12 Expert Tips For Staying Awake On The Night Shift
Working a night shift can take a toll on the body. We all know that, right? I remember how difficult it was to get used to my new routine when I first signed up to work the night shift.
It may not be easy, but it’s not impossible. The process doesn’t seem daunting once you know how to stay awake while working a night shift.
Night shifts make it hard to remain focused and alert. That’s because the body only adjusts to fit the new work schedule. So, at such times, we constantly check the clock. All we can think of is returning home and hitting the bed.
If this works for you, it’s time to change that approach. Getting your mind and body used to working a night shift makes the task more accessible and comfortable—read the following tips for staying awake on night shift.
Know What You’re Getting Into
If you have a permanent night schedule, there’s nothing more important than adjusting the sleep cycle. This allows you to get at least eight hours of sleep daily. And if the night situation is temporary, you need to know what to do and what not to do. This helps keep you awake and encourages a productive and safe work environment.
Nap before the night shift
A nap in the afternoon or right before your night shift can go a long way. You can call it banking sleep. It would be best to make it a point to sleep at least nine hours for an entire week before you start working the night shift. Banking some sleep is an excellent way to prepare your body for the new nighttime work schedule.
Keep yourself busy
If you keep yourself idle, you will inevitably think of nothing but sleep. And we don’t want to do that now, do we? The goal is to do just the opposite, right? So it’s not only essential but also necessary to stay busy.
Engaging in a new task is the best way to distract your sleepy head. Being busy throughout the night does more than just that. Hours pass without you even glancing at the clock. This way, you’ll reach the end of your shift and find yourself heading home in no time.
Divide your caffeine intake.
Many articles like this have caffeine listed as one of the best tips for learning how to stay awake while working a night shift. And honestly, we don’t even need someone else to tell us that. Chugging a giant caffeinated beverage from Starbucks is what we do to stay awake anyway. But not many of us know this: doing something like that doesn’t help you as much as you’d expect.
Consuming much caffeine at the beginning of your shift will not get you through the whole night. Instead, divide that Venti Starbucks drink into small doses regularly at night. Space them out evenly.
Such a practice helps you stay consistently alert and focused all night long. But please do not consume caffeine towards the end of your shift. Otherwise, crashing when your head hits the pillow will seem like a pipe dream.
Be extra careful if your workplace has office coffee services because binge-watching is much easier.
Take a short night’s nap.
This may be optional because not many of us can ward off the sluggishness accompanied by short naps. But a half-hour nap during the night shift is an energy booster for some people.
If you think you might feel inactive or lazy afterward, it’s best to take a coffee shot before that. Eight ounces of coffee before a short nap goes a long way in eliminating the effect of sleep inertia. So it’s safe to take that half-hour nap during your night shift without worrying about the after-effects.
Hit the bright lights.
Light is stronger than we think. Bright light does an excellent job of making the mind and body believe that bedtime has not arrived. The light helps reset our internal clock, which directs our sleep patterns.
When to feel tired and when to feel alert are the things that our internal clocks decide for us. So, the best way to reset the internal clock is to stay in a brightly lit room. You can even use lightboxes that produce lux from 2,000 to 10,000.
Prepare for the end of your night shift.
Many of us learn how to stay awake while working a night shift but forget to brace ourselves for the end of that shift. The sleepiest time of every 12-hour clock is four to five. During the daytime, it’s from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.; during nighttime, it’s 4 a.m. to 5 a.m.
This is the time we need to prepare for—the adverse effects of staying up all night kick in during those hours. And fortunately enough, these are also the last hours of your night shift. So it would be best if you prepared yourself to feel incredibly sleepy. This helps push the mind and body to stay awake by using countermeasures.
Avoid sleeping for longer hours during the day.
You cannot replicate your night sleep by sleeping for longer hours in the day and dozing off as soon as you return home after the night shift, which doesn’t take more than 10 to 15 minutes, right? But this doesn’t mean we’re knocked off for a long time.
When sleeping during the day, getting up after four hours is highly likely. Our sleep pattern tends to become fragmented. We keep waking up and falling back to sleep.
This doesn’t sound like a pleasant and comfortable experience now. So, the best way to do this is to divide the sleeping period into two sessions lasting at least four hours each.
When you’re trying to nap for a long time but keep waking up, it’s better to get up rather than struggle to go back to sleep. Carry on with your day and utilize that second sleeping session at another time, preferably before you head out for your night shift.
Create a fake cycle
Establishing a fake cycle for your day-night routine is one of the best ways to learn how to stay awake while working a night shift. But do you know how to do this? It’s pretty simple. Begin your night shift by exposing yourself to bright lights and end it by wearing dark glasses.
Once you get into bed, you can also use earplugs and a sleeping mask. This encourages your mind and body to believe that they’re following the usual routine as everybody else, making adapting to the new work schedule more accessible and comfortable.
Avoid alcohol
Consuming alcohol before crashing is something that happens at night only. So, it’s wrong to expect such an outcome during the daytime. Alcohol might help in falling asleep during the day, but at the same time, it causes disturbances that tend to mess with the quality of sleep. So it’s better to keep away from alcohol when making up for lost sleep in the day.
Interact with people
Maintaining social interactions goes a long way in keeping your mind distracted. So, indulge in talking with your co-workers to stay awake during the night. And this particular exercise is something that your colleagues can relate to since they’re in the same position.
To begin with, engaging in a conversation, telling jokes, sharing recent downloads, or reviewing TV shows and movies are a few ideas. Please make the most of your coffee and food breaks by spending them with co-workers.
Eat healthy and exercise.
You can try implementing all the tips to learn how to stay awake while working a night shift, but the truth remains that staying awake at night places a considerable amount of stress on the body.
During the first few days, your body will fight against the change. You don’t want to make it worse by treating it poorly, so this means eating healthy and exercising.
Staying in shape while eating right strengthens your mind and body’s ability to adapt to such changes. This habit also allows your body to function even with fewer sleeping hours.
Staying up late to get the job done or even working a night shift can be harsh on the mind and body. And given how dedicated we are to our work, there’s no way to avoid it. Accommodating the night shift schedule sounds like a new, exciting experience but can also be troublesome.
The primary goal is to make the experience more comfortable and less stressful. And with these helpful tips for how to stay awake while working a night shift, you’ll soon realize that you were, in fact, a night owl.
I know what adjusting the body to the night shift feels like. But once you get there, the thrill of having the entire following day to yourself adds more comfort to the experience. It’s all about establishing the right schedule, whether during the day or at night.
Make it a point to incorporate each tip into your daily nighttime work routine. It doesn’t matter if you can’t do everything at once. “Slow and steady wins the race,” right?
