The graveyard shift is the working period through the middle of the night. Work the graveyard shift, on the graveyard shift, a graveyard shift again.
The body fights it, since alertness bottoms out around four in the morning whatever the schedule says, and night work is classed as a health risk for that reason. The name comes from the cold silence rather than from any real graveyard.
1noungraveyard shiftThe working period through the middle of the night.
“As a nurse, she often works the graveyard shift, from ten at night until six in the morning.”
graveyard shift is a shift.
From the cold and silence shared by the small hours and a graveyard.
By association of the spooky, cold and silent properties of both the night and graveyards.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Time & Calendar