Nocturnist looking to upgrade bedroom

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gamerEMdoc said:
Veteran: Never cries because they are dead inside
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Doctor Wojak.GIF
 
pollyspockets said:
I’m not getting great sleep consistently during the day. I’m finding I need some help with cool bedding, new pillows, and blackout curtains if anyone has recommendations. Also open to other lifestyle modifications folks have found helpful for the night shift life.
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Another thing I didn’t see mentioned was scheduling. I work primarily weekend midnights. I think it’s important to do your night shifts in 3-4 day blocks. The day I start my string I get up early enough in the day (9am or so) that I’ll be able to nap in the afternoon. I sleep fine during my in-between shifts days as long as the room is cool enough - i turn on my ceiling fan to keep the room cool and also shut out the noise from my four kids age 2-7. Then on the day after the final shift I make sure to get up by 2pm so I can sleep that night.
The whole thing doesnt work at all when I work a random night or two, so if you’re a fully night doc hopefully your scheduler can accommodate you to not work odd nights.
 
I've basically been a nocturnist for the last 3 years. About 5 years post residency now. Sleeping during the day time was getting more and more difficult despite blackout blinds, AC, better pillow / mattress. Finally went in to see the local sleep doc and her recommended Zolpidem. It's been quite effective I'd say. Long term risk benefit of sleep aid is probably better than chronic poor sleep I suppose.
 
like others said - I bought a nice mattress and pillow. Black out curtains (like it is pitch black like in the middle of the night so a sleep mask is not needed). White noise machine, make the room cold, and have a weighted blanket. I pop 5 mg of melatonin when I get home, and I sleep like a baby. I do 7 on 7 off, and by the end of my 7 day rotation, I need an alarm to avoid sleeping over 9 hours.
 
plasma. said:
Finally went in to see the local sleep doc and her recommended Zolpidem. It's been quite effective
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I took ambien one time and didn’t go to sleep right away. It caused me to see zoo animals riding bicycles up and down the undulations of my bed comforter. It was wild. It wasn’t particularly disturbing, but I wasn’t expecting the hallucinogenic trip, so I never took it again. I did sleep like a sloth on Valium in the hot sun, though.
 
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Birdstrike said:
I took ambien one time and didn’t go to sleep right away. It caused me to see zoo animals riding bicycles up and down the undulations of my bed comforter. It was wild. I wasn’t wasn’t particularly disturbing, but I wasn’t expecting the hallucinogenic trip, so I never took it again. I did sleep like a sloth on Valium in the hot sun, though.
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Not the only person who I've heard say something like that about ambien. I took it in medschool after pulling too many all nighters, worked great for me.
 
bravotwozero said:
Not the only person who I've heard say something like that about ambien. I took it in medschool after pulling too many all nighters, worked great for me.
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Yeah. I can see why it would be abused by people who like hallucinogenics.
 
Birdstrike said:
I took ambien one time and didn’t go to sleep right away. It caused me to see zoo animals riding bicycles up and down the undulations of my bed comforter. It was wild. It wasn’t particularly disturbing, but I wasn’t expecting the hallucinogenic trip, so I never took it again. I did sleep like a sloth on Valium in the hot sun, though.
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🤣 You just got a little pre bedtime show before the best sleep of your life! I find it has the perfect half life for me, anything longer such as benadryl or even melatonin leaves me too groggy in the morning. I dunno how @Dred Pirate is waking up after taking 5mg, that leaves me hungover the rest of the day...
 
I'm not a huge fan of taking medications to sleep. I've felt that if I need to medicate to sleep, then I probably need to give up being a nocturnist. I've found working longer blocks of shifts works better. Also, gives me about 1 week off twice every month, which I like. I completely switch to a night schedule during blocks of shifts, and then back to days when off a block. Usually only 2-3 transitions back to days per month. I stay up later the night before the first shift and then sleep in late the first day of a block so that I don't have a problem staying up the first overnight. I try to crash as soon as I get off on my last shift of the block getting around 4 hours of sleep. The rest of the day isn't very productive as I'm groggy, but allows me to get back onto a day schedule. Other than the transitions back, I sleep a sound 8-9 hours straight every day/night.

Another easily overlooked part of sleep hygiene that I didn't see mentioned is exercise. I think adequate exercise and physical activity is the most important factor to sleeping well. You will sleep deeper and better if you're exhausted by the time you go to sleep.
 
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Apollyon said:
You don't have to worry about dementia, because psychosis and death will come much earlier (50% will become psychotic after 5 days of literal no sleep, and just about 100% of people will die if no sleep, at all, for 10 days).

During Hell Week at BUD/S, they even get 4 hours of sleep during the week (not per night - 4/168).
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There’s no way..do they actually only get 4 hours in the entire week?
 
robellis said:
There’s no way..do they actually only get 4 hours in the entire week?
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There has been one BUD/S class that graduated no one, along with one class where no one dropped. As of 1/20, there have been 336 BUD/S classes, and that means that virtually every class has someone who dropped. It's called "Hell Week" for a reason (it's a weed out stage). I don't know what the average number or percentage of drops there are for classes, but, I might guess 50%, and Hell Week is a big part of that. After that (I believe that it is the 4th week, although I've never been a special forces operator or in the military), training goes into the second stage, which is more technical, and less punishing.

Remember, "the only easy day was yesterday".
 
Nocturnist said:
Just wondering- is the thermostat in the room you sleep in, or is it in the hall or another bedroom? Unless it's where you're sleeping, you might be setting it to 67 but your room might be running several degrees warmer. One of my rooms in particular runs 3-4 degrees warmer.
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If there’s a computer, have it off or in sleep mode.
 
robellis said:
There’s no way..do they actually only get 4 hours in the entire week?
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In a 5 day period, yes. I have 2 relatives who completed BUD/S. One is still active with a SEAL team. The amount of exercise going on during BUD/S training is insane. He told me he was eating over 8,000 calories/day and still lost weight. He said the movie "GI Jane" isn't far off from the requirements they have for BUD/S training.
 
Mount Asclepius said:
Another easily overlooked part of sleep hygiene that I didn't see mentioned is exercise. I think adequate exercise and physical activity is the most important factor to sleeping well. You will sleep deeper and better if you're exhausted by the time you go to sleep.
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Agree.
 
pollyspockets said:
I’m not getting great sleep consistently during the day. I’m finding I need some help with cool bedding, new pillows, and blackout curtains if anyone has recommendations. Also open to other lifestyle modifications folks have found helpful for the night shift life.
Click to expand...
I had a basement bedroom built. Ambient temp much cooler, noise is down, very dark. Best investment. I've been off meds since, not even Benadryl (can increase dementia risk...)

I do a spin class after work, no food or coffee 3 hrs before shift ends. I find having too much calories before sleeping raised my body temperature and it wakes me up midsleep. Lower the room temp to 64F and get a weighted blanket, earbuds, eye cover...
 
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