365x24x7 (sleep patterns)

Fri Apr 15 17:11:45 UTC 2011

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 11:53:47AM -0500, Chad Dailey wrote:
> +1.  I'd go to six months, having been the night shift bitch.  Flipping
> shifts around damn near killed me.

> On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Mark Green <ktm200exc at hotmail.com> wrote:

> > Suggestion; once on the 'night shift' stay put for at least three months...
> >  Sleep patterns take time to adjust.  Jumping between day and night shifts
> > will burn out even the most motivated employee.

Amen. There is evidence that, other things being relatively equal, people
working rotating shifts have shorter life expectancies and that the faster
the rotation, the shorter the expectancy gets. There also is some evidence
that people working rotating shifts are more likely to get cancer.

My experience: 

6 on, 2 off, 8 hours, rotating to the next later shift: I never, ever got
enough sleep -- for 2 years.

6 on, 2 off, 12 hours, straight mids, no rotation: much less bad. 

5 on, 2 off, 8 hours, straight mids: quite tolerable.

5 on, 2 off, 8 hours, straight swings (1600-0000): out of phase with the
world.

YMMV; I expect it to. 

-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin 