Working nights...

Working nights is very different to working days. It has been said that it is a completely different animal, and that, I have to agree with.

Things I don't like about nights (amongst other things):
- Fighting my body clock
- Skeletal service at night (bare minimum of staff, and much, much less support)
- Using my brain when I feel exhausted
- 'Ships in the night' feel. Sheer lack of human contact outside of work - I work when others are sleeping, I sleep when others are awake...
- Long shifts (combined with being alone and tired, with a big workload)
- Trying to shift my body clock back to days
- Working 70+ hour weeks

Things that I like about nights
- Occasionally having random heart to hearts at 2 o'clock in the morning with other staff, when time allows
- The subdued lighting and mellowed feel
- There is a tighter sense of 'team'
- Take-aways
- The arrival of the day team, heralding the end of the drama
- Having some random days off to recover, and do life stuff!


This is an excellent document from the Royal College of Physicians on working the night shift (preparation, survival and recovery) , filled with lots of excellent advice. I really recommend every junior doctor has a read of it. I only found out about it after searching google with exasperation after having a series of awful night shifts which were horrendously busy and I was unable to sleep particularly or get decent rest between shifts. V. stressful. It has made the world of difference to how I tackle and handle nights.

Things I do to make nights shifts work:
- nap instead of eat during my break
- eat a good meal before starting, and if necessary having a 20-30 min nap an hour or 2 before starting the shift
- avoiding stodgy foods (despite cravings for really unhealthy foods), and getting in plenty of fruit and veg
- black out blinds
- ear plugs
- comfortable and cosy bed (e.g. nice sheets, dark coloured, decent pillow, warm duvet, etc...)
- going to the loo and eating before going to sleep, so my sleep is not disrupted by the calls of nature or hunger
- warm, soothing drink prior to sleep to get my mind thinking of sleep (e.g. hot cocoa or camomile tea, etc...)
- wearing sunglasses (big ones) on the way home (so no sunlight gets into my eyes)
- trying to get a bit of exercise in before starting the shift
- playing some cheerful music before starting the shift (instead of angry music)
- try to have a quick call/texts to family and friends, to stay in touch with the wider world.