Nursing Voices

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

the Sandman Cometh



I love to sleep.


As I snuggled between the covers and closed my eyes the other night, this thought superceded all others in my mind.


I love to sleep.


And night-time sleep is somehow so different than sleeping after working all night. I thrill at the chance to climb into bed along with the rest of the "normal" (i.e. daytime workers) world.


I'm not sure that people who exist primarily in the daytime can actually appreciate the extent to which a night-shift worker can long for sleep, the way we ache to stretch out and feel that release. Granted, I have a few kooky co-workers that only require a few odd hours of sleep after working a 12 hour night shift. I am NOT one of those people.


What can I say? I love to sleep.


Due to some scheduling changes, I have an extra stretch of nights off over the course of this week. While I would normally start to readjust to a daytime schedule at home on the same day that I have to go back to work, this week I have a few extra days of "normalcy". I feel like my perpetually foggy brain has cleared and that I have a ounce or so of energy and motivation when I usually would not. It's amazing how our circadian rhythms rule us. And how we throw them out the window for necessity's sake.
Night shift definitely has its perks. Lack of sleep is NOT one of them.

5 comments:

Mother Jones RN said...

Nite-nite. Enjoy your slumber.

MJ

Iris said...

Oh, can I completely and utterly understand this post. As I get myself ready to go in to work soon, a rare 8 hour night ahead of me, I can so appreciate what you are saying.

Every night I work, is a night I don't sleep in my bed.....I love my bed.....I hope to die in my bed.....sleeping in my bed during the day is good, but it is nothing like sleeping in there at night. Ah......the joy of being a nurse.

Anonymous said...

I am with you. I love sleep. Love sleep.

Anonymous said...

I know how you feel. I slept last NIGHT and it was a truly wonderful thing. It does feel more restful. On occasion, I open my eyes and do wake up (the cats are circadian-confused, too, and they wake me to tell me I'm 5 or 6 hours late for work)...and it's...DARK.

It's so lovely. Enjoy your NOCs off.
/jo

Rowland said...

This won't truly have success, I think this way.
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