Top tips on coping with Night Shifts

I know I promised by birthday post would have been posted today however I've been on night shifts and in a state of utter delirium and have no hope of writing anything that makes sense. But I did want you to have a blog post so I thought I would actually talk about life as a student doing night shifts. I've only done a few and by no means am I an expert - I am also writing this in the middle of the night on a none night shift night so some may so I really haven't cracked it, but I've tried a few approaches to the dreaded night shift now so here goes...


ONE: EAT ON THE SHIFT
It is definitely not normal to eat a lump of lasagne at 3am and I am definitely not recommending it but you have to eat something otherwise you just do not have enough energy. I've been having soup and it seems to work better than something like a sandwich for me personally because that would just be too stuffy. Although I did sit with one of my other students at 4am on my most recent night shift and she managed a foot long subway - bread does work for some people! I then take some other snacks like chocolate, crisps, apple...I don't always eat them all but they're good to just give you a little boost if you need it.


TWO: COFFEE OR NO COFFEE
Coffee all the way. Anyone who knows me will know how much I love coffee anyway and how much I drink it in the day so it's my drink of choice on a night shift although I don't tend to drink it after 4am. I drink it more because it's warm and a warm drink at night is much appreciated as you can get quite cold, I now people that take green tea and hot chocolate.


THREE: SLEEP BEFOREHAND
Sleep. The big debate. I'll tell you what I do. For a single night shift I'll have a little lie in, around 9am, then a hour or so nap at about 3pm then just sleep when I get back the next day. For a couple of nights in a row, I sleep till 12pm on the day of my first night shift then have no nap. Do the shift come home, and sleep till about 3 then repeat. For split nights (awful things!), and what I'm doing at the moment, I am yet to get the hang off. This is the first time I've done this, and from speaking to some of my friends who have done it they haven't really got it down either. I'm currently writing this on my middle night, and I've been asleep most of the day so I know I will be awake tonight but is that ok because I need to be awake tomorrow...I don't know, I'll see how it goes.

Maybe in a few weeks or months I'll do this again when I'm more of a pro at the night shift. It helps when they're busier but that's something you can't always control, quite shifts pass slower and are much more tiring. That's all for now, I promise that birthday post will be up soon! Catch you later!