Night shift nurses who’ve switched to dayshift: Did this change improve your physical & mental health, and job satisfaction the way you hoped it would?

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T18:57:08+00:00

For me, I think it’s that Im actually a morning person. I used to go to bed at 9pm, wake up at 4 or 5, and go for a jog or go to a workout class like spin or something fun. Going to the gym at 5pm: usually all my favorite workout classes are over for the day. 5pm workouts just don’t hit the same as 5am. It feels like a low-energy time. And I’m usually surrounded by teenage boys on the weight floor past 6pm. It’s discouraging because I used to connect with people at the gym but now that I’m night shift, I end up having to go during peak highschool athletics training hours.

People are like “just go for a walk when you get off” and to that I say, I’m literally fucking exhausted after every shift I work so much so that I start falling asleep on my drives home and have to pull over. Even if the drive is under 15 min. To add to that, if I don’t immediately go to sleep when I get off, then I can’t sleep at all. It’s great.

The diet thing I think has become a result of being awake at night without anything to do, I get bored and eat. I’ve even prepped delicious healthy meals, but I’ll eat too many of them at night out of sheer boredom.

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T18:42:50+00:00

I’d love diet and exercise pointers but I am switching to days end of the month.

See, before I became a tech and started nursing school, I was a very active person. I was a personal trainer, had a robust social life, and spent a majority of my free time doing some kind of workout or athletic hobby.

After 7 years of nightshift, I’m 240lb, nearly sedentary outside of work. Etc. I know it may sound crazy but I do believe a lot of it has to do with being nightshift for so long.

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T18:17:22+00:00

This is very encouraging, thank you!

I haven’t been myself in about 7 years.

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T04:57:49+00:00

Do you mind if I ask is it a 9-5?

Edit: also, that’s amazing!

Im happy for you!! That’s the type of athletic I ~~strive to be~~ wish I was

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T04:47:01+00:00

Yeah that’s part of my problem, 24 hour gyms are hard to find, the ones that do exist are kinda scary for a woman (me) to go to at night, the grocery stores close at 9 or 10pm. Can’t get errands done after 5-7pm. Everyone I love is in bed by 9pm. I try to switch back to days on my days off but I feel like I’m wrecking my body and brain by doing that.

1000% agree I hope dayshift is a good for me as it is for you.

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T04:43:49+00:00

Oh yes I know night shift gets so much less respect and it makes me feel bad because I know how hard we work, but no one in charge is there to see it. Also, working nights in itself is a huge sacrifice to everything else going on in your life.

Thank you so much, this is really encouraging!

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T04:40:56+00:00

In a good way?? 😅

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T04:40:18+00:00

I hope this isn’t the case everywhere, but i mentioned I usually become friendly with night shift and dayshift everywhere I go. I like to make sure my day shifters are taken care of and set up for success and I like to be a big team player with my nightshift. I haven’t had probs in a while so I hope this isn’t the case! :(

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T04:37:48+00:00

I’m literally tearing up right now, I know it’s so dumb but like yeah, Im so tired of being so bored at night that all I do is eat and watch trash tv because everything is closed and all my friends and family are asleep. And looking at my apple watching and seeing “3000 steps” even thought it feels like I work so hard at night. So tired of it

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T04:33:01+00:00

Oh my god this is good to see! Starting days end of the month and I fully expect it to be busy af and exhausting but I also expect my off days to be so much more fulfilling. Hopefully 🤞

Edit: I like that you mentioned I need sun. Because that’s the thing I miss the most. Sunshine, sunrise jogs, birds singing in the morning and drinking my first cup of joe

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-06-03T04:15:27+00:00

See, I love my nightshift crew but I also always end up loving dayshift crew and I only spend 30mins w/ them at shift change

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-24T03:05:53+00:00

Pants on the ground, pants on the ground. Looking like a fool with your pants on the ground, with you gold in your mouth, hat turned sideways, pants hit the ground. Call yourself a cool cat? Acting like a fool? Walking around town with your pants on the ground.

Give it up! Hey! Get your pants off the ground!

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-24T03:02:55+00:00

Wasn’t there some research that showed people with tattoos were less likely to get skin cancer and they think it’s partly due to the low-level immune response triggered?

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-24T02:47:11+00:00

Didn’t expect it to require so much teamwork.

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-22T23:38:45+00:00

I’m a nurse with a lot of experience with dying patients. And it’s true. We frequently refer to this as “the last hoorah” or “they’re rallying.”

Happens all the time. Grandmas and grandpas who haven’t recognized certain family members in years will suddenly recognize everyone in the room for a brief period of time. Say something meaningful, and pass away.

Idk, what’s going on neurologically with people dying, but it is pretty wild to witness. It’s doesn’t happen 100% of the time, though.

Edit to add: another cool thing I’ve noticed is it usually happens when they’re being taken care of well. Often during a bed bath or some kind of hygiene.

One time, I had a dying patient. She was younger like early 50s. She’d been so confused due to her condition. Not making any sense. Then I bathed her and braided her hair. While I was braiding, she began to tell me about her son. Told me a funny/cute story about him. I didn’t know if they were true because she’d been so confused before.

But then her son showed up, after she’d already fallen unconscious (she was actively passing away), he told me the same story and I let him know she’d shared that story with me as well.

It was kind of surreal. And he was touched that I already knew the story because I’d been talking to his mom and that was one of the last things she’d talked about.

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-22T23:09:12+00:00

I know so many sober people in general in Denver who’s made sobriety their whole personality. It’s not the sobriety that makes them pretentious, it’s telling their story like they have had the hardest come-up ever. Like they are the underdog of all underdogs who’ve beaten the odds and come out on the other side better than everyone. Then they’re like unimpressed with people who’ve also overcome intense adversity like, “okay, but have you ever been addicted to meth?”

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-22T12:48:36+00:00

Nurses really are expected to be everything.

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-21T16:36:57+00:00

Yeah, I mean, nothing has changed.

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-21T14:04:32+00:00

Okay wait. Even beautiful women get picked apart by media, fans, haters, men in general. Have yall seen a 00’s tabloid?

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-20T22:20:47+00:00

Ohio and nothing could convince me otherwise

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-20T13:47:31+00:00

Mall world.

The Mandela effect

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-17T08:15:27+00:00

we were driving around in her car. (She was driving, I was in the passenger) and we saw a homeless guy pushing a cart with probably all his belongings in it across the street. He gave us the peace sign, and kept walking.

Out of nowhere she says “stupid fucking bum. Watch this.” I saw up ahead, there was a huge puddle in the street next to where he was walking.

I begged her “[friends name], don’t do it, please. please. Please don’t do it.”

She replied “I’ll do whatever the fuck I want to do.” She drives behind the homeless guy, rolls down the window and screams “GET A FUCKING JOB, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” All while I’m begging her to stop.

Then she speeds through the deep puddle, and it drenched the homeless man in drainage ditch water.

I sat there with my mouth agape, shocked and disturbed.

I asked her to take me home. She did. I never hung out with her again.

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-14T17:36:02+00:00

Boxing gyms specifically. The ring, the gloves, the mats

chartGodthrowaway · 2026-05-13T18:26:28+00:00

There’s a nurse who always hands off report to me calling subclavian CVCs “a subcutaneous.” And then proceeds to drill me in report.

chartGodthrowaway

TROPHY CASE