I’m a nurse and I don’t do night shifts. The few times I did it I earned a 150% differential but it’s not worth the money: I’d go back home and have to use noise cancelling headphones to sleep, 'cause people are loud, I’d wake up rested at 04:00 pm, but completely destroying my circadian rhythm. I’d need a whole day or 2 to recover my regular rhythm because otherwise I’d be a zombie.
I hear my coworkers who do night shift complaining about this same issue, but they still pick up night shifts, which I don’t understand.
To me it was impossible to have something akin to a life while working night shift, but I’ve met some people that only do night shifts: the housewife that only works 4 nights shifts per month, the single mother or young wife or husband who work 14 night shifts per month and have the next 2 weeks for him/herself…
I don’t understand why they do it. It’s extremely taxing and not worth it imho.
But if you do, how do you have a life? And how do you keep yourself healthy?
I work an odd schedule - two jobs, one WFH Sat-Tue from 8PM to 3AM, then a hybrid (2 days WFH) dayjob (Mo-Fr) from 10AM to 6PM. It’s been this way on and off but so far I’m at over a year with this particular schedule, but I’ve had similar schedules in the past.
I would say I have a life, but my hobbies are more introverted anyway. Am I healthy? No, bit I wouldn’t say that’s entirely related to the schedule, I have other conditions.
It can be taxing at times but most of the time it’s just life.