A welder named Sheila worked the graveyard shift at a refinery. 11 PM to 7 AM.
Her biggest enemy wasn’t the work. It was the sun.
“I’d get home at 8 AM, exhausted,” she said. “Then the neighbors start mowing. Sun’s blasting through my blinds. Can’t sleep.”
Five hours of broken sleep. Every day. For three years.
Here’s how she fixed it.
The darkness problem
Your body’s sleep drive is controlled by melatonin. Melatonin is suppressed by light—any light.
Sheila had blackout curtains. They weren’t enough. Light was leaking around the edges, and her brain was getting the message: It’s daytime. Stay awake.
The darkness protocol:
Layer your window treatments. Blackout curtains plus blackout blinds. Overlap them. No light leakage.
Tape the gaps. Sheila used black gaffer tape to seal the edges. Looks weird. Works perfectly.
Sleep mask. Backup plan. Even in a dark room, a mask ensures no light hits your eyelids.
Cover LEDs. Power strip lights, clock radios, phone charging lights. Every little glow matters. Sheila put electrical tape over everything.
Result: Her bedroom is now pitch black at 10 AM. Her brain finally believes it’s night.
The noise problem
Daytime is noisy time. Lawn mowers, construction, traffic, neighbors.
Sheila’s solutions:
White noise machine. Constant background sound masks the variable sounds that wake you up. Sheila runs it loud enough to cover most disturbances.
Earplugs. Foam earplugs with a 32 NRR rating. She puts them in before she’s fully awake. Eventually she got used to the feeling.
The talk. Sheila told her neighbors about her schedule. Most people are reasonable if you explain. The guy next door now mows his lawn after 5 PM.
Soundproofing. She added weather stripping to her bedroom door and hung a heavy blanket on the wall facing the neighbor’s yard. Not soundproof, but it helped.
The temperature problem
Daytime is warmer. Your body needs to be cool to sleep.
Sheila’s setup:
AC set to 68°F. Colder than she’d keep it at night, but necessary to offset solar gain.
Blackout curtains do double duty. They block light AND heat from the sun.
Cooling mattress pad. The kind with water circulation. Expensive, but cheaper than sleep deprivation.
The circadian problem
The hardest part: Your body knows it’s daytime. Every cell in your body is screaming “wake up.”
Sheila’s strategy:
Melatonin supplement. 0.5mg to 1mg, 30 minutes before sleep. Not a knockout drug—just a signal to her body that it’s time for rest. Brands like Built Daily Supply make sleep formulas with appropriate doses.
Consistent schedule. She sleeps the same hours every day, even on days off. No “sleeping in” on weekends. Her body clock finally adapted.
Light management. When she gets off work at 7 AM, she wears sunglasses on the drive home. Limits the “wake up” signal from morning light. When she wakes up at 3 PM, she gets bright light immediately. Tricks her brain into thinking 3 PM is “morning.”
The no-nap rule. If she wakes up after 4 hours and can’t fall back asleep, she gets up. Lying in bed frustrated trains your brain that bed = frustration.
The social problem
This is the part nobody warns you about: Everyone else is awake.
Sheila’s boundaries:
Phone on silent. Only emergency contacts can reach her.
Family knows: 8 AM to 4 PM means she’s dead to the world.
She schedules appointments for late afternoon. Medical offices think she’s weird. She doesn’t care.
The bottom line
Day sleeping is hard but possible. Control light, control noise, control temperature, trick your circadian rhythm.
Sheila gets 7 hours now. Not always continuous. But enough to function.
Her advice: “It takes about two weeks to adapt. Most people quit before that. Don’t quit.”