How Well Do You Cope When You Have to Work Schedules that Go Against Your Natural Biological Clock?

Hey Everyone,

Since we're talking about waking up in the morning and everyone is mentioning their own biological alarm clocks, what's happened when you have/had work or life schedules that went against your natural timing?

I know for me, it's a disaster, but of course, we all do what we have to do.

My best hours of the day are probably from 4 AM to 11 AM, and then my energy kind of coasts until about 4 PM. By 8 PM, I'm utterly drained, though of course I stay up when I have to.

For me, the absolute worst working schedule I ever had was at times like 2 PM to 10 PM or 3 PM to Midnight. ARGH!!! It. Was. a. Struggle. because it went against every grain of my natural body clock. I'm just sad to say, I did my best, but there's no way anyone is getting the best out of me during those hours. And after a while, it wore me down.

Because there were no morning shifts available where I worked (those with more seniority got first pick,) ironically, I found my favorite shifts were when I started working nights (mostly 10 PM to 6 AM.) The first few hours were a struggle, but my system started to see it as just getting up "really, really" early in the morning, so around 2 AM, I was starting to kick-in full-steam.

I've been doing some reading about people who have non-24 Circadian rhythms and/or are natural night owls but have a hard time living in a 9-to-5 world. I have a lot of sympathy for them, because I know how tired, depressed, and worn out I feel when I can't get back to at least some semblance of my early bird self. (Gotta. Get. That. Worm!)

How about the rest of you?

* What are your "natural" best, most alert, and most productive hours?

* What's happened when you've had to work against that schedule? How do you cope?

* Have you been able to pick work/school/life schedules around your natural body clock?

* What happens when you go too long fighting your own inner timing?

* For parents, have you found ways to help your kids cope with school/work times they have difficulty keeping up with?

Disclaimer:

Thanks to everyone who is participating in these general threads! I hope you won't mind that I've been posting them in Singles.

As much as I loved meeting new people in Miscellaneous, I don't want to disturb the current atmosphere there involving more serious subjects.

So please forgive me if we run a little rampant here in Singles. (It's kind of what we're known for anyways.)

I'm hoping that any other members of the forum who might need a little break from politics, etc. every now and then will still find us and join in on the fun.

I have always been in a fight with my biological clock. I’ve been working at every thinkable hours but my biological clock says I have to get up at 0600. It doesn’t, for some obscure reason, tell me when to hit the hay.

I understand this oh-so-well.

Even if I don't get to sleep until 3 in the morning, at the latest, my system will sleep 'til maybe 6:30 AM, 8 if I'm expecially exhausted or sick.

For somer reason, my body does not feel it's natural to sleep past that time.

I can only imagine how much of a struggle it must be working for the military (thank you again for your service!)

I miss being a part of the military. I have gotten a question about getting out again, maybe I’m going.

What would you say are the top 3 things you miss about being in the military? ❤️

I've always been more of a night owl. Even when i was young I had trouble keeping falling asleep. And any chance to stay up later, the weekends for example, I stayed up much later then my usual bed time.
As I got more into my teens it got worse. I was going to bed much later, but still took hours to fall asleep. And I was getting up hours earlier. It was normal for me to sleep in class. Even when I graduated I took an overnight job, and that wasn't the only one. I've had jobs working all
So any job that has me working early in the morning is my worst. I can't get to sleep early enough.
I'm still a bit of a night owl, but my sleep patterns vary now. I'll be on a pattern for a while, but if something interrupts it, it shifts my whole sleep cycle. So I'm usually on the same sleep cycle for only a few weeks at a time, at the most. Due to this it always affects when I take my meds. Every few weeks I have to change the time I take them to fit my new schedule.

I recommend using whatever gives you real energy, for me, that was coffee (Deathwish is most effective, organic and yummy! 😁) because I used to work a landscaping manufacturing job that started at 6am on the dot, or you would get clowned by the team leader and the others would watch and laugh…. So not only was it a job I had to wake up at 3-4am just to be ‘awake’ enough for (that was waaaaay too early for me back then) it was anxiety provoking if you were ever late…. Also, a job I am not proficient in which had its own anxiety issues lol.. I honestly think the coffee did the trick (my travel mug must’ve been the strength of 4 cups) and God did the rest under the radar (I wasn’t on my Christian path back in 2019, but He was always in my corner) because I would just sit on the couch like a zombie, sitting in anxiety until it was 5:20am and I would get in the car, warm her up, and take off so that I could clock in by 5:45am so I’d never be the one getting clowned…. If I didn’t have my coffee….. 😮‍💨😮‍💨😅 I thank God they had some coffee there… I learned where the filters and grounds were faster than my job lol. Needing to “get that worm” was a big motivator to keep going and getting home by 3pm helped a lot since I never really liked late shift jobs….. but I was under the impression the job was no-experience needed too, so I was able to perk up on coffee and be happy I was finally not only full-time but in an environment that was going to train me and work with me…. Until that wasn’t the case.

