ALL IN A NIGHT'S WORK

I work three different shifts on a rotating basis, roughly a week of each. We refer to them as Days (6am to 2pm), Swings (2pm to 10pm) and Mids (10pm to 6am). Just to make things a little more complicated we occasionally throw in twelve hour shifts on weekends. So which shift do people like the least? Generally Day shift. Honestly.

They all have pluses and minuses. Swing shift definitely makes it difficult to socialize outside of work (after college it’s very difficult to get together with friends on a week night when you can’t start until 10:30). In terms of my body’s sleep clock, however, there’s no more pleasant shift. I go to sleep when I get tired, wake up when I want to, and go to work somewhere in the middle. It’s hard to get anything useful done on such a schedule, but I certainly do feel refreshed.

Day shift, however is absolutely brutal on my sleep and this is largely the reason I dread it. I have to get up at 4:30 am and SHOULD be in bed by 8:30 pm. The former is jarring and vicious, largely because the latter simply does not happen. I tend to spend Day shift with a sleep deficit that just gets worse as the week progresses.

Mids has its own sleep complications, of course. Sleeping during the day is not an easy thing – especially if your downstairs neighbor is trying to learn the trombone and your next-door neighbor plays the guitar. My girlfriend has it worse. She lives above a puppy that does not like being left alone during the day, next to a four year old who does not seem to like anything, and across the street from a parking garage that, if the alarms are any indication, must be the crime capital of the world. Also when the neighbor with the puppy IS home, he throws loud parties just to show off his subwoofer. My girlfriend sleeps with earplugs.

Besides that, however, there are lots of reasons to enjoy Mids:

Atmosphere: There’s a certain other worldly feel to being awake while everyone else is asleep. Everything is emptier, the pace is slower, and the atmosphere is more relaxed.

Clothing: Jeans and a t-shirt. Also sneakers. Ahhhhh.

MidsFeast: Saturday night we hold a massive potluck dinner. We select a theme and everyone brings a dish. The food tends to last all night long. Glorious. Fattening, but glorious.

Fiona Ritchie: She’s the host of “Thistle” on NPR – an hour of Scottish and Irish music. I’m not entirely sure what a “brogue” is, but if I were to use it in a sentence that sentence would describe Fiona Ritchie’s voice. It would probably also contain the word “lilting” and it might mention that I am a sucker for a Scottish accent (which is not too surprising, considering how many of my father’s ancestors were Scottish and Welsh). Also, I love the music. My Sunday evening commute never fails to leave me in a happy mood (which is good, because the return trip occurs in Monday morning traffic after twelve hours of work).