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Early Morning Shift Advice

Elizah Huge

Elizah Huge

Respect All, Fear None
Contributor
I currently get up at 4:30 AM to go to work every morning. I’m considering taking another job that would be a pay raise with other benefits. Only problem is I would have to get up at 1:30 AM to go to work.

Would like some advice on how hard of a change this would be or if anyone has any experience working this early. Thank you.
 
Grayson's Hands said:
I currently get up at 4:30 AM to go to work every morning. I’m considering taking another job that would be a pay raise with other benefits. Only problem is I would have to get up at 1:30 AM to go to work.

Would like some advice on how hard of a change this would be or if anyone has any experience working this early. Thank you.
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I when i was a student i used to get up at 3am to work in a mail room, after 6 months I looked like a zombie. Having just done a year of PM shift after 6 years of night shift I can tell you working graveyards is not worth the money when you look at what it does to your health and the rest of your life.
 
Rubashov said:
I when i was a student i used to get up at 3am to work in a mail room, after 6 months I looked like a zombie. Having just done a year of PM shift after 6 years of night shift I can tell you working graveyards is not worth the money when you look at what it does to your health and the rest of your life.
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you said it was all the drunken debauchery that wore you down ??
 
When I first got off my mission I worked in an call/email center and worked graveyards. I wouldn't recommend it for more than about one year. The toll it takes on your social life and health just isn't worth it. While you can train your body to an extent, when to sleep and work, your body also has a natural clock. I could never sleep as well during the day as I can at night.
 
The Thriller said:
When I first got off my mission I worked in an call/email center and worked graveyards. I wouldn't recommend it for more than about one year. The toll it takes on your social life and health just isn't worth it. While you can train your body to an extent, when to sleep and work, your body also has a natural clock. I could never sleep as well during the day as I can at night.
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My last 3 months of night shift, I was sleeping 2-4 hours a day, on days off I would just sleep, so even when you're not at work you're still trying to recover from it. Working the PM shift now, i'm home from work at half 11 unless i go for a beer after work. Sleep as much as i want, can go to the shops or the gym or whatever before work, a day off is a day off and not a recovery day and all i've lost in pay is about 50 bucks a week (packet of smokes and a pint of beer) .
 
IMO - Find a way to start your own business, doing something you like/love/don't mind doing,.. start small, get good at doing the simple things well then build on it, take night classes, do things others wouldn't. Take the risk while you're still young and can. I started too late (28), but it's still best thing I ever did.
 
Nightshift has been classified as a carcinogenic, you're just taking years off your life. Coming from someone who often does nightshift for shutdowns, the affect on your life cannot be understated, its brutal. Money isnt everything bro.
 
Ouch

If I were young and single I'd do one of those Alaska jobs where you make bank and then get like 3 weeks off at a time.
 
waking up that early would really really suck. So hard to go to bed in the early evening, especially if you've got a family at home. Some spouses understand that regardless of your schedule you need a decent amount of sleep, at least 6hrs/day, some absolutely don't get it and make their partner's life a living hell because they think that you need to be up during normal daytime hours.

I've never had a super early morning job like that. I'd almost rather work nights and I hate working nights. Not only does it increase your risk factor for damn near everything bad (cancer, heart disease, addiction, obesity, and on and on) but it is depressing. In the winter, working 6pm to 6am, you almost don't ever see the sun.
 
Two options: 1) go to bed much earlier to be able to get up that early, 2) sleep during the day when you get home.

Presuming that you need 1.5 hours in the morning to get to work (shower, eat, commute, etc.) that puts your start time around 3 AM. This puts a normal day, including lunch or whatever, ending at around 11 to noon. Home at around 1-ish.

For option 1, you would need to call it a day at, say 6 or 7 pm to get a decent amount of sleep, later if you can do with less. 8 would be probably be the max limit though. Then you would sleep until 1:30, but get home at around 1, so that gives you 5 or 6 hours in what is really the sweet spot if you have younger kids, but you would be pushing it to see the Jazz play on TV or whatever, might have to record it. If you have teenagers it would be tough getting to bed before they do, but doable. Biggest downside here is not getting enough sleep as you are constrained on both ends of it.

Option 2 you could conceivably be in bed by say 1, sleep until 7 or 8, then have a later evening with your wife and kids. This might be better with older kids or teens. The plus of this one is you can sleep as long as you want or need , the downside is you will find it harder to sleep unless you can black out your windows and cut down the noise somehow. You will also likely get up earlier most days than planned, so that can cut into sleep, but you could split it and nap from say 11 to 1:30 or something. Still not ideal.

