I am writing this blog with the sun shining on my face, the
soft trickle of a fountain playing in my ear, and the collective hum of chatter
from surrounding people occasionally making its way into my mind. And traffic, in the distance I can hear cars
buzzing to and fro.
So, what is this revelation?
What is so special to warrant a blog post? It’s Thursday. Once upon a time, Thursdays at
this time of day (roughly 1:45pm) were reserved for finally starting to get
ready for work, or snuggles with Cash after a laaaaaazy afternoon in bed. Remember, I used to be night shift? (Read it here)
Well, the times have changed and approximately 2 months ago, I began the long, arduous process of transitioning from
night shift to day shift. A process that turned out to not be so long or arduous after all. I suppose humans are made to live during the days? Interesting. My alarm now goes off at 7:30am, when usually I was
just entering REM sleep for the night. When I was transitioning (sounds like I was becoming a vampire, but actually the reverse is closer to the truth), the first week was really rough—but the
second was slightly easier.
And so on. I would feel pretty exhausted around 3-4 pm, and would be asleep by 11.
Everyone kept telling me it would take me awhile to adjust, but just 1 week in, my body
had already started to rebel against me.
A brief journal entry from my first weekend after switching to days: "This
weekend, I planned to sleep in until at least 10:30, no later than 11:00 (so as
not to undo my work). However, on
Saturday morning, my eyes opened at 9:20am (despite having finally gone to
sleep at around 3:30am, maybe even 4), and try as I might, I could not get back
to sleep. I gave up, and finally got out
of bed at around 9:45 to start the day.
Asleep by 11:30pm (can’t remember the last time that happened), Sunday
saw me waking up at 8am! Which I rebelled against and slept until 10am—not
quite what I was hoping for, but good nonetheless. Long story short, my body is already adjusting. Which is good. And also bad, because it hasn’t fully
adjusted to the whole going to bed early
thing, but it’s adjusted to the waking up
early thing. I kind of need it to
adjust to both.
Anyway—it’s nice to be day shift. It’s something I’d been wanting for awhile
now, and when the opportunity arose, I just couldn’t pass it up. It feels good to be on a normal schedule,
where if I call someone on my lunch break the office won’t be closed or I could
possibly be waking them up. I’ve been on
the Wedding Dress Diet, too (a different blog for a different day), and I’m
hoping that this new schedule will help me with weight loss—and vitamin D
absorption.
I was kind of scared to switch to Day Shift. I kind of imagined myself walking around like
a zombie the first month or so, looking like the undead amongst the
living. However, that hasn’t been the
case—in fact, it seems like just the opposite is true. Tom, who is still stuck on nights, doesn’t
get to see me very much during the day, so on my first Friday as a day-shifter, we were walking to
Chipotle for dinner, and he said that I already looked healthier—that I had a
different glow. Which other people have
said, too; “You do have a different
glow.” So, I guess it’s doing something to
my body that’s manifesting in a positive way.
Hopefully that trend will keep.
Anyone else out there have any trouble shifting from nights
to days? Or vice versa? (I’ve done both now).
