Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

[patrose]

I can't believe I finally know what is wrong with me. Sorry for some reason it won't let me post in the tell my story section and I've got that feeling where you find that thing that you lost forever and your so happy about it that you have to tell everybody. (Even though most people still just think your lazy!LOL) I'm a 25 yr male living in the heartland where unless its the flu or on Dateline your just depressed or an underacheiver. I have been a night owl since I can remember, from staying up all night playing nintendo to being late for Saturday school for tardies. And I can still recall it not being a big deal b/c I always had my mom there to slap me around and throw some water on me to get me out of bed if not on time but close enough not to draw too much attention to the problem. Then the s&$% hit the fan when I went away to school in the Southwest only to return a year later b/c the teachers didn't grade you on tests as much as showing up to classes. Thats when my life really started hurting from my new found favorite symptom DSPS. Lost a few jobs after I came back to Nebraska for you guessed it, not being able to get to work like the rest of the world at 8am. But I was holding an Ace up my sleave, the family business. From that point I did anything I could to get sleepy at a reasonable time from keeping the Sams club size Nyquile bottle and 1,000,000 count tylenol pm next to my bed or just go out and get piss drunk so that I could just pass out. And it all worked pretty well if you didn't mind the hangovers and bad feeling until I was ready to do it the next night. It really pissed off my boss (DAD) and my girlfriend smelling like Vicks and vodka the next morning but at least I made it to work instead of sleeping right through it like these days. Then the perfect storm hit, my mother passed away and I was promoted and helping my brother run the family business. Mix reasponsibility, depression, and dsps and you get what we call here in Omaha, an F5 twister. That was when I started going to the doctor to get some questions answered. Now a couple years later I have been diagnosed with clinical depression insomnia, hypersomnia, just plain laziness, and on and on, even after telling my doctor, therapist, and who ever else that I feel fine just always tired. So they gave me every anti-d thats been out there to no avail and what ever other prescription that they thought would help. And some helped for alittle while but I started not sleeping for a day and then my body would shutdown and I would sleep through a whole days of work. Anyhow Since then I have found four things that work for me, 1: Alcohol if you can take the hangover 2: Mary Jane, if you can get over all the things you think you know about it and realize that it is a very helpful plant to say the least. 3: Ambien, but watch out I slept drove my car and now will not take it, 4: for some reason after a surgery I was on hydrocodone and slept on a normal sleep cycle for about 3 weeks straight but thanks to society you have to have a limb hanging off to get a script and not big into buying drugs on the street. So thats my story of how a easy thing like sleep can screw up so much but still looking for a doc out there who has experiance in treating this so im going to see a sleep specialist on 12-12-08 I heard was good but he will prob tell me I am suffering from sleep apnea and shove a cpap in my face. If anyone has some specific Q's ill ask. I alsodid not have health insurance for awhile andknow.

Thanks,

Patrose

[kimberley130]

So, how did it go at the sleep specialist, Pat?
I just found this forum an hour ago, but I've been living with DSPS my whole life. I was fine for the 25 years that I was a bartender, but when the kids grew up, I tried going back to school, and found out that I am incapable of learning at 9am. Now I am in evening courses, but my dream of getting my Ph.D. is in jeopardy, if I can't find a way to get out of bed at 7.
I wanted to ask you how the spec went, because my spec let me do my sleep analysis during the day. Since i was actually asleep for it this time, unlike the one I did 20 years ago, they managed to rule out apnea, restless leg syndrome, and the teeth grinding thing in one afternoon!
I hope this helps. Even at the sleep clinic, it was almost unheard of to do a lab study during the day, so it is radical, but it worked for me.
Good luck!

[LadyRiggy]

ambien did the same thing to me. one morning i woke up in my car in a ditch. i'm lucky it was really early morning and no one was on the roads.

[smak451]

Kimberly -- have you had any success since your sleep study in regulating your hours? I've posted about my condition as well as to Bones about my academic experiences which were very successful. but now I'd like to feel awake during the day...desperate in fact. Thanks.