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Night-shift sleep planner: your daytime sleep window
For people working nights who need to fit a main sleep into the day and still be alert for the next shift. Enter the shift and your trip home to get a daytime sleep window, an optional nap and a caffeine stop as clock times, with each NIOSH step quoted and our own rules labelled.
Your day around the 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM shift
Why these times?
Night-shift sleep planner
0 to 180 minutes. Sleep starts when you get home.
More settings: sleep length, nap
Flying across time zones instead? Use the jet lag planner.
12-hour night shift sleep schedule: four worked examples →
There’s no perfect night, only a better-planned one.
See how the Lull app stops a steady sound before your phone's alarm
See the Lull appWorking 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM with a 30-minute trip home? Sleep from 6:30 AM to 1:45 PM, and have your last caffeine by 12:30 AM.
When the plan does not fit your shift
This plans one shift that runs through the night, for someone who goes to bed when they get home. It does not plan the switch from days to nights, days off or a rotating roster, and it cannot know your own body clock, how quickly you fall asleep in daylight or how noisy your home is. The 15 minutes to fall asleep, the 6 hour caffeine stop and the time to get ready are our own rules, and the light and nap steps are general guidance from NIOSH training for nurses, not a plan made for you.
See a doctor if night work keeps you from sleeping, if you regularly take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep (NIOSH lists that among the symptoms to raise with a health care provider), or if you are very sleepy at work or on the drive home. This page is general information, not medical advice: read our disclaimer.
How the planner works
The plan starts from the end of your shift. NIOSH's training for nurses on night shifts says to go to bed as soon as you get home, so the planner puts bedtime at the end of the shift plus your trip. It adds 15 minutes to fall asleep and the hours of sleep you chose, which gives the alarm. Then it works back from the start of the next shift: your trip, 45 minutes to get ready, and the nap, if there is at least 60 minutes awake between the main sleep and the nap.
Caffeine gets one clock time: 6 hours before you lie down. That is our rule, set at the top of the 5 to 6 hour caffeine half-life NIOSH gives, so about half of a drink taken at the stop is still active when you go to bed. The light times split the shift in two, following NIOSH's first half / second half advice.
Worked example: an overnight shift
A 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM shift, a 30 minute trip home and 7 hours of sleep, the bottom of the CDC range for adults. Bed is at 6:30 AM; with 15 minutes to fall asleep, the alarm is 1:45 PM, so all 7 h of sleep falls before 2:00 PM. For a 20 minute nap before the next shift, lie down at 8:10 PM with the alarm at 8:45 PM. The last caffeine is at 12:30 AM, and the brighter part of the shift runs to 2:00 AM. With a trip of 60 minutes instead, everything after the shift moves later: bed at 7:00 AM, up at 2:15 PM.
A twelve-hour night
For a 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM shift with the same trip and sleep, bed is at 7:30 AM and the alarm at 2:45 PM, so 6 h 15 min of the 7 h falls before 2:00 PM. A 90 minute nap fits at 4:00 PM. Because the shift is 12 hours, the result adds a note on drowsy driving.
What NIOSH advises for a night-shift day
These are the steps in NIOSH's training for nurses on shift work and long hours, quoted as written. The planner turns the ones with a time in them into clock times; the others are listed because they change how well the daytime sleep works.
- After the shift: “Go directly to bed when you arrive home.” (CDC/NIOSH)
- The timing of that sleep: “The more sleep you get before 2 p.m., the better rested you will be.” (CDC/NIOSH) The result shows how much of your sleep falls before 2:00 PM.
- The bedroom: “Be sure that your sleep environment is very dark (so dark you cannot see your hand in front of your eyes) or wear an eye mask while sleeping.” (CDC/NIOSH)
- Before the next shift: “If it is possible to take a nap before returning to work, do so.” (CDC/NIOSH)
- Light during the shift: “You can be more alert if you increase your light exposure during the first half of the shift.” (CDC/NIOSH) For the rest of the shift NIOSH suggests reducing light exposure, to make it easier to sleep at home.
- Caffeine: night shift workers “could consume it at the beginning of the shift but should stop several hours before the shift ends.” (CDC/NIOSH)
- The trip home: “The safest approach is to use sunglasses after night shift only if you have someone else to drive you home.” (CDC/NIOSH)
Naps: short, one cycle, or long
NIOSH says waking from a nap at 20 minutes, before deeper sleep, or at about 90 minutes, the predicted end of a sleep cycle, may leave less grogginess. Those are the two lengths the planner offers. NIOSH also lists studies of longer naps taken before a night shift, from 1.5 to 3 hours, and reports that “Taking a 3-hour nap (2 to 5 p.m.) produced higher alertness during a subsequent night shift” (CDC/NIOSH); this planner keeps to the two shorter lengths, and the nap planner times a short or one-cycle nap at any hour of the day.
Shift length
NIOSH notes that “shorter shifts (8 hours or less) are better tolerated than longer shifts.” (CDC/NIOSH) It also reports that the Institute of Medicine recommends limiting nurses' work to 12 hours in any 24-hour period. The planner accepts shifts of 4 to 14 hours and reads anything else as a typo. It counts a shift as a night shift when at least 3 h of it falls between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM; for evening or day shifts it says so instead of giving a plan.
The values behind this plan
Each row is one value the planner uses, with its tier: Primary = read off the source page, Secondary = reported by the source from another body, Studio rule = our own choice, with the reason given.
Quotes, notes and the date we last read each source are on the methodology and sources page.
Night-shift sleep questions
When should I sleep after a night shift?
NIOSH's training for nurses says to go to bed as soon as you get home and notes that the more sleep you get before 2 p.m., the better rested you will be. The planner puts bedtime at the end of the shift plus your trip home and shows how much of your sleep falls before 2:00 PM.
Should I nap before a night shift?
NIOSH says that if it is possible to take a nap before returning to work, do so. The planner offers a 20 minute or a 90 minute nap, the two lengths NIOSH says may leave less grogginess, and places it so you have 45 minutes before you set off.
When is the last caffeine on a night shift?
NIOSH says night shift workers could have caffeine at the beginning of the shift but should stop several hours before it ends. It gives no number, so the planner uses our own rule: 6 hours before you lie down, the top of the 5 to 6 hour half-life NIOSH gives.
How does light fit in?
NIOSH says you can be more alert with more light in the first half of the shift, and suggests less light in the second half so it is easier to sleep at home. It adds that sunglasses after a night shift are safest only if someone else drives you home.
Does it work for 12-hour night shifts?
Yes, for shifts of 4 to 14 hours. From 12 hours, the limit the Institute of Medicine recommends for nurses in any 24 hours, the result adds a note about drowsy driving. NIOSH notes that shifts of 8 hours or less are better tolerated.
Is this the same as the jet lag planner?
No. This page plans one night shift in your own time zone. Crossing time zones is a different problem, covered by the jet lag planner.
Is what I enter stored anywhere?
No. The plan is worked out in your browser. The share link holds only the shift times, trip, sleep length and nap choice, and only if you copy it.
More questions about the site, its sources and privacy are answered in the Lull FAQ.