Do you have some kind of blackout blinds or shades? Do they work well?
Do you slather duct tape over your windows??
I’m not a night shifter, but I have known plenty of them.
The best thing to use, IMO, is aluminum foil. Kind of mold it to the window and tape it down with whatever.
i’m a night worker, day sleeper… i have no blacks or anyhting blocking my window.
i have only a flag as a window shade, but fortunately for me my window faces west, so it is afternoon, and hours into my sleep, before i get direct sunlight into my room.
and also fortunately, the days i work i’m there for at least 10, often 12, and as many as 14 hours, so i am usually very tired when i come home, plus i am a deep sleeper, so once i crash, i’m near impossible to wake for at least 6 hours.
so i never a have a problem with darkness & sleep.
As a former temporary inhabitant of northern Norway (24 sunlight during the summer), I found people either used aluminum foil or a thick black cloth. But this sucks because you won’t get any light during the day when you need it. But I thnk it was really the newcomers that used heavy window covers. Most of the natives were used to it. I guess that kind of applies to nightworkers too. I got used to sleeping with sun after about 2 days, but I guess some people just can’t do it.
I have two huge bookcases in front of my window. Also, it faces west, so the small amount of light that gets in doesn’t really wake me until afternoonish.
I thought Norway had electric lights…silly me.
Seriously, some folks do seem to need exposure to natural light-- I personally like looking outside to see what the weather is. So when I wake up and want to peek outside, I simply pull my robe on and wander into the living room and look out the patio door.
Corrvin
My ex boyfriend used to be such a freak when it came to light shining in his face in the morning. He bought a pair of black out blinds and put them behind a regular blinds. This worked so well that I often went in late to work, hitting the alarm thinking it was the middle of the night. good stuff.
The one good thing was though, he could pull the blackouts back and just keep the regular blinds or have full sunlight whenever he wanted to get out of the “Dungeon”.
When we lived in Iceland (land of the midnight sun donchaknow) we lined our windows with aluminum foil in summer.
That’s what we do and it’s very effective. We also use a sound machine (white noise).
23 year, 12 hour night shift worker reporting in.
Aluminum-lined blackout blinds. Plus, when we bougth this house 10 years ago we made sure the bedroom windows faced north and west.
Kudos on the sound machine. I forgot about that part. ummmmm
I wear a sleep mask. It’s purple and it has a kitty on it and it says “Cat Nap”. I haven’t had to use it for the last few days, 'cause the doctor put me on bed rest 'cause my lower back revolted and the Percoset is doing a gooooood job of letting me sleep. But when I’m not drugged I use the purple kitty sleep mask. My husband thinks I’m nuts because I’m afraid of the dark so I’ll keep a lamp on on my nights off while I’m wearing it, but I don’t want the lamp shining in my eyes. But he works nights too so if we’re both off at night and we’re both sleeping I’ll turn the lamp off, 'cause if the chainsaw killer comes in my husband’s easy to outrun.
I got a heavy duty, thick roll up shade at Home Depot a couple years back (I didn’t work shifts then, but I do now). It’s a dark blue color on the inside…no light gets through it at all. Dirt cheap and easy to put up over the regular blind.
Nightshifter here, I use aluminum foil duct taped to the window. Works well enough.
Standard day-shifter here, who just enjoys a very dark sleeping enviroment.
Our bedroom is internal on the floorplan…a complete lack of windows is the best sunlight blocker of all.
Spent enough time in hospitals when younger that all i need is a patch of floor, a pillow and a blanket to sleep.
I can sleep comfortably on a gurney in the hallway while waiting for hubby to get done in the OR, with people all over making all sorts of racket, and having the gurney shifted to a different hallway.
I slept nicely sitting on a comfy bench in the Frankfurt airport while waiting for the train [a 6 hour layover =(] sort of snuggled around my laptop backpack. At least until they evacuated the area because of a bomb scare=( though it did take the cop a minute to wake me up [I however cant sleep in moving vehicles, trains, busses, cars, airplanes=(]
I regularly just sleep on someone’s living room floor if visiting [i require a rock hard bed, most peoples mattresses are too soft and they kill my back. Is much better sleeping on the floor] and lights and sounds dont bother me.
three separate heavy-duty room darkening shades, arranged in vertical layers
That way, you can get sunlight when you want it.
The fan helps, too.
I’m a shift worket, but I can sleep anywhere, any time, from a darkened room to a room with a bright overhead light, to a Boeing 747 (seconds after take-off), to a train. I can pretty much nod off at will. The downside is that I sleep very, very lightly - even in a quiet, dark room.
But no, I’ve never bothered making any sort of special provision. I just lie down and go to sleep.
Former night shift worker here.
What I did was stay up after my shift until I had no choice but to pass out. By that time – around 2-3 in the afternoon – I could sleep anywhere, as long as it was quiet. White noise tended to keep me awake for some reason.
I have extra-heavy light-blocking shades in the bedroom. My room faces the house next door, so I never had issues with sunlight and such.
Plain white curtains, with thin dark blue curtains over them. Basically it cuts out the glare without totally blackening the room, or making it where you can’t look out the window if needed. Very nice.
I have a similar room. Because it has no outside window or electricity, it can only be considered a storage alcove, but it’s as large as my bedroom.
I slept in it on my days off, when I stay up late the night before. It’s dark as hell in there.