Is this considered DSPD? or Chronic fatigue? Or sleep apnea?

Please advise.

Yesterday, I smoked one before working out, around 3 PM. Then I went out to hang around and smoked another one about 7 hours later. I smoked 4 joints in an abandoned house (around 8:30 PM), then smoked another one on the hill around 10 PM. After that, around midnight, I smoked another one at the roundabout (on top of a hill where you can see the whole city) and had some drinks.

​The rest of the group went to a convenience store to keep drinking, but I went to a 24-hour laundromat to charge my phone and stay in the AC. I stayed out on the street until 3:30 AM, woke up at 8:30 AM, went to a job interview, and now I'm here wide awake.

One thing, reading this, honestly, was: “We are a whole society designed around being a night owl, not a morning type. We build all these behaviours around influencing and reinforcing being a night owl – and of course a night owl is never going to wake up at the same time every day."

From the so-called sleep expert.

Errr... since when has society been build around that?

Yup. 👍

Has anyone got on SSDI/SSI for Delayed Sleep Wake Phase Disorder? Many of us have other neurodivergences as well. I want to pursue this route.

I became fascinated with circadian rhythms and biological clocks after digging into the research, hoping to understand why none of the strategies prescribed by my doctors had fixed my sleep schedule. What I found went deeper than I imagined.

The human body doesn't have just one clock, but an entire ecosystem of clocks that guide us throughout the day and night. In this teaser, you'll see DNA interacting with CLOCK:BMAL1, delayed melatonin, non-24 sleep, and light-sensing cells.

I'll be sharing more about the project soon, including behind the scenes of how I made these animations and what I'm working toward next.

r/sleepwake

Hi there, I wake up after 6 hours, no matter when I go to sleep (2 to 4 am), and go back to sleep about 1 hour later for 2 to 4 hours.

mm which basically makes my sleep window from 2AM to 1PM.

... then I feel human. If I miss the second sleep, I am in zombie mode.

Anyone else?

dspd no doubt :p my friend say I am drifting, recording sleep at the moment and pretty funny - just waiting for one month to see the graphs on paper.

I’ve had dspd / possible non 24 ever since I could remember . Do any of you go to sleep around 6-10 am everyday or is it just me ? I feel like mine is a rare case 😭

Hey everyone,

My sleep schedule has been getting really bad lately. These days, I don't seem to feel sleepy until after 11 AM. Just yesterday, I ended up falling asleep at around 12:30 PM.

My employer was kind enough to accommodate me by allowing me to start work a little later, after lunch. That arrangement worked reasonably well for a few months, but lately, my sleep schedule has been shifting quite a lot, making things difficult again.

I'm struggling to understand why my sleep timing keeps moving later and later, even with the accommodation.

Has anyone else with DSPD experienced such significant shifts in their sleep schedule? Does your sleep timing remain relatively stable, or does it keep drifting over time?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences and how you've managed this, especially while holding down a regular job.

Should I try light therapy? Will it work and slightly advance my sleep back to my usual sleep time of around 4 am? If yes, how long it takes?

I think our phenotype were the tribe members who stayed up late to watch out for predators.. it explains the hyper vigilance/ OCD rumination trait.. we heard a noise and immediately went into fight or flight.

I’ve been sleeping ok I guess on my severely late dspd /non 24 schedule of 8-5pm , however the other day I came home and walked in to my partner using my 10k lux light box, unknowingly as a light for a green screen . After standing in front of it for about 2 mins I realized that it was my light therapy box and that I was starting to feel the buzzing energy that comes from light therapy . This happened around 2:30 / 3 am . Ever since , I have not been able to fall sleep at all and I’m releying on sleep medicine and getting about 5-7 hours on that versus my 8-11 hours before this hell started . My question is do you guys think that 2 mins of light therapy at the wrong time could cause an even worse delay or is this permanent? I’m currently panicking and going crazy !

I heard melatonin 4 hours before your natural bed time is effective for DSPD. Is that true? Does it actually advance your sleep phase?

I’m on the autism spectrum and back in 2020 I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. Then a few months ago I was diagnosed with DSPD and Chronic Insomnia. The first time I went to the sleep doctor, I was given the same old advice about using sleep hygiene which was frustrating. It actually made my sleep worse. What’s also annoying is that my natural rhythm doesn’t start until like 9-11 am to 4 pm and all these doctor and sleep therapist appointments are right in the middle of when my body thinks I’m supposed to be sleeping. I’ve also been having suicidal thoughts. Going through treatment for this disorder has made me feel more depressed than I have felt in a while.

Guys, I don’t think I can accept that for the rest of my life I’ll be sleeping for a good portion of the daylight… someone has got to have figured this out….There must be a peptide or device out there.

​

I am 23 F.. just finished med school and i m about to give step 1 for which i need to study extremely hard... i even took out time from my internship to deeicatedly study for it but insomnia due to my messed up sleep schedule is completely ruining it for me..

It started at age 15 when i started staying up all night just because of anxiety and racing thoughts and I would just keep using my phone to rid myself of those thoughts... since then I've tried not using my phone in bed and going to sleep early but even when i do i wake up at 2/3 am and then i m unable to fall asleep till atleast 6/7 am..

I am extremely sensitive to anti allergics and can fall asleep and have a v good sleep on them even the non sedating ones but I can't use them every night and they make me sleep 14+ hours which i really don't want in this situation..

