There is something magical about working nightshifts which I guess only people will understand who are there sometimes as well. There is this whole ritual hanging around it, and honestly, I really like being in there.
One of the things most places have where you work at night is a common thing, that you can not see at the interior of your working place that it is the middle of the night. Usually there are no windows. That the analog clock is saying 5 o clock, mentally this could also be 5 o clock in the afternoon, which means you are almost done. It all adds in there that you start living in the twilightzone.
The Ritual
The ritual starts already really weird. You have a day off when others are working befor you start with your shift. All of a sudden it feels like vacation time, because you can work in the garden, get your house done, visit the hair dresser of whatever that you normally do not have the time for.
After dinner you go into a sort of chillmode because the night will be long and you need some relax time before you get moving. The when everyone in the house starts to yawn and start to go into sleepy modus that means that you have to go and start moving.
The roads are empty and the night is silent. Only in the building where you road there is some movement because others are starting to reel in as well. You don't look all that flashy because it is the middle of the night, and you colleagues also look a little bit different than they normally would do.
You make fun of that that no one looks the same as during the day. And you are hungry, all the time you are hungry. That is because the body is seeking calories to stay awake.
The Commodores know whats up with this. In the morning when you feel like the world is upside down then your fresh colleagues come to relieve you. And they look fresh and smell fresher than you actually can handle. Way too fresh.
You go home and the morning traffic weirds you out. It is too busy than your brain can comprehend. The mornings are beautiful and you still decide to take a coffee even though it is time to go to sleep.
The birds are awake and for some reason your brain also is. But....after some sleep and waking up in the middle of day, that is only when you understand that working these kinds of days are really not for everyone.