[imfir]

Hello every one

just found this forum, I was diagnosed with DSPS 2003 tho I knew I had it earlier, and once it in 90 or 91 , a doctor thought I may have it, and suggested a sleep study. The doc was not my doc, but one from work. when I visited my own doc they kept saying I was depress and kept subscribing antidepressants, which just made me feel depressed.

let me jump back another decade . . before finishing

I had always had no problems staying awake at night as a child . . always had a heck of a time waking up . . when I would go spend a night at a friends house it was always "shut up let us sleep" from my friends, and "sheesh it's past 9am and your asleep?". June of 81 I joined the navy, after training I get sent to shore duty in the desert ... navy in the desert?? . . any ways after 2 weeks there they assigned me to work night shift . . I was like NOOOooOOOo.. . but of course if you have been in the service you would know you really have no choice .. heh . . any ways . . after a couple of nights and waking up later in the mornings (any where between 10-11 am) I had more energy, felt better ..hmm this night shift had other attributes as well .. easier to pay bills and getting things done, shopping with out needing to rush.
that lasted 18 months till I was reassigned, unfortunately this new assignment did not have a night shift . . so the next 3 years was a lot of waking up late.

Now on my own and out of the service I still face the same dilemma . . I still knew that working nights was better for me, sleep wise and overall health . at the time I was in great health . . early 20's a couple construction jobs . . but I needed to find a way to work at night. I found a opening for a position I could qualify for for a shipyard , which had a swing and graveyard shift . .started graveyard sifth for about a month then they placed me on day shift, after a week there, I was able to get on swing shift .. this was in 89 . .

. . about the time I turned 30 .. I was tired all the time . . just no energy . . sleep was erratic at best .. I at times just did not even have the energy to sit up . gaining weight fast, even tho I went to the gym every day, I was just getting fatter, and slower . . one day while doing crunches I could not finish the crunch . . this was not right, something was wrong . after a minute or so . . I rolled over and finally got up . . I went straight to the doctors . . they did some blood test . . and 2 weeks later found out I was hypothyroidism .. .
the hypothyroid seem to have some effect on me waking up, even tho the medication for the thyroid was bringing the levels to normal, I was never normal again (well never really was normal :) ). Before the thyroid problem I rarely slept past noon, now I never seem to know when I will wake up, or even if I get any sleep. Now swing shift I started to become late from over sleeping. . it was not getting any better.

this brings us to where I started . . it is now summer 2003 . . late summer . within 5 weeks time a aunt, two older gentalmen I considered as uncles and family (known themas long as I could remember). and a older woman who I in a way adopted and considered as my grandma . . died .. and on the last week I caught my fiancée in bed with another . . this all hit me a month later was so depressed I didn't go to work for 2 days , and work was not pleased.

since none of the people were immediate family , there was no reason to miss work . . their view. I was suspended for 30days leave without pay . . during that time I did a sleep study, I was working with my doctor about my sleep problem since 98, this was a new doctor, well for me new h wasn't, I needed someone to find my sleep problem and not keep saying I was depressed, he is a family doctor and tried many different sleeping meds, and relaxers . and I hated taking pills. . when the problems happened between me and work later, he decided to send me to a sleep specialist . this got me in the sleep study, and just so happened that the time I was scheduled happened during my suspension . . now I have been diagnosed with DSPS . . it also showed I had small trace of rapid limb movement and sleep apena, too little of those to been a sleep problem, just enough to say, yup you got that too.

Work had placed me on day shift, they choose to ignore that I had a sleep disorder, well I had over slept again . . called in to work there was only 2 hours of the shift left, asked if I could just stay home for the rest of the day, they said yes. next day same thing happened . . The 3rd day well I just didn't go to sleep, stayed up so I could go to work and not be late . . I had to do this to keep my job . . not go to sleep. I was able to get out of the overtime, because my doctor wanted me to get rest somewhere, so I was limited to just working 40 hours a week, this allowed me to get sleep on the weekends.
because of the last 2 days were I called in late and missed . . I was fired . . .
I went to court . . the judge found the late calls were due to the sleep disorder, but had nothing to do with missing the rest of the day of work . . So work won . . there went 19years 7 months of federal service out the door, 5yrs,5mo short of a early retirement, which I had planned on doing and start a career as a truck driver . .

okay so I start my new career as a truck driver .(5 yrs earlier then planned) . so I sell my home and move to be closer to family . . problem now . . you need at least a 2-5 year minimum of Over the road experience to get that swing shift job as a driver . .my first year went well, well as well as it could go, but the company I was driving for was having a difficult time to comply or work with my sleep disorder, I was released from them other reasons then me waking up late and when trucking companies hear "Sleep Disorder" they want nothing to do with you, they will not even return your call . .

