Tonight will be my first night back after the weekend and although I went to bed over 5 hours ago, I don’t think I have had more than 2 hours sleep. Tonight and tomorrow night I have to do max hours.
It’s the same after every weekend. By the end of the week I am used to going to bed at 4pm and sleep ok, but when I finish saturday morning I have a sleep till about 3pm so I can go out saturday night then after that my sleeping pattern returns to normal and I find it impossible to sleep during the day.
Anyone else have this problem? Am I going to have to start sleeping during the day on my days off too? I love working nights, but don’t want to have to live my weekends at night as well
When I did nights many years ago. I just reversed my day. I had my breakfast while watching Coronation Street and Emmerdale and went for a pint at 10.30 in the morning before bed
Our shifts were better as we were on job and finish, so if I started at 11pm I was home before 10 in the morning.
My first shift on a Monday was 11pm so that gave me time to catch up after a heavy weekend
Squiddy:
Tonight will be my first night back after the weekend and although I went to bed over 5 hours ago, I don’t think I have had more than 2 hours sleep. Tonight and tomorrow night I have to do max hours.
Am I going to have to start sleeping during the day on my days off too? I love working nights, but don’t want to have to live my weekends at night as well
Did 15 years of night trunking mostly around 11 hour shifts,starting at around 20.00,5 nights a week,and I found out the answer to that question not long after starting the job,in that it took a lot longer than just a few days to re adjust from being a sleeping zombie during the day and vice versa after a long holiday.
As others have said, I found I had to live nights, which didn’t work for me as I like a bike ride on a Sunday morning with my mates, so I can’t do nights anymore, I work to live and all that
I know exactly how you feel.
After 15 years doing shift work, incuding nights every 3rd week, can I say that you never get used to it.
Still feel rough for the first 3 night shifts then, just as you get into you stride you are back on days.
It’s worse in the summer as the heat during the day makes sleeping even harder.
i do permanant nights now sunday to thursday night 6 till 6
what i do is get into the house around 6.30ish have cuppa and brekkie with the missus before she goes to work, then into bed around 7am have 4 hours sleep back up around 11 ish potter around the garage for a few hours then back to bed around 1pm back up at 4pm have my tea make my sarnies then back into work
mind you if i dont get called out then theres time for another few hours sleep
Squiddy:
Am I going to have to start sleeping during the day on my days off too? I love working nights, but don’t want to have to live my weekends at night as well
After doing nearly 3 years of solid nights I think this is the only way if you want to avoid spending half your time feeling jet-lagged.
My social life has gone and I barely see my girlfriend but at least I’m not nodding at the wheel any more.
This is why I’m now looking for a day job - working nights ruins your home life, especially if your mates/partner work days like all of mine do.
ROG:
In my younger days (many moons ago now) I did mon to fri nights
My system was to do this -
Sleep sat 7am to 1pm - leaving me a bit tired bot not that much
Sleep sat midnight to sun 8am = maybe a bit extra
Sleep sun 11pm to mon 6am
Take a very small dose sleeping tablet and sleep mon 4pm to 8pm
Start work mon night at 10 pm
Blacking out the windows was highly recommended by my GP
Monday day time was a great time to sort stuff out in the city as most others were at work - no queues
Sounds like a recipe for disaster sooner or later.That could mean just 4 hours of drug induced sleep in a 28 hour period the last few hours of which might be running on a busy motorway in morning rush hour traffic and assuming you don’t run off the road or into something you’ve then got to put an A Frame wagon and drag on the dock before driving home through that traffic for another hour or so. .If you work nights then it’s just part of the job that weekends have to be lived as nights too.
But the thick heavy curtains did’nt help when the road diggers started work outside at 08.00.
It’s your body clock, the symptoms you are experiencing are the same as jet lag.
You are awake on your rest days when your body is used to sleeping at this time, try just having a couple of hours sleep on your last shift so you are tired in the evening.
I go back to bed for a couple of hours in the morning on the day of my first shift back, and I don’t use energy drinks seems to make me feel worse. No real quick fix, but night driving in the summer is great, it beats the clogged daytime roads worth the price, for me anyway.
After 6 1/2 years on permanent nights I have found a solution that works for me.
I normally leave for work at about 6.30 p.m. and I’m back home by about 5.30 a.m. I like to go for a bike ride when I get home if the weather is OK or sometimes catch up on e-mail etc. Generally I will try to get to bed by about 8.00 a.m. at the latest and then get up around 4.00 if I sleep that long. I have double black outs on the window and can now sleep through just about anything. St weekends I try to get up earlier on Saturday - about 10 - 10.30 a.m. the stay up quite late. Sunday I’m up before 9 most times and then go to bed around 11 - 12 midnight. Then on Monday I’m tired enough to go back to bed in the afternoon so that I’m fresh for work later.
If I need to I will stop (usually only on the way home) the lorry and I have mastered the “power-nap” - 10 mins. sleep and I’m fit and ready to go again!
Working nights is a choice, how you manage to do so is a choice, if someone only needs 4 or 5 hours sleep at a time, that is fine, some people need 6, some need 8, you cant legislate about sleep only the length of the rest period.
Like the other thread that is running, about 9 hours off at base, it is that choice again. If I want to be somewhere I will take 9 hours at base, some-days I want 11 or 12 hours off.
Part of being a lorry driver is that you are still your own boss, even though you have a planner. If you keep the planner in the loop it normally works well for both of you.
