A Tale of Two Shifts
How the night shift has both ruined my life and given me more respect for the sun.
I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to any of you that working the night shift takes a lot out of you. I’m sure it will come as a surprise, however, to know just how unaccommodating the world is to late-night workers, how mistreated you can be, and how isolated you feel when working the graveyard shift.
As someone who has worked this shift for two and a half years now, I find myself to be a bit of a connoisseur on the topic now. I also have almost exclusively all night shift friends now, and their experiences largely match my own. While there are benefits to this schedule, and the late night shift is necessary in some cases, working late has far more cons than it does pros.
Get used to not seeing the sun, especially during the winter.
One of the hardest things, by far, has been the lack of sunlight I receive on this particular shift. It often feels almost dystopian how little I’m outside. Now not everyone on the night shift has this problem, but in order to get a good amount of time outside, you need to sacrifice some sleep or live relatively close to your job so you can go to bed sooner.
When I first started, I was able to keep a decent schedule. I went to bed at 4 am, woke up at 11 am. Not bad. A clean seven hours of sleep. However, this quickly became not enough and I began sleeping in. I also began going to bed later due to my brain being wired when I got home. Those seven hours quickly turned into 8, 9, almost 10 before I began to get a grip on it. This led me to get up later and have to get ready for work sooner. My particular schedule is four 10-hour shifts, so a nightmare soon began where I have only 2–3 hours to myself in an entire day. This coupled with the lack of sunlight and fresh air has made me more irritable and, I’ll say it, paler than I like to be.
You lose your friends.
Imagine that you lived on a completely different schedule than everyone else. When you were awake, others were asleep. When you were going to bed, others were just starting their day. This is the struggle of nights; it is also the reason it’s so easy to lose friends on this schedule.
It used to be so simple to plan a time to hang out with my people. We’d either get together in person or video call and it was no issue. Talking late into the night used to be exciting. Now? It’s my daily ritual. And the people I used to be able to call are now sleeping. While this is easier to arrange on the weekends, it makes the weekdays particularly difficult. Nothing but work exists for my Monday — Thursday and so getting chores done and errands run becomes my entire weekend. Friends are harder to see and hangouts become more of a planned chore than they were before. Night shift people tend to stick with other night shifters because it’s easier to make plans with someone on your same schedule; naturally. It also doesn’t help that…
Nothing is ever open.
Just got off work and need to get gas? Better hope they’re not doing any maintenance on the pumps. Need to go get a few groceries? Better luck in the morning. Need food after work? Hope you like McDonald’s.
Night shift suffered greatly at the hands of Covid in that it took away all of our nightly resources. Stores that used to be open 24 hours have now been replaced by empty buildings and streets and saddened employees. Shopping trips must be planned at the risk of losing more sleep than you already do because…
The world wakes up before you do.
Easily the most difficult part of this schedule is everyone getting up before you. Have a FOMO? Better not get on the night shift. The entire world is doing things while you lie in bed sleeping the day away. Because of this, maintenance requests are completed while you sleep after you groggily open the door and try to answer questions mid REM cycle. Neighbors work on their cars while you desperately try to get some shut-eye. Trash trucks pick up the garbage from the week while you wish you were hearing anything else.
The world continues on and you wake up in the middle of it. This makes adjusting to traffic particularly difficult because you’re not used to more people being out. The chaos of modern life takes full effect when you wake up and get going during rush hour or right as school gets out. Speaking of kids…
Having children and a night shift schedule is almost impossible.
I don’t have kids of my own, but I’ve heard this statement more often than not. Children work on a daylight schedule. As do their doctor’s appointments, school functions, and play dates. If you have kids, you sacrifice even more sleep to get up with them in the night when you’ve only been asleep for two hours or less. To all the parents out there on this schedule with young kids, I’m keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. Lastly…
Some people just don’t understand.
And you may be one of them. I’ve been told I shouldn’t pick up my medications at 24-hour pharmacies when 3 am is the only time I can get them. I’ve been told my request for a noon appointment is too late in the day. There are people out there that just don’t get it and are not willing to accommodate. If you are one of these people, please be considerate. Many of us want to be on the schedule you are, but we have one thing or another preventing us from doing so. We also help get you your orders on time, put out fires late in the night, help out when someone has a heart attack in their sleep, and so much more. All jobs are crucial and night shift jobs are no exception. Please be thoughtful when interacting with us. Especially since we’re probably exhausted.
It’s not all cons with this job, though. I will say one of my favorite things has been the lack of traffic on my way home. Something about driving on a road that’s all yours is just so peaceful. There’s no honking, the street lights are almost always green, and you know that you’re getting where you’re going in a decent amount of time. As for the rest of it? My circadian rhythm will thank me when I can finally get on a day shift and be part of the world again.
Do you work the night shift now or have you in the past? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments.
