Problems that Night Shift Workers Face

I had to work the graveyard shift (9 pm to 7 am) for nearly seven years.  I still have nightmares about it.  Most people who work night shifts or (even worse) swing shifts is because the money is better.  I certainly would never have worked night shift -- but it was the best job I could find.  Some people adjust to night shift hours easily -- and then there's the rest of us.

Your life becomes obsessed by sleep -- or the lack of it.  At the time I worked night shift, I lived in an apartment complex.  Unfortunately, I seemed to be the only night shift worker.  Everyone else in the building went through their incredibly noisy day while I tried to sleep.   I already had sleep problems due to my major depression, but being on night shift worsened the problems.

If you can't sleep, you can't dream.  Because my waking life was so miserable, I clung to my dreams in order to keep from killing myself.  It can be difficult for regular shift workers to understand what physical and social problems shift workers face every day.  That's why I wrote this article for Yahoo! Voices.

One note -- taking over the counter sleeping medications did not work for me.  Your body gradually becomes accustomed to these pills, so that you need to take more in order to get the same drowsy effect.  By early 2000, I was taking a handful in order to get two hours' sleep a night.  You need to stick to a sleep schedule to help reset your inner body clock -- which winds up dominating a good portion of your life.

Image of angry cat by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sanchez for Wikimedia Commons.