How do I get healthy sleep with a difficult, inconsistent work schedule?

On the all-morning schedule you have the option of investing in blackout curtains and sleeping from 1pm-9pm or so, then get up and socialize with friends before you go to work. It will still suck because our bodies aren't made to sleep during the day, but it will be WAY better than trying to change sleep shifts twice a week.

Have you looked into http://www.nuvigil.com/? One of the indications is for shift work sleep disorders. I've taken it for jet lag and shift work. You will still have to deal with the sleep deficit, but you can do it on your own terms. It only took me one dose to figure out that I should cut the dose in half for my biology, but it really helped me when I was dealing with similar issues.

I have done what the Serene Empress Dork suggested way back when I worked third shift. It's not ideal but it's doable.

Take the other shift so at least you have regular-ish hours. Sleep from 3-7, have a few hours of a life during the evening when normal people are awake, sleep again from 11-2, get up and go to work. That gives you seven hours of sleep most days with a few waking hours in between. My mother worked 2nd or 3rd shift the whole time I was growing up, and I don't think she ever slept a straight 7-8 hours at a stretch. She always caught a few hours here and a few hours there.

zug has the right idea here, and i really think there's no way this is doable constantly swinging around like that. you will be a lot more miserable if you keep the rotating shifts than if you pick the morning shift and just deal with it. there's also something else here that no one has really mentioned. if you choose a steady schedule, i bet it will make a *big* difference in people expecting you to constantly work extra time or be available at odd times. there's something about not having a consistent schedule that seems to make both management, and coworkers think "oh, they're just here whenever we need them, and leave whenever it's done no matter how long that takes" if you make a point of picking a consistent daily schedule i feel like that will change. i've also had several friends who worked similar hours doing security or other odd hours jobs. you will find a way around it. you'll also have way more energy being on a fixed schedule. i say take the fixed schedule and give it a month or two. i bet your time will be treated with more respect, and if you do it like zug says, you'll still have plenty of time for friends and a boyfriend after you get out of bed at 7pm or so. i could also grumble on about jobs that expect you to work ridiculous rotating shifts like that, but that doesn't really answer the question. i definitely wouldn't stick around at a place where they were like "everyone does it, suck it up" for more than a year/longer than i had to though.

Take the 3am-1pm shift and turn it into a "second shift" job. That is, go home immediately after work and sleep, say from 2-10, and then on friday/saturday nights you'll be available to go out to the bar and such, and on your days off you'll be available for lunch or brunch with friends as well as earlier evening activities if you go to bed early (say, 11-7pm).

I'm on a somewhat similar schedule, and it is a killer. Try to take it one day at a time, focusing on getting whatever sleep you can and not on how little sleep you're getting overall. A year will pass faster than you'd think, and then you can find yourself a better situation. (Maybe it won't even take a year. Keep your eyes open.) Don't exercise after work. It will get your energy up for a few hours, and that's not what you want if you're going to be going to bed soon. Exercise before work, or on your lunch hour. If your boss gives you grief about taking a lunch hour, give him some push back. Does he want his reporter/producers to be out of shape? As much as you give to your job, you need a little bit of actual life for yourself. Work hard enough in other areas, and hopefully he'll get over his anti-lunch crap. Talking it over with other people who work alternating day and night shifts, we all have a hard time going home and straight to bed at 8 AM. There's some weird thing that compels us to stay up for an hour or two, even if that's not a good idea. Our bodies seem to demand that time, to wind down and relax. There is nothing natural about any of this, all we can do is minimize the damage of being on this crazy, disruptive schedule. Be grateful you're doing this at 24, instead of later in life. Being short of sleep at 24 was a freakin' breeze, compared to now!

- Exercise is impossible on this schedule. Can I find some way to make it possible? - I really feel like taking the morning schedule would torpedo my life outside of work. I'd need to be asleep at 8pm, and since most people I know get out of work around 5 or 6, I just feel like I'd never see my friends. I'd also never see my boyfriend, who my relationship with is only just beginning (four weeks in). Is moving to that schedule the best option under those circumstances? I'm only 24 and I feel like I'll miss out on normal twenties social things. First - 24 hour gyms exist, and walking or running can be done around any schedule, as can body weight exercises and workout DVD's at home. Second, it sounds, if you haven't seen your friends in weeks, that your social life is already torpedoed, so I am not sure what you are losing. Also, and I mean this as nicely as possible, a relationship of four weeks is not a great reason to make a professional decision one way or another. You could break up tomorrow, so you should do what's best for your health and sanity first and if the relationship works, great! Third, to be honest unless you are being compensated extremely well, this all just doesn't seem worth it. Work-to-the-bone work culture, long weird hours, no social life, no ability to exercise...what can you give up for work that you haven't already? I mean, it's good to build a career, but that next opportunity is a dream right now and not a reality, and killing yourself to get there is a way a lot of people have gotten bitter.

I'd need to be asleep at 8pm, and since most people I know get out of work around 5 or 6, I just feel like I'd never see my friends. I don't know the specifics of your friend group/social culture, but for me this would mean lots of meeting friends for happy hour.