How to Survive the Graveyard Shift

To work in a graveyard means a total change of your routine on a daily basis. For the past 20 years or so of your life you sleep at night and do your stuff in the morning. Your brain and body has been resting at night and work when the sunshine. All of these will change when you work on a graveyard.

I had been working on a graveyard for the past 4 years and counting and I had so many issues. I had difficulty in sleeping during daytime, I am stressed, I was even confined for at least a month in the hospital. At least now I have learned some things that I wanted to share that it may work for you too:

Here are few of my tips:

Your diet plays a very important role. A poor diet means you will have a lot of problem in the next few years.

• Water – we all know that we loose water in our body day in and day out. Drink plenty of water when you are in the office. It helps cleaning up toxin in your body.
• Avoid caffeine and soda or any drinks that has high sugar content. I’ve tried this before so I could not doze off but this has destroyed my sleeping habit. Just recently I had issues sleeping and so that’s when I stopped this things and started drinking water and fresh milk instead. Now, I am recovering my sleeping habit.
• No Junkies – it means that you need to eat Nutritious Foods. Not processed foods but instead real food. When I was starting in the night shift I drink coffee a lot, soda drink, energy drinks, junk foods, fast foods. After a few years I ended up having difficulty sleeping then later I was hospitalized. I was advised by my friends to refrain from those JUNKIES and try fresh vegetable and fruits as my diet instead. After few years, I experience the same problem so I totally shifted my diet to fresh fruits and vegetable at home instead. However, if we get tempted I think its ok but you need to double your water intake.
• After work Activities – Relaxation in so many ways. Maybe you could go watching tv, chatting with friends or walking your dog, jogging or going to the gym. Do anything to loosen up. Just do the things you normally do when you are working on a day shift (the only difference is you are doing it in a different time). It is also advisable that you do some activities outdoor so you could catch up the sunrise. An hour of sun exposure is healthy and it helps regulates sleeping habit. Force yourself not to sleep after you take your dinner/breakfast.
• Multivitamins – It is helpful to take multivitamins to ensure that we are getting the vitamins and minerals that we are not getting from the food we take.
• Sleeping Schedule – It is very important to set a standard sleeping schedule. It is not good to sleep immediately as soon as you arrive home. Create a pattern of activities that your body needs to adopt before sleeping. Make sure as well to get at least 8 hours of sleep each day. Once you wake up then you go ahead and prepare to work. EAT GOOD BREAKFAST OR SHOULD I SAY DINNER FOR MOST BUT YOU CALL IT BREAKFAST. Eat fruits and vegetable. Don’t drink coffee or soda to awaken your senses instead give yourself sometime to be awaken. Sticking to your schedule is very important it is as important as having a good diet.
• Re-create your sleeping room. Design it for sleeping only. What I did was to shut off the sunlight by placing hard cardboards in the window. The room as well is so quite, no tv, no radio. I’ve asked my roommates as well to avoid being noisy while I am sleeping.

“train yourself to adjust in working at night”