A few days ago a worked my first night shifts at a long term care home where I am working as a 'personal support worker' for the summer. My shifts were 11p-7a and I had 2 of them in a row. While I loved the shift more than any other I was genuinely surprised at all the physical after affects of doing the 2 shifts. Besides being tired, days later I am finding my sleep pattern is still disturbed and for several days now I have been running a low grade fever, and forever having the chills and sweats. It makes me wonder about the people who work nights full time. Does their body simply adjust to nights and then thrive on the consistency? Or do they always have to work on keeping their body adjusted to working nights and sleeping in the day? I wonder if it is better to simply stay on nights rather than flipping all around from days, afternoons and nights. Well in my chosen profession nights will always be part of the equation and I am in some ways happy to have the summer to practice adjusting.
Well thats a little about night shifts, until next time,
Torrie
My mother is a nurse and she had to do the whole night shift thing and she said she literally never adjusted to it....you feel like you are not part of society on that shift.
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