Excited to "find" this board

I am relatively new to OH, and haven't had time to fully explore all the boards.. it was really cool to find a spot just for us dispatchers.... I work in a small COMM center, we are supposed to have 20 dispatchres (total) but in the almost 3 years I have been here, have never seen that many... I love what I do, more then I ever thought I would, even though it gets crazy from time to time, the county I live in is growing very quickly these days. I find I have a hard time with eating, while I work I tend to eat too fast.. soemtiems you gotta get in in when you can, it is bad, and I usually end up making myself sick, but it passes quickly... Also I am having difficulty adjusting to a change from day shift to overnights.. I do not sleep well suring the day, and find I am not eating enough.. I struggle every day to make sure I get enough food, and try to fit in work outs where I can. I have been on nights for a month now and if I can't get my groove and get some sleep soon, I am considering a job change...I am exausted all the time, and it is catching up.. I look forward to talking to other dispatchers who can relate. Brianna

Welcome to the board Brianna! I feel your pain on the sleep issues - I had the same problem when I worked dayshift. I am a graveyard girl so I don't sleep well at night usually. Hang in there though - things change and you may find yourself being able to get off graveyard soon. I know some people who have tried using melatonin with success to get themselves to sleep during the day. They also have a new sleep aid out called Lunesta you might see if that would work. Otherwise, what has worked for me when I have had to work dayshift and couldn't sleep was to sleep in shifts. I would sleep 2-4 hours at night then I would sleep when I got home from work. So maybe you could sleep a few hours in the morning then nap again in the afternoon before you go to work. I myself stay up late every day for the most part and go to bed and crash around noon or so. I generally sleep 5-6 hours a day but a lot of days get only 4. But that is because dayshift ruined me for sleeping longer stints. I was getting between 2-3 hours a night when I was working days for several years. So now my body doesn't like being in bed long enough unless I'm ready to drop. I know many folks who work graveyard who do the split sleep thing. That works really well for them because they can get up and do things they want to during the day and still get their rest. Try not to concentrate on 8 hours of sleep....just look for your minimum right now and concentrate on that. For me, my minimum I consider is 4 hours and try to get 5 or 6. If I try to think of it that way, it takes the pressure off me trying to sleep. If I go to bed at 1p and have to be up at 6pm, I'm going to be tired and need to use the alarm to wake up. Maybe if you tried pushing back when you go to bed it will make you more likely to sleep all the way through. Give some of those techniques a try and see if it helps. Being up in the morning I love because I get to be like a normal person sometimes but I just crash in the afternoon. I get all my stuff done in the morning and it makes me feel like I'm not spending my whole day lazing around trying to force myself to sleep....wasting time doing it. If you can't sleep, take advantage of the time and think about sleeping tomorrow. Dina