One thing that I've noticed now that I've worked the late swing shift for a few weeks now is how early the sun starts to make an appearance in the morning. I worked the 8pm-4am shift last night and as I was driving home, I began to see the very first lightening in the eastern sky over the mountains. The time was 4:30am. I don't know what the official sunrise time is these days, but I do know its pretty damn light out around 5:30am. It makes sense though, since Vegas is on the very eastern edge of the Pacific time zone (I think the cutoff is the Arizona border, which is basically the Hoover Dam). Since Vegas is on the eastern edge of the time zone, it sees the sun early than the coast, and thus, the sunset is always a little before the California cities.
The other oddity of this shift is trying to figure out exactly when I can "get stuff done." There have been numerous times that I've gotten home from work, waited around until 9am for the bank to open, do my business, and then go to bed. I've been needing to do a little shopping for weeks now (new jeans, belt, maybe some shoes), but of course the stores/malls are open at the exact same times that I'm either in bed, or going to work at night. If anyone knows of a 24 hour JC Penney around here, let me know.
The new sleep schedule has also bitten a couple times, even during my "weekend". On Mother's Day, I met up with Danielle's parents for a brunch, which was around noon. Noon might as well be midnight as far as I'm concerned. The brunch occurred right in the middle of when I'd normally be asleep, so I spent the rest of the day FORCING myself to stay awake so that I wouldn't mess up the sleep for the next night's shift. It wasn't a very fun weekend (except for Rush, which kicked ass).
I know I'm preaching to the choir for some folks who work nights and weird shifts (I'm looking in your general direction ER doc!), but it can get really annoying when you're trying to set up an appointment to have your car worked on and you have to explain to them that 1pm won't work because I'll be in bed! It also sucks when a hockey game comes on at 5pm, and you miss most of it because you hit the snooze button one too many times!
Oh well, I've come to the definite conclusion that all three shifts here in Vegas have their pros and cons. Swing shift fits me because I'm naturally a night owl anyway, and the traffic on my commute isn't bad, especially at 5am! Day shift is nice, but with the 3 hour time difference, most of the major sporting events on TV are a forgone conclusion by the time I get off work. Graveyard actually gave me the most flexibility. I'd get out of work at 11am and be able to run any chores that I needed. I'd also get a nightlife if I wanted before going to work at 3am. The downside, of course, is that most of the time I'd be going to bed at 5pm in the early evening, which just never felt right.
I did put in a transfer request for day shift, but I'm not sure how long I'd have to wait for it. I'd write more, but its already 10:30am and MUCH past my bedtime. Have a great night everyone!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Let There Be Light
Posted by Rob at 10:13 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
One hint: No matter what shift you work be certain that you experience a "dawn" and not a sudden transition from "night" to "day". We did not evolve in a world of light switches. All three of our 'brain clocks' are re-set by the dawn, not the day!
Get your melatonin from a bottle if needbe, but always get a dawn if you can. You don't need one of these costly light-boards or full-spectrum stuff. A simple timer that gradually increases a light over a period of 15 minutes is fine. Restoration hardware sells a clock radio that gives you a light for 15 minutes and then the alarm/music stuff.
I feel for you bro...when I got out of college, I worked a job that required weird hours and it messed me up -- I never adjusted to it for the year and a half I was doing that.
Jay from Ohio
I discovered the same thing you did about LV being on the far Eastern side of the time zone also (not that LV was moved or anything, just new to me). A few trips ago we had a room that had a nice view of the strip, so we left the cutains open while we went to sleep. We did not think about the fact that the window faced east, and around 5:30 in the morning got a blast of light into the room that woke us up. We kept the curtains closed after that.
"...the stores/malls are open at the exact same times that I'm either in bed, or going to work at night..."
Well, thats one more reason for doing all your banking and shopping via the internet. I admit that it may be difficult to get a pair of shoes via the internet but other than that, its so much simpler to do things online according to your schedule rather than altering your plans simply because most people work a day shift.
Post a Comment