Since August (9 months and 27 days now), I have been working a 12-hour rotational shift schedule. I work 12 or 13 times a month (usually). 6 times during the night shift and 6 times during the day shift. All shifts are from 9 to 9. That is, 9 am to 9 pm or 9pm to 9 am. For the purpose of this blog, I will not use the am/pm system and instead I will use 24 hour notation. Today (26th), I worked 9-21 (9:00 to 21:00).
What does this rotational shift system do to me? It makes me have to constantly adjust my sleeping times. How can I do that? By forcing myself to stay awake until the proper time to go to sleep. If I finish a shift in the morning and don't have to work another night shift, then I will usually need to change my sleep time back to normal before my next day shift. So, I try to stay up or sleep only a little during the day, so I can go to bed at night.
At least twice a month, I stay awake for more than 24 hours in order to adjust my sleep time. Sometimes I fail. Sometimes I cannot or do not want to stay awake so long. Just this past week, I kept myself awake all day so I could go to bed in the evening, sleep a long time and get up in the morning. However, I could not get up in the morning. Whenever I wake up, I have no desire to get up. I had no requirement to either. So I did not get up and just went back to sleep. Then I wake up many times but never get up. So, where does that leave me? Right back where I started! Being awake all night and sleeping the next day. Exactly what I was trying to overcome by staying awake for so long in the first place.
When I have off from work and then return to a day shift, I usually cannot get much sleep the night before. Several times, I have felt sleepy at the right time, lie down, sleep only a brief period, maybe 10 minutes, then awake and start thinking. Then I can't get back to sleep. At other times, I have gone to sleep and then woke up at 2 in the morning. I have to get up at 6:30 but I will be awake from 2 to 5. There was one time last month that I only got 2 hours of sleep. And remember, I work 12-hour shifts! But actually, I made it through the day fine that time. Unlike when that happened to me in August.
I remember the first time that I could not make the adjustment. I got just 2 hours of sleep probably. After lunch I could not keep my eyes open. I felt horrible. These days, the only difference is that it's gotten more difficult to sleep but easier to be awake.
So, how
do I feel when I get lots of sleep. Not any better. I never wake up feeling like getting up. I usually wake up several times in the night. I don't sleep on a bed. I have a hardwood floor with a thin Japanese futon that is filled with feathers. On top of that I have a blanket, and on top of that I have a sleeping bag. I want a bed and a mattress but I have an idea for a wall bed and until I can build that, I won't have a bed.
Normally, I prefer to sleep for about 9 hours. If I don't get up and just lie in bed awake, after about an hour I will get a headache. However, when I am sleep deprived, I can sleep 12 hours. The longest I have stayed "in bed" is 18 hours! I never thought I would be able to stay in bed that long, but with the sleep deficit, it's no wonder. Of course, I could have gotten off the floor whenever I woke up but I don't have the motivation to do so. Needless to say, it's an awful lot of down time.
Basically, the point of this post is to say that I am tired of adjusting my sleep schedule all of the time. Three months ago, I found out about polyphasic sleep. If I can convert to that system, then I won't have the ongoing problems that I now have, which I just described above.
Yesterday, I bought a timer and an alarm clock. The clock is an analog clock with metal bells. It has 3 volume settings: Min, Mid, and Max. It is loud! At the store I tried the Max setting to try it out. The store is a noisy place. At home, the Min setting is just as loud as the Max setting at the store. This is the kind of alarm clock that could wake the neighbors, even if you live next to a cemetery.