Tough call. You could also mix this up, but for max sleep and for highest quality sleep you will want to adopt one schedule and stick to the sleep schedule as much as possible, with the time you go to bed more important than the time you wake up, really. It is easier to adapt to fluctuating wake times than fluctuating sleep times, and that is not just imo, that is sleep science (I have dealt with apnea most of my life and have been seeing sleep specialists a lot and have done numerous sleep studies).

As far as your body adapting, it won't be that bad really. Moving your schedule around a few hours is no where near as bad as a switch of 6 hours or more.

I would advise that you plan this out before taking the plunge, just to make sure the new schedule does not end up being a deal breaker. Take a couple of days off and try to live the new schedule, like over a weekend or something (keeping in mind it is till imperfect as the adjustment period is usually the toughest and can take weeks), but not to evaluate the sleep part, that will come, but rather the family/social time and noise level during your chosen sleep period to make sure you can make it work the way you need it to.

[source: I have worked probably every schedule you can imagine, as well as insanely long hours with variable start and end times as a warehouse manager with companies like amazon.com and ebay, and have been forced to adapt to new sleeping and family schedules as often as every few months. It can be hell if you don't go into it with the right frame of mind and a bit of preparation.]
 
First off, is it waking you up? If so would suggest some modifications to your diet or bedtime routine. Your sleep is precious, and it is unhealthy to wake up just because of the urge to go. Personally, I find that a late dinner really affects me especially if it is heavy on the fiber, so I try to limit the salad intake at night. A rich sugary foods can have a similar impact so you should pay attention to portion sizes of ice cream, cake, pie, etc.

Second, try to hold it in until you get to work. This benefits you on several fronts; first, you do not want to be late to work with the excuse that you had to poop. Second, you can save yourself quite a bit of money each year by going at work –the average person uses 8.6 sheets per trip, depending on your diet it could be a lot more. The typical roll of two-ply has 500 sheets, so if you use 10 per trip and go once a day you can use close to 6 roles a year just on work days at 25-cents per roll you can save about $1.50 just by going at work. Finally, just think about this, if you are a wage earner your boss is literally paying you to poop in the morning, way better than going at home for nothing.

edit: opps, Morning SHIFT. shiFt. NVM
 
mellow said:
First off, is it waking you up? If so would suggest some modifications to your diet or bedtime routine. Your sleep is precious, and it is unhealthy to wake up just because of the urge to go. Personally, I find that a late dinner really affects me especially if it is heavy on the fiber, so I try to limit the salad intake at night. A rich sugary foods can have a similar impact so you should pay attention to portion sizes of ice cream, cake, pie, etc.

Second, try to hold it in until you get to work. This benefits you on several fronts; first, you do not want to be late to work with the excuse that you had to poop. Second, you can save yourself quite a bit of money each year by going at work –the average person uses 8.6 sheets per trip, depending on your diet it could be a lot more. The typical roll of two-ply has 500 sheets, so if you use 10 per trip and go once a day you can use close to 6 roles a year just on work days at 25-cents per roll you can save about $1.50 just by going at work. Finally, just think about this, if you are a wage earner your boss is literally paying you to poop in the morning, way better than going at home for nothing.

edit: opps, Morning SHIFT. shiFt. NVM
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I would like to officially nominate for post of the year!!!
 
Rubashov said:
I would like to officially nominate for post of the year!!!
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Agreed. I love pooping on the clock.
I always hold it till I get to work if I have to poop at home while I’m getting ready to go in.
Ah, getting paid to poop is the American dream
 
fishonjazz said:
Agreed. I love pooping on the clock.
I always hold it till I get to work if I have to poop at home while I’m getting ready to go in.
Ah, getting paid to poop is the American dream
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If you take a 10 minute poop on the clock every day, it’s like an extra week off every year.
 
fishonjazz said:
Agreed. I love pooping on the clock.
I always hold it till I get to work if I have to poop at home while I’m getting ready to go in.
Ah, getting paid to poop is the American dream
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I like the energy boost a good poop gives you as well. It comes in handy at work now and then.
 
Ron Mexico said:
No, its like an extra week of sitting on the toilet at work every year. Unless pooping is what you do with your time off I guess then its the same.
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Well I watch movies and tv shows while pooping so it is kinda like I’m not even at work. Headphones in and everything.
 
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