I have been working the 10:30 pm to 7 am shift at Beaumont hospital for over two months now, and I (and I'm sure other workers) have experienced these struggles while working the graveyard shift.

1.) The schedule confusion.

It took me a couple weeks to master how our schedules work. The nights that I work are not marked by the time I come in, but instead, they are marked the next morning because I work most of my hours past midnight. For example, if I work Tuesday 10:30 pm to 7 am Wednesday, the schedule will say that I work Wednesday and not Tuesday. Confusing, isn't it? Don't worry, I got the hang of it...after two weeks.

2.) Not knowing what day it is.

Ever since I started working the graveyard shift, I started noticing that my days started to blend together a lot more since I go into work one night and leave work and it is a whole different day. It's a weird feeling and difficult to get used to.

3.) The full moon nights.

You know how they say the hospital is busier on nights when there are full moons? Well, from personal experience, I can tell you that it is the truth. I mainly work with emergency room patients, and the ER is mostly always packed on full moon nights.

4.) Sleeping until three pm after I get out of work.

While I am at work, I usually do not feel too tired. However, right when my head hits the pillow at 7:30 am, I automatically feel exhausted and have no problems falling asleep until three pm. I wake up feeling disappointed that I slept in so late, but I guess I need the sleep!

5.) Driving to work in the dark.

Driving to the work when it is already dark out makes it difficult to find motivation. However, when I get off work, it is usually a beautiful sunny morning.

6.) Deciding whether to get breakfast after work or not.

I debate this after what feels like every single shift. Nine times out of ten I skip out on breakfast and just go home to my loving bed.

7.) Walking out of work at the start of a beautiful day knowing I'm just going to sleep the day away.

This goes with number four and also slightly with number five. I give myself false hope when I walk out of work to a beautiful sunny morning because I think for a few seconds that I will do something outside for the day. Then I laugh at myself and just drive home and go to bed.

8.) Working while most people are sleeping.

On slow nights, I have a lot of downtime. However, most of the time, people that I talk to are sleeping, so I find some good games to play to keep me occupied.

9.) Scheduling classes with my work.

I have to make sure that when I get out of work, I have time to rest before class, but I also need to make sure that the class times don't overlap which can get a little tricky.

10.) Patients waking up on the wrong side of the bed.

I am a radiology aide, and I sometimes take inpatients down to tests like cat scan, MRI, ultrasound, or X-ray. A lot of times, when I wake patients up in the middle of the night to tell them that they are going down for a test, I do not receive a happy response. I have gotten yelled at multiple times for waking patients up, but I just apologize and tell them that I don't put in the orders. I'm just the mean lady that has to bring them down with the bright lights shining in their eyes.

11.) Not being able to hang out past nine thirty.

This one is kind of a bummer especially when it comes to my boyfriend and I hanging out since he works second shift, so he gets off at 11 pm when I go in at 10:30 pm. We just miss each other! However, we both have most weekends off of work completely so that is a huge plus.

Don't get me wrong, I completely love my job and am so grateful to have the opportunity to work for such a great hospital. With that being said, these struggles are what make people say "oh, the graveyard shift...yikes" when you tell them the hours that you work. Someone's gotta do it though, so why not me?!? Until next time!

All my love,

Your Graveyard Shift Worker