Still Slogging Through Graveyard Shift

I am still slogging through my graveyard shift work schedule, with little chance of being able to change my working hours anytime soon.  So I'm left coping with staying awake and trying to fully function in the wee hours of the morning. I'm usually all right until around  4 AM and then things quickly begin to go downhill.  By 5-5:30, it becomes a real struggle until I leave the place at 7:30. In the morning.  This is an awful time to be driving home through the city as the work rush hour has commenced and, when classes are in session, the streets are clogged with buses and school traffic.  But the main problem with this schedule is the lack of deep nighttime sleep...

For fifteen of the first sixteen years I worked at this organization, I worked the graveyard shift.  Back then, once off from work, I generally slept whenever I could find the time.  This lack of a regular sleep time hurt me, and this time around I decided to change.  Now, once I get home from work, I go to bed about an hour later and sleep until mid-afternoon.  Then I am fully awake and functioning.  If later I fill like I need a nap, then I'll rest about an hour before I go to work.  It's worked for me, making my trials with this new schedule more or less confined to the early morning hours with me trying to get to the end of my shift.

Oh, and as for my days off, I quickly revert back to the time when I could sleep all night...by sleeping all night!