Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome??

[flamingoprincess]

Does anyone else here have Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome?? DSPS is where your body clock is different then most people. Most people with DSPS can't go to sleep before 2AM or later and it takes and act of God to get up before 10am or so. It is like being a night owl to the extreme. How do you deal with it if you have to work "normal hours"? Has anyone tried either the bright light therapy or melatonin or Vitamin B12? Anyone know of any good support sites for this. Is there any relation between DSPS and PCOS?? Sorry for all the question on this, but if I don't get a handle on this soon I'm gonna go nutso!
Thanks!
ginna

[Moonshoot]

Wow...that sounds like the story of my life! I am going to do some research.

[amglpn]

I have a question for you, Are you very hard to get up in the morning? I'm talking a bomb could go off and I'd sleep though it!
It really affects my life and I hate it! I too stay up late and if I dont work I easily sleep pass 10 am!
Any info would be great!
Thanks,
Andrea

[guineapig]

Yep. My last job, at the start of my symptoms, started 3 years ago. I progressed from being there at work bouncing at 8 am to dragging in at 10 a.m., and then finally going to the night shift. My job is 8-5 now and I just drag constantly. If I don't go to bed by 9 I can't concentrate at all. However, it's two days into my break and I'm already sleeping 2-10 again! My endo said that sometimes the "night owl" is something off with the cortisol. We're testing! I had been taking B12 for a while and it certainly didn't hurt anything. I've also noticed I am a VERY light sleeper now.

[flamingoprincess]

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one with this.
Andrea, I have to set 3 alarms clocks to get up somewhat close to on time.. The clocks start going off at 7:15 am and I finally get up between 8:45 and 9:05. I just don't hear them most of the time. I'm "supposed to be at work at 9am so needless to say I am late every day. Luckily I work for family and they can't fire me.
GuineaPig, can you tell me how much Vitamin B12 you take and what brand. Do you take it in the morning or at night? I'm like you in that my normal body clock says I should sleep from 2am to 10am. I've tried just about everything under the sun to get to sleep earlier and I just haven't come up with anything that works.
Right now I am just so frustrated with being so tired all of the time.

[alaskaflygirl]

I had a doc mention this disorder once when he was evaluating my insomnia. I never pursued treatment. However, I've found that my SAD light (Seasonal Affective Disorder light setup- a lot of Alaskans have one to help them cope with the winter darkness) helps me maintain a better rhythym. I still have 4-5 nights a week where I can't get to sleep 'till 3 or 4 am, but it's not as severe as it used to be.

[flamingoprincess]

Can I ask which light box you are using and it's approximate cost? My doc said that a light box first think in the morning may help get my internal clock readjusted but the boxes I've seen are expensive and someone told me to becareful because some of the light boxes are "fakes" that don't produce the results that "real" light boxes do. Thanks

[Stacie M]

OMG! I never even knew this existed, AND I WORK IN THE MEDICAL FIELD!

This sounds exactly like me. I CANNOT go to sleep early. It is impossible. Even if I have only had a few hours sleep the night before and am very tired, as soon as it gets dark I am wide awake and literally cannot sleep until 2-3-4 or sometimes 5 AM! It is definatley affecting my life and making DH angry!

I will call my RE and see if they can look into this for me.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS INFO!

StaciieM

[Moonshoot]

Wow...interesting to hear this. My whole life, I have struggled with getting up in the morning. Alarms on full blast(3 or 4) did not work and my Mom and Grandmother would slap my face with wet rags to get me to school, then I would sleep in class...my teacher told my parents I was on drugs. In college I almost failed out, because of missing morning classes and I have always been late to jobs. Also, in college I was famous for sleeping through fire drills in the dorm. I was diagnosed with SAD in late college, but I think has changed into chronic depression now. Fortunetely, the birth of my DS has helped, and I am now a lighter sleeper. I still stay up until 1 or 2 am(sometimes 4 or 5), but I am able to wake up to his cries and the alarm.

[guineapig]

Let's see, I am no longer taking it (I am undergoing testing and wanted everything au naturale) but it was a B-12/folic acid combo:
1 per day, sublingual (dissolves under tongue), 400 mcg folic acid & 1000 mcg vitamin B-12. They taste like cherry kind of. They are made by douglas laboratory and have a website
www.douglaslabs.com
I had been buying them from my naturopath, but not recently. Seems like I took them at dinnertime? I feel 100000x more awake on my week off right now, since I have back on my 2-10 sleep schedule. I need almost 12 hours to get up by 8 a.m. and barely function--and even then I am sleepy by 3 pm. Now I'm bouncing off the walls and been up 9 hours already. I hate the "8-5!" Someday I am going to get through nursing school so I can go back to the vampire shift!

I think my failure to get up on time cost me my last job. Even now I have been getting up with only seconds to spare on my new job. All the other teachers get up like 5 am and put on makeup and eat breakfast...I come to school and brush my hair & eat my school-cafeteria biscuit as the kids come in. Forget pantyhose & makeup--I can't get up any earlier if the house was on fire!!

[manyquestions]

Try a dawn simulator to help with the insomnia. I think it works better than a light box. I have both. The Dawn simulator cost less than a $100. You should see a difference within a few days. You may also see a stablizing of moods. Biophysicists are just beginning to research light therapy and circadian rhythm problems in conjunction with irregular menstrual cycles. Light therapy is amazing.