Oh night shift. That special place in my heart. That perfect balance between love and hate, oriented and confused, awake and asleep, dead and alive…
You can’t fully appreciate the experiences the night brings unless you’ve fully immersed yourself in the darkness.

I worked three 12hr shifts a week for almost three years. I was always a night owl especially from bartending for many years but in truth nothing can really prepare you for the physical sacrifices you make working third shift. Those seemingly eternal hours between 3am-7am hit the hardest. The greatest asset to get you through the never ending nights are your friends.

People commonly make comments about night shift being easier because there’s less going on and patients are sleeping. The reality is that people don’t really sleep and the workload can be even more since there is significantly less staff. We also deal with the beauty of sundowning. If you’ve never heard of sundowning it’s this fantastic phenomenon where the elderly completely lose their minds and enter a state of total confusion once nightfall hits. One minute you’re having a lucid conversation with Sally and the next she’s walking up to the nurses station stark naked asking which way to the train station. Sundown Sally strikes again.

The night also brings around the paranormal. Countless patients state that they’ve seen glimpses of people that weren’t actually there or spirits lurking outside their windows. Patients have dreamt they’ve seen the grim reaper and reluctantly agreed to go for a procedure where they’ve met an untimely death. You can’t make this shit up.

Night shift is staffed with some of the strongest people I know. Its clinically proven that disrupting your body’s natural circadian rhythm takes years off of your life. It puts you at risk for auto immune disorders and puts you at higher risk for getting acutely ill. A wedge gets placed between you and your friends/family because no one can seem to fully grasp how you can be so tired all the time. You sleep during the day right? Whats the big deal? If you know someone who works night shift I encourage you to place yourself in their shoes and cut them some slack. They’ll sleep better knowing they have your support.