Week 1
Fri 00.00 to Sat 12.00
Sat 00.00 to Sun 10.00
Sun 00.00 to Mon 12.00
Mon 00.00 to Tues 12.00
Off Tues night
Wed 00.00 to Thurs 12.00
Off Thurs night
Week 2
Fri 00.00 to Sat 12.00
Sat 00.00 to Sun 10.00
Sun 00.00 to Mon 12.00
Mon 00.00 to Tues 12.00
Off Tues,Wed,Thurs nights then back onto week 1 rota etc etc
So when i get up at say 6pm Mon evening and start work at 00.00,and because i am off Tues night,i dont get back to bed until late Tues night…so technically i am up 30hrs or so…then have a lie in on Wed morning ready to start back to work that night…takes some getting used to.
topboy trucker:
I work permanent nights…my shifts are as follows
Week 1
Fri 00.00 to Sat 12.00
Sat 00.00 to Sun 10.00
Sun 00.00 to Mon 12.00
Mon 00.00 to Tues 12.00
Off Tues night
Wed 00.00 to Thurs 12.00
Off Thurs night
Week 2
Fri 00.00 to Sat 12.00
Sat 00.00 to Sun 10.00
Sun 00.00 to Mon 12.00
Mon 00.00 to Tues 12.00
Off Tues,Wed,Thurs nights then back onto week 1 rota etc etc
So when i get up at say 6pm Mon evening and start work at 00.00,and because i am off Tues night,i dont get back to bed until late Tues night…so technically i am up 30hrs or so…then have a lie in on Wed morning ready to start back to work that night…takes some getting used to.
been doing nights for 10 yrs now,sun to thurs, try to get up normal hours fri/sat, lay in sun, not too bad, but by the time my hols are due i,m ready for them, hols are done over year, so try to have at least one week off per quarter. no matter what you do you,ll still be knackered, humans were meant to be active during the day and asleep during the night
topboy trucker:
Week 1
Fri 00.00 to Sat 12.00
Sat 00.00 to Sun 10.00
Sun 00.00 to Mon 12.00
Mon 00.00 to Tues 12.00
Off Tues night
Wed 00.00 to Thurs 12.00
Off Thurs night
Week 2
Fri 00.00 to Sat 12.00
Sat 00.00 to Sun 10.00
Sun 00.00 to Mon 12.00
Mon 00.00 to Tues 12.00
Off Tues,Wed,Thurs nights then back onto week 1 rota etc etc
Why can’t they move the wed night to either tue or thu and give you two nights off in a row in week 1?
I asked that when i started,but its because my run isn’t done on a tues and thurs night and all the other runs on a tues and thurs are covered by other drivers…its just the way my shifts are…and on my three days off on week 2,there is a partime driver who does my run on the wed night…the only downside to these shifts is i never get a weekend off.
Been on nights for nearly 4 years, Sunday/Thurs 2100 start, indoors by 6ish but Sundays 1800 start, indoors by 1ish. This is how i work it to gain maximum daylight hrs. Get in sunday, have a couple of beers, bit of tv till 2ish then bed. Get up 11ish and do what needs to be done (bit of hoovering to keep her of me case ) and do whatever or just laze in the garden. In work for 9, home at 6ish and straight to bed. Same routine up untill Thursday when i don’t set an alarm but sleep until about 2ish. In work at 9, back 6ish and have some snap with the Mrs before she goes to work at 9ish. Not back to bed till about 11pm’ish Friday night(unless going out) and get up 9ish Saturday/Sunday am. This gives me all day Friday & Saturday of ‘daylight hours’ and most of Sunday until back in work for 6ish. As opposed to our day drivers who finish about 4 on a Friday so they get a little bit of Friday evening, all day Saturday and most of Sunday cuz they have to go to bed early as they gotta be up at 4 am . Bit different in the darker months, tend to stay in bed a bit longer!! Would i go back to days?? Not unless it was the only option as i dont/never have liked getting up at stupid hrs. I can easily do 24/36 hrs straight off (Mrs says i’m abnormal) but wild horses couldn’t get me out of bed for 4am…Unless we are on holiday (trying Zante this year , Cyprus to expensive) in some hot country and i can get in bed at 3am after a night on the shandy and get up for 5 to ‘towel up’ a lounger!! Funny that, how i can do ‘earlies’ for 14 night’s of the year but not at any other time
i start at 11 30pm finish 9/10am for a local bakery delivering morning rolls non hgv.load van.then im on
multy drops up t 50 a night.van computer says i drive 5 hours a shift. rest of the time delivering t shops
if tired 10/20 minutes at 4 30am works wonders.
i sleep 12 noon till 4ish then 7ish till alarm at 10 45pm
humans were meant to be active during the day and asleep during the night 
) and do whatever or just laze in the garden. In work for 9, home at 6ish and straight to bed. Same routine up untill Thursday when i don’t set an alarm but sleep until about 2ish. In work at 9, back 6ish and have some snap with the Mrs before she goes to work at 9ish. Not back to bed till about 11pm’ish Friday night(unless going out) and get up 9ish Saturday/Sunday am. This gives me all day Friday & Saturday of ‘daylight hours’ and most of Sunday until back in work for 6ish. As opposed to our day drivers who finish about 4 on a Friday so they get a little bit of Friday evening, all day Saturday and most of Sunday cuz they have to go to bed early as they gotta be up at 4 am 
, Cyprus to expensive) in some hot country and i can get in bed at 3am after a night on the shandy and get up for 5 to ‘towel up’ a lounger!! Funny that, how i can do ‘earlies’ for 14 night’s of the year but not at any other time