The short answer
- On a sleeping night you sleep and get up if calledUp to 2 short wakings is the usual line. Three or more, or one that takes longer than 20 minutes, is treated as a waking night. It is a convention, so agree it before you start.
- On a waking night you are awake and on duty throughoutChecks, turns, the toilet and reassurance through the night, with care at each end as on a sleeping night.
- A night is charged at the 15% shift commissionCommission follows the length of the visit, and a night is a single visit of 6 hours or more. From a £150 waking night, £127.50 reaches you.
- The 2021 sleep-in ruling is about employed workersIt decides when an employer must pay the minimum wage during a sleep-in. As a self-employed carer you set your own price for the night.
Rates are what carers on PrimeCarers advertise, with our fee included, checked 22 September 2026. Law and health guidance are from gov.uk, the Supreme Court judgment, the NHS and the HSE, for England.
Two kinds of night
A sleeping night and a waking night are two different jobs
Both kinds of night start with helping somebody to bed and end with helping them up. What differs is what you are there to do in between: on a sleeping night you are there in case you are needed, and on a waking night you are there to watch and do the care the night requires.
20:00 to 21:00
Sleeping nightAwake
Arrive and take the handover: how the day went, what medication is due, what usually happens in the night.
Waking nightAwake
The same handover, with more detail on the night: turns, checks and anything timed.
21:00 to 22:30
Sleeping nightAwake
Help to the bathroom, into nightclothes and into bed, a drink within reach, evening medication if it is part of the arrangement.
Waking nightAwake
The same bedtime routine, then settle where you can see or hear your client.
22:30 to 00:00
Sleeping nightAsleep
Check the doors, set the monitor if there is one, and go to bed in your own room with the door ajar.
Waking nightAwake
Awake in a chair in or next to the room, with a low light. Look in regularly.
00:00 to 02:00
Sleeping nightAsleep
Asleep, and available if you are called.
Waking nightAwake
Checks as the plan says. A turn or a pad change if one is due.
02:00 to 03:00
Sleeping nightUp briefly
Up once, for a trip to the toilet or to settle a confused waking, and back to bed within ten minutes or so.
Waking nightAwake
Help to the toilet, a drink, reassurance, and a note in the log of the time and what happened.
03:00 to 06:00
Sleeping nightAsleep
Asleep again. A second short call is still a sleeping night.
Waking nightAwake
The low point for your own alertness. Stay on your feet between checks and eat something light.
06:00 to 07:00
Sleeping nightAwake
Get yourself up and ready before your client wakes.
Waking nightAwake
Another turn or check if due, and get the morning ready.
07:00 to 08:00
Sleeping nightAwake
Help to get up, wash and dress if agreed, morning medication, then a note of the night and hand over.
Waking nightAwake
The same morning care, a written note of the night, and hand over before you leave.
The times are an example and every client differs. Families on PrimeCarers are told that both kinds of night run 10 to 12 hours, and that up to 2 short wakings is a sleeping night, while three or more, or any single waking longer than 20 minutes, is a waking night. That is a convention, not a law. Advertised rates include our fee, checked 22 September 2026.
On a sleeping night you have a bed, ideally in a room of your own, and you are expected to sleep. You get up when your client calls or the monitor goes, deal with what is needed, and go back to bed. Families on PrimeCarers are told that this usually means once or twice a night, and that the arrangement assumes you get a broadly normal night's sleep in their house. What families are told about waking and sleeping nights sets out the rule of thumb they read: up to 2 short wakings is a sleeping night, and three or more, or any single waking longer than 20 minutes, is a waking night.
That line is a convention, not a law. No regulation fixes the number, and nobody checks it except you and the family. It is still the right starting point, because it is what the family has read before they contact you, and a conversation that starts from the same definition is easier to have.
On a waking night you stay awake for the whole shift. Much of it is quiet: sitting with a low light, looking in regularly, and getting up for a turn, a pad change, a drink or the toilet when they are due or when your client stirs. The point is that you are awake before you are called. Somebody who wanders, needs turning every few hours or has medication due in the small hours needs a waking night, however few times they call out.
The words vary. Care homes and councils say sleep-in for a sleeping night, and hospices often say night sitter for somebody who is awake. Night care terms explained lines them up as families are told them. How long a night shift is shows the usual times, which is 10 to 12 hours, arriving between 8pm and 10pm and leaving between 7am and 8am. The rest of the guides for carers working this way are on carer resources.
What a night pays
What carers advertise for a night, and what reaches you
Nights are advertised by the night rather than by the hour. The rate you set is what the family pays, and our commission comes out of it rather than being added on top. These are the bands carers on PrimeCarers advertise, and the figure that reaches the carer from each.
