I worked the graveyard shift in the summers for 3 years before I was 21. 55 years later, so far, so good. At least I no longer wake up at 3AM ready for breakfast.
eight years ago my son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He also has Celiac disease, IBS and a primary immune-deficiency.
The missing antibodies make him susceptible to a host of illnesses.
The constant illnesses, combined with the irregular bowel absorption, made his blood sugars very erratic. (Add to that teenage hormones and he was a mess) For five years, there was no rhyme or reason to his blood sugar highs and lows. The only way to keep him somewhat stable was hourly bloodsugar tests and corrections.
He was just a kid. Hubby worked. That meant that I had to pull off 24 hour nursing for six straight years without a break.
I found that I could get by for up to 3 weeks on 2-3 hours of sleep a night before the hallucinations kicked in. (I’d go to bed at 3:30AM - usually didn’t fall asleep right away. Hubby would get up at 5AM and check him. Then I’d have to get up by 6 or 6:30AM to start my day.) At that point, I’d have my husband take over my son’s care for a full weekend and I’d crash hard.
After 5 years of this, I am seriously screwed up. My memory still hasn’t recovered. My attention span is much shorter than it used to be. I have a low-level anxiety that never goes away. After two years, I’m slowly seeing improvements (at least I can sleep through the night now) and I hope things keep getting better. My thyroid stopped working for a time, but now it’s working again and I’m off thyroid medication. My PCOS and pre-diabetes (both metabolic disorders) have reversed - but I think that that has more to do with the changes in my eating habits.
But my brain is still sluggish. I can’t read or think if there’s ANY distracting sounds. It’s almost like a low-level autism. I have no filters. I know my tinnitus is somehow related to the years of sleep deprivation. I have no sense of ‘time’ or direction and can no longer judge distance. My reaction time is crap now.
A sleep study showed that my REM is still screwed up. A normal person goes into REM about an hour and a half to two hours after falling asleep. I go into REM within 10-15 minutes and stay in REM much longer than normal.
Honestly, I think that sleep deprivation is akin to torture. I’m very afraid that I’m permanently screwed up from this. I used to have an IQ of 140, straight A college student, read a book a day, could remember where everything was... it’s all gone now. I’ve worked rotating shifts and known many people who do and every person agrees that they’d rather work straight graves than never have an opportunity for their bodies to adjust to a schedule.
I worked the graveyard shift in the summers for 3 years before I was 21.
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Guess I better get checked...
During Soph/Junior yr HS worked 5+ nights a week setting pins in a bowling alley, double alley/double shift - Only night off was if had (far) away or evening Basketball game on Tuesdays and Friday evening.
That was 1954/55, 55/56...
Of course then Basketball wasn’t played 6 months of the year....
Luckily didn’t have to many ‘derelicts’ in town so didn’t really take a job away from an ‘adult’.
Then went in Navy in 56 where it was ALL shift work.