Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

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Hah, that was some of the first advice I got with the Narcolepsy diagnosis. Take a couple quick naps in the day, 15 minutes is all you need...

Well, on a good day, it takes at least 2 hours to fall asleep...
And about 2 more hours to wake up, get my brain going, and not feel like a nauseous total slug.


My first few sleep studies only came back with DSPS and hypersomnolence.
A normal sleep study, a Polysomnogram, cant detect Narcolepsy - it will come back as DSPS or hypersomnolence of unknown origin. The more informative part of a thorough sleep study is the second day, the Multiple Sleep Latency Test. Kind of a pain, but highly recommended for those who want to understand their sleep issues better. If you can get one done at Stanford, they have the best equipment by far...

First time I was given Xyrem (GHB) to help me sleep (indicated to provide "a state indistinguishable from normal sleep") I had my first taste of what "normal" sleep rhythm is - and the benefits of the physically restorative sleep stages I had been missing for so long.
With the equivilent of 4 "street doses" of this alleged "date rape drug." and a mg of xanax, I can get almost normal sleep - too bad they wont let me keep using he xanax with it for too long.

Every single person in my family stays up late. Even my grandmother. Nobody goes to bed earlier than 12 unless they have to be up REALLY early.

The problem I have, is that even if I get so little sleep or wake up really early, I still can't go to sleep before 2AM. I can be rediculously tired all day, and I'll perk right up when it gets dark.

Plus I have insomnia and the only thing that seems to help is gravol... Ah well.

I blame computers for being too awesome. My whole family constantly uses computers all the time.

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Also about naps; sleeping for more than 45 minutes will make you feel dopey because you drift into slow-wave sleep. If you sleep only 20-45 minutes, you'll be fine.