Too tired to think

20 years ago, I worked too much and didn't sleep enough and at the end of a work shift, I might have an addled brain. Now, I'm twenty years older working just 38 hours a week, out of the ICU, but the level of job stress is of an equal comparison. Near the end of a typical insanely busy shift, I sometimes have too many details bouncing around in my brain, like the balls in the Lottery machine. 

Circadian Calamity 

I've been known to brag

That I am infallible,

Master genius at work

Always present, ever callable,

But in the waning minutes

Of my twelve hour shift,

I'm more prone to forget

And suffer memory drift.

But I'm not alone

With this egghead fault,

A Harvard brainiac

Suffering memory halt,

Other nurses I work with

Who are half of my age,

Remark, they, as well

Lose an occasional page.

Eminent researchers

Call it Shift Work Sleep Disorder,

Decreased mental acuity

After crossing the Circadian border,

Key details and facts

Have undergone cancellations,

Call a "Memory Alert"

Block the doors, man the stations!

12-Hour-shift workers

Includes many variants,

Rotating work assignments

You could forget your under-pants,

When your mind gets so befuddled

Sleep deprived and wasted,

You feel like rotten turkey

Unfit to be tasted. 

A paper was written

Let me read it to you,

Keen observations

And a theory or two,

To correct memory drift

A recurrent event,

A simple 5-step approach

Time well spent.

The best thing I found

When my brain feels like crap,

Stop what I'm doing

Take a break, have a nap,

Find some darkness

Or simply, close my eyes,

And even if I don't sleep

I watch the starry skies,

Behind my closed eyelids

With the ringing in my ears,

I relax in that environment

My mind shifts gears,

Producing relaxation

A restful transformation,

Feeling better, I'll be

When I return to the station.

Sounds like a treatise

Delivered at the N.T.I.,

Where's the documentation?

My competitors cry,

If I don't show some proof

My claims are just fluff,

If my brain remains addled

I'll be shunned, and that's enough.

But will I remember?

Let's not presume,

I suffer memory drift

When I walk across the room,

And forget what I wanted

To do for Mr. Jones,

This Circadian calamity

It rattles my bones.

12/17/14