Shift Work Sleep Calculator

How the shift work calculator plans your sleep

It starts from the end of your shift, adds your commute and 30 minutes to wind down, then fits as many full 90-minute sleep cycles as it can before you need to get ready for your next shift. It leaves 45 minutes to get up and out the door.

If your full target won't fit, it tells you how short you are, so you can plan a nap or protect your next day off.

Night shift sleep: what helps most

• Go to bed soon after you get home. The longer you stay up in daylight, the harder daytime sleep gets.
• Make the bedroom dark. Blackout curtains or an eye mask matter more for day sleepers than anyone else.
• Cut the noise. Earplugs or white noise, phone on silent, and let your household know your sleep hours.
• Limit bright light on the way home. Many sleep specialists suggest sunglasses on the morning commute so daylight doesn't wake your body clock right before bed.
• Use caffeine early in the shift, not in the last few hours. The calculator gives you a cutoff based on a regular coffee.
• Take a short nap before a night shift if you can. A 20-minute nap, or a full 90-minute cycle, can improve alertness later in the shift. Time it with the nap calculator.

Days off: keep an anchor

Flipping fully back to a daytime schedule on every day off makes the next run of nights harder. A common approach is to keep part of your sleep in the same window on work days and days off, sometimes called anchor sleep, and shift the rest. Plan your days off with the sleep calculator.

When it's more than tiredness

A significant share of shift workers develop shift work disorder: ongoing insomnia or excessive sleepiness caused by their schedule. If you regularly struggle to sleep, feel dangerously sleepy at work or on the drive home, or have had near-misses, talk to a doctor. It is a recognized, treatable sleep disorder.

Drowsy driving after a night shift is a real risk. If you're struggling to stay awake, don't drive: nap first or get a ride.