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The best thing about working nights is the mornings. Last Saturday, 7 AM, as I was going home there was a full white moon in the western sky and bright orange sun in the eastern sky. You get to see a lot of beautiful sunrises when you leave work in the morning. By contrast, all the Day workers seem angry and under pressure as they rush past you, on to work unsmiling. On September 11, 2001, I worked 7 PM to 7 AM in the World Trade Center and watched the destruction while I was having 'dinner' in a diner.

I tuned in late because I dozed off waiting for this segment, so I'm not sure if you included the huge segment of night workers in the financial industry -- printers, graphic artists, legal word processors, and proofreaders. I work as a financial proofreader/editor for law and investment firms and financial printers. As this is a global world we work under deadlines of 9 am for London, Paris, Sao Paulo, New York, etc. Most of the people in my position have degrees in other areas and are now artists: writers, actors, dancers, musicians, and composers. We usually work midnight to 8 AM which allows us to have a life -- dinner, plays, performance, etc. I'm and ex- ad exec turned Byzantine art historian. I started at the time of the IPO's and dot.com heydays. I made enough money to travel and to do research in Greece, Egypt, southern Europe every three months.

An interesting fact is that we are the only people who read EVERY word of the documents that are in the credit crisis news today: SEC filings, prospectuses, swaps, etc.

At the risk of de-romanticizing this very interesting look at of New York's vibrant night shift community, I'd like to address an aspect not mentioned. The detrimental effects of disrupted circadian rhythms and sleep deprivation on otherwise healthy individuals are well-known. In the case of those with mood and affective disorders --depression, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia, etc.-- night shifts severely exacerbate the illnesses. In addition, lack of sunlight contributes to S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder) which is often a component of mood disorders. Ironically, a high percentage of late shift workers are individuals afflicted with such disorders. Thus, a vicious cycle is established, serving to perpetuate the symptoms of the illnesses. I'm curious if the authors address this issue or have encountered this phenomenon.

I've been on the night shift for almost eight years now, performing routine maintenance work in the NYC subway system. It was initially my choice, but I soon began to realize what a difference it made in my daily life, my normal routine, and my overall well being. I used to be fit; I stopped excercising altogether and am now about 40-50 lbs. overweight. I'm a music lover, and there are so many great acts in town every night of the week, not just my off nights: forget about night life! I've recently decided that I'm not gonna do this for very much longer.

As an architecture student in London in 2001, I remember spending 50% of my nights awake working, or prowling.

The strangest place was the Smithfield meat market where the pubs would all open to serve beer and dinner at 5am to cater to the overnight butcher/delivery shifts.

It was a true Bizarro world.

Peter

How have drugs like Provigil affected night-shift work? Isn't it unfair that night-shifters -- working against the usual melantonin cycle -- often have to take such drugs just to do their job?

I temped 2nd and 3rd shift and always found it took days for me to recover! But I'm also a writer and an artist and in that context I love staying up at home and working while the my house and the city sleeps.

At night there is less "noise" from other people's brains to contend with. This clears the air for those that work better at night to think.

Also myself, I was born at 3:15 am so I guess from birth thats where I started my "day"

This makes me think of the wonderful, now sadly passed overnight NYC radio DJ Allison Steele, "The Nightbird." Her beautiful voice was lovely to fall asleep to, perfect to wake up to.

I used to know one of those couples w/the wife working a day job & her husband taking a night shift so they could alternate taking care of their baby.

Also, I've been reading lately about newer "wakefulness-promoting" drugs like Provigil & Nuvigil. Did the guests talk to anyone using these types of drugs?

Radio is very important when you're on the nightshift for many jobs, and often talk radio more important. If you're a sports addict, WFAN is your kinda family but in the dead of winter, little baseball, etc...it's much more painful to get through the shift. Your show is great IF you didn't hear it in the afternoon.

There's a whole family of nightshift workers who are radio talk addicts and it's worse when more and more shows are national/syndicated. Those local shows make for better company.

i used to work in the film industry in nyc. long hours and some night work tend to be the norm. i (and many others) often found that the hardest and most fatiguing part of this to be the frequent transitions from nights days and vice-versa...

I worked the night shift for two years as part of a computer operations group, ending this past May.

I kept similar hours on my days off, waking up at 3pm and going to bed around dawn, which was far easier on my body than trying to switch between a "daylight" and "nighttime" world twice a week, as many of my co-workers did. I was the only person on my team who never napped on the job, ever.

The down side to this was that my social life suffered. I couldn't drink with friends at "happy hour" any more, and most of my friends were sleeping when I was in the middle of my so-called day.

I was an evening dispatcher and eventually router for a transportation company and enjoyed the freedom of that schedule. Eventually when I made management and had more of a 24 hour floating schedule contingent on the needs of the company, I started losing it eventually especially when I had to do my own job (during day shift) and fill in for my replacement when he got fired. It resulted in a hilarious way for me getting fired as I started losing sensible judgment and was convinced I was improving the aesthetic of the office by drawing on the walls.

When I worked retail, I did about a month of over-night inventory. I'm naturally a night person so it didn't really bother me. It was surreal going home on the train around dawn with everyone else drinking coffee and just waking up.

How could you not include Bartenders. We are the life of the night.

I freelance as a technician on a popular morning television show. The hours are usually 2 A.M. to 11 A.M. I wake up at 1:00 A.M, and long ago elected to spend $20 on a taxi from Brooklyn to work rather than lose an extra half-hour of sleep to the uncertainty of the subway.

I've learned that Lafayette Street is no place to be in a taxi on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. I've learned how to sleep in an office chair during my union-mandated 4:00 A.M. "lunch hour." I've fallen asleep standing. I'm often jet-lagged in my own city. Being so tired affects my social life, my health, my eating habits and my ability to think clearly on a regular basis. No matter how often I do this shift, I never adjust to the schedule, although some of my co-workers do quite well.

i love working nights, always have; i'm a night owl whether working or not; when i'm not recording my songs and gigging i work in the protection division at the Statue of Liberty guarding my Lady in the Harbor.