On behalf of night shift workers, a little rant [View All]

[lady raven]

My husband works nights. He gets off work at 7 AM, gets my 8 year old up, and takes him to school at 8. He comes home, goes to bed, and once he falls asleep, at around 9, he sleeps until usually 2, maybe 3. He gets 6 hours of sleep per day on work days if he's lucky. He averages about 5. While he is awake, he is the father of 3 kids, two of whom are one year old twins. So he doesn't have a lot of downtime.

There have been a number of articles published recently stating that one's health begins to suffer at less than 7 hours per night. He hates nights and is trying to find a new job, but until then he's stuck.

That said, Since he started night shift, he has dealt with a number of people's comments implying that he is lazy because he "sleeps all day". our obligatory "nosy neighbor" has noticed the lights on at night and recently commented to my mom that "they are up all night and sleep all day- God knows who's taking care of the kids" (He works from home, so he has lights on in the house) The latest is from my mom. He mentioned being sleepy when she called one afternoon, and her response was "Why would you be sleepy? You sleep all day. Must be nice". This from a woman who goes to bed at 10 PM and gets up at 7 or 8 AM. My husband thinks it must be nice to get 9-10 hours of sleep every night and wishes he were able to do that just ONCE.

When I was 18, I used to waitress night shift at a 24 hour restaurant. I got off at 6 and for some reason my body clock won't let me sleep past noon. Fortunately for me, I have never been a big sleeper, so it didn't really affect me to get 5 hours or less per night. But even my own dad, who often picked me up from work, would comment about how lazy I was because I rolled out of bed around noon most days. Since it has happened to both of us, I think I can safely assume that it's a fairly common thing for night shift workers to deal with.

I had a serious asthma attack a few weeks ago. I had gotten up to go to the bathroom and felt wheezy, and it escalated to a major attack. We had to call an ambulance. It was 3:15 AM. Those EMTs who took me to the hospital probably sleep during the day. The nurses, doctor, respiratory therapist... I bet they sleep during the day (I HOPE THEY DO). The cop who was at the ER with the domestic violence victim who was there at the same time I was... You guessed it, probably a daytime sleeper. Sometimes I think that if these people who rag on night workers for being "lazy" had their way, the guy who has a heart attack in the middle of the night would be out of luck because the ER and ambulance would be closed for the night so the workers could sleep at "acceptable" times.

How many of YOU have been treated like some sort of lazy slob because you slept during the day while working nights? How many of you, try as you might, sleep less than daytime workers you know? Most night workers I know sleep LESS than most day workers, yet they are treated like slackers by those same people.

Sorry- Maybe a silly rant, but it burns me up to hear my husband, who is one of the hardest working people I know (and a fantastic husband and father) called lazy just because he has the misfortune of not being able to work at the most convenient time.

Raven