I recently changed from an overnight shift the last 3 yrs. and initially I kept the same schedule on my off days as works days but got tired of watching late night infomercials at 3am or being in a 24hr store like grocery or walmart with only other people there besides the stocking employees were tweakers LOL Once I was tired of that and wanted to be back a part of the "normal" world and daytime hours I found that if I took a power nap the morning after the last night I worked leading into my days off for maybe 3-5 hours and then toughed out the rest of day I would be able to crash out at a reasonable hour later at night... or just load up on caffiene or other stims and pull a 24hr+ no sleep binge until a reasonable time at night and crash out then.. may have to try using benedryl or even get a script for ambien since it fast acting/short lasting sleep aid... the rx for ambien shouldnt be a prob since you telling your doc you do shift work he gonna know your sleep is backasswards already.... lastly, on the day of the night i would have to go back to work, usually I would wake in morning like normal people LOL do whatever through the morning then take a power nap at some point thru the afternoon/early evening for 3-4 hours and that coupled with caffiene or other stims would power me thru the overnight to where I would crash out to sleep in the morning after work and continue on for the remainder of my work week.. again you may need to take benedryl etc then too just to keep your body in sleep mode thru the day.. after a while your body will adjust to the shitty but somewhat stable pattern and wont be so bad to deal with, a few things that also help.. if you are sensitive to light, put aluminum foil over any bedroom windows, it will have a crackhouse look to it but blocks out all light and is cheap to use, otherwise look at blackout sleeping masks online like amazon/ebay etc, or the blackout curtains also, then may have to keep bedroom temp extra cold/hot too since some are sensitive to climate as well...