Callout and Sleep!

[jamin]

Anyone else here work on an oncall basis?

I work on a 1 week in 4 basis, which I don't mind as it gives my liver a rest. I always sleep much lighter if I'm oncall as I am always conscious that the phone could ring at any time, but if I get called out and get home after midnight I can't get to sleep.

Got called yesterday at 17:30 and got home at 02:45 this morning, got in feeling tired, had a shower, got in bed and ping I was wide awake! In the end I had to get up as I started to get fidgety and woke the missus up.

Ironically since I limited my caffeine intake to no more than 3 cups a day and only in the morning, a couple of months ago my callout insomnia has got worse!

Admittedly tonight may have been stress / adrenaline as the fault I was working on could have potentialy reduced a certain mobile phone providers capacity by about 80% and I was under considerable pressure to get it fixed. But normally the stress level is reasonably low and I still can't sleep! If I do feel stressed in general I manage it with breathing / relaxation exercises.

Have tried herbal sleep aids with no success, I have stopped watching 2 hours of TV when I get in, I have stopped playing games, if I am hungry I only eat a light snack. I even tried taking sleeping pills that I got in the USA last year to make me sleep when flying as I hate flying, they got me to sleep but made me oversleep by about 3 hours. And I don't want to go down the prescription (or not) route as I don't consider this a healthy option.

On a normal night I get to sleep within about 15 minutes!

Arrrg!

[alsenior]

may i suggest a large mallet. the missus could join in to

[Neo_VR]

I think the problem you will have is that any "chemical" that is designed to make you sleep will send you into a deep sleep, not something you want to do when your on call..

I had problems sleeping about a month ago.. mainly due to work stress, i was only maybe dozing off at 5am, and had to get up again at qtr to 6.. this went on for about a week. i was getting more and more run down.

eventually i took the plunge and took some nytols.. boy it did the trick.. 12 hours straight.. and i felt terrible the next day.

In that case i think just breaking the cycle of not sleeping sorted me out.. but theres a million things that can effect someones sleep, from what they are thinking, to what they had to eat/drink that day.

[shaithis]

I do 2 weeks in every 4 on call, used to do 3 in 4

I find I don't have any problems unless I actually get a call, its the feeling when you try and go back to sleep that either your fix was not maybe 100% and/or the issue may re-occur that keeps me awake........or the occasional 4am call that ends in "sorry, I've just been silly, there isn't actually a problem"

[ajbrun]

I don't know about you, but I find that having a shower wakes me up. Maybe it's best to save it until the morning?

[DerbyJon]

Sex just before you intend to get to sleep would be a good idea. Always makes me nod off anyway (to the annoyance of the missus!).

[Bazzlad]

Extreme maybe, but get an aromatherapy session once a month - they'll take your symptoms and then you get a massage too. Boy will it knock you out. Also, will usual heal/cure/help whatever your ills are