Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

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I used to have this problem, which began around the time I hit puberty.

Since then my sleep has deteriorated steadily. Getting tired has gone from being delayed to not happening at all.

I never get tired and now cannot sleep at all without chemical "help". *At all.* I'm not exaggerating.

Unfortunately I have developed a tolerance to my prescribed meds (Ambien) but I am afraid to tell my doctor just how much of a tolerance.

I am not getting enough of something my body needs to stay alive and if this does not change I will not live very long.

WHY DON'T AUTISTICS SLEEP???

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I have closer to a 28 hr inner clock. I used to try to fight it, and maintain a normal schedule. It was annoying, and caused both insomnia and narcaleptic like symptoms. I was never getting enough sleep...and couldn't sleep when I should.

I have adopted a 6/7 strategy. "My" week has 6 "days" in it. Each one is 28 hours long. And I ignore the standard concept of a 24 hr day.

My sleep cycle is as close to this as I can maintain:

Mon -2am 10pm -
Tues - 8am
Wed 2am - 10 am
Thurs 6am - 2pm
Fri 10 am - 6pm
Sat 2pm - 10pm
Sun 6pm -

I know it is impractical for most people. But my schedule allows for it, and since adopting it my overall wakefulness, alertness, and quality of sleep have all improved dramatically.

Because we operate on the Wrong Planet time zone!

LOL... but seriously... it is a very serious health issue and there need to be answers!

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It seems a lot of people will say it's just a matter of discipline getting to bed on time. Forcing myself to lay in bed for hours at a time when I just can't sleep is torture though. Just doesn't work, period. I have to at least read in bed. Also, professionals will insist that getting exercise will help but that doesn't seem to be the case for me unless I make myself ridiculously exhausted which just isn't possible every single day.

I really have only two choices in life. Either sleep in and feel rested (and be considered lazy) or force myself to rise early every day and maybe after three days or more days of sleep deprivation I will finally crash early, like right after dinner, one night. I might feel rested for one day and the whole process repeats. When I work I tend to be tired and irritable, on the verge of feeling suicidal, All THE FREAKING TIME, and then even time to sleep in on the weekend isn't enough to fully recover before the next week starts.

I know another person with this syndrome. He used to be able to stay up until he was sleepy, He was also looking for work, so he started training himself to go to bed an hour later every time he retired. He continued doing this until he was retiring at a reasonable hour in the evening. That way when he found work that required him to get up very early every morning, he was able to do it. He still struggles with getting sleepy later and later at night. He can't take anything to sleep because they do random drug testing at his job. Delayed sleep syndrome truly sucks.

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Also, read this and related posts: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/circadia ... c-stimuli/

My sleep issues have nothing to do with light whatsoever. I have no circadian rhythm, period. My brain just doesn't stop seething. I think the only way to find answers would be to actually physically examine my brain. Maybe they'd find a hole in it or something.

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Maybe you should take a look at www.lucidology.com. It shows you how to induce waking sleep paralysis, which is this state where your body separates from the mind's input. Essentially, you can't move any of your voluntary muscles. You can still control your breathing, but if you don't, you'll just sleep-breathe for a while. After you've been sleep-breathing for several minutes or so, your mind will pass out. The process takes a while, but as long as you start about fifteen to forty-five minutes early, you should go to sleep on time. Also, the wide time frame is due to the fact that, when making estimations, I choose to err on the side of correctness. You really lose track of time in sleep paralysis.

My morning is my night.I have this syndrome too.

It works but like you said, can be tough to manage. I can't sleep without exercise. Most days I'm in the 2-3 hours of exercise range. Less than an hour and unless I'm sleep deprived, I can't sleep. Didn't get any significant exercise today, not looking forward to trying to sleep tonight.

Ive had problems sleeping since I was a baby.
Most of the problems sound just like what people are describing here.
When I was working, I could keep some semblance of a schedule, though I did take xanax every so often to help me sleep. Most other "sleep medicines" wouldnt help me fall asleep, at least until about the time I needed to wake up.
Things got so severe, at age 35 I was diagnosed with Narcolepsy, and it was determined that this was also an "infancy-onset" issue for me. Ive had the genetic tests and hypocretin/orexin spinal tap, all verifying this diagnosis.
I currently take a horses dose of Xyrem (GHB) to sleep, with some success. Im still lucky to get 6 hours a day (only about 4 if I try to sleep at night.)

Ive never fallen asleep "uncontrolled" as its so often portrayed. In fact, Im usually the last one to fall asleep, and left to my own schedule, can go about 40 hours before Im naturally tired enough to sleep. How much of this is stress induced at this point, I cant say... Family gatherings are bad enough as it is, add the additional frustration of watching others fall asleep in chairs after a big meal while it takes me hours of struggle to drift off.

Narcolepsy isnt what hollywood portrays, and based on the complaints Ive read in this thread, I have to wonder even more if this is more common among Aspies than people currently realize, because this thread is full of descriptions of the "Narcolepsy" I have, the real genetic one, not the hollywood one.

I recently had a sleep study done, because my doctor suspected sleep apnea. While sleep apnea was not discovered, they did find that I had a pattern of Alpha waves interfering with Delta waves during the sleep cycle. So I am not getting restorative sleep at all, unless medicated.

Me too.

I was diagnosed with Delayed Phase Sleep Disorder years ago, but after working a 9-5 job for the last several years, eventually my sleep schedule has become somewhat regulated. My natural cycle is to sleep from 4am - noon.

Is anyone else unable to take naps? If I try, I wake up in a dissociative state, completely out of it; it feels like I'm stoned but without any of the good aspects.

Yes, that is me definitely!