r/Firefighting • u/c00kieduster • 4d ago

General Discussion Cannot sleep at the station anymore

15 years in, company officer at a suburb dept of 4 stations, 100ish people, 48/96. We average 4-5 in a 24 hr period, sometimes 1-2, sometimes 12-16.

It’s not all that uncommon for us to get to sleep through the night. However, in the last year or 2, I simply cannot sleep through the night. Even without calls, I’m getting up 2-3 times. Usually it’s a toss and turn, occasionally I’ll get up to go to bathroom but that’s not the reason.

When I’m at home, my head hits the pillow and unless something wakes me up, I sleep like a baby.

Anyone experience this? Got any tips?

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u/arachnid1110 4d ago

I can’t do melatonin at the station and be functional. 19 in at a big city. I used to make fun of my older brother that worked at a slow, suburban department for this. I was running 20 plus calls a day and he was running maybe 1-2.

Fast forward 15 years, no matter where I work, I sleep like shit, no hitters or busy days. It’s just not home, and nobody was designed to do this forever. We’re 24/48, I think the 48/96 would make this particular issue worse.

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u/elfilberto 4d ago

I guarantee you a 48/96 schedule would be way better for your rest and recovery compared to 24/48

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u/jamesweeks 2d ago

Just depends on how you departments staffing is imo. I work for a big department and if we did 48/96 it would be more like 96/48 due to forces. 48/96 is a great schedule if you actually get your days off on a regular basis.

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u/elfilberto 2d ago

Thats a collective bargaining issue. We are capped at 72 consecutive hours.