Plenty of time to sleep when your dead.

...Or when the lack of sleep kills you.

I have a love/hate relationship with my work schedule. I work a four day week with rotating shifts. I basically work 3 1/2 days on and 3 1/2 off. During my days off, I love my schedule but once I return to work, my life is over until I get done with my fourth shift. My schedule looks something like this.

Thurs 2pm-12am...10 hours off...- 30 min drive time each way = 9...- showers and food = 8 for sleep
Fri 10am-8pm...9 hours off...- 30 min drive time each way = 8...- showers and food = 7 for sleep
Sat 5am-3pm...8 hours off...- 30 min drive time each way = 7...- showers and food = 6 for sleep
Sat/Sun 10pm-8am

The result is that I put a 40 hour work week into 64 hours. My total time available for sleep during this 64 hour week is 18 hours. Under the ideal conditions listed above I do pretty well coping with it. On days like today, however, I have a rough time of it. Unless I'm dead tired I have trouble getting to sleep. It seems that I can run around all day like a zombie and think of nothing but, as soon as my head hits the pillow, my brain decides it's time to go into over drive. IT SUCKS! My brain just wanders all over the place and I can't turn it off. As of right now I have had a whopping ten hours of sleep since Thursday morning and I still have seven hours to go on this last shift.

Thank goodness for a loud stereo and a fast car or I would end up in a ditch on the way home.