Sleeping around a late
On at 2:00 pm, off at 10:00 pm: 8h on shift and 16h between one ending and the next beginning.
In bed at 11:00 pm, 1 hour after clocking off. The rows differ only in when you get up.
| Up at | Cycles | Until the next start |
|---|---|---|
| 6:45 am | 5 cycles | 7h 15m |
| 5:15 am | 4 cycles | 8h 45m |
| 3:45 am | 3 cycles | 10h 15m |
| 2:15 am | 2 cycles | 11h 45m |
7h 30m asleep
Five cycles taken straight after clocking off, laid on an ordinary clock face.
Sleeping before the shift
The same sum run the other way: be up at 12:30 pm, which is an hour and a half before you are due on, and count whole cycles back from there.
| In bed | Cycles | Time asleep |
|---|---|---|
| 4:45 am | 5 cycles | 7h 30m |
| 6:15 am | 4 cycles | 6h |
| 7:45 am | 3 cycles | 4h 30m |
| 9:15 am | 2 cycles | 3h |
Splitting it in two
One block after clocking off and a second before clocking on. If the two will not fit between the shifts, the total below says so.
Both blocks together
7h 30m
In bed at 11:00 pm until 3:45 am, then again at 9:15 am until 12:30 pm, with 5h 30m awake in between.
Those two do not fit between one shift and the next. Take fewer cycles in one of them.
Lates across the year
A late is the one rota on the planner that keeps each end of the shift on the same side of the light all year. The 2:00 pm start is in daylight on every day in London, New York, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Sydney. The 10:00 pm finish is dark on every day, since the latest sunset of the five is London's 9:22 pm.
Five cycles straight after it run from 11:00 pm to 6:45 am. In Johannesburg 6:45 am is light from early August to late May. In Cape Town it is light from the middle of September to the middle of March. Sydney has it light from early August to early March, and in 2026 again from 5 April, when its clocks go back, to late May. London has it light from early March to late September. New York has it from late February to late September, apart from the three weeks after its clocks go forward, on 8 March in 2026. It is light there again for about two weeks after they go back, on 1 November.
The clocks change inside that sleep. On the night they go forward it is an hour shorter than the table says. On the night they go back it is an hour longer. In 2026 they fall on 29 March and 25 October in London, 8 March and 1 November in New York, and 4 October and 5 April in Sydney. Johannesburg and Cape Town never have them.
Four cycles after the shift would end at 5:15 am. That is in daylight in London from the middle of May to late July, and in Johannesburg from early November to late December. In the other three cities it is dark all year.
Sleeping before a late is the table the planner prints second. It runs five cycles from 4:45 am to a 12:30 pm alarm, an hour and a half before the start. In London 4:45 am is light for about three weeks in June. In the other four cities it is always dark.
Sunrise and sunset: the NOAA solar equations, for each city centre in 2026, to the nearest minute.
Cycles are 90 minutes here and dropping off takes 15, as on the rest of the site, and the next shift is taken to start at the same time the following day. Rows that will not fit between two shifts are marked. That is the only judgement on the page: which arrangement suits your rota and your household is not something this site can know.
The other rotas
A run of days and nights together, with the switch days between them, is laid out on the rota planner.
- Nights
10:00 pm to 6:00 am
- Twelve-hour nights
7:00 pm to 7:00 am
- Earlies
6:00 am to 2:00 pm
- Twelve-hour days
7:00 am to 7:00 pm