Night rates on PrimeCarers, per night
| Advertised, our fee included | Reaches you, after 15% | |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeping night | £130 to £145 a night | £110.50 to £123.25 |
| Waking night | £150 to £160 a night | £127.50 to £136 |
| Waking night alongside a live-in carer | about £148 a night | about £125.80 |
Sleeping night
- Advertised, our fee included
- £130 to £145 a night
- Reaches you, after 15%
- £110.50 to £123.25
Waking night
- Advertised, our fee included
- £150 to £160 a night
- Reaches you, after 15%
- £127.50 to £136
Waking night alongside a live-in carer
- Advertised, our fee included
- about £148 a night
- Reaches you, after 15%
- about £125.80
What carers on PrimeCarers advertise, checked 22 September 2026. Every figure in the second column is the advertised rate minus the 15% commission on a single visit of 6 hours or more.
The commission on PrimeCarers is set by the length of a visit, not by the kind of care in it. There is no separate rate for nights. A visit of less than 6 hours is charged at 20%, a single visit of 6 hours or more at 15%, and live-in care at 12.5%. A night of 10 to 12 hours is one visit well past the 6-hour line, so the 15% rate applies. A short bedtime call on its own, of an hour or two, is an ordinary hourly visit at 20%. The VAT on our commission is paid out of it, so nothing is added to the family's bill and nothing more comes out of your share.
The third row is for a particular kind of booking. A live-in carer sleeps in the house and can be woken once or twice, but cannot be up through the night and still work the day. Where a family needs somebody awake as well, they book a second carer for waking nights alongside the live-in carer, and families are told to expect about £148 a night for it.
Under the contract, a bank holiday is charged at one and a half times your normal rate and Christmas Day at twice. Travel is chargeable only if you and the client have agreed the rate and the circumstances in advance, in writing. Payment follows your client's billing, and how carers get paid on PrimeCarers explains when the money arrives. Nothing is deducted for tax, so set some aside from every payment: how to pay tax as a self-employed carer covers registering and the deadlines.
Where you sit in the band is your choice. How much to charge as a self-employed carer sets nights beside visits and live-in work, and what carers earn on PrimeCarers sets out the commission in full. If you want families near you to be able to book you for nights, you can register as a carer on PrimeCarers and set a separate rate for each kind of night, or first see the carer jobs open near you. Families search and choose, so registering does not bring bookings on its own.
What to agree
What to agree in writing before your first night
Most disagreements about nights come from two people having different nights in mind. Settling these points before the first shift, and writing them down where you both can see them, is the simplest protection you have.
- 1
Which kind of night it is
Before you quoteAsk what usually happens: how often your client wakes, for how long, and what for. If the family has kept a diary of the nights, ask to see it. Agree in writing that a sleeping night means up to 2 short wakings, or whatever line the two of you settle on. - 2
What happens if the nights turn out busier
Before you quoteWrite down what you will do if you are up more than agreed on most nights: talk to the family, and move to a waking night on a new contract if the pattern continues. - 3
The times and the care at each end
Before the first nightYour arrival and finish times, and what the evening and morning care includes: the bathroom, dressing, medication, breakfast. - 4
Where you sleep, or where you sit
Before the first nightA proper bed in a room of your own, or next door, for a sleeping night. A comfortable chair near your client, a light you can read by, and somewhere to make a drink for a waking night. - 5
Who to call, and how to get in
The first nightEmergency numbers, the family member to ring at 3am and the one to ring at 8am, and how you get in and lock up. - 6
How you will record the night
Every nightA short written note of each waking, with the time, how long it took and what you did. It is the record that settles any later question about which kind of night this is.
Notice and cancellation are already in the contract every client and carer agree. Either side can end hourly care on 48 hours' notice, and live-in care on 7 days' once 168 hours have been worked. The contract does not name nights separately, so agree with the family which notice period you are working to and write it down. A night the client cancels is payable in full, except where the reason is unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason you and the client agree, and you can waive part or all of it if you choose. When a client cancels or goes into hospital goes through it.
Breaks on a waking night are yours to manage under the contract, and you can agree suitable times with your client. A waking night is still a night you agreed to spend awake, so a break means a few minutes away from the chair, not a sleep.
When nights change
When a sleeping night keeps turning into a waking one
Nights change. Somebody who slept through when you started may begin waking three or four times after an infection, a fall or a change in medication. The family may not know, because they are asleep. You are the one who sees it first.
What helps
- Keep your notes of each waking from the first night, so you can show the pattern rather than describe it
- Tell the family in writing what you have seen, and give them a week or two of notes
- Suggest they raise a sudden change in their relative with the GP or district nurse
- Agree a waking night rate on a new contract if the busier nights continue
What causes problems
- Carrying on at the sleeping night rate for weeks while getting little sleep
- Changing your rate part way through a contract without agreeing it
- Doing tasks you have not agreed, or do not feel able to do safely
- Arranging anything with the family outside PrimeCarers
Your rate is fixed for the length of a contract. The carer terms say that a change must be agreed with the client and needs the current contract to end and a new one to be agreed. That is how a sleeping night becomes a waking night: the family agrees, and a new contract at the new rate replaces the old one. If the family would rather keep the sleeping night, you can say that you cannot keep doing it on those terms and give notice.
The contract also lets you send a suitable substitute if you are ill or cannot work a night, as long as you arrange and pay them yourself, and the client can object on reasonable grounds. Every client you meet through PrimeCarers is booked and paid through PrimeCarers, and that stays true however long you have worked with them.
