Picked the 4AM shift over the 9-to-5, and my sleep schedule is now a war crime

When my plant in Akron opened a second line, they let senior guys pick either the new 4AM start or stay on afternoons. I took the early shift because the 15% shift differential was too good to pass up. Six weeks in, my body still thinks 8PM is midnight and 3AM is a panic alarm. I tried the whole blackout curtains and white noise machine thing, but my neighbor's rooster starts at 5:30 anyway. The money is real, like an extra $340 a month, but I've fallen asleep twice at my daughter's soccer games. Has anyone else traded their nights for a fat paycheck and found a way to actually adapt, or is my clock just permanently broken?

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ryan_ellis10d ago

Funny how we all end up picking money over sleep at some point, it's like the universal trade we never learn to stop making. Your body will probably fake adjust just enough to keep you hooked on that $340, but the soccer game naps are basically your new normal until the shift changes.