h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm struggling with Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, does anyone out there have any tips or advice for dealing with this? People with this syndrome have a hard time getting up and a hard time going to sleep. Some tend to be awake mostly at night. The sleep cycle is rotated foward, so to speak. I've heard that a light box can be helpful. Had anyone tried that? My sleep cycle is so out of whack that I am going to bed at 9am and getting up at 9pm. I don't like not getting any sunlight. And I can't get anything done during the day. I would appreciate any advice and information. Thanks.

This sounds only too familiar. Back in the days when there were no pressing work engagements or family to look over, my pattern was to sleep through the day and stay awake all night. I thought perhaps that it was a useful evolutionary advantage to have a small number of people awake throughout the night. This doesn't, of course, help you in any way.
Let me know if you hear anything.

I never thought about it being an evolutionary advantage to having some people awake at night, but that sounds right on target to me. Is certainly logical. I know that I am able to help my Mom out at night. (She has Parkinson's) That's the main advantage to being up at night like this. The other advantage is that I can get on the computer at night without worrying about tying up the phone line. No one calling at 3am.

Hmm, I'm not sure if it would help, but surely this must be similar to the effect jet lag has on people...

Have you tried the method of just trying to stick it out for one day...

Get up at 9pm, spend the evening and night doing whatever you normally do and _don't_ go to bed when you get tired... 9 o'clock the next morning just go for a walk, get out of the house, go somewhere where you can't sit down, just try and sweat it out for one day... It is quite possible to miss a night's sleep and survive (normally I start to really feel tired about 30 to 36 hours after waking up).. If you can survive most of the following day awake, say going to bed around 6 or 7 pm, even if you then sleep for 12 hours straight you'll be well on the way to re-regulating your sleep patterns

As to it being an evolutionary advantage being nocturnal... unfortunately, the human being has actually evolved in the other direction... We now have excellent colour vision for day time but this has developped at the expense of our night vision, which is far worse than most other primates... sorry folks, but we are supposed to be awake during the day!

I stayed awake on Saturday night/Sunday morning, and I still feel screwed.

Hi Whisky - I don't doubt for a moment that humans have a diurnal proclivity - it just occured to me that the gene that causes delayed sleep syndrome (if it is genetic) could easily have hung around in a handful of people out of sheer usefulness (night watch and all that). But who would deliberately choose to mate with someone who is awake all night? Well, someone whose partner's asleep...
It the same thing you can observe in crowds near which an emergency arises - there will be a mixture of screamers (alerters), runners (survivors) and observers (do-ers).
And most importantly, it was more a thought than a theorem...

It's quite a cool idea, I'll give you that.

I saw a news item on experimental glasses that have a small light (blue I think) that you wore to trick your mind into it being a different time of day. I was only half interested in it so can't remember all of the details. It might be worth talking to your doctor about it or ring a local university that deals with sleep and see if they want to use you as a guineapig (free treatment...)
My best friend is exactly the same. He would sleep all day and work all night (luckilly he's interested in being a lighting director so that's a positive for him.) unfortunately for me I have had to change my sleeping habits to keep up with him. It took awhile but it did happen. I'm now a night person instead of starting my day at 5am...

the glasses might help if you can get more information on them. Sorry I'm not more help...
good luck.

Whisky, I'm trying your idea of toughing it out for one day. I got up at 9pm last night, have been awake all night. It is now almost 6pm, and I hope to stay awake for another hour or two. The big question is will I sleep through the whole night, or wake up at 2 or 3am. Time will tell!

Thanks to everyone for the advice and moral support so far.

Good luck, and don't panic if you're still tired for the next couple of days, just try to force yourself to stay awake until its nighttime, eventually your body's internal clock should catch up with you...


By the way, did anyone know that if someone is left without any reference to time whatsoever (no sunlight or watches, etc) over a long period their body's internal clock starts to run on a 27-30 hour cycle... wierd!

Well, I was able to stay up that one day, but the next I kind of relapsed into my old schedule. I'm going to start using my lightbox all this week, and see if it works to move my waking time back a little bit. That's how it's supposed to work anyway. Same principle as the light visor you can wear.

By the way, there is an opposite condition some people have called Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome, in which they wake up too early and get sleepy too early. Those folks are supposed to use the light box just before they go to bed, instead of just after you get up with DSPS.

How's it going so far?

Well, my sleep schedule is still pretty fragmented, I'm asleep and awake odd hours, but it is 6:30 am and I'm awake, so I guess that is progress. Going to try to stay awake all day today.

"Early to bed and realy to rise
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

I get that a lot too. I just can't get to sleep at night and usually end up sleeping in loads the next day. Must be living a 27 hour day or someting.

What I tend to do to rectify this is to force myself to wake up early on weekdays then when I'm knackered by Friday, get loads of sleep on the weekend. That usually works.

Recently I've preferred being nocturnal because there's so many more enjoyable things to do at night than in the day..

The only way I can get turned back around is to set an alarm to get up in the am, at the hour you would most like. stay awake that day. if you can do that 2 nights and days you may be on your way. a light box can help too. if you are awake and are going to stay that way---go with it! it will cause less stress in the end.If neccesary have things/projects ready to do at the odd hours. there are many things that are good to do when most of the world is quiet. Best news is Not getting interrupted by the door, phone or New Problems!Good Luck. it can be very frustarting and disorienting.

well, I am definately towards the 30 hour day kind of person.

When I try staying awake, I end up having 4 days to every week, each much longer than normal.

research definately points to it being when you get up which regulates your body clock.

Don't see how this helps really but i have the most horrible of sleep patterns - i generally stay up till about three o'clock every night even though i have to get up at eight in the morning for school, and then when i get home i am so tired i end up falling asleep for a couple hours at about 5pm whether i plan to or not :\ (and trust me i have tried to break this cycle before but if i don't have the nap i *stop* being tired by about midnight and i'm *still* able to stay awake till 3am and end up even worse off the next day >_&lt

and during the holidays - which it is right now, October week, yay! ^_^ - i automatically switch to staying up till about five in the morning and sleeping till the afternoon sometime (it's about 4am as i post this ^^;; ) I think my family have given up on trying to prevent my nocturnal nature and hopefully i'll one day have a job that doesn't require me to be up in the *morning* ^^;;
Unless of course i have this Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome but i think i'm just a freak ^_-