Commuting and shift work

pepelepew

Hello all. I'm looking for people's experience of commuting whilst working shifts (Hence the title!).

I will shortly be starting a new shift pattern and would like to commute it by bike. My shift pattern is as follows: 2 days (07:00 - 15:00) which will be no problem, 2 lates (15:00 - 00:00) and 2 nights (23:00 - 08:00). It will be home and straight to bed after the lates/nights.

My commute is about 6 miles. Going in is easy as it's all downhill (about 20 mins). Going home is a bit of a drag, as it's all uphill. Having worked shifts for the last 7 years (4 on, 4 off 12 hours) I know I'll feel like crap following my night shift. Will I feel better when I get going? And how will it affect me trying to sleep after riding home?

Any experiences/advice gratefully received.

richara3

I do a 7 till 7 shift system with 5 shifts one week and two shifts the next alternating between days and nights. I do 4 miles each way and on the way home the last 2.5 miles take me up 450 feet on 3 succesively steeper hills.

Generaly I find the cycle home after the first nightshift the hardest as generally I have been up for over 24 hrs ( young kids ). As long as I can relax for half an hr before going to bed then I sleep well. If I stay up for an extra couple of hrs to let the wife have a lie in ...then I sleep like a log.

So ...NO I dont think it will effect your sleeping much at all. However some folk cope with shift work better than others as I am sure you know already..


Andy

gb155

I work either

8:00-15.30

9.00-16.30

10.30-18.00

and

12.30-20.00

It can be a real pain cycling home at 9pm and having to get up for 6am the next day but overall I adapted after just a few weeks, Can sometimes feel wiped out if I have a cold etc bt sleeping isnt too much of an issue lol

Gaz

tardington

It should work out okay for you - you'll get to really like the early morning commutes after a while - the thing is to leave on time. They aren't fun in a rush!

When I did nights, I never cycled home, but I never did enough of them to get in to the sleep cycle - I was always really tired. Plus I may have had my xbox with me. 8)

nielsamd

The only thing that I'd look out for cycling after 10pm in a British city is aggressive drunken yob gangs. I hear them going after cyclists sometimes from my place. Depends on street/location I guess. Usually the cyclist gets away.