Your own health
Looking after your sleep, your health and the drive home
The Health and Safety Executive says night workers are particularly at risk of fatigue because their day sleep is often lighter, shorter and more easily disturbed. Nobody sets a limit on your nights when you are self-employed, so the limit is one you have to set yourself.
Protect your day sleep
Cut caffeine before you sleep
Eat little and often through the night
Think about the drive home
Tell somebody where you are
See a GP if it does not settle
The guidance comes from the NHS page on sleep problems, which notes that shift work can affect your sleep pattern, from NHS Employers' guide to the health and wellbeing of shift workers, written for NHS night staff and published in July 2024, and from the HSE on fatigue, which found accidents and injuries more frequent on night shifts, after a run of shifts, and when shifts are long. Rule 91 of the Highway Code covers driving when tired, and advises avoiding long journeys between midnight and 6am, when natural alertness is at its lowest.
Employed night workers have a legal limit. gov.uk says night workers must not work more than an average of 8 hours in 24, usually averaged over 17 weeks. That rule protects workers, and it does not bind you as a self-employed carer. It is still a sensible guide when you decide how many nights in a row to take, and how many nights a week you can do and stay safe with a client. Working alone is covered in the HSE's guidance on lone working.
Nights also leave fewer hours for anything else, and a night you are too ill to work is unpaid. Holiday pay, sick pay and pensions when you are self-employed covers planning for that, and do I need insurance? covers cover for working in other people's homes.
The 2021 ruling
The 2021 sleep-in judgment applies to employed care workers, not to your rate
If you have worked sleep-ins for an employer, you may have heard that sleep-in pay was settled by the Supreme Court. It was, for employed workers. Here is what the court decided and why it does not decide what a self-employed carer charges.
The words in the judgment and the guidance
- Sleep-in shift
- gov.uk describes it as a shift a worker must spend at or near the workplace, usually at night, expecting to sleep for all or most of it and to be woken if needed.
- Awake for the purposes of working
- The test the court applied. A sleep-in worker is entitled to the minimum wage only for the time they are awake for the purposes of working, not for time they are permitted to sleep.
- Working most of the shift
- Where a worker is expected to be busy for all or most of a shift and only naps between tasks, gov.uk says the minimum wage is likely to be due for the whole shift.
- Suitable sleeping facilities
- For time asleep not to count, the employer must provide somewhere suitable to sleep. If they do not, the minimum wage is due for the entire shift.
The case is Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake, decided on 19 March 2021 together with a second appeal brought by a night care assistant at a residential care home. Both were employed care workers claiming the minimum wage for every hour of their sleep-in shifts. The Supreme Court dismissed both appeals and held, unanimously, that they were entitled to it only while awake for the purposes of working. gov.uk's guidance on minimum wage working hours now explains sleep-ins on that basis, with examples.
None of that sets your price. gov.uk lists self-employed people running their own business among those not entitled to the minimum wage, so the question the court answered, which hours an employer must pay for, does not arise between you and a client. On PrimeCarers you set a rate for the night as a whole, and the family agrees to it before you arrive. Whether you sleep through or are up twice, that is the price of the night you agreed.
If you are employed by a care home or an agency, the judgment and the gov.uk guidance do apply to you, and your contract and your employer's policy decide the rest. Self-employed or agency carer? sets the two ways of working side by side.
Questions
Questions carers ask about night work
The convention families on PrimeCarers are told about is up to 2 short wakings. Three or more, or any single waking that takes longer than 20 minutes, is treated as a waking night. No law sets the number, so agree it with the family in writing before the first night, and keep a note of each waking so you can both see the pattern.
15%. Commission depends on the length of the visit, and a night is a single visit of 6 hours or more, so the shift rate applies. From a £130 sleeping night, £110.50 reaches you, and from a £160 waking night, £136. The VAT on our commission is paid out of it.
Not as a self-employed carer. gov.uk says self-employed people running their own business are not entitled to the minimum wage. You set a price for the whole night instead. The 2021 Supreme Court ruling on sleep-ins is about what an employer must pay an employed worker.
No. A waking night is one you have agreed to spend awake, because your client needs somebody watching before they call. You manage your own short breaks under the contract, but sleeping through is not what the family is paying for. If you cannot stay awake safely, do not take the booking.
Yes. gov.uk says you can be employed and self-employed at the same time. Your wages are taxed through payroll and your self-employed income goes on a Self Assessment return. Check what your employment contract says about other work, and allow yourself enough sleep between the two.
It depends on your circumstances. gov.uk (checked 22 September 2026) says you can work up to 20 hours a week in another job or for your own business while still doing your sponsored job, but only in a higher skilled occupation, one on the immigration salary list, or one in the same sector and at the same level as your main job. A medium skilled job, which includes care work, is allowed only if your first certificate of sponsorship was issued before 22 July 2025 and you have held Health and Care Worker visas continuously since. You may need to update your visa first. For your own case, ask gov.uk or an adviser regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority, which replaced the OISC.