[Dione]

Hi everyone.
It's good to find this, cos I've had this DSPS thing for so long and never knew what it was. Went to the doc. once, but he never said anything about this. He gave me anti depressants, which did NOT help! Said my sleep was messed up cos it was a symptom of depression (how wrong) guess he thought that cos being so exhausted I'd sometimes cry. I tried all kinds of remedies, nothing worked, I thought it was just insomnia, then wondered why if it was, all the things for insomnia didn't work at all. But if I was left alone I slept deep and well! Trouble was, I had to keep putting on the alarm to get up mornings, and only getting 4 hours or even less sleep, then feeling really horrible, day after day. If I let myself sleep till I was ready to get up I felt good and well. Really I hate this situation, and want to fit in to the world and be able to do things like other people do.But I found if I do some work in the afternoons and night, I can just earn a living working self employed. So I figured a way around it, sort of. The worst thing was I started to drink alcohol to make me sleepy at night. That sometimes worked, but I was drinking more. So I moderate that now, I know it doesn't help really anyway.
Also, does anyone get this strange thing happening? like 2 hours or something after dinner in the evening I get suddenly sleepy, and am sure I could go to bed then! Wow! 9.30! But as soon as I move, like to clean my teeth or something, I wake up again, and on a night when that happens it's impossible to go to sleep till even later! If anyone gets that same thing, what is that?

[RIGGS]

well if you were using alcohol to regulate your sleep which I have done and still do occasionally I think it might have something to do with that, i'll be watching tv and suddenly my eyes will droop and i'll think OMG yes but the second i get up and start off to bed bam! it's all over.

One thing to watch out for and i mean REALLY watch out for is light, even DIM lights (brush your teeth in the dark if you have to) but any light at all will immediately signal your DSPS to kick into high gear especially late and night and with your brain thinking your out of the woods the disease has a way of using that against you big time.

What I do is around 8-9pm i'll turn off all the lights except the tv or computer screen (which i have set to the dimmest setting possible) and then when it's time to goto bed i'll shut everything off and make my way to the bedroom with no lights or using 'backlighting' i.e. i'll turn on the light in the room i'm leaving and luckily have a second switch in the next room to shut it off and then in my room i have only 2 lights one in a far corner with a 40 watt bulb just to see my way into bed and my lightbox alarm clock there is NO TV NO RADIO NOTHING else in my room just a lamp a dresser and my bed.

I can not stress this enough, if you have a tv in your room and you use your bed for anything except sleeping (watching tv, eating, even reading) stop it! stop it now and start training yourself that your bed is ONLY for sleep! If you dont get to sleep in under an hour GET OUT OF BED go into another room and do whatever, watch tv, read (LOW LIGHT) or whatever then try again later when your more tired.

Just doing this one simple thing has allowed me at least an extra hour of sleep over the past year, instead of 4-5am sleep time i'm down to 3-4 and during the winter months with the sun up earlier and down earlier i'm actually getting tired right now! 1:30am! so i'll be sleeping tonight by 2:30 which is really a major improvement over what i've been doing for the past 2 decades.

Of course this may be simply my body getting older and needing the extra sleep but what the hell i'll take whatever i can get!

[Dione]

That's really good advice Riggs. Darkness is so important to our brains preparing for sleep.
I do have a lamp on in the evening downstairs, but not bright light. I watch TV and use the computer in the evenings but absolutely never in my bedroom. And because of the energy costs, and the state of the planet, I never have lights on in rooms I'm not in. So the house isn't brightly-lit. Nor do I have a computer in my bedroom. Actually the electricity doesn't work in my rooms upstairs, or the bathroom, so I do everything up there by candlelight anyway! My room's mellow and quiet, minimalist, and dark(ish) I use Lavender oil, and the room smells lovely, and oozes relaxation.
Yet in the morning when sunlight streams in through that big gap in the curtains I leave open for fresh air from the open window, well, that doesn't bother me one bit! I could sleep, and sleep, and the light means nothing to me or my brain!
Possibly I'm a lost cause!
Thanks anyway. I think your reply will definitely help other DSPS people.