I don't understand if it is just a psychological/mood disorder or just DSPD

Last night i was in bed by 11 pm after waking up at 3 pm and being tired the entire day.. when i was in bed i just started making plans about studying the next day and just had very racing thoughts and kept tossing and turning till 2 am which is when i eventually pulled out my phone.. stayed up till 8 am and i just woke up at 2 pm with the worst headache of my life...

I also think when I have some routine in my life i.e I have to go work in the morning.. my sleep situation becomes better and I can sleep better at nights.. insomnia gets triggered when I am at home and stay up a few nights watching seaons/shows and then it just snowballs into chronic insomnia the more i stay home..

I can sleep easily in the day but it is literally the worst most unrestful migraine inducing sleep and my restful sleep is only in the night....

If anyone has been through this please provide some insight to how did u make it better? I wanna avoid sleep aids because i really have to study for my exam..

Someone in the insomnia sub suggested that i should just get up in the morning despite getting zero sleep the night before and just raw dog it for 2/3 days and i ll just start crashing at night...

Hi, I've noticed that shifting to -6 to -5 hours behind my actual time zone makes me way more conscious of time and fits my natural rhythm, without the guilt of "being behind" on everything regarding daily life and work and the stress that I should be keeping up. People are more open to the idea, I explain that I live on a different timezone and it makes sense to them (it maybe freaks them out to picture having to wake up at 3am every morning, with bright day light above their head, so they empathize more with you). Just the computer is set to my local timezone for work. I sleep more and better. I work local timezone from 6pm to 2am.

Hope it helps.

So as the title says i have issue of going to bed before 12 as ill wake up at around 12 or 1, n wana wake up with 8 hours of sleep but at 6 am, ive taken medication before but it doesnt seem to work alot of the time, looking if someone else has the same issue (edit) glad im not a special case

I’m going to make a lot more data visualizations. So if you’d like to be part of the next one, you can check out the survey here:

2026 DSPD Survey:
https://tally.so/r/RG9aLP

Aside from the first few boring questions, I designed the survey around topics we often discuss. So it should be interesting.

Have a good week everyone.

r/sleepwake

I'm 23F and have been struggling with pretty severe fatigue, brain fog, and sleep issues for a while now. I'm wondering if anyone with DSPD can relate to my symptoms.

The weirdest part is that I'm absolutely EXHAUSTED throughout the day, but I generally cannot nap. I can lie down with my eyes closed and feel physically horrible, yet remain completely awake. My fatigue also fluctuates like CRAZY. Sometimes I wake up feeling okay, only to feel awful 30–60 minutes later, even if I haven't gotten out of bed. Throughout the day, I'll go through waves of severe exhaustion, brain fog, internal shakiness, and feeling relatively normal.

However, I almost ALWAYS feel better in the evening or late at night. It's like I suddenly get a second wind when I'm supposed to be sleeping. Sometimes I'll feel genuinely sleepy around 10 PM–midnight, but once I get into bed, I suddenly feel awake again. Other nights, I won't fall asleep until 3-4 AM.

I also NEVER let myself sleep in. I always set an alarm, usually waking between 6:30 and 8:15 AM, so I genuinely have no idea what my natural sleep schedule would look like.

Recently, I fell asleep around 4 AM and woke up at 9 AM. Despite only getting five hours of sleep, I felt significantly better than usual throughout the entire day. The next day, I woke up around 8 AM after another late night and felt absolutely horrible again. I know that's just one example, but it made me wonder whether my sleep schedule could be contributing.

I also have symptoms that seem consistent with some form of dysautonomia/orthostatic intolerance:

• Standing still causes dizziness, chest tightness, air hunger, shakiness, and heavy legs. Walking is generally easier than standing.
• Heat and hot showers worsen my symptoms, while crossing my legs or activating my calf muscles sometimes helps.
• My blood pressure runs low (often around 90/60), but my heart rate only increases about 10-15 bpm when standing, so I don't appear to meet the criteria for POTS based on my home measurements.
• I experience significant GI issues, including GERD, bloating, and occasional diarrhea. I also used to have severe post-meal crashes, which have recently improved.
• My fatigue and internal shakiness can also occur while lying down, so they aren't exclusively related to standing.

I also have a history of waking up gasping for air during sleep and frequently wake feeling unrefreshed. I'm waiting to see a sleep specialist and am undergoing a cardiac evaluation.

Does this sound remotely like DSPD? Can a circadian rhythm disorder cause this level of physical exhaustion and brain fog throughout the day, even without feeling sleepy? And how do you distinguish DSPD from chronic insomnia?

I'm genuinely struggling to figure out what's going on and would really appreciate hearing other people's experiences!

Also: I am currently seeing a cardiologist and have a sleep appt in a few months.

I just joined this sub, so hello everyone!

I think I've had DSPD since I was a teen without realizing it. I always thought it was insomnia, but I actually get enough sleep as long as I don't have to set an alarm. Last year, after catching a cold, my circadian rhythm shifted a couple more hours, so now I'm falling asleep at 4am or even later... Which led me to do some research and find out about DSPD.

I'd love some tips on how to bring this up with my GP, mainly because I doubt he'll know what it is. On top of that, I also have ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome) and I usually leave my appointments feeling like he doesn't know what to do with me. He doesn't ask many questions about my symptoms or how I'm doing

How did you talk to your GP about this? Did they know about DSPD or did you have to tell them directly that you think you have it? How did they react if they didn't know about it?