Only way I could get everything to work was to swap am & pm exactly, so getting up at 06:00 or 18:00 depending on shift, etc. I had an hour drive to work, ok at start of shift but hard coming home in the morning against rush hour traffic. My blood sugar would dip towards the end of a nightshift and leave me tired but that's the same for everyone on shifts, I suppose. Just watch out if you have far to travel back home to bed.
My DSN took me off insulatard and gave me lantus. Having a longer acting basal insulin helped and keeping the same injection time for basal insulin regardless of shift was recommended by my consultant.
Watch out for hypos first nightshift of each set, that was where I had most trouble. A few hours sleep in the afternoon before first shift might help. Also, if you've been up like a normal day before going to work for the first night, watch out for stacking of short-acting insulin if you have meal breaks during your shift. That was part of my problem, the actrapid lasted too long and I needed to move to Humalog instead.