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Thread: Civilian question for cops who are shift workers.

  1. #31
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Madison, Wisconsin

    Working the midnight shift

    Some people can easily adjust to nights. Most people cannot. I’m a natural nightfighter, and always have been. I estimate that 15-20% of the population are natural "night people"

    I have worked 11-7 by choice since August of 1977.

    I'm single so I don't have to worry about kids or a wife waking me up in the middle of the day. The phone with the answering machine is in the living room.

    I have thick blackout curtains on the windows of my bedroom. And a ceiling fan to provide white noise. I sleep best in a cold environment, so I keep the A/C turned on in the summer and the heat turned down low in the winter.

    I usually go to sleep between 8 and 9 in the morning and get up about 5 in the afternoon.

    I like the midnight shift because it leaves my evenings free, and I can do whatever I want before work, as long as it doesn't involve consuming alcohol. (The indoor range at the gun club I belong to is available until 9 o’clock now which is wonderful)

    As far as caffeine goes, I try to fire up about two hours before shift, or have a big cup of coffee in briefing, and then try to avoid any heavy caffeine the rest of the shift. No caffeine the last 4 or 5 hours of the tour unless I'm desperate.

    I usually drink tea at home, coffee in the PD and iced green tea on the road.

    Sometimes I take half a generic Tylenol PM before sleeping. It usually works pretty well but not always.

    I have experimented with melatonin at different doses at different times over the years but it didn't seem to have any particular effect for me.

    Most noise doesn't bother me when sleeping. The neighbor kids can play right under my bedroom window and I sleep right through it. Same with lawnmowers or snow plows.

    I used to have problem staying asleep in the summer when the sun is really bright -- I would wake up at about 1pm and have difficulty getting back to sleep. That isn’t as much of a problem since I moved into Dad’s old house because he had worked nights for years and had blackout curtains in the bedroom. That room stays DARK.

    On my first day off, I usually go to bed about 9am and then wake up by 2pm. I can then (usually) go back to sleep again about midnight. (My understanding is, if you stay up too much after 11pm your body thinks you’re going to be awake all night and releases cortisol to keep you awake)

    Often if I go to bed early (9pm or so) I wake up again about 3:30 and then can’t get back to sleep until 8 or 9 in the morning. Which sucks if the plan of the day involves working a day shift (which I try to avoid) or attending a class or a pistol match or a training event, because I tend to start getting fogged in about noon.

    On my first day back I don't have any fixed routine -- I have tried but found nothing that worked particularly well other than a short nap in late afternoon before going to work.

    My dad worked the midnight shift as a mechanical supervisor for many years. He is NOT a natural “night person” but he was very disciplined in his sleep pattern and he made it work for about 25 years. On his first day off (Friday), he’d go to bed at 8am and get up shortly after noon and then be up and able to sleep at night for the next few nights. On his first day back (Sunday) he’d get up about 5am and be up until about 2pm, and then he’d go to sleep until about 6pm and then wake up and have dinner and then go in to work at 10. That worked for him for a long time.

    I know lots of guys who stay up all day on their first day off (like go 24+ hours awake) I have almost never done that unless I had training or OT or court or something during the day that precluded my going to sleep.

    I can still go in at 3pm and work a double shift pretty well (although now I try to avoid it) but now that I'm 60+ I can't work all night and then work all day anymore. At least not usually.

    One thing I have learned is that I ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT eat after work before going to sleep.

    I put on weight if I even THINK about doing that. And now that I'm old, I get heartburn if I eat and then try to sleep.

    I usually have a protein shake when I get home, and then go to sleep.

    For me, having the room really dark isn't essential. It just has to be shadowy. Temperature seems to be a bigger factor. But, the darker the better.

    But everybody has different experiences, and people’s preferences will probably change over time

    Some people can easily adjust to nights. Most people cannot. Whether or not you can adjust to working nights is something that people should think through when considering law enforcement or any other career that operates on a 24/7 schedule.

    I always thought that was something that should be considered during the selection process for any job involving non-traditional hours – has the applicant ever worked a job where they worked evenings or nights, and weekends and holidays?

  2. #32
    I doubt it has wide application but just another station heard from...
    My Dad was a city bus driver. A bus route ("run" in driver terminology") is highly unlikely to come out to a whole number of trips across town in a fixed time, it was just chance if one was right at 8 hours. So the contract guaranteed 8 hours pay, even if you had a 7:50 run. But if you had a longer run, you got paid for it and most drivers used their seniority to maximize their day.
    And a run could start any time, there were not many 24 hour a day routes.

    So my Dad would typically pick an early start, leaving the house about 4:30. This let him complete his normal run and then sign up on the "extra board" for a school bus route for extra work and pay. He also signed up for "specials" for charters and other irregular runs. He saw the first three quarters of a lot of high school football games. He would drive team or fans to the stadium, get in free to watch three quarters but then have to go out and warm up and spot the bus for the return trip.
    Code Name: JET STREAM

  3. #33
    Member Gadfly's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Texas
    LOTS of good info here.

