Great point

To answer both yours and justgeorges posts

I was in china on and off since January - 4 trips to date however the individuals I was contracting with were both unreliable and seem to be fantasists. I have had increasing doubts about them since i met them but it was really interesting

I told the Chinese I needed to be on a permanent contract

They said between them and the fantasists which does not really work

So, anyway, I spoke to an old friend last week, they have a contract in Rail which sounds very interesting and pays twice as much per day plus expenses...........

So it's in London.

Fly France London Sunday night
Go to work
Stay in dark room
Repeat
Thursday morning finish. Go to airport go home

It's only a 90 min flight and 30 mins at each end travel.

The difficult part is shifting back and forth from a day schedule to a night schedule. Ideally, you establish and maintain a consistent schedule, such that your weekends at home remain on the same or similar sleep and wake timelines as your work days.

I've worked a lot of different schedules standing weird watch rotations on ships, and the key was always establishing some routine. It was worst when we switched schedules frequently, or when I wasn't able to consistently use my off time as actually off time, and my sleep was shifting to different times of day.

As mentioned, dark cool room for sleeping is good. No distractors like phone, iPad, computer, TV for an hour or so before sleep time helps too, but is challenging. Making sure that the people who might normally try to get in touch with you know that you're working nights and sleeping days helps, so they don't try to call or visit you during the day.

I also found it helpful to maintain a workout schedule.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Helpful

Discussion with wife is she has to deal with kids when I am at home till the afternoon. One is in school but I think you are correct in terms of trying to be consistent.

Family definitely adds complexity.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Don't you have young kids?
That's about all the sleep deprivation training you need. Saying that as someone who has been up since 3am.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Sleep is for the weak. Embrace the suck.

You know, I've never been so tired as the week after she started consistently sleeping through the night. All that missed sleep really caught up to me. Now it's just the odd night with teething or whatever, kind of in that 8-9 month sleep regression phase.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

I worked straight nights in a grocery store and just became fully nocturnal. It was 5 nights a week though.

I now work varied shifts, so I work nights every 5 weeks or so. To get ready for night shifts, I stay up as late as I can (like 4 or 5 am) the day before. So if I start work at 11 pm Monday, on Sunday night I'll stay up until 5 am Monday morning.

If you want to try and get back on days on your time off then after your last shift sleep for about 3 or 4 hours, and then force yourself to get up. Stay up later (at least 10) or else you'll wake up at midnight and you won't be further ahead.

Depending on your personal circumstances, it might be easier to just stay on nights on your days off too.