Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

[livingwith]

I am a night owl and always have been. As an artist it is the most creative time for me and I have the most clarity and effectiveness. My family thinks that it is by choice and while it suits me and has appeal, if I try to go to sleep earlier as they suggest I just end up staring at the ceiling and wasting hours of time. Once I was criticized for getting up in the morning and asking my family to keep it quiet. If it had been night time and I was keeping them from sleeping by being noisy they wou...Read the full article

[Llewin]

Hey, just a short idea on one of the 'small frustrations' you mentioned regarding people seeing how late you are sending email. Until you are able to convince your family and friends that it is a real problem why not change the timezone on your email account (or PC if you send from Outlook or something) to one that would atleast stop them second-guessing your sleep habits every time you send a message?

[melamein]

wow, i've had the same life!! after being asked many times by people at work, "why are you up at 3am sending e-mails", i tell them i'm just always up at that time, but they think i'm asleep earlier and i just happen to wake up around 3am. well, my boss has her smart phone set to go off when she gets e-mails and it wakes her up, so i was told to quit sending e-mails in the middle of the night. i do what i'm told. i can't exactly tell them, well, that's when i'm able to do my work so when do you want me to send e-mails? i'm a home health nurse, so i usually have the luxury of starting out later in the morning than most people. nights shifts in the past were my best times to work, that may be what i have to go back to now that i have teenagers. anyway, sure am glad i found all of you on this site!! good luck to you, melanie

[CyanideMilkshake]

I am the same.
It was a struggle to focus at college because I found it hard to sleep before 5 or 6am and if I knew I had to be up at 7/8am I generally just stayed awake, rather than know that i'd never be able to get to sleep at 6 and be up an hour later. I found myself falling asleep in lessons and being sent home to do my work when I was more 'active' in the evenings. I kept up with my course perfectly, and the tutors were fine with it, but my parents called me 'lazy'. That hurt, as I knew that I worked hard, just at a different scheduled time than others.
Like you, I am intelligent and functioning and it annoys me greatly when people assume that you're some kind of freak for being awake all night and asleep all morning, like you 'can't be bothered' to get out of bed when thats not it as well.
As you say, when you're awake all night you try and keep it quiet for others who are asleep, but when they get up in the early morning when you've just gone to bed, they cannot extend the same courtesy. They say 'well you shouldn't have gone to bed so late!'
People are not as aware as I would like them to be.
I hope you find more understanding people. My boyfriend is only just coming to terms with the fact that it is unreasonable to wake me up at 9 if I've only just crawled into bed.

[Pfree]

I empathize. I've found it challenging to be a part of the larger community myself because of my zanny sleep schedule. I've just recently come across w/ the dx dsps I always just took for granted I was an insomniac and my life was stressful. I get tired of explaining myself and I've found as I get older (I'm 54)I just don't care what folks think so much. I've been looked at as lazy etc and haven't cared much for their negative opinions in the past so the solution has been we just don't socialize w/ others much. It works for me. Of course there is the other label that goes along w/ it, loner, but that's acceptable to me too. I live w/ my daughter she's 27 w/ her own form of disability but we manage.I suspect it is hard for others to understand since it is so easy for them to follow the norm. My only suggestion would be to try and be less attached to the attitude of folks who push your buttons, as they may never understand. Have you tried printing out info on dsps and letting them read from professionals? For me this dsps has been just another way for folks to see me as even more excentric. But it too is a label I'm comfortable w/.
In my perfect world there would be no noisy neighbors during the day or yapping dogs but it is what it is. Best of luck.
P

[Erika]

I completely agree, it is so tiresome to be criticized by others for DSPS as if we want to be this way. I don't so I have ordered a light box and may also try pushing my sleep time by 3 hours later each day to see if my circadium rhythm can be changed. If it changes I will need to be very strict with myself to stay on the new schedule as any deviation will probably cause me to revert back. The hypothesis is that DSPS is caused by a genetic anomaly but no cure yet. I am 61 and usually work in the late afternoon so I can live with the handicap or disability or difference but it is lonely at night and I am so tired of people acting like it would be easy to change my sleep schedule when it is not.

[RIGGS]

People just do not get it, for them it's simply a matter of 'forcing' yourself to go to bed earlier and then everything will be all right. They don't get it, they think were just a bunch of lazy people that feel the rules don't apply to them. My parents even basically said to me just set your mind to it and do it, and when it doesn't work then they say i have no will power or that i'm just not trying hard enough.

enough is enough already, i decided to just avoid people that refuse to even try to understand and that makes for a very lonely existence but c'est la vie.