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Calm · 10 min

Sleeping after a night shift

A protected wind-down on the way home and a dark, quiet room can make daytime sleep easier.

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Sleeping in the day goes against the body's clock, which is set by light and by habit. People who work nights, or who care for someone through the night, often find daytime sleep short and broken. A few protected steps on the way home and in the bedroom can help.

The steps

Four small steps,in your own time.

  1. On the way home, keep the light low if you can: sunglasses on a bright morning, and no screens.

  2. Eat something light rather than a big meal, and avoid caffeine in the last few hours of your shift.

  3. Make the bedroom dark and quiet: blackout curtains or a sleep mask, earplugs or a fan for steady background sound, the phone on silent.

  4. Tell the people you live with your sleep hours, and put a note on the door if you need to.

The reason

Why it helps

Light tells the body it is daytime, so cutting it down on the way home can make it easier for sleepiness to arrive. A dark, quiet room helps the sleep you get be deeper and longer. Protecting a set block of hours, as you would at night, can make the rest of the day easier.

A gentle variation

If you cannot sleep in one long stretch, a main sleep after the shift and a shorter nap before the next one can help. Keep similar sleep times across a run of nights where you can.

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WE · TRIBE

Try itwith someone.

Ask your household to help protect your sleep: deliveries, visitors and noise planned around it. Agree a time when you will be up and available, so family time has a place too.

Make it a plan in HIVELIVE, with WE

Try it today

Before your next night shift, set up the bedroom with something to block out light and something to mask noise.

Add it to your day

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