Been working with an agency for about 6 weeks now, been getting an average of 3 days of work a week which isn’t great but better than nothing.
Anyway, this week all they were able to offer me was a night job, starting at 2200.
So far not felt too tired during the shift, was able to get 40 winks in on last nights shift.
Was wondering from the regular night drivers how best to combat tiredness? If i can break for an hour during a shift is it best to have 1 long sleep if needed or 2 or 3 shorter sleeps? Im only in a transit van so would be able to take 3 20mins breaks for example…
Trying to get my head down now before tonights shift but just can’t get to sleep lol
I’ve not even been getting that number of shifts during the day! But when im working a late shift or an overnight i try and stay up late the night before and sleeep late, then do the duty. Its the best way i find…
As for taking breaks i try and get at least half an hour for a nap and use other stims like redbull or coffee to keep me going.
Mike graham’s collection of regular callers through the night keep me going some right nutters out there I tend to find I struggle to sleep on break although I do try. Can’t really help much more just see how it goes, I seem to be shattered till Thursday then up after 4-5 hours on a sat and shattered again. It’s crap but it pays the bills and better then nowt when on agency
OllieNotts:
Mike graham’s collection of regular callers through the night keep me going some right nutters out there I tend to find I struggle to sleep on break although I do try. Can’t really help much more just see how it goes, I seem to be shattered till Thursday then up after 4-5 hours on a sat and shattered again. It’s crap but it pays the bills and better then nowt when on agency
What station is mike graham on?
Feeling shattered now but hope once im out on the road will wake up a bit., got me coffee so all set.
Talk sport, my favourite is a guy always on about how many pills he takes as always something wrong and he writes and sings songs every night to always keeps me awake.
I always keep my window open and the radio up loud nothing worse than being too warm as you start to feel tired , I find 20 to 25 mins is best for a power nap any more and i feel worse than before I had a nap , and if you start to lose concentration pull over walk around a bit and wake yourself up ,
Well done on getting through the first one in one piece.
Good advice from Jennie. Window down and radio up. I have about half hour power nap to re-invigorate myself. It is usually enough to get me through rest of the shift.
OllieNotts:
Mike graham’s collection of regular callers through the night keep me going some right nutters out there I tend to find I struggle to sleep on break although I do try. Can’t really help much more just see how it goes, I seem to be shattered till Thursday then up after 4-5 hours on a sat and shattered again. It’s crap but it pays the bills and better then nowt when on agency
What station is mike graham on?
Feeling shattered now but hope once im out on the road will wake up a bit., got me coffee so all set.
Thanks for the tips anyway
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around midnight till 6am I think sorry was off last night was asleep
when i did nights i just turned my clock upside down so when i got in from work i stayed up made breakfast for the family took my lad to school then when i came home got in bed had a good solid 6/7 hr sleep woke up shower an off to work didnt feel tired at all apart from the first night back in
some lads go bed as soon as they get in but it didn make sense to me as u wouldn did this if you worked days
dar1976:
It gets easier to manage the more of them you do.
Well done on getting through the first one in one piece.
Good advice from Jennie. Window down and radio up. I have about half hour power nap to re-invigorate myself. It is usually enough to get me through rest of the shift.
Cup of coffee before that power nap works a treat… Failing that ProPlus…
Well i survived that week on nights, that was 2 weeks ago now. Had 1 shift on days from the agency last week and back on nights for this week.
Struggling a bit with the tiredness / sleep though. Last night wasn’t too bad. Found a snack bar open just past 5 so was able to get a coffee, tho didn’t seem to make alot of difference.
Which brings me to a question: do coffee and / or energy drinks like red bull actually work? And how much is too much? I ask because I’ve not been feeling too great in myself today, been really thirsty and drinking lots of water. Maybe i overdone it with the caffeine last night!?
Trying what clifton suggested with the sleep pattern today so hopefully tonight I’ll cope a bit better.
Any advice or tips appreciated, thanks.
Oh and also getting bored of sandwiches, so any ideas what to take for [lunch]? (high energy foods maybe i don’t know lol)
i hated buttys so i had a tub of chicken n rice rice with tuna and every now an then id treat myself to a kfc etc id have a bottle of lucozade and a litre of squash pal
I 've been doing part time night shift recently and I found the best way when you come home in the morning 45 min relax have tea and light breakfast then sleep like 4 -4 and half hours then another 3 hours later before go to work.I m doing this couse I 've got another job which is morning shifts and 1 2 times in a week night shift really difficult to swich morning to night night to morning.Thats why Im doing split my sleeps and dont get my body use to night shift.Other thing is you can use your break 1 time 45 min and you can have a nap.But I would advise to split your sleep to see how is going.I never felt sleepy when I do like that.hope it works for you too.
When I do nights I find it best to not eat and go to bed as soon as i get home at 6/7am- as the food being digested in your stomach creates energy, which will wake you up after only a few hours.
I usually get home, have a cuppa, chill in front of the telly, then when the wife & kids wake up I have breakfast with them, take kids to school, walk the dog, do a few odd jobs etc. Takes me up to around 10am, then off to bed (blackout blinds a must have!!!). That way you’ve burnt off the energy your breakfast has created, so will get a good sleep in. Wake up late afternoon, have a light snack, off to work at 6pm maybe, do 4-5 hours (with tea break at some point), pull over for full break - set the alarm, snooze on the bunk - then put in another 4-5 hours (with another tea break) etc.
That way I find I’m alert all shift, no (or very little) tiredness etc; has worked for me for many years.
Herongate:
When I do nights I find it best to not eat and go to bed as soon as i get home at 6/7am- as the food being digested in your stomach creates energy, which will wake you up after only a few hours.
I usually get home, have a cuppa, chill in front of the telly, then when the wife & kids wake up I have breakfast with them, take kids to school, walk the dog, do a few odd jobs etc. Takes me up to around 10am, then off to bed (blackout blinds a must have!!!). That way you’ve burnt off the energy your breakfast has created, so will get a good sleep in. Wake up late afternoon, have a light snack, off to work at 6pm maybe, do 4-5 hours (with tea break at some point), pull over for full break - set the alarm, snooze on the bunk - then put in another 4-5 hours (with another tea break) etc.
That way I find I’m alert all shift, no (or very little) tiredness etc; has worked for me for many years.
this is what i was saying matt i also if i had time did a cheeky 45min in the gym when i got home i was proper tired so ended up having a great sleep and felt much better havin a solid 5 hrs rather than a broken sleep of 7hrs
I tend to find I struggle to sleep on break although I do try. Can’t really help much more just see how it goes, I seem to be shattered till Thursday then up after 4-5 hours on a sat and shattered again. It’s crap but it pays the bills and better then nowt when on agency 
