-522-5227
 
Diamond Jim said:
Doing the work is no problem. Driving after is an issue and becoming a Zombie for few days sucks. Maybe we can start an organization of Pressure Cleaning Zombie's!
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Sounds like award winning script


Text me anytime for question 480-522-5227
 
I keep a stash of 4 or 5 energy drinks in my truck at all times. If the 1st one doesn't help wake me up then I pull over and sleep for a few hours. No service agreement, or amount of $$$ is worth putting yourself and others at risk for a potential fatal accident. This job pays well most of the time but it's still not worth the risk.

I'm curious to see how many of us on here have driven 100% dead tired in the past month. I know most won't admit it though since it's a public forum.
 
When I'm sleepy I drive to the nearest
rest stop and take a nap. I've slept in
every rest stop on I-10 in Mississippi
 
I have always been a night owl for the most part that was one of the reasons pressure washing appealed to me when I first started. But the older I get the less I am inclined to want to stay out all night. We recently hired a foreman and he handles all the night calls and checks on all the night work the following morning. So not having to worry about calls at night when the guys are out working is AWESOME!
 
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