Is delayed sleep phase disorder making your life a misery?
Delayed sleep phase disorder (also called circadian rhythm sleep disorder) is a frustrating and debilitating sleep disorder, where the normal sleep cycle is drastically delayed. This can cause sufferers to be wide awake at bedtime and feeling like “death warmed up” during the rest of the day.
Delayed sleep phase disorder sufferers will call themselves “night owls” and they tend to operate best in the evenings and at night when everyone else is winding down. This can cause people who are afflicted with this disorder to lie awake for hours, sometimes until 2 or 3 am, because their mind is racing and they feel full of energy. This would be less traumatic if the poor person did not have to get up at 7 am to go to work or school!
Of course, people who have delayed sleep phase disorder typically drag themselves through the day, trying not to fall asleep at their desks. Come bedtime they’re wide awake and rearing to go when everyone else is yawning and preparing for bed.
The cause of delayed sleep phase disorder is unknown, but it can be brought on by a person’s own bad habits. Do you stay up late at night trying to get everything done? Your brain will get used to these late nights and before you know it, delayed sleep phase disorder has it’s foot in the door. Do you sleep late on weekends, trying to catch up with lost sleep? That’s really inviting this sleep disorder to be a part of your life!
So how do we get rid of delayed sleep phase disorder? Some people have suffered this disorder for years, thinking there is no cure. It can be reversed, but needs a bit of perseverance. To start with, make sure you get up at the same time every morning. Yes, even on weekends and even if you’ve only had 3 hours sleep. You may even go without sleep for a whole night but persevere. This will cause a sleep debt which will hopefully reset that circadian rhythm and allow you to fall asleep earlier in the night.
If that doesn’t work, its possible to reset the circadian rhythm with bright light therapy. Use of bright light in the morning will cause a drop in melatonin levels allowing you to feel more alert during the day and sleepy at bedtime. Sunlight is great for this, but if your climate doesn’t allow for much sun in the mornings, you can buy these lights to sit in front of at home.
One further thing you can try is to take melatonin an hour before bedtime which will help reset your body clock. You can try all these suggestions together to finally free yourself from delayed sleep phase disorder!
I don’t know if this is just a state of some people minds, where they think they are different than the others having this dessease. Although this D.S.P.Syndrome is a new term in the medicine which has been previously misstaken as a type of insomnia.
The problem here is this a really a desease or its a artificially created term just to justify your late-time waking up. I think it would take some time for the medicine to precisely define this new syndrome
The worst thing is that I am an insanely light sleeper as well, therefore, I force myself on my dad and sisters schedule – they get up, the second I start to fall asleep in the morning, and I too must get up because I simply cannot sleep through the slightest noise – even with ear plugs!
So, I am out of ideas, I think my only option is to get a night shift and move out to somewhere extremely quiet during the day? Either that or file for disability insurance. =(
Thanks Craig.
I too have this debilitating disease – which has forced me to quit university 3 times and drop out of numerous jobs, I simply could not hold them.
Throughout the days I am very lethargic, can’t concentrate, and just feel like napping. However, once the night hits (around 10pm), it’s like a switch goes on and I ‘come alive’ so to speak, and it is literally impossible to sleep until the morning hours.
Thanks, Craig. You (and the comments at the end) described it perfectly.
People would always say “your sleeping your day away” and i just tell them they sleep the night away. Even though they sleep 8-9hrs to my 4-5 in a 24hr period. They are the one’s sleeping their life away.
I have been dealing with this for about 15 yrs now (give or take a few) and never heard of this until tonight, this is EXACTLY what I go through, thank you for posting this. Nobody I know understands and I didn’t know what it was until now, It is such a relief to know that I am not “crazy” or alone. Thank you! I will be seeing my doctor with this new information, if for nothing else than to have someone acknowledge that I have this problem and its not “in my head”
I’ve been healed of this disoder. Thank God! He did it.
I’ve been healed of this disorder. Thank God! He did it.
Its not a “disease” or “disorder”.. it is a syndrome.. and we need to raise awareness & get society to accommodate us. We are hard working, smart, intelligent people.. we are creative and energetic and alert at nights.. would it kill them to let us work late?? its about delivering results, who cares when/what time you do the work as long as you deliver?? it upsets me more when family starts lecturing me and telling me i need to go to bed early like them.. it doesn’t work like that for my body!!
I just recently found out about this after researching online.. mine started a few years ago.. throughout my university years it caused a lot of problems.. specially my last year..if society could just be a bit more understanding and accommodating…although I cant blame them too much.. not many know about this.. i always wondered myself why i couldnt just be like everyone else and work 9-5.. and it frustrated me that my research supervisor didnt let me just start late and work till late too
Hi Craig! I’m Karim and I’m 18 years old. I for 99,9% sure i’ve DSPS. Since I was 12/13 years old I noticed that my sleep times weren’t ok. I’ve had many discussions with my parents but they didn’t believed me.. and still I don’t think they believe me. 2 Years ago I did some research about this issue and I saw something that was called DSPS and it’s just 100% exact the same life style I have now… and it really breaks me down.. I’m quite depressed too lately
I completely and totally relate. I was diagnosed with Narcolepsy with cataplexy & underlying non24hr sleep wake cycle…which is pretty much the same thing as dsps. My neuro seems to think that just forcing myself to get up at the same time everyday and use light therapy will cure the sleep wake cycle problems. I tried and tried and all it did was make things worse. Now I am on SSDI and just going with the flow…trying to make the best out of my life. Thank you for sharing your story.
@Sarandib22 I’m totally down for having some sort of more universal accomodation of these disorders in the workplace. “Sleep” is actually defined as a “major life activity” in the most recent revision of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and a person is thus defined as having a disability if he has an impairment that substantially limits one or more such major life activities. There just haven’t been enough cases yet to develop a precedence and to educate those handing down decisions.
@Sarandib22 What you are describing is actually part of the standard definition of many disorders or disabilities, i.e. that the symptoms have to interfere with the individual’s normal functioning in society, or they can’t be classified as a disorder or disability. That being said, while that one specific part of the definition isn’t a medical judgement, per se, one must also have the remaining medical characteristics of the disorder itself, which does require a medical judgement.
@mmortal03 That’s my point. It’s only an “illness” or “disorder” because it’s different from the order of society as it functions now, which isn’t so bright in the first place. You’re absolutely right on the night shift idea. But if that were actually implemented, then it wouldn’t really be a “disorder,” would it? It would actually be an advantage, especially if they paid you shift differential.
So “disorder” is a cultural judgement, not a medical judgement.
@Sarandib22 By the way, the proper term for it is now Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, and the reason it is called a disorder is specifically because it impacts us significantly in the real world. If it didn’t, it would just be a “genetic difference”.
@Sarandib22 Much of the dinural population DOES see it as something wrong with him and won’t easily accomodate him on work hours. Wouldn’t it be great if the rest of society were aware of this disorder and would give us with DSPD first preference on night jobs that we’re qualified for, instead of giving it to larks who will just suffer through it? They even try to distribute the load of night work over a number of larks over a period of weeks, when they could instead just give us the hours.
Damn, I thought i was just wierd sometimes at school i would stay up all night to try to “reset” my clock only to sleep through some of my classes and then be up ALL afternoon and sleep at 1-3. Only reason i got myself to sleep that early was because i was doing HORRIBLE in school and NEEDED to go, if i didnt force myself i could easily be awake untill 4am like im doing nowadays.