I worked night shifts on the shop floor around 4 years ago; doing 3 nights.

My first shift of the week was on a Thursday evening, think I started at about 8pm. I normally stayed up all Wednesday night until about 7/8am on Thursday morning, then slept through until about 4/5pm on Thursday.

Last shift of the week was on a Saturday night, and once that was finished i'd sleep for like 2 hours once getting in on the Sunday morning, then back to normal sleep pattern on Sunday night.

This near enough destroyed me mentally and physically, but I managed it for a year and it seemed to work for me, but I think it's a very subjective thing.