Thursday, May 17, 2007
Hello My name is Thomas and I have a problem.
My entire life I have been waking up and going to sleep 1/2 to 1 hour later everyday my entire life. I don't know what to do anymore. I am trying to look for my diagnosis on what could be wrong with me now but I can't seem to find answers.
When I was young I had problems waking up and going to sleep. I would find myself wanting to stay up til midnight, then 3 then 5 then 7, then before you know it I was staying up til noon. My body will not let me rest when I want to and never has. I try to control my body but it goes to sleep and wakes up when it wants to which is about an hour later and waking up an hour later by the day.
My whole life so far (I'm 28 now) I have been told that I need to learn to have discpline and control myself and that I'm lazy and just need to learn and adjust to myself. I can't control it and I have tried and now at 28 I"m starting to think it's not me and something else.
I can stay up all day long but my body is in a rhythm to were it sometimes won't let me sleep because it feels it should wake up. I have had many days were I was up for 30-35 hours straight and couldn't sleep. My body would be tired and exhausted but my mind would be pumping and thinking and moving and not stopping. I could not stop thinking.
I have been this way my entire life ever since I was a child I can remember being this way the entire time. Sadly it's affecting me badly all throughout my life. I joined the Army for 4 years and had alot of trouble, there are times it would be lights out in bootcamp but even as tired and exhausted as I was my mind would race and race and I would not sleep.
I don't know what to do anymore about this problem. I can't seem to find the diagnosis anywhere online and I"m not sure how to help myself. I am trying to sleep right now and work in 5 hours but I can't sleep again my body is set to sleep at 8am today.... So most likely I will work in a narcoleptic state and then get off and be up all night again.
I don't know why my body doesn't ever adjust to a set schedule and why my body won't let me be normal. I'm tired of my mind racing and not letting me rest when I have so much other things to do on a schedule.
I'm looking for advice here and no I've never seen a doctor about it. Please help.
My entire life I have been waking up and going to sleep 1/2 to 1 hour later everyday my entire life. I don't know what to do anymore. I am trying to look for my diagnosis on what could be wrong with me now but I can't seem to find answers.
When I was young I had problems waking up and going to sleep. I would find myself wanting to stay up til midnight, then 3 then 5 then 7, then before you know it I was staying up til noon. My body will not let me rest when I want to and never has. I try to control my body but it goes to sleep and wakes up when it wants to which is about an hour later and waking up an hour later by the day.
My whole life so far (I'm 28 now) I have been told that I need to learn to have discpline and control myself and that I'm lazy and just need to learn and adjust to myself. I can't control it and I have tried and now at 28 I"m starting to think it's not me and something else.
I can stay up all day long but my body is in a rhythm to were it sometimes won't let me sleep because it feels it should wake up. I have had many days were I was up for 30-35 hours straight and couldn't sleep. My body would be tired and exhausted but my mind would be pumping and thinking and moving and not stopping. I could not stop thinking.
I have been this way my entire life ever since I was a child I can remember being this way the entire time. Sadly it's affecting me badly all throughout my life. I joined the Army for 4 years and had alot of trouble, there are times it would be lights out in bootcamp but even as tired and exhausted as I was my mind would race and race and I would not sleep.
I don't know what to do anymore about this problem. I can't seem to find the diagnosis anywhere online and I"m not sure how to help myself. I am trying to sleep right now and work in 5 hours but I can't sleep again my body is set to sleep at 8am today.... So most likely I will work in a narcoleptic state and then get off and be up all night again.
I don't know why my body doesn't ever adjust to a set schedule and why my body won't let me be normal. I'm tired of my mind racing and not letting me rest when I have so much other things to do on a schedule.
I'm looking for advice here and no I've never seen a doctor about it. Please help.
A while ago I wrote an article on delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) - the difference between night owls and morning larks. http://www.healthcentral.com/sleep-disorders/c/5954/9342/night-owl/ Some people wake up bright and early in the morning, ready to greet the day, while others prefer to sleep in and really shine when evening comes.
There is another similar disorder, and that sounds more like your problem. It's called advanced sleep phase syndrome (ASPS).
If you suffer from advanced sleep phase syndrome, you become irresistibly sleepy a little earlier every evening and wake up a little earlier every morning, completely throwing the system off the sleep patterns of the majority of the world
is completely reversed.
SYMPTONS (ASPS):
Talk to your doctor about any treatments he may know of. Bright light therapy might be beneficial. Also you could try melatonin. Always practice good sleep hygiene. Examples of what that mrans can be found here: http://www.healthcentral.com/sleep-disorders/c/68/8707/top-good/ and don't forget to click on TIPS in #5.
I hope this information is of use to you and that you are able to find some relief for your problem.
Thank you for the response.
Although my problem isn't falling asleep earlier and waking up earlier it's falling asleep later everyday to the point where I completely flip my sleep schedule into daytime and then have to wait a couple weeks before it goes back into a normal phase.
I can't seem to do anything about my condition nor can I find a name for what it is.
As far as 3 months I have been this way as long as I remember. I remember being a child and watching to outside my window at night with my parents telling me to sleep but I couldn't. Adapting to school/work like this is very hard. I missed 65 days of school my senior year but I showed up for all the test and got A's, B's on them and handed in all my work so they had to pass me even though nowadays it's not this way.
As for brightlight I'm not sure it would do anything because I can sleep in light as easily as day. I can fall asleep under the sun just as easy as a darkened room.
Thank you for the feedback, if you have anymore please let me know.
I don't think I have ever been "normal" as far as sleeping. I don't think normal is something I can be anymore because I have always been this way.
Normal would be waking up and working on this schedule but it's hard to find an employer that would put up with this (luckily I have overall).
Hi Thomas,
Find a Theta Healer in your area. They use a a sort of alternative energy medicine. It's very hard to explain but if you have heard of Ryki - Theta healing runs along similar lines. They may be able to get to the root of the problem. The therapy sounds very "out-there" but I had a session with a healer in Atlanta and it truely changed my life. Good luck.