Night shifts: What they don't tell you

For the past month, I've been working three nights a week from 7pm-7am. I cut down to two, but my body is struggling with these changes.

Night shifts wouldn't be so bad if you could be asleep all during the day. Unfortunately, there are things to do like school, maintaining the apartment, grocery shopping, cooking, and maintaining the relationship with my husband. If you're single, not going to school (or taking one or two classes), the night shift is easy easy.

However, if you're like me, the night shift is more like the death shift. What is happening to my body?

First, anxiety. My body is used to sleeping during the night. When I start staying up during the night, it goes "what the crap are you doing?! It's night time!" Second, decreased memory. I used to be able to study and remember everything easily. Now it's like trying to remember things through a fog. It takes twice as much effort to put things into my brain, and twice as much effort to pull it out. With a decrease in the energy I already have, pulling out information drops down my energy even more. Third, energy loss. It would be okay for you if you got a full night's sleep the night before you had a shift, and the day after. However, that doesn't happen. In a 48 hour block, you should be getting 18 hours of sleep. With the night shift it cuts down to 14. Four hours definitely doesn't sound like much, but it is when you're experiencing it, plus it all adds up.

Fourth, appetite change and nutrition disruption. Since I've been working night shift, my appetite has shifted drastically. Each night shift I eat during the middle of the night (like a lunch if it were day). Also, I snack continuously in order to stay awake (especially at 3 am). By the time I get off work, I'm starving and ready for breakfast. Sadly, for breakfast that is, I'm so tired I skip it and go to sleep. The next day I eat when I wake up, and then it's dinner time soon. In other words, you're eating an extra meal and extra snacks. Lastly, no time for anything. My schedule is set in a way that there really isn't time for much fun. It's work, sleep, homework, school, then repeat. Decreased time also means a decrease in exercise. Lack of exercise contributes to muscle atrophy, weakening bones, weight gain, and lack of endorphins.

All in all, the night shift is not ideal for someone in school. It's time for a change.

It's october already

Woohoo! A blog post! Yeaaah....haven't been on this for a while, but it's understandable. I love to make my life complicated :). For instance, right now I'm in nursing school as a first semester-er, and it's a doozy! Not. Well, most of my classes are pretty easy, it's just that anatomy and physiology take up a lot of time. I also started working graves as a cna. I'm so brilliant, right?

The picture here is a brain ice cube in red juice. We thought it looked cool because it was like blooood.

Ahh yes, musings from my distorted thoughts. Today I was thinking that I will make another blog depicting my adventures with a soon-to-be-mine sewing machine. Then I realized that I'd anything, I'm eclectic. This applies to my tastes in movie, music, etc. Case in point: Right now, I have just finished trying out several Linux distros on my mac laptop and installing several retro gaming systems. Computer skils: check. Next, I've tried out several recipes (successfully, to the joy of Brandon) ranging from chocolate pancakes to basil chicken cocunut curry to mini cupcakes. Culinary skills: check. Also, in going to nursing school. Academic/science skills: check. Now while I'm developing all of these, I've decided to learn how to sew my own clothes. Sewing skills: not so much. Hence the desire to create a blog about my projects. Wish me luck :D