Graveyard shift and RLS
Graveyard shift and RLS
Question for those of you who work or have worked graveyard - I am considering taking a job that would either be 1pm to 1am or 7pm to 7am and am wondering how it will affect my RLS. Please share your experiences with me. Thanks
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ViewsAskew
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Supposedly your internal clock resets itself so that it doesn't really help' your nighttime is now just later on and the RLS will be present then.
That said, I do find that I do much better having a "later" schedule. If I stay up until 3 or 4 AM and get up at 11 or noon, I have less RLS and generally feel more rested. I've never done a complete graveyard shift, though.
That said, I do find that I do much better having a "later" schedule. If I stay up until 3 or 4 AM and get up at 11 or noon, I have less RLS and generally feel more rested. I've never done a complete graveyard shift, though.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest
Managing Your RLS
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.
Managing Your RLS
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.
Having worked midnights for 10 years, and having RLS for as long as I can remember, I feel as though I should chime in. First of all, midnight shift is rough to begin with, it will take you months, maybe even years to get used to the sleep schedule. I have always heard it takes years off of your life because it is so hard on your body and I trully believe that. I think if you had the same sleep pattern day in/ day out, it wouldn't be so rough, but sleeping during the day during the week, and then sleeping at night on the weekends is really hard to do, I never did get to where I had a good routine on the weekends. The best I found to work was going home friday and taking about a 4 hour nap, then trying to be in bed by 12 friday night, and taking another nap sunday...... it was hard to do though for me because I have trouble sleeping anyway.
As far as RLS, I think it all depends on how severe it is. If it is bad, midnights is a bad shift for it. I am a nightowl, stay up till usually 2 am every night. The more tired I am the more my RLS pain seems to magnify, when I was on midnights I was always tired because its just a rough shift. Luckily my RLS wasn't as bad then as it is now. I also think that what type of work you are doing would determine how it might affect your RLS. If you are up and walking around it would be better, but if you are in a chair most of the night, it would pretty rough in my opinion. I did alot of walking when I was on midnights which I think helped my RLS, even though it wasn't as bad.
when I was on midnights the 4am to end of shift was the roughest for me.
Hope this helps, I am not trying to give you the impression you are going to be in pure pain, one thing I've found about RLS is that it affects everyone differently and you'd have better luck winning the lottery than to find the best "cure for all" who have RLS. good luck and keep us informed.
As far as RLS, I think it all depends on how severe it is. If it is bad, midnights is a bad shift for it. I am a nightowl, stay up till usually 2 am every night. The more tired I am the more my RLS pain seems to magnify, when I was on midnights I was always tired because its just a rough shift. Luckily my RLS wasn't as bad then as it is now. I also think that what type of work you are doing would determine how it might affect your RLS. If you are up and walking around it would be better, but if you are in a chair most of the night, it would pretty rough in my opinion. I did alot of walking when I was on midnights which I think helped my RLS, even though it wasn't as bad.
when I was on midnights the 4am to end of shift was the roughest for me.
Hope this helps, I am not trying to give you the impression you are going to be in pure pain, one thing I've found about RLS is that it affects everyone differently and you'd have better luck winning the lottery than to find the best "cure for all" who have RLS. good luck and keep us informed.