Unable to turn around a nocturnal existence

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I have always been a night person instead of a morning person. I perceive mornings as a disaster because I always feel tired and grumpy at that time of day. My energy levels during the daytime are pretty low but as soon as evening sets in I start to feel energetic. alive and fully awake. It doesn't matter what time I go to bed. If I go to bed at 10 in the evening and get at least 8 hours of sleep I would feel the same way.

Since a couple of years things have been getting out of hand. I go to bed at 5 or 6 in the morning and since I need 7 to 8 hours of sleep I don't wake up until 2 in the afternoon. At this very moment it's 6 in the morning in Holland. I haven't slept yet and I'm still wide awake. I don't feel tired or drowsy despite the fact that I have already taken my evening meds. I love the night and the fact that it's so quiet because everyone is asleep. Another reason why I feel better at night is the fact that it's dark. I am over sensitive to light and darkness makes me feel relaxed and secure. I can hardly resist the urge to go for a walk at 3 or 4 in the morning. I don't have any problems with it myself but at the same time my day and night rythm as become so deviant compared to other people that it's hard to function on a normal level in society since most people are active during the daytime. I do feel like this is my natural state of being though so I'm not sure what to do about it.

Have you tried waking up at 4,5 or 6 am for a week straight? I know a friend who is really nocturnal and she said that waking up super early helps her. She still gets a lot of "alone in the dark" time and feels better than waking up later in the day.

I sleep pretty normally as my routines are set like that.

The same thing tends to happen to me if I don't have work/school to keep me on schedule.

One question: when you feel really drowsy in the morning, is it after being woken up by an alarm clock? Waking up to an alarm often makes me more tired in the mornings. Once, for the space of about about 9 months I was able to get myself on a schedule so that I would wake up on my own usually about 15-30 before my alarm was set to go off, and that made a huge difference in how tired I was in the morning.

being unemployed, I am free to sleep around the clock, as my biorhythms shift one hour per day in 24 day [approx.] cycles. the only thing that works for me is to let light into my bedroom and not use blackout curtains ever, as the light seems to set my circadian rhythms in a diurnal cycle of activity.

I have the same kind of pattern. I recommend waking up at 4 or 5 am too.

I'm the same. It gets so quiet and peaceful, and no (well, less) risk of skin cancer!
I recently got some professional quality ear muffs for construction workers.

Here are some things that help me (all have scientific evidence for efficacy):
1) Eat no more than 30 minutes after wake-up time. Have something with plenty of fiber and protein in it.
2) Do something exciting within 30 minutes of wake-up time. Maybe go for a jog, or watch an action show, anything to get your heart going.
3) Sometimes a good slap to the face works.
4) Plan to be asleep 8-10 hours before wake-up time no matter what.
5) Do something deeply calming and relaxing for 1 hour before going to sleep.

Some of these things might help also:
1) Take a shower immediately after wake-up time.
2) Drink a cup of coffee.
3) Positive awakening meditations (yell to yourself things like "I am awake!" "I am happy!" "What a great day!")
4) Make a time requirement goal with a reward for success and punishment for failure.

Or you could move somewhere with a thriving 24-hour lifestyle.

Well, have you tried talking to your psychiatrist about this? Medications can have a huge impact. Prozac makes me somewhat sleepy and relaxed all the time, Vyvanse really enforces a rigid wakefulness schedule for me, and abilify is FDA approved for irritability associated with autism. And lexapro makes me happy, and might of been a trigger for a Chrohn's episode.

Why not use it to your advantage? I worked at a help center 1pm-9pm. They paid me EXTRA because I worked late. There are 24 hour stores that pay EXTRA for people who work over night.

If your naturally functioning your best at night, I would say use it as something that sets you apart in a good way. My last employer got big eyes when I said I would work till 7pm. They had been forcing people to work till 7 in a rotating order. When I started, all those people got to go home and I worked till 7.