    When I started in LE, my office was still unionized. For some ungodly stupid reason, the union had us rotate shifts every pay period (two weeks). So i did 6a-2p for two weeks, the 2p-10p for two weeks, then 10p-6a for two weeks. IT WAS HELL. It takes at least a week to kind of get adjusted to the new schedule, then a few days later... BOOM, you have to adjust again. My body went down hill, I began to put on weight, I was not working out... Finally, my co workers went to our supervisor to ask for longer periods between rotation. She said the union made her rotate us.... BUT, she only needed someone on shift, and did not care who it was. She kept the official schedule as two weeks, but my co workers and I went to quarterly rotation. MUCH easier on the body and on the family life. That was my first 5 years on.

    As far as day sleep, blackout curtains were a must have. Cold AC and a loud fan too. The problems came from outside the house. Garbage trucks, Lawn Crews (I wanted to shoot some leaf blower packs), loud motorcycles, people ringing the doorbell because they left a package, the damn phone ringing at least 4 times a day.... sleeping in the day was hard to get a full 8 hours.

    Now, i have not done shift work for well over 15 years, BUT, in FED LE, once you get sent out on a call, you typically stay out until its all done. 24 hour shifts are not at all uncommon. I went close to 36 one time, and knew I should not be driving home. From Houston to the border is about 6 hours. We would drive to the border, meet with crooks for a couple hours, and track a load of dope or aliens back to Houston, then make an arrest... so we were 14 hours into a shift before the real paperwork started.

    how is the sleep schedule these days? Last week, we had a load of 97 aliens in a stash house... I was on scene. Came into work around 9a, was at the stash house by 11a, stayed on scene until about 8p when the bodies were moved to our detention center. Got to our jail around 9p to start processing the aliens. Went home around 6a, power napped, and was back in the jail by 11a, and got home again around 10p... That one load took us 3 days to process, not counting doing evidence, and the initial court appearances.
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/smuggli...ton-5-charged/

    I have TDYed to FLETC twice now. Stable schedule of 7-4:30 every day. Weekends off. No call outs. Access to the gym at work... I always lose weight, my blood pressure and cholesterol go down... I am happier and healthier in general. Looking forward to this retirement thing and feeling normal.
    “A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.” - Shane

  4. #34
    Site Supporter Coyotesfan97's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Phoenix Metro, AZ
    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff22 View Post
    Some people can easily adjust to nights. Most people cannot. I’m a natural nightfighter, and always have been. I estimate that 15-20% of the population are natural "night people"

    I have worked 11-7 by choice since August of 1977.

    I'm single so I don't have to worry about kids or a wife waking me up in the middle of the day. The phone with the answering machine is in the living room.

    I have thick blackout curtains on the windows of my bedroom. And a ceiling fan to provide white noise. I sleep best in a cold environment, so I keep the A/C turned on in the summer and the heat turned down low in the winter.

    I usually go to sleep between 8 and 9 in the morning and get up about 5 in the afternoon.

    I like the midnight shift because it leaves my evenings free, and I can do whatever I want before work, as long as it doesn't involve consuming alcohol. (The indoor range at the gun club I belong to is available until 9 o’clock now which is wonderful)

    As far as caffeine goes, I try to fire up about two hours before shift, or have a big cup of coffee in briefing, and then try to avoid any heavy caffeine the rest of the shift. No caffeine the last 4 or 5 hours of the tour unless I'm desperate.

    I usually drink tea at home, coffee in the PD and iced green tea on the road.

    Sometimes I take half a generic Tylenol PM before sleeping. It usually works pretty well but not always.

    I have experimented with melatonin at different doses at different times over the years but it didn't seem to have any particular effect for me.

    Most noise doesn't bother me when sleeping. The neighbor kids can play right under my bedroom window and I sleep right through it. Same with lawnmowers or snow plows.

    I used to have problem staying asleep in the summer when the sun is really bright -- I would wake up at about 1pm and have difficulty getting back to sleep. That isn’t as much of a problem since I moved into Dad’s old house because he had worked nights for years and had blackout curtains in the bedroom. That room stays DARK.

    On my first day off, I usually go to bed about 9am and then wake up by 2pm. I can then (usually) go back to sleep again about midnight. (My understanding is, if you stay up too much after 11pm your body thinks you’re going to be awake all night and releases cortisol to keep you awake)

    Often if I go to bed early (9pm or so) I wake up again about 3:30 and then can’t get back to sleep until 8 or 9 in the morning. Which sucks if the plan of the day involves working a day shift (which I try to avoid) or attending a class or a pistol match or a training event, because I tend to start getting fogged in about noon.

    On my first day back I don't have any fixed routine -- I have tried but found nothing that worked particularly well other than a short nap in late afternoon before going to work.
    There’s some differences but Jeff describes how I worked Graves and adjusted to the sleep pattern. We worked 2200-0800 but I always felt I had time to do stuff before going into work. Our late swings patrol shift was 1600-0200. I always felt like I never had time to get things done working it.
    Just a dog chauffeur that used to hold the dumb end of the leash.

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