Anyone have tips for working overnights?

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figurehead00

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#1  Edited By figurehead00

I've got to start working 11pm - 7:30am tomorrow night and I'm not excited about it. Does anyone do this? Any tips for making it not so horrible?

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recroulette

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#2  Edited By recroulette

I worked from 10 to 6:30 for about a year, and it took a good month to figure out a good system. 
What worked for me was going to bed as soon as I got home and sleeping until 12-1 in the afternoon.  
That way, all you're missing is the morning and early afternoon, leaving you plenty of time during the day to get stuff done, spend the evening with loved ones, etc.

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musubi

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#3  Edited By musubi

@RecSpec said:

I worked from 10 to 6:30 for about a year, and it took a good month to figure out a good system. What worked for me was going to bed as soon as I got home and sleeping until 12-1 in the afternoon. That way, all you're missing is the morning and early afternoon, leaving you plenty of time during the day to get stuff done, spend the evening with loved ones, etc.

^ This Nothing exciting happens in the early morning anyways. Your only challenge is going to be getting your body to switch over to this schedule which is going to take a week or two to get used to. You might have to redbull and or cofee your way through the first week or so until you get used to it.

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jkz

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#4  Edited By jkz

Cocaine.

Or, if it's a longer term thing, I've found using melatonin to gently nudge your biological clock in the right direction can help a lot. And working night shifts is awesome, don't worry. You sleep through the part of the day where everyone's at their worst

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Butler

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#5  Edited By Butler

Eat a healthy diet! Honestly since I changed my diet around I have much more energy than before and I work manual labor so every bit helps.

Bring an ipod if you can stocked with music, podcasts or books on tape.

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Imsorrymsjackson

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#6  Edited By Imsorrymsjackson

Just get yourself in the rate frame of mind and you will be fine, space out your cups of coffee.

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cid798

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#7  Edited By cid798

I never enjoyed that time frame for working at night. Now I work 5pm-3:30am, 5pm-5am on fridays and it's great. I think it's something to do with just the feeling of having to go to work at that time of night - where you've seen the sun go down and it naturally feels like the end of a day. And when leaving work depending on the time of year the suns usually more than just coming up and you can kind of feel defeated in your fresh start of a day.

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UitDeToekomst

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#8  Edited By UitDeToekomst

I worked nights for a while. I recommend blackout curtains if you have trouble sleeping when it's light out like I do. One thing that worked well for me was to get into a routine that emulated my old one - for example: if you used to get home 6pm, eat dinner at 7 pm and go to bed at 11pm, try to replicate the amount of time between these activities. So, if you now get home at 8am, try to eat a meal at 9am and go to bed at 1pm. Don't force it, though. You may just as easily fall into a different routine.

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weavminas

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#9  Edited By weavminas

If it's a boring job where your you need to pass the time, restart the Giant Bombcast. I recommend listening since the begginng to anyone. Also good blinds will help you sleep if you can block out more sunlight when you do get to bed.

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figurehead00

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#10  Edited By figurehead00

Thanks everyone for the commiseration and the tips. It's manual factory work, but so far they've let me listen to headphones. Thank God the Bombcast is 3+ hours long.

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RazielCuts

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#11  Edited By RazielCuts

@weavminas said:

If it's a boring job where your you need to pass the time, restart the Giant Bombcast. I recommend listening since the begginng to anyone.

I'd recommend this with My Brother My Brother and Me as it's not very current event-y and just random advice questions you can listen to it from the beginning and still appreciate the goofs. Where as with something topical like games, they might be talking about older games that have been and gone and we all know about (although that can kind of be interesting too for hindsight sake).

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TheUnsavedHero

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#12  Edited By TheUnsavedHero

I currently work Midnight to 8 a.m. in a plastic plant. The first night might go a little rough but, you'll pull through. After work you most likely feel tired so getting to sleep should be relatively easy. After the first week, it'll get easier.

Tip: Get day blocker curtains or cut thick, black trash bags and tape them up to cover the windows. It helps a lot in my experience.

Good luck Duder.

