Can I please have a normal sleep cycle now?

[mousme]

Night shift is not my friend. It makes me tired and cranky and intolerant of pretty much the entire universe. I am very much looking forward to my week off which starts next Monday.

Looking back over the last few days, I realize that my temper has frayed to the point where it is paper-thin. (This is my LJ, I'll mix my metaphors if I want to!) A few people have posted interesting things on interesting topics, some of which I agree with and some of which I don't, and I had to refrain from commenting in almost all instances, because in the cases when I didn't agree with the poster I was quite sure my responses would have been unnecessarily hostile and/or nasty.

In fact, I am quite sure that some of the comments and posts I've made lately are on the crabby side, even if I didn't intend to ruffle feathers and hurt feelings.

If I were a rational, logical person, I would tell myself to just stay away from LJ while I'm on night shift. The problem is, there's not all that much to do around here except mooch around on permitted sites on the internet. There's only so much revising I can do of the OCC's procedures, and TV at 03:00 is deadly.

Comments

Aw, we love the Phnee, even when she's crabby!

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

Can you tell me your secret for figuratively biting your tongue and refraining from comment when you're in a crabby or otherwise stressed mood? I need to learn that talent! I promised a dear friend of mine on pain of death that I would work on such a short-coming.

The Secret To Not Answering Comments And Posts While Crabby

[mousme.livejournal.com]

It's not fool-proof, but here's how I generally manage:

1- Identify when I'm in a bad/pissy mood. This is important: if you don't know you're in a bad mood, you can't act accordingly.

2- If a post immediately pisses me off, I force myself to step away from the post, either physically or metaphorically. I wait a minimum of one hour before replying, and by then the urge to reply has usually passed anyway.

3- If I find myself with the overwhelming urge to explain to a poster in a lengthy diatribe exactly how they are wrong and why, including citations from primary and secondary sources, I again step away from the crazy. This impulse is a pretty good indicator to me that I need to turn my tongue around my mouth ten times.

4- Sometimes I wait up to 24 hours before replying, if I can tell that I'm still angry. Posting while angry is about as productive as posting while drunk, and not nearly as amusing to readers.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

I think I must hardly ever post angry. But I'm not as nice as I might be when I'm tired. Night shift and then 2-3 hours sleep before the children wake up is draining, too.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I rarely post angry myself, but tired/crabby/irritable is a definite possibility, especially when I'm functioning on very little sleep, or poor-quality sleep.

I should learn not to, though. :)

[joenotcharles.livejournal.com]

Does the office have a DVD player?

Re: The Secret To Not Answering Comments And Posts While Crabby

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

Good points to keep in mind. Thank you.

As for your issue, well, do you have a helmet to ride that sleep cycle? *snerk*

How long do they intend for you to work this shift?