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Mary Richards reportingWhile some people are driving to work in the morning, other are driving home after working all night. They say it's hard, but there are coping mechanisms for an odd shift.
Two-thousand people work at ARUP Laboratories, almost 130 of them at night. Ken Hawker spent six years as ARUP's night operations manager, working from 10 PM to 7 AM. He says it takes an adjustment.
Ken Hawker: "I would have a definite time when I went to sleep, I didn't answer the phone or the door, I didn't play golf. I had a designated time just like people do at night when they sleep."
Hawker says you need support.
Ken Hawker: "If your significant others are not agreeable to you working nights, you'll soon be miserable."
But others cannot plan their shifts everyday. Doctors, specialists and others are often called out of bed. So are snowplow drivers.
Bethany Eller, UDOT: "They just understand that it's the nature of the job."
Eller says they try to track storms so they can plan workers' sleep schedules.
Hawker has been working a day shift for about a month and has had to switch back.
Ken Hawker: "My body is still going to sleep at one o'clock...or my brain that is."
From those of us in a 24 hour newsroom, we hear you!