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weavminas

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#13  Edited By weavminas

@RazielCuts: You're right, the game coverage is the worst part of old Bombcasts. The E3 specials in paticular are low points when you hear prerelease marketing for games you've ignored or beaten. I listen for the jokes I've forgotten and to appreciate the evolution of the site. Thanks for the tip on My Brother, My Brother & Me. I'll give it a shot.

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bigdaddy81

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#14  Edited By bigdaddy81

@UitDeToekomst said:

I worked nights for a while. I recommend blackout curtains if you have trouble sleeping when it's light out like I do. One thing that worked well for me was to get into a routine that emulated my old one - for example: if you used to get home 6pm, eat dinner at 7 pm and go to bed at 11pm, try to replicate the amount of time between these activities. So, if you now get home at 8am, try to eat a meal at 9am and go to bed at 1pm. Don't force it, though. You may just as easily fall into a different routine.

This is what I do. And depending on your situation, I would recommend a nice and loud box fan to drown out any ambient noise.

I work 10pm to 7am myself and enjoy this particular schedule. I don't know why but it seems infinitely easier for me to wake up at around 9pm than it ever was waking up between 5 and 7am.

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I_Stay_Puft

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#15  Edited By I_Stay_Puft

@figurehead00 said:

Thanks everyone for the commiseration and the tips. It's manual factory work, but so far they've let me listen to headphones. Thank God the Bombcast is 3+ hours long.

Podcasts, Caffeinated drinks, change your sleep schedule + try and make sure you are awake a few hours before going to work rather then waking up and leaving straight to work.

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Phatmac

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#16  Edited By Phatmac

I don't have experience with this situation but I wish you the best with it Duder. :)

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figurehead00

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#17  Edited By figurehead00

I'm literally listening to My Brother, My Brother, and Me right now. To add to the podcast recommendations I'd suggest Video Games Hot Dog. It's both funny and good. And thanks again for all the tips. I'm going to go full meth lab in my windows, that should help.

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Bourbon_Warrior

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#18  Edited By Bourbon_Warrior

Podcasts, The Nerdist is great because they get alot of famous people on their podcasts. Lately guests have been Tom Hanks(really great episode), Jimmy Kimmel, Zack Braff, Aaron Paul, Kevin Bacon, Larry King and Harry Shearer.

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qawsed

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#19  Edited By qawsed
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deactivated-62604f2d9b0ed

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Sleeping is definitely tough, I have been on graveyards for over a year now and still have trouble. The hardest part is weekends because I go back to a normal day schedule for 2 days and then try to sleep on Sunday afternoon which doesn't always work. Sometimes I am up for over 24 hours by the time I'm done working on Monday morning. Podcasts really are the way to go to keep your brain occupied, I usually keep up with CAG, Bombcast, Tested, Nerdist, Idle Thumbs, Rebel FM, 8-4 Play and a couple others. If you drink coffee, keep your caffeine intake steady, don't go too strong and try to stay away from cream/sugar if you can stand it.

You are lucky to have manual work for overnights, I have a supervisor position and spend most of the shift standing around doing nothing. Time goes much faster for my employees and I can't even help out because it is a union shop.

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jonnyboy

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#21  Edited By jonnyboy

I've been working nights for 8 years, you never get used to it. Stay busy, fashion yourself a makeshift blindfold to sleep in, use foam earplugs if you need to, remember caffeine is a diuretic so don't go crazy with it a stay hydrated. Above all, remember to chill out, it's really easy to lose your shit with someone when you've been up for 36 hours, 9 times out of 10 it probably wasn't their fault.

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Garfield518

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#22  Edited By Garfield518

Don't rely on caffeinated drinks, you may start a dependance on them.

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#23  Edited By Brenderous

I prefer them that way. Fried and salted potatoes are flippin delicious.

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#24  Edited By Brenderous

Goodness gracious this is the wrong thread.

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figurehead00

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#25  Edited By figurehead00

Wrong thread or not, those potatoes sound pretty good.

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figurehead00

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#26  Edited By figurehead00

Tonight I'll be trying to stay up all night in preparation for tomorrow night. Luckily I've got Persona 4 Golden for company. Chie doesn't care what time it is.