is this common / normal - HELP QUICK

[JulieJay92]

been doing days and nightshifts at work for 2 years.

1st ever PA was in 98. then one night alone on night duty afew weeks ago i had 1st major 1 in an eternity. i did start back to work as dr said was ok and has been fine but tonight is 1st nightshift again alone and my anxiety has gone into overload.

Is this a usual scenario as that was where it happened weeks ago??

any help/reassurance appreciated as start at 915

thanks in advance

[ankietyjoe]

I wouldn't say it's an unusual situation for anxiety to happen again. Doing a split of days and night shifts is actually pretty stressful on the body so it could be a build up of that, or there could be other stressors building up too. Could be a bad diet because of the odd working hours (for example) or something else entirely like a Vit D deficiency if you're working at night a lot?

[JulieJay92]

I wouldn't say it's an unusual situation for anxiety to happen again. Doing a split of days and night shifts is actually pretty stressful on the body so it could be a build up of that, or there could be other stressors building up too. Could be a bad diet because of the odd working hours (for example) or something else entirely like a Vit D deficiency if you're working at night a lot?

thankyou, yes have been tested for all deficiencies and only magnesium found which i take supplements for (its also a sleeping night as im a carer) but they have halved my hours since returning last week and said i felt up to nights again but as its tonight my anxiety has started again. Diet wise i do eat at regular times as i would if not on nights and never affected me for 2 years but now it has. am petrified of going in. May well just have to take a good book and stay awake then sleep wen i finish at 9am

[JulieJay92]

well i managed to sleep and no palpatations or panic attacks so very impressed

[ankietyjoe]

Do you usually grab a nap when you work nights then?

I've found that when anxiety returns after you've recovered, it's often a build up of things you're not really paying attention to. I wonder if you're becoming more fatigued over time because of the odd work/sleep hours.

[JulieJay92]

Do you usually grab a nap when you work nights then?

I've found that when anxiety returns after you've recovered, it's often a build up of things you're not really paying attention to. I wonder if you're becoming more fatigued over time because of the odd work/sleep hours.

yes we do nap / sleep as we do wots known as a sleep overnite and we are woken by a motion sensor when she sits up in bed, but work have been very oos and understand this and have now reduced my nights

[ankietyjoe]

I wonder if it's just a hormonal thing then? Your hormones can get all over the place with broken sleep, and broken sleep is also incredibly stressful on the body. I can well imagine this building up over time.

When my youngest son was still a baby (3-4 years ago) I would suffer massive body shaking and rapid heart rate if he woke up in the night (I say if....I mean when). All my worst panic attacks used to be at night too, especially the ones I woke up to.

[JulieJay92]

thanks AJ. Just spoke to nurse and she said she will do a blood test in afew weeks to also check my hormone balance. thx

[ankietyjoe]

I'm not sure if it's the kind of thing that can be tested for as it's an interruption due to broken sleep rather than an imbalance.

The litmus test really is the situational difference between sleeping at home and sleeping at work. I don't feel the anxiety is related to the work environment as you've been there so long, but rather the stress of broken sleep on your body.

It could be compounded by being alone on a night shift too.

[JulieJay92]

hormones to test for the menopause

[Suziewuzie]

When I had my last anxiety 'meltdown' or whatever we call it, I'd been doing night shifts for a long time with short stints of day shifts in between. I think nights do strange things to our bodies & they definitely didn't help my anxiety.