Nocturnal Conversions

As most of my friends know I have been working the graveyard shift at my place of employment for about a year and a half. I adapted to a nocturnal way of life rather quickly and due to the winter season had become accustomed to not seeing the sun. For the rest of you to get an idea of what this entailed I have worked a shift similar to 8pm - 6am four days a week for that year and a half, as you can imagine one would get used to sleeping well into the afternoon hours and rarely seeing sunlight. Early on I noticed a few things like and inability to fall asleep prior to 5am and an increase in my light sensitivity (which seems to have improved my night vision).

Starting on Jan. 3rd my shift changed to what is considered the "mid" shift. I now report for work at 12 noon most days and am at work till 8pm. I chose and even requested this shift. Having forgotten what it's like to sleep like a "normal" person, I looked forward to rediscovering what it was like to live normal hours.

Now lets jump back to Saturday, January 3rd. I had worked the "night" before until 5am the morning of the 3rd and was scheduled to start work again a mere 7 hours later at noon. My colleagues and I had anticipated that this would be a problem for me and had arranged for my to start at 2pm (allowing me a little more sleep). My alarms, yes I use more than one...I actually have 3 and have discovered that 3 seems to be the right number...anyway, my alarms went off in 5 min increments starting shortly before noon. I arose from my bed moderately groggy, you know that I'm awake but not really feeling, and went about getting ready for work. As I backed my car out of the driveway the sunlight, which I have not seen much of until now, pours through my windows like a big searchlight hell bent on burning my retinas. No sooner had this searchlight located my eyeballs when I felt as though my eyes would be reduced to dust. Blindly I felt around my car in search of my sunglasses, which also have not been frequently used for 18 months, I was able to locate my sunglasses after a few moments and was relieved at the comfort they provided.

I must admit that is had been very different living life during the day again, I'm awake by 9am every day now and my light sensitivity is slowly reducing. The recent changes have made me realize just how much I have missed the daylight. I have new found respect for those who have worked or currently work the graveyard or a job in which their shift rotates to and from a grave.