Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder
"Circadian rhythm sleep disorder" is the official name for it. I describe it as "my brain doesn't know when it's day or night". I can be tired at 11 a.m. or tired at 3 a.m. and it's just about completely unpredictable. Apparently I'm unusually sensitive to the upheaval caused by artificial lighting. When I don't keep it carefully in check, my sleep cycle is so unpredictable that I might sleep for three hours or twenty, wake up at 3 a.m. or 6 p.m., and generally be either randomly narcoleptic or insomiac.
I've got a history of this dating back to babyhood. I didn't sleep through the night when I was an infant--my mom doesn't remember me ever starting to sleep through the night; I think I just eventually learned to be quiet when I woke at night.
Currently, my best efforts have brought my sleep/wake cycle into a roughly 24-hour pattern with the onset and end of sleep fitting into six to twelve hours that take place anytime from 9 p.m. at night to 2 p.m. the next day. This is much better than it has been in the past. That doesn't count the all-nighters, which can completely throw off everything for a few days.
Strategy:
--Take melatonin about 3-5 times a week to tell brain when it's time to sleep. (Melatonin is known to work for jet lag, and will also work to re-set an errant sleep cycle.)
--Raise blinds immediately after waking to tell brain it's time to be awake.
--Keep bedtime as strict as possible, but get up and read for a while if I haven't been to sleep in an hour. (That's to prevent insomnia--basically, if you get used to being annoyed that you can't go to sleep, you associate your bed with that and not with sleep; so to prevent that, if you can't get to sleep, you get up and try again later).
--Set alarm clock to go off across the room and prepare breakfast and coffee the night before.
--Prepare a tasty breakfast instead of just random cereal, so that I'll have a reason to get up.
It works OK. I only sleep through things I need to go to about twice a month. Yes, this is way more absenteeism than what is expected of the average person, but consider--It used to happen to me twice a week or more. This, believe it or not, is progress. I expect to be up to no sleep-related absences by the time I graduate from college.
If I could, I'd be nocturnal. The world does not, unfortunately, allow it.
I've got a history of this dating back to babyhood. I didn't sleep through the night when I was an infant--my mom doesn't remember me ever starting to sleep through the night; I think I just eventually learned to be quiet when I woke at night.
Currently, my best efforts have brought my sleep/wake cycle into a roughly 24-hour pattern with the onset and end of sleep fitting into six to twelve hours that take place anytime from 9 p.m. at night to 2 p.m. the next day. This is much better than it has been in the past. That doesn't count the all-nighters, which can completely throw off everything for a few days.
Strategy:
--Take melatonin about 3-5 times a week to tell brain when it's time to sleep. (Melatonin is known to work for jet lag, and will also work to re-set an errant sleep cycle.)
--Raise blinds immediately after waking to tell brain it's time to be awake.
--Keep bedtime as strict as possible, but get up and read for a while if I haven't been to sleep in an hour. (That's to prevent insomnia--basically, if you get used to being annoyed that you can't go to sleep, you associate your bed with that and not with sleep; so to prevent that, if you can't get to sleep, you get up and try again later).
--Set alarm clock to go off across the room and prepare breakfast and coffee the night before.
--Prepare a tasty breakfast instead of just random cereal, so that I'll have a reason to get up.
It works OK. I only sleep through things I need to go to about twice a month. Yes, this is way more absenteeism than what is expected of the average person, but consider--It used to happen to me twice a week or more. This, believe it or not, is progress. I expect to be up to no sleep-related absences by the time I graduate from college.
If I could, I'd be nocturnal. The world does not, unfortunately, allow it.