A long time ago I worked from ~10pm to ~6am. I would wake up at 9pm and inhale some food before taking off. When I got home I would eat my “dinner” and then see everyone else waking up to start their day. I would typically hang out and take care of human existence stuff until like 1pm at which point I would go to sleep.

I was single and living with family at the time so it didn’t mess up my social plans too often since my gamer buddies all kept terrible hours anyways so on my days off I would just play all through the night with them.

I actually prefer being awake while most of the world sleeps. I find it oddly comfortable knowing most people aren’t out and about. It almost feels like a weight off my consciousness at night.

But if you require social planning flexibility having flipped sleeping hours with the rest of the world can be a really big problem.

I think it depends on the person. Honestly when I had the night shift I was sleeping longer because I wasn’t getting much REM sleep because noise or sun.

With the right setup like really good curtains and empty house I’m sure it’s possible to balance the schedule and not oversleep. On my current schedule I’m only sleeping 6-7 hours. Night shift I was sleeping 9-10.

I work 2nd shift, 3pm-11pm and love that time. I’m not a morning person so I wake up and go straight to work then go to sleep between 3 and 6am.

I would say that it is harder to have normal social interactions. Pretty much all interactions are made over the weekend. I won’t say it didn’t affect my marriage, but I don’t think it was the main cause of my divorce.

I worked for a year 6-6 12h shifts on 24/7 assembly line.

It was OK, 14 days night and 14 day shifts it is better that way because you get used to it and you still have loads of time left for other things.

I’ve always been a night person. Absolutly useless first thing in the morning. Then I got a job working nights and it just seemed so natural.
Then as I got older I got a job working offshore, working nights. So I get to wake up at 1400, have a cup of tea, go to the gym, do some other stuff before starting shift at 1830 - 0630. Then go straight to bed, and not have any disturbances until I wake up.
Yeah, the first night it a bit tough having traveled to work through the day then staying up all night and when I get home turning around to regular life can take a couple days but melatonin helps a lot with that.
I have a friend who works as a night porter in a hotel and has to sleep at home with his family doing stuff during the day, he always looks tired and I don’t think it’s healthy for him to continue that long term. I think some people are wired for days and some for nights but they still need to get proper rest whenever it is that suits them.
I read a book by the author of fight club called “Rant” where society was split into dayshift and nightshift due to overpopulation, doesn’t seem like such a bad idea to me.
Also, if you work nights make sure to take vitamin d supplements.

I work mornings from 03:00 to 11:00. At first I would stay up after work and try and go to bed at 6pm which was definitely hard for social life.

Now I “nap” after eating lunch around noon for anywhere from 2-4 hours, wake up, do whatever needs to be done and then I’m in bed around 9 or 10pm at the latest.

The nights are great for appointments and shopping since everyone is working but that also meant my friends were working and so it’s a little lonely until the weekends. Not sure if it’s healthy the way I’m doing it but I don’t feel sick and I get to enjoy my days more than before!

My mom was a nurse (now retired) and she worked night shift part time, so she was never able to get into a regular sleep schedule. It got even worse when they switched her to 12-hour shifts two days a week. She still has trouble sleeping through the night, except now it’s mostly because of the cats.

I hear my coworkers who do night shift complaining about this same issue, but they still pick up night shifts, which I don’t understand.

In a word, capitalism.

I worked 3rd (23:00-07:00) shift for years and really enjoyed it. Shift premium was great, workload was low. Almost no management in place (hospital). I’d socialize in the evening and then go to work after. Didn’t have any problem sleeping during the day. It’s also true that I was a bachelor so no kids or pets depending on me.

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The only thing i don’t like about night shift is that you daytime nerds hoard all the business and fun stuff for yourselves.
I shouldn’t have to flip my schedule to go snowboarding but noooo Breckenridge has to shutdown at 4pm. 🙄

Years ago I had a job where we had a “graveyard” shift. It was a solo gig, started at 11pm and finished at 7am when the morning shift took over. You’d work it for seven days and then have seven days off. We shared the shift, so that everyone did it a few times a year. You’d think with seven days off it would be popular, but no. No-one wanted it.

I hated it. The worst part was the isolation. There were duties to carry out, but it was mainly checking things. Alone. It was difficult to sleep when I got home and it messed with my head, I felt like a zombie. I’d meet up with friends in the evening and struggle to make conversation. It took up to five days to recover. Very, very unhealthy.

More recently I worked mostly 5pm to 2am, and that was much more manageable. We were a team, and we often met up during the day for sports or a movie. It was awkward socialising with other friends though; I’d be working when they weren’t.

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The “having a life”-aspect isn’t applicable to me, as I worked night shift while I was offshore. This inirially meant midnight->noon. But since this was isolated from the rest of the world, the only real difference was that midnight snack served as breakfast, breakfast as lunch, and lunch was dinner. Afterwards the rest of the shift and I would usually watch a movie.

After a while I started doing a special shift from 1800 to 0600 (nicknamed Vampire Shift), so that I could cover for the chief tech during his off hours. I loved it: It was quieter, cooler temperature (I’m an Arctic guy, and we were operating in a tropical climate), generally a lot more relaxed.

As for circadian rhythm, it didn’t matter, as it was five weeks straight. And I was normally severely jetlagged after traveling to/from work anyway.

I work an odd schedule - two jobs, one WFH Sat-Tue from 8PM to 3AM, then a hybrid (2 days WFH) dayjob (Mo-Fr) from 10AM to 6PM. It’s been this way on and off but so far I’m at over a year with this particular schedule, but I’ve had similar schedules in the past.

I would say I have a life, but my hobbies are more introverted anyway. Am I healthy? No, bit I wouldn’t say that’s entirely related to the schedule, I have other conditions.

It can be taxing at times but most of the time it’s just life.