Abbie Normal

[the_siobhan]

I've been reading about Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders and the treatment thereof. How... bizarre.

I'm well aware that my sleep patterns don't work the way the majority of other peoples' do - I match the description of Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome pretty much exactly. It had just never occurred to me that this might be considered a disorder in need of treatment.

People are strange.

Comments

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about delayed sleep phase until a few years ago, but that's been me all my life.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Same here.

I got up at before 6 AM today for work. At midnight tonight I will be wide awake and incapable of sleeping even though I am dead dead tired.

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

After I found out this was something that wasn't just me, I did some counting. Apparently my body thinks a day is 32 hours long, and I need 3-5 hours sleep in that period.

So I do polyphasic sleep now... 3 hours core and a couple of short naps every 30-35 hours. Works for me (and since I'm not a corporate whore anymore, I don't have to conform to anyone's schedule).

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I often wonder if I could get by on less sleep if I just did it when I felt like it. I need a minimum of 8 hours to be even remotely mentally functional and that's just not possible if I have to get up for something.

[kest]

I think the most important/interesting line in that article is "Sleep deprivation does not reset the circadian clock of DSPS patients, as it does with normal people." Schedules, eh, whatever, that's society's problem, not yours (although there's still the general definition of 'is it causing you a problem? ok, then it's a problem.') But the sleep deprivation thing is really interesting, because I have always found in resetting my sleep schedule, that it is waking up at the same time that is most important. Trying to control when you go to sleep is a fool's game if you're not tired, but if you didn't get enough sleep then you'll automatically go to bed earlier, and after a week or two you'll be adjusted to the new schedule. (There's a couple other tricks I use, like making sure to get full sun and light exercise as soon as possible, but it's mostly about the consistent wake up times and sleeping when I get tired.) But if you don't get sleepy, no matter what, until way too late...that changes everything. What happens when you get jetlagged? Are you just immune?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I can't say for sure that I get classic jetlag, at least not the way I've heard it described. Coming home from a trip I'm always wide awake right up until my usual time. In some cases that means I've been up for over 24 hours by the time I finally get sleepy.

Going away from home it really depends. Going out to the west coast of North America is awesome - I get up at my normal time and magically I'm on the same clock as everybody else.

The few times I've been in Europe my body has been all over the place like it's really confused by the sheer size of the change. When I was in Italy I was getting up late at night by my body clock which was before dawn local time and that continued for the whole 10 days I was there. I also remember being in Whitby and not being able to drag myself out of bed before all the kitchens stopped serving lunch.

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

"But if you don't get sleepy, no matter what, until way too late...that changes everything."

Exactly my problem

[tamago23.livejournal.com]

I have confirmed DSPS, and it's exactly like that. It doesn't matter how exhausted I am, how sleep deprived I am, etc; I'm still not going to fall asleep until 3:30 AM. I can have weeks of only five hours sleep a night (which is nowhere near enough for me) and it's still not going to do jack to change my schedule.

When I went to Australia for a month it was fantastic. I was able to get up every day at 8 AM and feel totally normal.

The odd thing is that when I go to California to visit, within a day or two my schedule shifts forward; then I'm sleeping from 2 AM until 10 AM California time (which is 5 AM to 1 PM my usual time). It's frustrating when I come home and I have to deal with weeks of trying to shift my sleeping from 5 AM back to the usual 3:30 AM. :/

It sucks because I'm exhausted all the time, and that's even with getting up at 10 AM. I've had to give up on the idea of doing a 9-to-5 job, because it just wouldn't work. Unfortunately, almost all well-paying jobs with a future are 9-to-5, so it really limits your career options.

[kest]

the California thing is not surprising...it's always easier to shift forward than to shift back. In fact, in my experience, it's easier to even shift 23 hours forward than one hour back. Best to do it in stages though. Except if you can't (physically, I mean, as opposed to societally). Weird. Sorry. I'm a geek when it comes to my own sleep schedule. I know that I sleep and wake better at five and half hours and at seven and a half hours than I do at six or eight. I know how to set my own sleep pattern and know how long it takes to fix it if it gets messed up (at least a week - which means staying out late and sleeping in on weekends is a really bad idea if I have a day job.) Did you know each of your organs has it's own clock? And that your liver takes the longest to adjust and can take up to a month?

[tamago23.livejournal.com]

I've considered doing the chronotherapy (shifting an hour forward each day until you move it around the clock to your desired time), but yeah, a single night of not getting to bed on time and you're screwed. I've got two kids under six years old, and the first time one of them got sick or was teething or otherwise had an interrupted night, that'd be it for me. :/ It's not even worth trying, at this point in time.

I had no idea about the organs. o_O Can you go into more detail? I find it interesting.

[ihcoyc.livejournal.com]

I've always simply found that the hours between midnight and 3 AM were the most valuable time in the day, with the fewest distractions and interruptions. During this time in the day, I can give whatever I am doing my full attention. They are the hours richest in actual achievement.

[eveningstartwo.livejournal.com]

huh. I can reset my body clock but there is a reason I work nights. I have a friend that finds it almost impossible to go to sleep before 4am.