I’m a nurse and I don’t do night shifts. The few times I did it I earned a 150% differential but it’s not worth the money: I’d go back home and have to use noise cancelling headphones to sleep, 'cause people are loud, I’d wake up rested at 04:00 pm, but completely destroying my circadian rhythm. I’d need a whole day or 2 to recover my regular rhythm because otherwise I’d be a zombie.
I hear my coworkers who do night shift complaining about this same issue, but they still pick up night shifts, which I don’t understand.
To me it was impossible to have something akin to a life while working night shift, but I’ve met some people that only do night shifts: the housewife that only works 4 nights shifts per month, the single mother or young wife or husband who work 14 night shifts per month and have the next 2 weeks for him/herself…
I don’t understand why they do it. It’s extremely taxing and not worth it imho.
But if you do, how do you have a life? And how do you keep yourself healthy?
I didn’t work 3rd shift (11pm-7am) but I worked 2nd shift (3pm-11pm) Mon-Fri. Found a 24/7 gym which was empty at night when I got off work (bonus), would get home from the gym at around 1230-1 am, would do my meal prep and house work till about 2am then I’d conk out for the night, wake up at around 10 or 11, go grocery shopping and run errands till about 1pm or just hang out and do random stuff. Wasn’t hard to stay healthy. mind you I’m a staunch anti-social and was single at the time which made it infinitely easier because I didn’t have a commitment to anyone besides myself but after getting married and having a kid, physical health wasn’t hard to maintain. It became difficult to manage my martial and mental health.