Night-shift sleep planner: when should I sleep?

By Kevin Buhl Jakobsen · Everything is worked out in your browser; nothing is saved or sent · Updated 7. Nov 2026

Why the plan looks like this

Your body clock is set mainly by light, and it wants you awake in the day and asleep at night. Working nights means working against that clock. No plan removes the cost completely, but it can make it smaller. The plan is built on the same advice as our article Working nights: a survival guide, most of it from NIOSH, the US institute for occupational safety and health, and the sleep research behind it.

• A nap before the first night: a longer afternoon nap before the first night shift makes that night easier. 90 minutes gives a full sleep cycle, so you don't wake from deep sleep.
• Light early, dark on the way home: bright light in the first half of the shift makes you more alert. Morning sun on the way home, on the other hand, tells your body it is daytime and makes sleeping harder. Many night workers wear sunglasses on the trip home.
• Caffeine early: caffeine has a half-life of about five hours, and in a sleep study it cut sleep by more than an hour even when taken six hours before bed. So the plan stops caffeine six hours before your main sleep. Work out your own level with the caffeine calculator.
• A short nap on your break: 10–20 minutes gives a boost without leaving you groggy. NASA found that pilots given a planned rest period were more alert and performed better afterwards.
• Main sleep straight after the shift: go straight to bed in a dark, cool and quiet room. The plan aims for 7½ hours (five sleep cycles). If there isn't time before the next shift, split your sleep with an extra nap.
• Anchor sleep: many shift workers do well keeping a fixed block of about four hours at the same time every day, days off included. It gives the body clock something steady to hold on to.

Back to a day rhythm

After the last night shift you need to get back to sleeping at night. A common way is to sleep shorter than usual in the morning, get up and get daylight in the afternoon, and go to bed early in the evening. That way you are tired enough to sleep through the night again without having been awake for too many hours in a row.

General information, not medical advice. Always follow your workplace's safety rules. If you are constantly exhausted or fall asleep without meaning to, talk to a doctor.