“Wake-in” or “Waking”?

In relation to a carer who is on duty overnight.  I have seen both forms used: is there a definitive correct answer as to whether one of these is an eggcorn (like “rest bite” care which you also see a lot) and, if so, which is right and which is the eggcorn?

And yes it was me who once said “mondegreen” on here.  You can roll your eyes if you want.

Seriously, I want to use the right word in an appeal submission and I honestly don’t know whether both are right or only one.

Thanks

I spend much of my life hearing eggcorns and mondegreens. I think I get a much better version of the world, as well as causing a lot of amusement.

Re the actual question, I had a client once whose job this was and he called it “waking”.

I think the difficulty is that different care providers use different terms - and sometimes interchangeably.

I have seen organisations use both terms to describe a carer who remains awake throughout their shift - as opposed to a carer who is allowed to sleep when not actively attending to the cared for person.

My preference would be for “waking” - that, historically, is how care provided by a carer that does not sleep has been described.

I can see why “wake-in” might have been adopted as “waking” could suggest to some a meaning of “the carer is waking at such times as they need to provide care”. But “wake-in” doesn’t properly describe anything. What are you waking in? And the hyphen makes the meaning even harder to fathom.

In any event, to avoid confusion, I’d probably define the term in my subs the first time I used it - e.g. “Mrs X requires 9 hours of waking care each night (by “waking care” what is meant is care from a carer who does not sleep when not actively attending to Mrs X - the carer remains awake throughout the 9 hours. “Waking care” or “waking carer” have that meaning when those terms are used in the remainder of this submission).”

Thank you both.  I was leaning towards “wake-in” but you’ve talked me out of it!