Shift Sleep Planner
Plan sleep and naps around night shifts, early morning shifts or exam season, with caffeine and light timing.
About this tool
Shift Sleep Planner
Plan sleep and naps around night shifts, early morning shifts or exam season, with caffeine and light timing.
Pick your schedule, enter shift or exam times and get a sleep plan. This page brings together 3 separate shift sleep planner pages (Early morning shift, Exam season, Night shift) so you can compare them without hunting for the right one.
How to use Shift Sleep Planner
- 1
Open Shift Sleep Planner on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
- 2
Choose your schedule at the top: Early morning shift, Exam season, Night shift. On a phone it is a drop-down list.
- 3
Fill in the shift sleep planner for that schedule; each of the 3 options keeps its own rules, data and defaults.
- 4
Read the result, then switch schedule to compare. The page link keeps your schedule (?v=early-morning-shift), so you can bookmark or share it.
Why use Shift Sleep Planner
All 3 in one place
Early morning shift, Exam season, Night shift and the rest sit behind one picker, so switching schedule takes a tap instead of a new search.
Built for each option
Every schedule keeps its own rules, numbers and defaults rather than one generic template.
Shareable view
The link remembers the schedule you picked, so a bookmark or a shared link opens straight on it.
Common use cases
- A warehouse picker on a 5am start finds the real lights-out time is 20:15 once a 25-minute drive and 35 minutes of getting ready are counted.
- A final-year student sitting a 9:30am paper finds out that shifting from a 1am bedtime to 11:15pm takes four nights, so the schedule starts on the right day.
- A guard finishing a 22:00–06:00 post sees that lights-out at 07:00 gives a 14:15 wake, and nearly eight hours awake before clocking on again.
Frequently asked questions
Which schedule options does this tool cover?
3: Early morning shift, Exam season, Night shift. Pick one at the top of the tool; the page link updates (for example ?v=early-morning-shift) so you can bookmark or share that exact view.
What time should I go to bed for a 4am shift?
For a 4am start with a 30-minute commute and 45 minutes of getting ready, the alarm goes at 2:45am, so lights-out is 7:30pm the evening before if you want 7 hours of sleep plus about 15 minutes to fall asleep. Adjust for your own commute — every 10 minutes of travel is 10 minutes off the previous evening.
How many hours should I sleep the night before an exam?
Aim for your normal full night — 7 or more hours for adults, 8 to 10 for teenagers aged 13 to 18, per the AASM and Sleep Research Society consensus statements. A single short night mainly costs you reading speed, working memory and attention, which are exactly the things a paper tests.
When should a night shift worker sleep during the day?
Either straight after the shift, when sleep pressure is highest and falling asleep is easiest, or delayed so the sleep ends shortly before the next shift and you start the night fresh. Straight-after suits shorter nights; delayed or split suits 12-hour posts where alertness in the final hours matters most.