My Sleep and Daily Routine for Three Days

Day	Time	Activity
Day 1	7.00 pm to 7.00am	Job
	8.30 am	Went to bed
9.00 am	Fell asleep
11.00am	Went to bathroom
3.00 pm	Woke up
3.00 pm to 4.00 pm	Took my dinner
4.30 pm to 8.00 pm	Went to the canteen with my friend
8.30 pm to 10.00 pm	Took supper and prepared to go to the workplace.
11.00 pm to 7.00 pm	Job
Day 2	7.30 am	Took off to my house
	8.00 am to 9.00 am	Took a bath, ate my breakfast and tried to go through a magazine
9.00 am	Fell asleep
2.15 pm	Went to the bathroom
2.30 pm to 3.30 pm	Fell asleep
3.30 pm to 4.00 pm	Sat at the bedside.
Day 3	7.00 am	Woke up and took a shower and a breakfast
	9.00 am to 3.00 pm	Did my house chores including washing the dishes and doing the laundry.
3.00 pm to 5.00 pm	Watched the movies as I took tea and  relaxed for the night shift

A good and enough sleep schedule are necessary for the health of every human being. Research has shown that lack of enough sleep makes people suffer from insomnia. This assignment focuses on my sleeping schedule and my daily routine activities. I am an adult of middle age and working as a nurse. I normally work at night and sleep during the day for about 7 hours 3 times a week and I feel rested. My work schedule is not consistent as the work time varies from 7 pm to 7 am or 11 pm to 7 am.  This also alters my sleeping time which ranges from 8.30 am to 3 pm or 9 am to 4 pm.  I observed my daily routine and the sleeping schedule including a one-day off for three days. The first two days were similar in some ways in terms of work and sleep schedule. The third day was my off-day and things looked a little bit different.

The first day, I went to work from 7 pm to 7 am when I returned home. I retired to bed at 8.30 am after work and having a warm shower. I left the radio on with little volume and I fell asleep after 30 minutes. In the middle of my sleep, the call of nature knocked at my body at around 11 am and had to wake up for a bathroom. This interrupted my sleep and when I came back to bed, I took several minutes before falling asleep. This was caused by the glimpse of the broad daylight which carried away my sleep and I had to struggle in order to sleep again. I eventually fell asleep until 3 pm when I was woken up by the hunger in my stomach. I woke up to have a heavy meal and this time I did not feel like sleeping again.  I then stepped out and took a walk around the garden and my home compound. Since I still had some hours at my disposal before work time, I decided to visit Jack who is my friend. He took me to the nearby canteen where we spent some hours as we had a drink before going back home to prepare for my night shift which would start at 11 pm to 7 am.

So my second day started at 11 pm when I started my shift up to 7 am in the morning. I took off at 7.30 am to my house. As I arrived the home, I took a shower and settled for a heavy breakfast before going to bed as I felt so hungry. After the breakfast, I remembered that I had an interesting magazine I had carried from my workplace and decided to have a look at it and my sleepy eyes were now refreshed and the urge to sleep slowly faded. However, by 9 am I was already asleep in bed. I slept until 2 pm when I woke up for a bathroom. On coming back to bed, I thought of watching a movie I love so much. This I did alongside going through the social media and catch the updates. I realized that I could not do it for long as I was sleepy so I just switched off the electronics and slept. At around 3.30 pm, my inner alarm bell started to ring and I had to wake up. I spent some minutes in the bed trying to deal with the sleep hangovers and this took around 30 minutes hence waking up at 4 pm. During this time, my mind went around the whole globe catching a glimpse of the unknown world trying to freshen up my mind. I think this would help me to figure out what I did during my previous hours at work, what was left unfinished and where to begin in the next hours of work.  

The third day was my off day and I felt much relaxed. This time, I arrived home at 8 am and brushed my teeth, took a shower and a snack then retired to bed. I slept uninterrupted until 3 pm when I woke up for a heavy dinner. I then decided to go to the parks before going to pick my wife from her workplace. We came home at 6 pm and I sat at the TV to watch my favorite channels until 10 pm when I went to sleep. 

Nonetheless, I came to realize that not only does one need to sleep enough but also sleep at the right time. The amount of sleep and the sleeping time are equally important. The recommended time to go to the bed is from 9 pm to midnight and wake up at 6 am in order to have a healthy sleeping schedule. This enables one to wake up in a great shape and regenerated for the new day. However, this is easier said than done since very few people adhere to such pattern. Like in my case, it is quite impossible as my job schedule demands that I work during the night and sleep during the day. No wonder I still find myself tired even after long hours of sleep due to my sleeping pattern.

I prefer working at nights than day times and I have done it for over 20 years now. I am thus used to sleeping in the morning until in the evening and I just like it that way. Shifting from night shifts to day shifts would cause troubles to me and the society at large as a nurse if forced to as I think. I would crash and sleep at work and this would affect my job performance. I think that it is just more comfortable for me to sleep during day time when my kids are at school and the environment is a bit quiet.

