Getting sleep during daylight hours

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Timelapse

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I'm not in a nine to five type job. I work all hours, earlys, lates as well as day times. When I try to sleep during daylight hours, I find it very hard to get quality uninterrupted sleep. Traffic noise is one problem but tougher is trying to sleep in bright or sunny conditions.
There must be others out there who face similar problems. Any tips to pass on? After a bad few hours kip, I can be a bear at work, and probably a hazard on the roads.
 
I sympathise with this! My father was a shift-worker and often couldn't handle the switches as there was no regular pattern to his rotas.

There is a very very strong human propensity to follow the natural diurnal rhythm of light/awake dark/asleep; if you find it really difficult to buck the biological given don't torture yourself - perhaps you're not cut out for shiftwork and unpredictable sleeping patterns.

If that's not possible to shift your bed to a part of the house where there's no noise of traffic or passers-by, there are several different kinds of EARPLUGS available now (most chemists sell them) and if you can tolerate using them these cut out daytime noises.

Fit good thick LINED CURTAINS on the window of your bedroom, hung well on a curtain-rail (so light doesn't come in at the top).....combined with - if necessary - a draw-down blind. This gives you the equivalent of night-time conditions.

Build up a number of routines associated with sleep. Then, when you do them, you prepare yourself psychologically to 'switch off'. Useful one's I've used when I'm insomniac are sprinkling lavender water on the pillow (or keeping a lavender sachet under your pillow). Lavender has sleep-inducing properties. A drink of camomile tea (acquired taste! tastes foul at first so you have to persist) induces sleep. Buy in teabag form in any large supermarket v. cheaply.

DON'T watch t.v., smoke, drink ordinary tea/coffee, read newspapers or take/make phone-calls for at least half-an-hour before you settle. PREPARE for sleep by starting to screen out stimuli which would not be there if you were sleeping at night.

These 'props' - or others you prepare and set up for yourself before settling down to sleep - set the psychological scene and (literally!) give the brain the message 'it's time to sleep'.

Hope these are helpful!
 
All of Marie's advice is excellent. In addition I would recommend the wax or silicone earplugs - not the crappy airplane style foam ones. Also dont underestimate the power of caffeine, it really is a double edged sword - wakes you up when you need a jolt, but will keep you up many hours after you think the effects ave worn off. Personally I found I can;t drink coffee after lunch (about 8-10 hours before bed).
 
All of what Marie said. However, after spending the last eighteen months on nights - I will NEVER EVER go back on nights! Ok - if someone offered me a bag full of swag, I would probably be greedy enough - but even then I would be a fool.

It goes against the bodys natural (arcadian) rhythm. Within that eighteen months, two people have died in car crashes having clocked out of a nightshift at my place of work. They were both at fault as far as I am aware ie. they either fell asleep or were their driving was impaired cos they were half asleep. I myself have an hours commute and have had the occassional mornings drive home where i almost hit the ditch.

Aside from that, I felt completely unhealthy. Its all but impossible to switch back to a normal sleeping pattern coming off a nightshift.

All of what Marie has outlined in her post I have tried - and they will work for people in normal circumstances - but night work is not normal by any stretch of the imagination. I suppose sleeping XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX could be used - but i decided this wasnt the way to go - as I reckon you would just become a slave to the XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX - needing to use them regularly.

I suggest you google nightwork - you'll find info that shows that aside from the added likelihood of road accidents, nightworkers are by a longway more likely to have heart problems.

Five weeks after having switched back to days, i'm in the land of the living again. Planning on running a marathon at the end of the year (i gave up running when i started nights as i just was too lithargic (sp?) to do it), and making so much more use of my time off.

Bottom Line: Get off nights!
 
You can get blackout linings for the curtains(i have them for my daughters room)or a blackout blind.They are both very good at blocking out the light.
 
At this time of year when it gets bright so early, I wear an eye mask and get a brilliant night's sleep. I thought it would irritate the hell out of me, but it doesn't. I got it from one of those stands in the chemist with travel pillows, plug adaptors etc. on it. (By the way if anyone knows where to get nice ones like on Sex and City, I'd love to know).

Rebecca
 
MissRibena,

I think I saw nice eye masks in the ann summers catalogue - check out their website. They also used to have them in Claires Accessories.
 
Always make sure you are comfortable when you are going asleep. The correct temperature is very important. When I am jet lagged I always get very cold and can't sleep until I make a hot water bottle and wear a pair of socks in bed.
 
Thanks for all the helpful advice and suggestions.
I like the idea of black out curtains. Where would I get them? Roughly how much would they be? The windows are fairly large.
 
By all means try all of the above but what did it for me was a natural hormone called Melatonin which can be bought online in US at reasonable cost (you cant get it here).
I use 3mg dose and gets me usually 5-6 hrs uninterrupted sleep, which gets me by. Earplugs also a must.
Plenty of info on the web about it.
 
Timelapse said:
Thanks for all the helpful advice and suggestions.
I like the idea of black out curtains. Where would I get them? Roughly how much would they be? The windows are fairly large.
Click to expand...
Any curtain supplier should be able to provide these - Note that it is normally the lining, not the curtain itself, that provides the black-out.
 
You may get some help in these key posts:

Blinds

Curtains

IMHO black out blinds are probably a better idea than the lining but some of the curtain shop/blind suppliers might be able to give you some better advice.

On the earplug front [broken link removed] were the best I could find. I think they sell them in Boots. Some ordinary chemist shops sell them or should be able to order them in from their suppliers.

HTH.
 
Also don't do ANYTHING in your bedroom bar sleeping and the other obvious activity. So don't do work, watch TV, play computer games etc. This trains your body into knowing that bed is for sleep and also of couse these will also stimulate you, as someone already said, when what you want is the opposite.

Totally agree about the blackout blinds, but make sure you get perfectly fitting ones.

Good luck!!
 
Hi Havana,

I've heard that said before but I don't think it works for me. If I try to sleep in a quiet room I'm awake for hours but if I set the radio or tv timer I'm asleep within about 10 minutes and I think I also go into a deeper sleep and don't wake up at the slightest sound which is what happens in a quiet room.
 
Do you not find you wake up and the radio sounds REALLY loud!!! That scares the life out of me :)
 
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