by expat » Fri Jun 15, 2012 1:49 am
Try doing 25 years of early, late and night shift. Then you can really appreciate how phuqed up your sleeping patterns become. After night shift I have to sleep in two shifts. I come home, get into bed at around 08:00. On a good day I sleep until 12:00, bad day,11:00. Then I am wide awake. So I get up, do what needs to be done and then go back to bed at around 15:00 to 17:00 depending how tired I am. I then sleep until around 20:00. That gives me an hour to get ready for work starting at 22:00. When I come out of shift into my down days, the first night, I am fully awake at around 02:00. It is cup of tea time and creeping around the house so as not to wake my wife (picture bear that has been woken from a slumber by poking it with a sharp stick.......) and the children. I generally get back into bed when my wife gets up for work. I then sleep for a couple of hours.
To anyone embarking on a life of paying taxes for the next 45 years, make it a priority in life to avoid shift work if you can.
And this is not to mention all the weekends I have to work too.
Matt
"A bit of a pickle" - British translation: A catastrophically bad situation with potentially fatal consequences.
PETA

People Eating Tasty Animals.
B1 (Cat C) licenced engineer, Boeing 737NG 600/700/800/900 Airbus A318/19/20/21 and Dash8 Q-400
1. Captain, if the problem is not entered into the technical logbook.........then the aircraft does not have a problem.
2. And, if you have time to write the fault on a napkin and attach to it to the yoke.........you have time to write it in the tech log....see point 1.