I have worked for what amounts to 60 years in various Critical Care jobs and all of it on the night shift.  Mostly from 7PM to 7:30AM.

Ten years of it were two full time jobs.  I was supporting four children.

For the first forty years of it I felt sick.  More of a feeling of un-ease… a strange heavy feeling in the face and neck with extreme lethargy and irritability.  Arms felt heavy, legs heavy and I had to drive myself to do any activity.  Sleep was a scarcity, a commodity if you will and on those days when I had to go back to work there was a terrible fear /panic that I wouldn’t get enough sleep.

Then I rearranged my thinking and began to reassess what would be enough sleep in terms of several days instead of one day.  If I got 24 hours of sleep over 4 days, life was good.  Four hours of sleep and the heaviness was back.  This changes with age.  As one becomes old, awake time is precious and when sleeping more than 6 hours a night one wakes up headachey, stiff and sluggish… oh and cranky.

My drive for 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep changed to 6 hours and it was enough.  Not only enough, the panic was gone and I felt wonderful.  Great energy, marvelous stamina and never tired.  The heavy feeling was gone forever and the vigor of childhood returned.

I understood that the issue of sleep is a mindset.

…  and if you are insomniac or can’t stay asleep, listen to PACIFE Music to Calm which fixes it.

Filed under: PACIFE Music to Calm, SLEEP, STAY HEALTHY | Comments Off on Night Shift and Sleeping