Being in an environment that actually helps, trains, and you know isn’t over your head will do wonders no matter your rhythm… because chances are the others totally feel the same as you do. Even though that wasn’t quite the case for me, the THOUGHT it was, helped in a way.

Quote from a friend of mine, as he cradled his travel mug:

"I just love how caffeine tricks me into thinking I'm in a good mood."

Also, howdy Biz and welcome to the forum.

Thank you, thank you! I'm brewing my second cup of coffee now 😂 this one stood out this morning

Welcome to the forum, @BizBo! Glad to see you joining in on the discussions and I hope you enjoy your time here.

I'm finding your posts to be very interesting and appreciating what you have to share!

I was just wondering, have you noticed any negative side effects of coffee? While I do enjoy it and think it helps, but unfortunately, have run into a few issues. I know the coffee elevates my blood pressure, but haven't been able to give it up. It's a bit of a struggle for me, as I know it's affecting my health.

I'm all for people finding and using (legal) means that improve their quality of life, but I'm also interested in how people cope if they run into any problems.

Looking forward to getting to know more about you in the threads!

Thank you for the welcomes! I really am enjoying the environment and energy here! I am very glad to hear you find what I say interesting! I’m trying to be as helpful and transparent as I can 😁…. As far as negative effects with coffee, I have to use the bathroom a lot if I go for the espresso version 😅 but the chocolate and cherry dark roast Deathwish doesn’t seem to effect me or others who tried it nearly as much. It’s like 600mg per 2 teaspoons so 2 K-Pods on the largest cup setting keeps me alert for like 8-12 hours depending on if I get at least 4-8 hours of sleep. I think my blood pressure defaults a little higher than what’s normal I guess from anxiety and I don’t notice any cause for concern, just the desired alertness and energy. Brown is the most mild, Red is best in my opinion, and Purple is Espresso which typically has the worst effects. I am 130lb and do drink it on an empty stomach so hopefully that puts it more in perspective… but I have no idea if I’m more immune to caffeine cause I’ve had caffeine from a lot of soda and stuff since I was 10 😅 but it’s the most effective and organic coffee I ever had. You shouldn’t need a whole lot at all… and I’ve only gotten a stomach ache worst case whenever I used to drink a little too much back in the day.

I agree with legal means of coping, coffee has been the only thing I can allow myself and that I can afford. I used to use marijuana, I got energy and motivation from it until God interceded with a scenario that really me how it was affecting me. Now it’s just coffee 😅 and prayer 🙏🏼

Hmm... Interesting.

With marijuana becoming legal in more and more states, paradoxically people are yelling louder than before about how good it is and how there can not possibly be anything negative about it. The general consensus seems to be, "we just got it legalized! Don't mess it up for us now!"

I am curious. What did you find about how it affected you that you did not like?

It was becoming a form of idolatry for me. I didn’t want to be in my normal mind because I felt like I was more energetic, motivated and alert as I mentioned… I felt like I was ‘more connected’ to God too but on July 15th, 2022, God saved me from a robbery situation that was brought on purely from the consumption of weed. Everything was going smoothly until I smoked. Security guards of the station were signaling the gang to watch me, bystanders came out from what seemed like nowhere…following me, talking really weird things like something out a movie where the character was about to die. So I had around 50 people watching me from cars, corners, buildings, following me… My anxiety peaked, I did not think I was going to make it out but by the Grace of God I did. When I got back home and let the anxiety settle, I was smoking to get back to how I felt before that day, but that’s where idolatry conviction crept in… and new demons attacked my spirit until I realized God was telling me to let go of it. It wasn’t the medication I thought it was if I can go into that type of paranoia when the whole purpose was to not be anxious… it was starting to border psychosis. The withdrawal process was another sign it just wasn’t good… headaches, cravings, etc. When I tried no coffee for a couple days, I just feel tired, obviously. Only craving is just to not be tired.

very little occurs in my life that's against my biological clock, work schedule or play schedule. probably, mostly, because i'm self employed. sometimes, in winter, i have to get up quite early for snowplowing or work in the rain on an emergency tree job but none of that bothers me. i remember once in a 3 day storm, i only slept 12 hours because of so much snow work to be completed.