How New York night owls catch their Zzz’s
In the city that never sleeps, a solid night of shut-eye can be hard to come by. Sirens, stress and loud neighbors keep us tossing and turning, and knowing that experts recommend a whopping seven to eight hours a night just gives us one more thing to worry about while lying in bed, eyes open wide.
But while a good night’s sleep is a challenge for people with regular work hours, it’s even harder to achieve for those who work late shifts. That’s why so many night owls — from nurses to bouncers to janitors — have honed a range of tricks to get themselves decent nights of slumber.
Here, five night-owl New Yorkers share their bedtime secrets, with an expert weighing in on their techniques.
THE BARTENDER
Katie Ballou, a bartender and musician on Staten Island, often gets home at about 3 a.m., only to rise at 9 a.m. to open up the bar again. At the end of her work shift, “It’s really hard to wind down,” says the 27-year-old.
Ballou’s trick is to watch shows with which she’s already familiar, such as “Forensic Files,” so she’s not tempted to stay up even later to find out what happens. And despite being surrounded by booze at work, she keeps drinking to a minimum. “I feel it keeps me awake as opposed to helping me sleep, and I don’t feel rested after drunk sleep,” she says.
The expert says: “Alcohol is a terrible thing for sleep,” agrees Dr. Donald Greenblatt, director of the University of Rochester’s Sleep Center. “It’ll take the edge off and make you feel like you’re going to sleep better, but it alters the sleep architecture.” Alcohol also reduces REM sleep, the sleep cycle that most helps restore the mind.
Greenblatt explains that the sleepy feeling caused by alcohol wears off, causing many to wake up in the middle of the night after the alcohol has metabolized. And, since alcohol is a diuretic, it could lead to more middle-of-the night bathroom trips.
THE BOUNCER
Stewart Rentus, 25, a bouncer in Manhattan who works until 4 a.m. on big party nights, says staying active is his key to staying rested.
Rentus, who goes to sleep at 7 a.m. — so he can have a life outside of work, he says — is up and heading to the gym by noon.
“I like to get my day started, go to the gym, then go to work so when I’m [ready for sleep], I’ll be out like a light,” says the Brownsville, Brooklyn, resident.
The expert says: Like Rentus, people should avoid working out right before they go to sleep, says Greenblatt, since cooling down a body, not heating it up, helps with restfulness. “Exercise is best done [several hours before sleep],” he says.
“Otherwise, it’s just going to wire you up.” As for Rentus’ mere five hours of shut-eye, Greenblatt says some people can handle it: “Saying everyone needs eight hours is like saying everyone needs to wear size 10 shoes,” he says. “Some of us are short sleepers, and some of us are long sleepers.”
THE JANITOR
Malik Coulibaly has worked as a janitor at the NYU College of Dentistry for the past 12 years, getting into work at 11 p.m. and returning to his Harlem apartment by about 8 a.m. Coulibaly, 60, has seven kids between the ages of 1 and 15, so when he gets home, he visits with his family then settles down for the first nap of the day.
A devout Muslim, Coulibaly takes three such naps daily, about three hours each time, waking up to pray and eat. “It’s perfect,” he says. “Even when I go on vacation, it’s like that.”
The expert says: Coulibaly’s sleep schedule is actually more closely related to how humans used to sleep, Greenblatt says. “Two-hundred years ago, when it got dark, you’d go to sleep, and typically people would sleep for three hours and they’d get up, visit neighbors, make a meal and then have a second sleep period,” he says.
He cautions, however, that “we sleep best when we sleep in one solid block.” Coulibaly, who sleeps sporadically, might benefit from some longer rest periods.
THE DOCTOR
Nine years working in the emergency room has taught Dr. Daniel Lakoff, an attending physician at Elmhurst Hospital, just about every trick in the book for getting to sleep. Some of them begin at work.
“We certainly see some things [in the ER] that make us feel uneasy,” says Lakoff, so instead of leaving for home full of anxieties, he and the other providers debrief and talk about the cases at the end of each shift. “We don’t leave each other behind with this uneasiness,” says the 36-year-old Lower East Side resident and member of the Doctors Council.
Lakoff also puts the kibosh on coffee after the second half of his shift, and limits the light he’s exposed to at the end of it by wearing sunglasses, even on the subway.
At home, his bedroom has blackout curtains, and he keeps the temperature cool. In addition, Lakoff sometimes listens to YouTube sleep aids, such as thunderstorm sounds.
The expert says: Limiting light exposure is one of the more underrated sleep tricks out there, Greenblatt says. He recommends getting amber safety goggles and wearing them a couple hours before hitting the hay. The amber shades block out the blue light emitted from screens — a light that actually affects the body’s production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin.
The goggles “are made for construction work, but if you look for customer reviews on Amazon, most people are using them to help with sleep,” he says.
THE NURSE
Patricia James, 66, is a Kings County Hospital nurse whose regular shift starts at 4 p.m. and ends at about 12:30 p.m. But that’s not always the last of her work for the day — about two times a week, she works a double shift, followed by meetings for the New York State Nurses Association.
Many nights, James is lucky if she gets three hours of sleep. To help catch up, she has a marathon, 12-hour slumber about once a week. But this doesn’t mean getting shut-eye is easy. To help, she swears by camomile tea before bed, and reads until her eyes close.
But most of the time, she never quite feels caught up. “In order for me to rest, I have to get away from my environment,” she says, which translates to a trip to Florida for some R&R.
The expert says: Those three-hour sleeps are what’s called sleep debt, and it’s difficult for people like James to repay that debt with her weekly marathon sleep session. Greenblatt says, “If you’re not getting enough sleep at one shot, then you can make up the sleep debt by taking a nap later in the day.” (These naps, he says, should be no longer than 90 minutes.) But someone who has hours like James would be better off if they could find a time to nap during the day.
How to rest easy, no matter your schedule
Our bodies need about eight hours — usually at night — for organ systems to repair and restore, says Dr. Paul P. Doghramji, board member of the National Sleep Foundation and a family practice doctor in Collegeville, Pa. Here are five tips to slumberland no matter your hours.
Have “me” time
It always helps to wind down and relax. “A warm bath, soft music, no loud noises or excitatory family interactions” all work, Doghramji says. “Shut the phone off or put it on vibrate if possible.”
Dim the lights
Before bed, avoid TVs, computers and cellphones, says Doghramji. Night owls should try wearing dark glasses before bed.
Keep it regular
Try to wake up at the same time every day, or at least within the same hour, as the habit can help regulate your body. So if you usually wake up at 7 a.m., but get to bed late, either because of work or staying out with friends, Doghramji says to set your clock to get you up at your usual 7 a.m. wake-up time. “If you wake up at varying times, your brain can’t set itself to know when to have you go to sleep,” he says.
Caffeine in moderation
Doghramji’s rule of thumb is to stop drinking caffeine six hours before your desired bedtime.
Pop a ’tonin
If you have a change in sleep hours, you might want to take melatonin. “[It’s] the darkness or sleep hormone,” and it tricks the brain’s setting into thinking it’s bedtime, Doghramji says. Ask your doctor for a suggested dosage.