Friday, April 05, 2019

One Week On The Early Shift

     It was difficult.  I used to have trouble adjusting to working the early shift when it was five a.m. to one p.m.; it was moved to a three a.m. start some years back and has been trouble for me every time I have to fill in for the techs who usually work it.

     Even using the weekend to gradually change my hours didn't help much.  I was muzzy when I woke, staggered through getting ready, managed to be fairly alert for the trip in and for about the first hour and a half of my shift, then I'd just run out of energy.  More than once, I woke up face-down on my desk, just slumped forward in my chair.  Yesterday, it was a struggle to stay awake while walking.

     Need to do a better job moving my body clock the next time I work this shift.  I've slacked off on the vitamin B and some of that might have helped, too.

4 comments:

  1. Did you ever try completely reversing night and day? [Sleep during the afternoon/early evening..."breakfast" about 9 or 10 PM, chores or writing between the meal and leaving for work, errands on the way home from work, go to bed about 1 or 2 PM, ad iteram...]

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  2. I forget what the getting up time was, but I do remember when we had a shift that meant getting to work at 0500.
    Good news was that you only rotated into the shift every 3-4 months or so.
    Good news was no traffic inbound.
    Bad news was awful traffic homeward bound.
    Bad news was turning into a zombie in the early evening.

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  3. Jeffrey Smith, that was pretty much my shift for the first ten years or more in this job. We had big tube transmitters and shut down for a few hours every night, when I would work on them. Back then I could do it pretty well.

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  4. It appears that as we get older, it becomes more difficult to deal with time zone changes. Essentially, that is what you are trying to accomplish, without the aid of a proper sunlight display to key your body to the change. I wonder if one of those sunlight lamps might help?

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