Early Mornings

I'm sure you've all experienced it. You wake up about an hour before you have to get up for work/school, even before the alarm clock goes off. Thankfully you still have an hour of sleep, an hour you savor before falling back asleep. You start dreaming, and what a wonderful dream it is. It's not a nightmare, not something that will abruptly wake you, but puts you in a relaxing state of mind. Just when the dream gets good, you hear something. Immediately you wake up and realize ... it's that stupid alarm clock. Darn it! You feel like staying in bed, but if you hit the snooze button one more time, it'll make you late. So you get up, hesitantly, and start getting ready for the day ahead. Yes, that happened to me this morning. I think it's better when you sleep right until the alarm clock wakes you instead of waking up an hour before you actually have to get up. Whatever the case, getting up anywhere from 5-8 o'clock in the morning is not an easy thing, especially when you don't get enough sleep! That's typically the case for me. When I'm working day shift, usually the most amount of sleep I get is around six hours. I always get up at 5:45 AM and typically go to bed around 11:15. Usually I sneak a nap after I get home from work, which tends to throw me off when I have to go to bed around 11:15. What can I say? I can't help it; I need that nap!

I work a swing shift schedule - which means I work a seven-day swing of days, then a seven-day swing of afternoons, and then a seven-day swing of midnights, before starting over on days. Yes, there are days in between that I get off, but not very many. I often get asked what my favorite shift to work is. That's a complicated question because all three shifts have their pros and cons. For instance on day shift, you have to get up so bloody early in the morning and try to wake yourself up before or when you're at work. The nice thing about days is that you get out of work fairly early in the afternoon, so you have time to do an activity or two before you head to bed. The bad thing is, it doesn't take long before you start feeling worn out and in need of a nap! Usually by 5 or 6 o'clock, I need a nap, I am that tired. There goes my plans of working on something because instead, I take a nap. Now afternoons are nice because you get out late from work and get to sleep in the next day. Heck, you can sleep in as late as you want, just so long as you get up in time for work. Usually I don't sleep the day away when I'm on afternoons. Typically I fall asleep at 1 AM and get up around 10 or 11 in the morning. The negative to afternoons is that your entire day is spent at work, with very little time to yourself at home. And if you have kids, you don't often see them until the weekends. Well...I don't have to worry about that part yet. And finally, midnight shift, or what some people call, the graveyard shift. Actually, midnights don't go so bad for me. Usually I am able to get my sleep, which is always important. I know some people can only get three or four hours of sleep and they absolutely struggle with midnights. I am pretty thankful I am not like that. Usually I average about six or seven hours of sleep. I probably get the most amount of work done around my place when I'm on midnight shift, too. Sure, I definitely hit a wall around 6 or 7 o'clock and in need of a nap. But usually I stay up and go to work without a nap. More often than not I do alright at work in the middle of the night. But the first or second midnight is probably the worst for me. Yes, it's weird being up when the majority of the world is asleep. And then when you're sleeping, everyone else is awake! Things definitely do seem backwards on midnights, yet, they are the most productive for me, and for that reason, they tend to be my favorite. Then again, "favorite" is probably stretching it by a lot.

So there you are, my reasons for which shift is better (at least for me). And seeing that I have to get up again early tomorrow, I'm going to end this one a little early. ;-)