Panama and 2-2-3 are the same roster: two on, two off, three on, then the pattern flips. Almost everything written about it explains the rota and stops there. The rota is the easy part. The hard part is that you never work the same number of nights twice in a row, so you never finish adapting before it changes.
WHAT THIS PAGE WILL NOT TELL YOU
This page explains how the timing works and why. It does not print your six times, because they are not printable: they move with your finish time, your commute and the hour you wake with no alarm. Four questions, about forty seconds, no account.
- Your crash window
- Bright light: start and stop
- Sunglasses on: start and stop
- Main sleep: in bed and up
- Pre-shift nap: and when to set the alarm
- Last caffeine
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You are always partly adapted, never fully
Your clock moves in the region of an hour a day when you are pushing it with light. A three-night run gets you most of the way. A two-night run does not. Then a two-day break pulls you back. The result is that you spend the whole cycle somewhere in the middle, which is uncomfortable and is also the correct place to be. Aiming for full inversion on a roster this short costs you more than it returns.
Everything below is the mechanism. The six clock times it produces depend on your finish time, your commute and how early you wake unaided, so this page cannot print them. Get yours in about forty seconds.
Night one and night three are different problems
On night one your worst hour still sits where a day worker has it, which puts it inside the shift. By night three the plan has pushed it later, closer to your drive home. Same roster, same hours, two different risk profiles. That is why night one feels like a wall and night three feels like a fog. Plan the drive home carefully on both, for different reasons.
The two-day break is not a weekend
Two days is enough to lose adaptation and not enough to become a day person. Treat it as a hold rather than a flip. Sleep after the last night, get up mid afternoon, then go to bed a few hours earlier than your work night bedtime. You keep a workable evening and you do not pay the full price again on the next first night.
The three-day break is where you choose
The long break at the end of the cycle is the only one where a real flip is affordable, and even then it is a choice rather than a rule. If those three days are the reason you took the roster, flip and accept a harder first night. If getting through the block is what matters, hold the compromise. The schedule can do either, and it should be a decision you make rather than one that happens to you.
What to keep constant
Pick one block of sleep and keep it at the same clock time all cycle, even on the breaks. On a night-based 2-2-3 that is usually the hours right after you get home. Everything else can move around it. A schedule with one fixed point is one you can actually follow. A schedule that moves entirely every two days is one you abandon by the second cycle.
Common questions
+ − Is the Panama schedule the same as 2-2-3?
Yes. Panama is the common name for a 2-2-3 rotation: two on, two off, three on, then the pattern reverses. Most of what is written about it explains the rota rather than how to sleep on it, which is the part that actually decides how the block feels.
+ − Should I flip my sleep on a 2-2-3?
Not fully. The longest run is three shifts, and your clock moves in the region of an hour a day under bright light, so you never finish adapting before the pattern changes. A compromise position, sleeping later than a day worker but not fully inverted, is what this roster supports.
+ − Why is night three harder than night one?
It is a different kind of hard. On night one your worst hour is still where a day worker has it, so it lands inside the shift and feels like a wall. By night three the plan has pushed it later, closer to the drive home, so it feels like fog instead. Both need the drive planned for, for different reasons.
+ − What should I do on the two days off?
Hold, do not flip. Two days is enough to lose your adaptation and not enough to become a day person. Sleep after the last night, get up mid afternoon, then go to bed a few hours earlier than your work night bedtime. Save the real flip for the three-day break, if you want it at all.
+ − What are the disadvantages of a 2-2-3 schedule?
For sleep specifically, the disadvantage is that no run is long enough to finish adapting. Two nights, then two days off, then three nights means your body clock is being asked to move in one direction and then partly back, every week. You spend the cycle part-adapted rather than settled. The trade you get for it is that you never work more than three in a row and you get a three-day break every fortnight, which is why people take the roster.
+ − Is a 2-2-3 schedule good for employees?
It depends entirely on whether the sleep around it is protected. The pattern gives short runs and frequent breaks, which people like, and it costs you full adaptation, which people feel. What makes it workable is keeping one block of sleep at the same clock time all cycle and treating the two-day breaks as a hold rather than a flip. We are not going to tell you it is healthy or unhealthy; that is a question about your workforce, not about the rota.
What this is based on
Every rule the plan runs on, and where each one comes fromRelated
ShiftDawn is a scheduling and education tool built on published circadian research. Not medical advice, not a diagnosis. If you suspect a sleep disorder, see a clinician.