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Get active at the right timesĮxercise can help regulate your body clock and improve sleep quality – if it happens at the right times. Swapping your phone or tablet for a book can help you feel calm and ready to rest. One more thing: try to avoid using electronic devices for an hour before you go to sleep. Make sure your bedroom is cool, dark and quiet, and think about buying sleep aids like blackout curtains, a sleep mask, earplugs or a white noise machine. Create space for sleepĬreating a comfortable space for sleep can help you get a good rest. This can be restoring, but sleeping for more than 30 minutes can also make it harder to wake up quickly. It’s important to remember that if you nap for more than half an hour, you’ll go into a deep sleep. If you tend to stay up late, try to catch a 15 to 20-minute nap before getting ready. If you usually get up early in the morning, take a refreshing three-hour snooze the afternoon before your shift.
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No time to adjust your sleep schedule? In that case, the next best thing is a nap. Most people can handle a two or three-hour change in their sleep-wake schedule, and this gentle method can help you avoid “night shift jet lag”. For example, if you have a few days off before your first night shift begins, push your bedtime forward by two hours each day, then wake up two hours later every morning. If you can, change your sleep schedule gradually. You need to stay alert and provide people with the best possible care, so it’s important to prepare for the change both physically and mentally.īut what does that mean in practice? In this post, we’ll go through some tips and tricks to help you adjust to your new schedule. It can be tough to switch from a day shift to a night shift, especially if you’re a nurse.
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