So I’ve found a job that requires me to work from noon to 9 p.m. Not quite second shift, but close enough. I’m a fairly early riser due to my previous schedule, so I’ve got to figure out how to adjust to the new hours. There is a confounding factor in that I am applying for a promotion that would put me back on day shift.
So how can I deal with the new schedule without making myself crazy?
Sleep an hour later every day until you get to your desired wake-sleep schedule for work.
I’ve posted about this before. This article recommends afternoon melatonin and light therapy after awakening. It is designed for advancing the sleep phase (i.e. retiring earlier and awakening earlier), but I think you could use it for delaying it too.
In general, figure out the time you want[to awaken in the morning, generally something like (Time you want to arrive at work)-(Time to commute to work)-(Time to get ready for work). If you are going to do a dose of light therapy, you will want to wake up still another 30 minutes earlier.
Once you know when you want to awaken, you know when you should retire: 7.5 to 8 hours before then.
Dim-light melatonin onset (DLMO) should begin 2.5 hours before retiring. There are two things you can do to promote this: (1) begin wearing blue-green light blocking sunglasses at the start of DLMO. Also take 3 mg of melatonin at 4.5 hours before the start of DLMO (i.e., seven hours before bedtime). The melatonin phase response curve is highly dose dependent, so look for 3 mg over the more common 5 mg.
After awakening, use a light therapy device, blue-green if possible, for about thirty minutes. I use this one. You’ll need to keep it somewhat close (6-12 inches) to your face. I linked to Amazon, but I bought a used one for cheap on eBay. Some say going out in the sun for 30 minutes is just as effective. (It probably is, and at late morning, the only real downside would be overcast days.) Some believe exposure to blue-green light may hasten macular degeneration, but I can still see, so the jury’s out on that, I guess. It’s also said to be helpful for SAD sads.
So, putting this all together…
Let’s say you plan to awaken at 8:30 AM, giving you a bit of free time before work (which is probably an adjustment from waking up and heading out to work directly). You’ll want to retire at 12:30 AM, or about a couple hours after arriving home from work.
DLMO should occur around 10:00 PM, at which time you’d done the sunglasses. Afternoon melatonin in this instance would be early evening melatonin, 3 mg, at 5:30 PM.
I do this myself and it works like a charm. After 3-4 days it becomes quite natural and I do the regimen for maintenance. Be advised, you will need to adhere to it over non-workdays as well.
Lastly, another article [PDF] generated a full phase curve for 3mg of melatonin. It found:
So another possibility to investigate would be melatonin after awakening. Melatonin has a fairly slight sedative effect though, which may be undesirable.
Meta-analyses of exogenous melatonin vacillate between finding no effect to small sleep phase adjustment effects. It is accepted as safe for short-term (less than 3 mos use). Thus, if you feel that you would like to use an adjunct for altering your sleep schedule, there is equivocal evidence for this with no known physiological downside for short-term use.
Would you really have to change your sleep patterns for that? My shifts at work vary back and forth from 9a-5:30p, 11;30a-7:30p, or 9a-7:30p. I don’t change my routine much, though on the days I don’t have to be in until 11 I sometimes sleep in a bit if I don’t have chores or errands. On the days I work until 7:30p, I typically don’t actually leave work until nearly eight, and by the time I commute and stop at a store it’s nearly 9 or just after. So very similar to what you will be working. I just do my chores and errands either on the front end or the back end of the day, and get up and go to sleep about the same time each day. Sometimes I eat dinner at work, sometimes I wait until I get home to eat and then head off to bed. What time do you got to bed on the early shift? It’s pretty much the same day, just rearranged order of doing things. Now if you were working til midnight or later I could see the need to change things up, but in your case I think it would be more a case of getting used to doing personal stuff in the morning instead of after work. Keep your same sleep schedule.
+1
My “core hours” are 8:00 AM to 5:00PM, but I rarely go to bed before 11:00 PM. If my schedule suddenly changed to noon - 9:00, I would adjust my errand schedule not my sleep schedule - especially of the change could be temporary. For most people it’s easier to change when you run errands than to adjust sleep patterns.