Shift Sleep Calculator

Why your sleep window matters

After a 12-hour shift, your body is wired and tired at the same time. Cortisol is still elevated. Your circadian rhythm is fighting the daylight outside. If you walk in the door and immediately try to sleep, you'll lie there for an hour staring at the ceiling.

The 30-minute wind-down isn't optional — it's the difference between 7 hours of real sleep and 5 hours of broken sleep. Use it for a shower, a small meal, and dim lights.

Make daytime sleep actually work

• Blackout curtains. Non-negotiable. Even small amounts of daylight suppress melatonin and shorten sleep.
• Phone on Do Not Disturb. Allow emergency calls only. One text notification can yank you out of deep sleep.
• White noise or earplugs. Daytime is noisy — lawn mowers, deliveries, neighbors. Mask it.
• Cool room (65–68°F). Your core body temp needs to drop to fall asleep. Crank the AC.
• No screens 30 min before bed. Blue light delays melatonin release by 1–3 hours.
• Small protein-rich snack. Going to bed hungry wrecks sleep. Going to bed stuffed wrecks it too.

If you have to be up earlier than this

Sometimes the math doesn't work — you finish at 7am, need to be at a kid's thing at 1pm, and only have 5 hours. That's okay occasionally. But chronic short sleep is the #1 health risk for shift workers. If this is your normal pattern, something has to give.