In other news- it turns out that extra time you get by not eating all day is actually bad for you, your body uses that food to regenerate. Doctors are also advising that the productivity from shotgunning Redbull and chain smoking is your bodies reaction to chemicals in those substances and is harmful.
Sorry. Couldn’t help it. Not trying to be a jerk but I laughed when I read this at the idea that we need a PSA to tell us that sleep is important. Thousands of years of humans could tell you that- and if you’ve never been on call or worked nightshirt and don’t know anyone who has.... there’s a reason for those “-Jake, 24, nightshift” memes exist.
Lol. @mrdad01- sorry to hear that. It’s no joke how rough it can be. You’re taking care of business though and that’s what matters- but damn if it doesn’t suck sometimes. I had some work when I was younger that was odd hours round the clock. There were a few months where staying up for 2,3 days at a time were the norm, it kills you. Respect for being able to keep going. Some people can’t muster what it takes to put one foot in front of the other- no shame in having limits or being human- but I respect that you are getting it done.
@cryoenthusiest- lol. Yeah. It’s never been anything special about whatever tone of day for me either, just about getting things done. I play less games the older I get, but a great game will suck me in. Lately I’ve been playing No Mans Sky and it’s had me up late and waking early every day off I’ve had, to get some time in. The first day I bought it I played all day until 3am then started the next day at 7-3. Lol. I’ve chilled out and have been going to bed at 12am but I’ll need to stop soon as once the holidays are over work will get serious again.
The night shift things isn't what bothers me most of the time, its 100% not getting to see my kid much, he's either in school or sleeping or I'm sleeping, and 100% of the fact that I'm constantly doing the work of two people, because the owners refuse to hire a second set of hands for third, only relief to give me maybe two days off if I'm lucky and the relief doesn't flake out or get wasted. Not to mention that I'm often picking up the slack for lazy second shift workers that leave half their duties unfinished and take off so quickly as soon as I arrive they leave a trail of crap scented brown smoke behind them. Sorry for the rant, they have me so pissed off that I'm job hunting and not planning on giving any notice of departure, just a clock in to formally quit, flip off the cameras, bare my ass and clock out/walk out. Sorry! I needed to vent apparently....
Vent away. It sounds like a real shit show. I’m glad you’re looking for a way out and hope something good comes your way- sooner better than later. It is a pet peeve of mine when people shirk their responsibilities and put strain on others. 2nd shift has a life but so do you. Here’s to 2020, and my sincere hopes that you get to be with your family more this year. It sounds like management and the other workers have it coming if you walk out. Maybe by them you’ll be so glad to leave you just say fuck it- they are all staying and you’re going. Maybe not and you’ll give them what they deserve. Either way I’d be interested how it all turns out.
I don’t think she’s suggesting we need sleep, I think she’s suggesting we need sleep at specific times (night), in reference to natural, diurnal circadian rhythms. This is true.
However, we are discovering that there are people with “delayed sleep phase” that have distinctly different or delayed sleep cycles. Sleep is still important but it is important at different times. There is emerging some fascinating study on the topic. Especially to the true night owls out there.
I’m one of those. I work a day job so my habit is to wake up at 6 am and go to bed at 9-10 pm. But I am always tired—like someone who works a night shift. When I worked a night shift and slept during the day, I slept fewer hours and felt better rested. With my diurnal cycle, I am constantly fighting against my body’s nocturnal cycle.
I don’t recall feeling a “burst of energy “ in the night, I recall a greater sense of mental clarity and the feeling that I was well rested.
Up until into the Victorian times people tended to sleep in two shifts, generally from 8-midnight then wake up for a couple of hours to read, pray, go for a walk or have sex then sleep again 2-6. I can't remember why this fell out of practise, I think it was linked to the industrial revolution somehow. I have thought about trying it for myself to see if I feel better rested in the morning.
There are all sorts of neat pieces of research on sleep- some studies even suggesting that a series of properly spaced and short naps can give all or most benefits of a full sleep with less hours total and less consecutive hours. The thing about circadian rhythm is that “night” changes with time zone. There’s nothing to suggest that people in The Philippines get worse quality sleep than those in Hawaii just for going to bed at different universal times. That’s where it gets interesting. There is no “universal” human clock. If you go to bed at 10:00pm in Mumbai, it is about 11am in New York. The New Yorker who isn’t asleep at 11am isn’t feeling ill effects of that and the person in bed at 10pm in Mumbai will be well rested too.
So we know that a bodies “clock” isn’t somehow set generically to a given geography. Where it gets really interesting is when we research sleep of astronauts or those on earth in area that see months of “day” or “night.” We can even see some changes in less extremes when winter/summer solstice occur. We know that light signals the body of many animals and humans- has some impact on sleep cycles and the bodies regeneration etc. we know that in general- prolonged darkness is linked to depression and the many physical and mental changes that often accompany it. We don’t quite know WHY. We also don’t quite understand why we sleep- why it is the body can’t perform the processes it does during sleep while awake. While we take it for granted- science doesn’t have a clear answer for why we need sleep or why most creatures evolved sleep.
In fact- there is a prion disease called Fatal Familial Insomnia, in which a person suffers the inability to sleep- and eventually will die, on average within 18 months, but 7months to almost 10 years have been reported as well. Of course- we don’t KNOW it is the lack of sleep and not some other unproven mechanism of the disease that kills- and there are several unliked reports of people losing the ability to sleep for other reasons and living on. A Hungarian soldier in the 1930’s was studied after being shot in the head. When they awoke- they supposedly never slept again for the rest of their life. They lived another 20 or so years supposedly. These instances are rare and tend to be hard to study (and impractical and unethical to replicate) so we don’t have a lot of information on the subject of not sleeping beyond prion disease.
So there are many questions about sleep, it’s true function, of its really even needed, how it works and so on. Many theories and to top it all off- the way two different people respond to sleep may be totally different. So do what works for you, try new things of what you’re doing isn’t working. There are tons of research articles and theories on sleep optimization and it is both fascinating and practical!
However, we are discovering that there are people with “delayed sleep phase” that have distinctly different or delayed sleep cycles. Sleep is still important but it is important at different times. There is emerging some fascinating study on the topic. Especially to the true night owls out there.
I’m one of those. I work a day job so my habit is to wake up at 6 am and go to bed at 9-10 pm. But I am always tired—like someone who works a night shift. When I worked a night shift and slept during the day, I slept fewer hours and felt better rested. With my diurnal cycle, I am constantly fighting against my body’s nocturnal cycle.
I don’t recall feeling a “burst of energy “ in the night, I recall a greater sense of mental clarity and the feeling that I was well rested.