My sleep used to be interrupted by the alarm informing that it was time to go and pick my kids from school. At those times I would rarely sleep so deeply to accommodate even a single dream. I feared that I would oversleep and fail to pick my kids from school on time and, thus, my brains would remain a little bit awake though my eyes remained closed. Now, my kids are all grown-ups and they bring themselves home when it is time, I can afford to sleep for more hours. Nonetheless, this is not the case. I usually find that my biological system clocks before 3 pm as I was used to still fearing to late picking my kids. Although I force myself to sleep an extra 1-1 ½ hours since I do not have that duty anymore, it is not always possible. I just find myself touring the world in my mind until 4 pm when I have to wake up.

Sleep Deprivation and the ANA Statement

Sleep deprivation is a dangerous issue since everyone needs enough sleep for a healthy living. A research by the ANA revealed that the long working hours and shift work associated with the nurses have a connection to the mood disorders, cardiovascular diseases and some reproductive disorders. According to the ANA, the employers and the nurses bear the responsibility to deal with the risks associated with the nurse fatigue. The president of the ANA, Pamela Cipriano said that the prolonged hours of work by the nurses can obstruct the performance of the nurse hence imparting negative results to the patients and their safety. In order to adjust the working hours and deal with nurse fatigue, the ANA released a statement that the nurses and the RNs should work hand in hand so as to reduce the risks associated with the nurse fatigue. The association recommended that the working hours for the nurses should be adjusted such that they work at most 40 hours in a period of 7 days and the work shifts are limited to 12 hours in every 24-hour period. The association also recommended that the employers should not use the obligatory overtime as a solution for staffing since overworking the nurses has dangerous effects. The employers should also encourage regular and uninterrupted hours of rest during the work shifts. This will allow the nurses to relax from the demanding job and freshen up for a greater performance. These hours of rest should be included in the worksheet and alternated accordingly. The statement was established by a panel of 16 nurses who are members of the ANA and have expertise in the nurse fatigue. An advisory committee who comprised of 360 ANA members were also part of the team. The statement was widely distributed to the various nursing organization, RNs, and other federal organizations in order to spread the information.

My current employer does not really follow this policy and it is a critical issue which needs actions to be taken. I am, therefore, a victim of long working hours and at times I feel so exhausted such that even when I sleep I don’t feel enough rested. Sometimes I find myself making the wrong records for the wrong patients when I am exhausted and if I do not realize it immediately, the records remain with the errors and at times they may have adverse effects on the patients. I was once a victim of failing to sleep enough. I stayed up to 27 hours without sleep and my eyes became red and burning. Nurses are normally overworked or they work for long hours which interferes with their sleeping schedule. As a nurse, sometimes I am compelled to work the whole night and at times part of the daytime hours continually. When I get to bed I find myself too tired and unable to perform any house chores. When I work overtime, my moods are usually affected as I am also expected to report to work at 7 pm or 11 pm as usual. This means that I end up not getting enough sleep.

The nurses are known to work long hours and still expected to perform well on their duties. However, considering that they are still humans, this notion may have negative impacts both on the patients and the nurses themselves. They also require enough time to rest despite the many patients in the ward demanding their attention. The nurses have the lives of the patients at their care and failure to have enough sleep may cause a negative impact on the safety and the outcomes of the patients. Therefore, the nurses themselves should take the responsibility to emphasize on getting a 7 to 9 sleep hours per day to manage their rest and health as well, develop body exercise and a healthy nutrition alongside taking naps as the employer policy requires. 

I recommend that the employers implement policies that allow the nurses to reject some job assignments especially if they feel exhausted in order to avoid the adverse effects of working while already fatigued. A nurse should estimate the level of their fatigue when deciding whether to reject or accept a voluntary or compulsory overtime assignment which extends beyond their work day or week schedule. If a nurse feels fatigued, he or she should not be forced to do extra work regardless of the emergency status of the situation because critical errors could occur as a result. Instead, an alternative employee be consulted to help in handling the task as the exhausted nurse takes a rest. The policies should be clear enough that a nurse will not be retaliated against for rejecting the assignment and that it is should not be mistaken as a way of abandoning the patient. The nurses themselves bear the obligation to ensure that they get enough rest before getting to work in order to offer the quality care of the highest degree to their patients. 

References

Top of Form

Herman, J. (2015). Sleep and Psychiatry in Adults, An Issue of Sleep Medicine Clinics. London: 

Elsevier Health Sciences. Press.

Pakieser-Reed, K., & Sigma Theta Tau International. (2013). Night-shift nursing: Savvy  solutions for a healthy lifestyle. Indianapolis: Sigma Theta Tau International. Press.