The Life of a Vampire

The words sounded like music to my ears... "We'd like to offer you a position."

What came next, "but you'll be working early mornings," sounded less appealing.

How could I say no? After months of job hunting, applications, rejections. I couldn't let this opportunity slip through my fingers.

Working the night shift just sounds like it sucks. And its true, it does sometimes. There are definitely people out there that don't mind the quiet but I am just not one of those people.

Before day one - I scoured the internet searching for help. "How to successfully work night shift without it ruining your life." Blogs, podcasts, research articles - you name it, I probably read it. Come to find out, there wasn't a lot out there on how to survive the moonlit shift.

So I think this is where I come in. Working overnights is not for the faint of heart. I am going to take you on my journey of working the past year as what I like to call - being a vampire - while providing tips and tricks that helped me get through it.

When I began my research, I learned a lot about the body, and how it works. I found myself not only training for this new job, but also training to be awake at night. I adjusted my whole life to fit to this new schedule. The most important things to me were eating and sleeping.

On most days I would wake up to my alarm at 12:30AM, leaving myself just enough time to get dressed, make a coffee and drive into work. I would work an 8-hour shift, and get home just after 9AM. I would eat, exercise, do any chose or run errands, and head to bed. I would fall asleep from around 4pm.

Eating

One of the first things I learned about my body was the best time to eat. During the time when one is asleep, the digestive system slows and the body does not process food like during your waking hours. I would eat, but my stomach would hurt because my body couldn't digest a whole McDonalds meal at 3AM. So I adjusted; bringing small snacks to eat at a certain time each morning, things like granola bars, fruit, or yogurt. And once I got home, it was actually time to eat a filling breakfast.

Sleeping

Another thing I learned about the body is it's temperature changes. During the day, our body temperature is higher compared to the nighttime when we are sleeping. Our bodies tend to lose heat, which helps us fall and stay asleep. The summer days were the worst, as I attempted to fall asleep mid-afternoon during the hottest parts of the day, I found myself flipping and flopping to get cool. The four best investments I made to help me get a good sleep - a box fan, blackout curtains, an eye mask, and earplugs. These four items will save your life.

Now I am not a person who exercises or goes to the gym, but working nights, I lacked that daylight that I desperately needed. So after I would have my breakfast, I took about an hour to go on a walk each morning. This would give me that fresh air and sunlight, while tiring me out for a good sleep.

Grievances and Therapy

As the months went on, although I was getting at least 8 hours of sleep, eating well, and exercising, my mind and body just felt wrong. I felt exhausted all the time, my mental and physical health went down hill and I was so unhappy. I lacked a social life, because my friends would hang out while I had to sleep. And not a lot of people were free during the middle of the day, like I was. I'm very happy that I only had to work this shift for a year, I honestly could not have seen myself continuing. My next best advice would be to get a therapist. Someone that you can talk to when no one else will understand (which happens a lot). As my therapist described it, women will understand this analogy well.

You know when you're on your period? Your body and mind are just different during those days. That's what working nights is like, your body and mind are altered, because it is so not normal to be sleeping during the day and awake at night.

My final words of advice to you my friend. Be patient with yourself, communicate with the people in your life, SLEEP whenever you feel tired (its so important) and try not to pull all-nighters - it's horrible.