Sleep schedule for nurses on 12-hour night shifts
By the My Circadian Health editorial team. Reviewed by Brandon Korenek, Founder.
If you work 12-hour night shifts (7 PM – 7 AM), here is a sample schedule built around one main sleep window on work days and an overlapping window on days off. Handoff often runs past the end of a shift, so build a buffer into your sleep window rather than counting on leaving on time.
- Shift
- 7 PM – 7 AM
- Sleep on work days
- 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM
- Nap
- 20 minutes around 5 PM, if you feel drowsy
- Sleep on days off
- 3 AM – 11 AM
Why this schedule works
Sleeping at the same time after every shift gives your body clock a fixed target to adjust to. On days off, sleeping in a window that overlaps your work-day sleep, sometimes called anchor sleep, keeps you from flipping all the way back to a day schedule and starting over each week.
Before your first night shift
Sleep normally the night before, sleep in if you can, and take a nap of about 90 minutes in the afternoon before you go in.
Switching back after your last night
Sleep for only a few hours after your last shift, get up by early afternoon, and spend time in daylight. Then go to bed at a normal time that night.
Tips that make it easier
- Make your bedroom dark, quiet, and cool: blackout curtains, earplugs or white noise, and your phone on do not disturb.
- Keep caffeine to the first half of your shift so it has worn off by the time you sleep.
- Get bright light early in your shift, and wear sunglasses on the way home so morning sunlight doesn’t tell your body it is time to wake up.
- Never drive home drowsy. If you are fighting to stay awake, take a short nap first or get a ride.
- Tell the people you live with when you sleep, and treat that window like a work shift.
When it’s more than scheduling
If you still can’t sleep during your sleep window, or feel very sleepy at work even with a steady schedule, you may have shift work disorder. It is common and treatable, and worth raising with a clinician.
This is general information, not medical advice. The times are examples; shift them to fit your commute and household.