So now I am without a home, without a job, without any money to go any where, because companies do not want (willing) to comply with the disability act.

Well just wanted to say hello and just found this forum . . hope you all the best and to introduce myself

Take Care

[Dormicioasa]

hey, at least you have the right job for someone with delayed sleep disorder - truck driver. i hope ou'll find it easier in the future. I am incredibly happy that I know I am not abnormal - I mean that there are other people with this disorder. However I'm in a 9-5 job so it's tough. Alwas been - but at least I can explain to family and friends why I'm so out of it in the morning.

[sleepykitten]

WOW
that's all I can really say after reading your story, but I kind of understand I really do. I have just found out about DSPS and now working on finding a doc to tell me I have it for work. I've had trouble sleeping 'normal' hours since first grade I've tried many times to wake in the mornings I've even pulled the whole up all night and day thing many times. when I was younger I would stay up all night go to one class i the mornings then come home and sleep then get yelled at by my mother she got to the point where she thought I was depressed even wanted me to see a therapist for my 'depression'. i've been trying to have a day shift job four five years now I've lost two jobs and went back to my sleeping and I felt better then I got pregnant and my sleep got odd my morning sickness was anywhere from 10pm to 5am I'd go to sleep when I could to wake up at 6am to see my stepson off to school then go back to sleep. then i miscarried I was sleep having those hours my boyfriend cheated I ended up moving in with my bestfriend and her husband and now I'm working a morning/day job for a month now and I wall around feeling like I've been on a plane coming for the other side of the world every day.

So I can understand your story I've lived part of it and I'm only 24 my life hasn't really begun I wish you the best, sleep well.

[nightowl]

Hi there - 31 year old here, had this exact same issue for YEARS now! I have not been diagnosed BUT...I found a doctor who is doing a study on DSPS and they said my symptoms and my story sound just like what they are looking for with their study. Hopefully by the end of the study, I will have enough information from the doctor to be able to see someone in my area who might be able to help, even though from what I read, there is little help out there. I have a work-at-home job, which I am grateful for, but that isn't going to last forever. I am married with a busy 4-year old with autism, and he goes to school 5 days a week, 3 hours a day (this is almost ALWAYS my nap time as well). I need to be up at 8 am to be able to take care of him, and it's the worst. Here I am, writing this post at 4:22 am because I just don't sleep at night. But...give me the chance to sleep during the morning and I get a wonderful sleep. I won't go into my past because there are too many jobs that I've lost from not being able to be awake and on time to work in the morning. Lack of sleep has caused many problems for me, including Fibromyalgia. I just WISH I could sleep the hours that I really want to - someday I will be able to, as I am hoping to take a night job at a hospital after my son starts going to school full-time. I am creative, energized and alert at night.

This has caused A LOT of problems in my marriage. My husband has a very hard time understanding my situation and hates the fact that I don't sleep the same hours he does. Anyhow, just saying hi and letting everyone know that there is one more of you out there.

[mkarac]

Hello everyone, I am 31, male and has DSPS sendrome since always but only aware of it since short time. I am glad that there is people like me out there, and also webpages and forums about this sendrome.

I had also a lot of problems during my academic and professional life similar to the ones above. For very long time, I was unable to sleep early (like between 2:00-4:00am) but since like 6 months I have a more regular and less stressful life and I sleep like 1:30-3:00am. Also since I discovered all these info and community about DSPS, with the hope that I had because I am not abnormal and this sendrome is real and discovered, I started once again a new chronotherapy. Since 3 days now, I sleep at 12:30-1:00am with the help of a medicine whose ingredient is diphenhydramine HCI. It didn't really change my waking up hours which are 9:30-10:00am but next week I hope to be able to sleep at 11:00pm and wake up at 8:00am.

My bigest problem is not my sleeping hours but waking up early for a 9-5 job (and of course I know they are related). In the past when I was tring to treat my self without all the info I have today but with methods I created, I could not wake up early even I slept early. Maybe somethings were wrong in my treatments because they were very short term and made ignorantly. I hope having much better results in the actual one. I read messages above which contain people with DSPS who worked in 9-5 jobs for years and Merrikate who was teacher for years in another topic. I would like to learn how you accomplished to wake up all these years soo early for somebody who has the DSPS?

Also I am thinking about being a truck driver too. I dont really understand what problem Imfir had about this job? I would like to talk about that with Imfir.

I do not know what to say more. Anyone with a question is welcome. I hope we gonna help and be useful for eachother.

[freeshias4me]

Hello!

I'm new here, too.

Nightowl, your situation seems VERY similar to me! I'll type up my story in another post, instead of hijacking this one ;)
-Sue