Over the years in the job my hours were not set night's, days lates earlies, sometimes a 24 hour, on call turn all good fun. I always enjoyed shift work.

Loved working the nightshift, for the simple reason, no pricks in ties or suits around, eg management idiots, we mugs were left to clean up the crap they had left behind.

One example, some management prick wanted us to swap a HP filter from one aircraft to another (lack of spares), what effin idiot would contaminate one fuel system with anothers?

Another prick wanted us to swap out a nosewheel leg that hadnt been NDI'd after a "heavy landing"

As mentioned before, "educated idiots".

Funnily enough, after the facts were explained, none of these idiots were willing to sign off the job, best we leave it for the day shift lads, was the usual get out.

To be fair the Sat/Sun were 24 hour on calls so between the emergency surgery and cardiac arrest calls we usually got to bed by 5am.

I was asked today to do some night shifts next month.

I just smiled and agreed.

Part of my job and to be honest keeps me off the jungle juice heh heh.

Years ago I worked on East coast prawn trawlers, nearly all night work, sometimes we trawled constantly day and night if there were prawns to be caught during the day. That was often the case in the deepwater, around 100 fathoms.
The worst job I had regarding sleep deprivation was the northern boat I worked on in 83-84. That boat worked 24-7, around the clock, regardless of the weather.
I used to get two 90 minute sleeps in 24 hrs, from midnight til 1.30 am then from about 3.00 am til 4.30am.
Funny thing was when the sun rose it was like starting again, like the clock had been reset.
Mind you I was only 26 yo at the time and I was drinking lots of coffee.

In the Army I noticed that two days without sleep tends to make me lose my sense of humour. Dreadfull

Sorry to hear you suffer from insomnia.