Welcome to the night shift

[NorthwoodsChick]

This thread is for anyone who suffers from occasional to chronic insomnia, and people working late or midnight shifts. Come unwind, unload and relax here with the night shift.
Feel free to share night vision chicken cam pics, share tips for optimizing sleep routines, discuss weird dreams, etc.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I frequently find myself awake at 3AM (EST), the house is silent minus the soft snore of a mildly obese American bulldog at my feet. My mind is working overtime of all I need to do, but of course nothing is practical in getting done at 3AM. Head over to BYC; not many new posts at this hour, but surely there are others in a similar situation as me. I read an article on persistent periodic human insomnia which really was far too intriguing and brain stimulating to induce sleep (really was) so I turned my focus of inquiry to more casual reading, that of chickens and sleep. Did you know some chickens sleep with one eye open? Fascinating! My curiosity is certainly peaked regarding chicken sleep behaviors but, for now, I must salvage the pre-dawn morning before the neighbors rooster crows.
GN

 

[Callender Girl]

I am rarely awake past 9 p.m. but am nearly always up for the day by 4 a.m. CST. It's a result of years of having to be at work by 6 a.m. and one of my rescue dogs who likes to greet the new day with great enthusiasm and Very Early.

Prior to retirement, I spent endless hours wide awake in the middle of the night with work issues swirling about in my head. And, I tried everything even remotely likely to succeed to get my poor brain to let my body go back to sleep.

BTW, I think the bulldog's snoring sounds adorable. American bulldog is one of the breeds I looked for when I was adding a second rescue dog. Instead, George is a mix of 11 breeds, primarily American Staffordshire and pit bull terrier. He is Mr. Mellow and would be happy to sleep until noon, if only I and the crazy dog would be quiet.

You mentioned dreams -- do you generally remember yours? My sister can recount lengthy dreams in extreme detail. I seem to forget mine almost immediately. The ones I can remember are nonsensical, while hers seem to actually involve stories that mean something.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I am rarely awake past 9 p.m. but am nearly always up for the day by 4 a.m. CST. It's a result of years of having to be at work by 6 a.m. and one of my rescue dogs who likes to greet the new day with great enthusiasm and Very Early.

Prior to retirement, I spent endless hours wide awake in the middle of the night with work issues swirling about in my head. And, I tried everything even remotely likely to succeed to get my poor brain to let my body go back to sleep.

BTW, I think the bulldog's snoring sounds adorable. American bulldog is one of the breeds I looked for when I was adding a second rescue dog. Instead, George is a mix of 11 breeds, primarily American Staffordshire and pit bull terrier. He is Mr. Mellow and would be happy to sleep until noon, if only I and the crazy dog would be quiet.

You mentioned dreams -- do you generally remember yours? My sister can recount lengthy dreams in extreme detail. I seem to forget mine almost immediately. The ones I can remember are nonsensical, while hers seem to actually involve stories that mean something.

I am a former shift worker in healthcare. I now work normal hours but still have a very hard time avoiding the 3 AM wake up. I do remember vivid dreams; they ARE story like and some are recurrent over 4 decades! Odd. They stopped during my stints doing night shift, probably due to not getting enough sleep to induce REM. My pups and chicks have me up early on my days off, even with poor sleep, but they don’t know.

Your dog sounds sweet. Rescues are the way to go, IMO. Growing up we always had purebred show dogs, Afghan hounds. Personally I prefer shelter dogs. I actually have two rescues from the same litter but vastly different dogs. One is Amer bulldog/pit terrier/lab and the other Amer bulldog/ Amer fox hound/lab-starkly different in looks, color. The Bully-pitty is my baby and the bully-foxhound my DHs. We had no intention of rescuing two but my Madeline would not leave my lap when we were picking up the other pup,(Maximus), so we adopted both.
They are new to chickens but I have been introducing them to my chicks, cautiously. They have a strong drive to chase. The fox hound mix has chased moose on my property- not the brightest dog IMO.

 

[Callender Girl]

Any of my dreams I manage to remember are just snippets where I'm in a familiar place and SHOULD know how to get where I'm going -- for a test or a meeting, or to find my parked car. But I suddenly can't figure out how to get to my destination. I thought those might end when I retired. Nope.

I also thought I might sleep through an entire night. Also, a nope. However, I can drop off in seconds when I'm trying to watch the last few minutes of a TV show I've invested most of an hour into watching.

I got my pit mix, George, as a "pet" for my crazy dog, Dinah. She needed a buddy so she would leave me alone sometimes. I can only throw toys a few dozen times before I lose interest. Dinah and George can argue over toys and race around each other for hours. He, BTW, is blind; the rescue group has no idea if he's ever been able to see, but since I already had an eyeless cat -- Magoo, who is great friends with Dinah -- I figured, why not?

Your foxhound mix may not be the brightest dog, but you have to give him credit for being courageous!

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I also thought I might sleep through an entire night. Also, a nope. However, I can drop off in seconds when I'm trying to watch the last few minutes of a TV show I've invested most of an hour into watching.

Same here!! I could spend a week binge watching the endings of all the shows I’ve missed. One of many reasons why I never go to the theater...I can nap at home for much less $ and my floor isn’t sticky

 

[Callender Girl]

I woke up at least three times during the night and would love to have been able to come downstairs and type -- if only it wouldn't have meant waking up the entire menagerie. Dinah was resting against my spine (like a non-electric heating pad) and Magoo was catnapping on my feet.

Most of all I don't want to wake George. He has anxiety issues -- one of which triggered one of the rare dreams I can remember. Recently, while I was working outside, he chomped big chunks of veneer off the front of a beautifully restored vintage dresser. Previously, he chewed up an inherited handmade table when he was left alone too long.

In my dream last night, he had taken bites out of the kitchen island, a repurposed bottom half of a Hoosier cabinet. There was no going back to sleep after that one. Fortunately, the island is still unharmed.

I loved your previous response about binge watching and avoiding theaters. It was so relatable for me.

Hope you got more rest than I did. Looking forward to nodding off during the day.

 

[cluckcluckhens]

Hi everyone
My sleeping pattern got way out of whack! Hubby was doing his work at night so of course he said I had to change mine. He slept from afternoon til 4 am. Then I went to bed at 4 am. I'm still trying to adjust my pattern. Any where from 3 to 5 am is my knock off for the day. I used to get up around 10 am-12 pm. He has always had a hard time sleeping. Anyone know where your other half is at? I do. He is trying to set up a new pc in windows 11. It's the pits he said.

 

[Callender Girl]

I guess I'm lucky that I only have to work around my crazy pets' schedules. Your sleep -- or lack of -- pattern sounds brutal.

I have always been an early riser, but there is seriously no good reason to be up at 4 a.m. every day. Unless you count being on BYC in the wee hours .

 

[sdm111]

I'm up at 4-4:30 every morning. It's nice to have a cup of coffee and hear the roosters crowing just before daylight. I don't know how my neighbors feel about that though. Each one has his own distinctive sound I can tell who's who