Day 247 After midnight shift, sky dark, no sun, only sleep on the horizon Soooo tired coming home after midnights this morning. The first shift back is usually the hardest, that sudden switch from daytime awakeness to nighttime awakeness. Somehow I resist going to bed early (ie at a ‘decent’ time) when I’m off. Too easy to stumble into bed around 2am after doing nothing of great importance. I choose midnight shifts as they are the only consecutive 10 hour shifts available at my work. But I don’t mind them. I have the office to myself and overall, save a few harried and busy hours, they can be less physically demanding. The work itself that is. The hardest thing about the midnight shift at my work (as a PSW to people with mental and/or physical challenges) is that it is a midnight shift, a time when your body clock (what is that again?) is turned upside down. But, as I mentioned in a previous post, midnight shifts also remind me that time is expansive and fluid and that each day actually does contain 24 hours whether we’re awake for all of them or not. I have dark circles below my eyes that have taken up permanent residence now. As a teenager, this would have devastated me. Not that I’m thrilled with them now but they are what they are and perhaps one day they’ll disappear. More than anything they fascinate me. What are they? I mean, how does lack of sleep create them? Will a period of solid sleep erase them? I keep meaning to google it. I can understand puffy bags more (which I can see hovering on the doorstep) but the dark circles? A mystery. I have found that I can ‘manage’ on very little sleep. Solid snoozes of maybe a couple of hours or a few hours each can get me through although my physical reactions and mental alertness may betray me. Often I wonder how I get through the day with only one or two things actually accomplished yet I feel like I’ve had so many brilliant thoughts and moments or gazing and absorbing. Maybe those are the days that are worth more in the long run actually. But I like having the choice to ‘do’ or ‘be’ and both at the same time is a lovely treat. Whether it’s covid or midnights or a mean combination of both I often feel like I’m wading through molasses in my days. Today though I had a solid sleep, Six to seven hours of deep restful sleep. Strangely I’ve found that I sleep without tossing if I wear earplugs so my earplug sleeps tend to be deeper and more physically restful. Why is that? Another google moment. So interesting. And I had sweet dreams...taking photos of lighthouses with waves crashing foamy and white at their bases; a found elephant stuffie hung on a doorknob for its owner to discover; me dancing dancing dancing in sunlight outside on a wide paved path surrounded by trees and tall swaying grass. And one thing my midnight shift brought me last night as I began to rewatch Schitts Creek on Netflix (quite a bit of ‘down’ time too on the midnight shift at work usually and we’re very fortunate to have Netflix and internet access in the office) was the realisation on a deeper level of how great that show is. How hilarious. Perhaps not until you know about the personalities of Moira’s wigs, do you really get the line in one of the first scenes in the first episode where Moira yells at her maid for putting two wigs together in the same bag—wigs that don’t get on with each other. The laughs, at any time of the day or night, are priceless. Day 4 Artfully Wild Blog Along with Effy Wild
6 Comments
Angela F
9/4/2021 08:30:57 pm
Great read - I'm an AIN in Nursing Home and had my time doing night shift, it's a different body clock that one.
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9/4/2021 11:54:57 pm
Ah! Night shifts can be difficult on the body clock. And I’ve had that feeling of walking through molasses when I don’t get enough sleep. It’s wonderful, though, what a lovely, restorative sleep can do for us, isn’t it?
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I really enjoyed reading this--I feel like we had a nice chat and you told me about your day. Hope adjusting to midnights goes smoothly.
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Mol
9/5/2021 10:29:07 am
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I love Schitts Creek so much. I covet a wall of wigs like Moira.
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AuthorWelcome! I'm Sue Blott: a writer of all things, a poet at heart, mom, wife, daughter, step-mom, grandma, tea drinker, tai chi-er, mystic, artist, dreamer...and now a blogger! This is my world. Categories |