Delayed sleep phase syndrome.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sl ... e_syndrome

Anyone have this, or at least suspect they might?

I've always been a night owl. I find it impossible to go to sleep at a suitable time and wake-up at a suitable time. Lucky for me, my current life style allows me to sleep in my natural 1:00 AM to 12:00 PM style. I also like quite a number of hours sleep.

If I force myself to get-up any earlier than 11:00 AM I'll spend the rest of the day feeling hung-over or jet lagged, and I still won't sleep earlier than night. If anything I end-up staying awake later than usual.

I've tried over the counter sleep aids. They only work so long like anything else.
Same goes for melatonin, which also has me waking-up at 7-8 AM and thus feeling jet-lagged the rest of the day as normal.

Didn't know their was a name for it, but it sounds familiar. I generally prefer to go to bed no earlier than midnight. But, where I'm staying right now I'm forced to be up at 730am. I can function somewhat if I have to get up in the morning but I either feel like crud all morning or I feel like crud all morning and sleep for an hour or two in the afternoon. Come to think of it, I haven't had a good night sleep- when I woke up feeling rested- in 5 or 6 months.

I suspect that I have this, though none of the doctors I've seen would accept that there's really anything wrong at all. They just assure me I need to get to sleep at the same time every day because that's the way God made it.

If I allow myself to go to sleep when I feel tired and sleep as long as I need, I slip very cleanly into a cycle of falling asleep around 7 am and waking around 3 pm, which is very regular and exactly what I need. Unfortunately, this schedule does not agree with the rest of the world. If I force myself to go to bed at a more usual time, I fall asleep at erratic times and can't get up when I'm supposed to. Since I can't get up, everybody thinks I'm lazy, whatever sense that makes.

I'm told that this is not healthy, but I'm pretty sure that getting the sleep I need is far more important than when I get it. One day I think this will kill me.

I don't think I could survive if I were forced to adjust my sleep routine. I know I'm going to have to do it sometime, maybe sometime soon, but it's going to wreck me. The last time I had to get-up in the morning was in secondary school and it was grim. I don't start functioning properly until lunchtime.

I had classes this semester at 8 and 9 in the morning. I failed the 9 and almost failed the 8. For someone who really ought to be sleeping until 3, it's really pretty crazy. To put that in perspective, for someone who might usually go to bed at 11, that's like going to bed at 3 in the afternoon so you can wake up at 9. Every day. If I get that much sleep, it's a good night.

I normaly go to bed around 3am and get up around 12-1. Last night I went to bed at 4am and got up about a half hour ago at 2:30
This really screws with bike racing, as the other day I had to get up at 4:30am to travel to a race, I ended up getting about a hours sleep and then raced. I am really in need of some sleeping meds for the days I need to get up early.
My last job, one reason I was fired is because I was late every day, I felt so much better to be able to let my natural sleep pattern take over, it feels so great, but to bad the rest of society cant adapt to our ways of sleeping

I don't have Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, but I probably have another sleep disorder....I think I may have Non-24 Sleep Syndrome .....as a child I had a lot of difficulty sleeping at night and I most of the time couldn't sleep through the night at all. For me the onset of night time sleepiness could occur at any random time during the day or night...and it wouldn't always be the same time...usually shifting later by an hour and a half per day....so for a few days I would sleep sort of normally...then have severe insomnia for the rest of the week as my "nighttime" shifted later and later each night.

When my nighttime came in the morning after the sun came up...the light caused a degeneration of the melatonin I was producing...and I was no longer able to fall asleep....then I'd skip a few nights sleep...until my nighttime came at night for a few days....then back to a few days of insomnia. I've always been very sensitive to daylight savings time and jet lag from traveling to different time zones....it effects me way more than it does the neurotypicals that were in my family...and even my autistic father.....although my little sister who is bipolar also was very sensitive to changes in daylight, sift work, and changes in time zones....and still is...

As an adult I'm still struggling with my odd sleeping issue, although melatonin does help me, as does using a light box.....and sometimes medication can help. I believe that this sleep disorder caused another disorder to surface as I entered adolescence.....bipolar disorder. There is evidence that people with bipolar disorder have abnormal functioning of the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus...essentially the brain's "clock." No one knows exactly how this causes mania or depression, however my episodes come clockwork.....depression as the days get shorter, and mania as they get longer.....they switch slowly around the solstices.

My eyes are also extremely sensitive to light...I have issues with photophobia, but I'm even affected by light when my eyes are closed. The smallest amount that shines on my eyelids while I'm attempting to sleep will cause me to wake up instantly and ensure a night of no sleep at all....So I can't have a clock with an LED display or a nightlight in my room, and I have to have blackout shades on my windows....I can't even have my computer on because the little blue light will wake me up.....and the lights in the hallway have to be off because I can't have light coming through the cracks around my door....and I can never sleep when it is light outside....

nothingunusual....as for delayed-sleep onset disorder....

When you need to change your sleep pattern for a job in the future, try doing it gradually over the course of at least a month before you need to start waking up early....every day try to wake up a little bit earlier...and go to be a little earlier each night.

Make sure your room is totally dark, even use a sleep mask if you have to. And don't watch TV or sit in front of a computer for at least 90 minutes before you want to go to sleep ....the light actually wakes up your brain and delays the onset of melatonin production. If you take melatonin at night do not expose your eyes to light after you take it or it will very easily be degraded, and this will waste the money you spend on it.....(there are yellow-lensed glasses you can get that make it possible to watch TV or use a computer at night, without disturbing your melatonin onset).....

You could try light therapy to alleviate the hung-over/jet-lag feeling you get from waking up earlier than 11am...you can get a little blue LED light box and use it for 15-30 minutes in the morning to wake your brain up....this should also help "reset" the onset of melatonin production and cause it to occur earlier in the evening....

I have the non 24 hour sleep disorder thing. I go round and round, basically.

Last night "morning" came around 11:30pm...I did not sleep at all....and my "nighttime" came around 8:00am this morning...so I almost fell asleep on my way to work...only to be wide awake again at 9:30am once all the melatonin was degraded by the sunlight on my way to work and the lovely overhead fluorescent lights in my lab....I hate those few days when my brain thinks night is morning and morning is night...tomorrow "morning" will be around 1:00am and "nighttime" around 9:30am....basically I get three somewhat normal nights sleeps in a row followed by a half night's sleep...then three sleepless nights and then one half nights sleep....my "nighttime" occurs an hour and a half later every day....

I could take a hypnotic sleep aid at night....although the last time I tried that, I came out of a Lunesta-induced hypnotic trance to find my car parked on the front lawn...I changed my clothes and put on makeup, and there was a sink full of dirty dishes...not so worried about the makeup application while sleeping...but sleep-driving and sleep-cooking on the other hand...

I actually saw the doctor about sleep problems last week, got a blood test, so I should know in a few days.

Most (but not all) fits pretty well my erratic sleep patterns.

I'd give 80% chance I have it.
although it's more likely I don't have any circadian cycle whatsoever...

To quote Social Distortion, that's the story of my life... sleep/waking is a constant challenge.


M.

I believe I have something like this or overactive brain. I am just about to make a post on melatonin, which I’ve just started. Anyway what I don't believe I have is insomnia, because I can get to sleep it is just take *ages* also sometimes I’m too tired to sleep if that makes sense.