r/DSPD

I work from home now, so my schedule is whatever I make it. All weekend, I deprived myself from sleep to spend time with my kids. This is becoming sort of routine. We split custody, and I don't want to miss time with them, so I don't sleep much from Friday to Monday. Last night, I was so sleep deprived, I fell asleep at 10pm and woke up at 6:30 this morning. I felt like puking. This has been the case my entire life. I can remember being in school as a kid, feeling sick every morning until about 11am. When I sleep on a schedule my choosing, say 4am-noon, I never get sick.

I don't understand how it works. 8 hours of sleep during daylight hours feels fantastic, 8 hours of equal quality sleep at night makes me wake up feeling sick. Anybody else deal with something like this? Suggestions? Advice for those rare days when I do have to get up before 8am?

45F business owner who can set her own hours more or less. No young kids, all are grown. Schedule is very controllable.

I’ve struggled with DSPD my whole life and have tried every possible drug, method, regimen and practice to both get to sleep early and wake up at a normal hour. I tend to feel sleepy around 3-4 am and am sleepy until around noon. If I need to wake up early (7-9am) I am a zombie and confused, sluggish and irritated until I get stimulants in me (usually sugar, Adderall, coffee). Even on stimulants, I could fall asleep on the spot before noon and I feel serious depression during my desired sleep hours because it’s so hard to function.

Anyway, I have decided to stop fighting it and embrace my vampire ways. I need to make some changes to my relationship expectations and schedule, but I’m not sure where to start since my sleep time eclipses half my work day and I can’t stay later than 3 due to traffic, so my day needs to be thought out.

So curious what schedule or lifestyle changes you made to accommodate DSPD once you decided to embrace it? Looking for stories of success. Tired of failing!

My first week on it and I'm really impressed

I didn't get a correct diagnosis until I went to the USC Keck Sleep Disorders Center in Los Angeles. Here are some other places around the US with similar sleep disorder expertise.

• Stanford Medicine Sleep Center
• Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine
• Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center
• University of Michigan Health Sleep Disorders Center
• Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center
• UChicago Medicine Sleep Center
• Northwestern Medicine Sleep Health Centers

I suspect I may have DSPD. Consistently had a rather delayed sleep schedule. Old job allowed me to work 10:45-8pm, so I had a ~2am-10am sleep schedule on weekdays. Got laid off in September 2025-- sleep schedule drifted dramatically. Has been inconsistently 4-7am to 1-3pm.

Starting in July I non negotiably have to be functioning at peak mental capacity from 5 am onwards. So either shift 9 hours forward (2pm to 5 am) or shift 14 hours backward (2pm wake time to 4am wake time)

Starting Monday 5/4 I attempted to start shifting later and later by estimating my CBT min at 11 am conservatively (1:30pm minus 2.5 hours) and have been trying to time light exposures to be pre CBT min. And avoiding light exposure after.

I misunderstood the risk of non 24 to be rather low. I now realize I was probably wrong, and that I fucked up.

But now my estimated CBT min is ~2pm and my biological wake time is probably at ~4pm.

My current plan is to commit to delaying around the clock and stabilizing as hard as I possibly can at 8pm-4am. So my CBT min needs to shift by ~12 hours in the delay direction. I know this comes with risk of not being able to stabilize to 8pm-4am, and also has the risk of n24. But I feel damned if I do damned if I don't.

Thanks for reading. Any and all tips, advice, comments, criticism, and support welcome.

I can't keep going to bed at 7am. I fucking hate this. Everyone in my life calls me lazy.

I need to heal a chronic illness and need that 10-2AM detox window

For months now it's been go to bed at 7-10am and wake up when everything is closed and it's 3-5pm.

So beyond pissed. Probably have done over 95+ all nighters this year. I don't know anyone in life who's more sleep deprived than I've been in my life. I'm pissed.

I used to love the night. In fact, it was the only thing I loved two months ago I prayed that I would only like day, not thinking it would work cause I hate the day and I haven't enjoyed the night for even a millisecond. I only enjoy the day.

How paradoxical.

I’ll be tired on the couch, tired while brushing my teeth, tired all evening basically. Then I get into bed and suddenly my brain is like “cool, now let’s think about everything”.

It’s not even always big anxiety stuff. Sometimes it’s random memories, random plans, random thoughts, then eventually it turns into “why am I not asleep yet” and that’s when I know I’m screwed.

I’ve tried going to bed earlier, going to bed later, no phone, reading, breathing, etc. Sometimes the more I try to do the “right” sleep routine, the more pressure I feel.

Has anyone found a way to make bedtime feel normal again? Like not a whole performance?

I go to bed at 7am and wanna cry honestly. Everyone the sun shines through my window I am incredibly jealous beyond words. Another day fucking wasted. My mind runs a billion miles a minute, I take melatonin, Tylenol pm, ambien...

I've lost everything to night schedule. I can't stand the night. Truly sick of it when it once meant everything to me. I feel sick to my stomach looking at the clock and it being past 12-1am... this is sickening. I wish to god I was a morning person. Who actually gets anything done in the night... it's never consistent. I want rountine, I want schedule, would do anything. I always have a window to sleep from 3pm-7pm but if it gets passed that I'm up till 7am no matter what medication no matter how many days I've been up. Doesn't matter. Extremely sad about the situation. Anyone relate?

I really want to go on a guided multi-day rafting or canoeing trip, but they all involve mornings. It's not possible to do a private trip with one client in any affordable manner, but I was wondering if I could get enough people together if we could convince a company to do it.

I probably have some sort of delayed sleep phase syndrome although I'm not professionally diagnosed yet. For me, is it normal that my schedule shifts a bit in the spring, but this year it was way more intense. I have not yet recovered from the Daylight Saving Time change and I also had a very rough week when I needed to constantly get up earlier than I'm used to. I also needed to use Ambien because of that. I thought that this week I will recover from it, but it didn't happen yet, because in the meantime I started to use red glasses at night. They work but they shifted my schedule even earlier and now my brain can't cope with that at all. When we counted the Daylight Saving Time, my sleep schedule shifted like 3 hours earlier. I can sleep like 7-8 hours a day, but my brain is still "jet-lagged". I also have constant mild illusory palinopsia (I take Mirtazapine and Trazodone and that what happens when I sleep poorly or out of my normal biorythm), but now I am sleep deprived even on days I thought I slept well. I don't want to really return to my previous sleep schedule (4-5 AM to 12-1 PM) of the "winter time") when I am experiencing this ordeal for a month already, but... isn't this like too long? Shouldn't I be already adjusted or it's way more tricky for a neurodivergent person with suspected DSPD? Or should I try to go back to my original sleep schedule? What to do now?

I would legit do anything to stop going to bed at 8am and rather wake up at this time.

I'm not talking about using smartwatch but during sleep study I've discovered that I basically do not have REM sleep on top of DSPD , are these linked?

My total REM sleep is 19-21 minutes out of 8h which is extremely bad it lasts maybe 5min per cycle instead of 90-120min and I wake up during it.

I used to be very fat and had sleep apnea / paralysis when on my back very often , lost weight long ago and I'm no longer obese but it seems like somehow it damaged my sleep further instead of improving it ? Sure I used to have 1-5 nightmares per day ( every REM cycle a nightmare ) but they stopped alltogether , I thought it was sleep apnea related.

is there any way to get more REM sleep ? For now I experience REM rebound every 2nd night so its like no REM sleep and then maybe some and maybe will remember nigtmare or dream but it way way better when I was obese sleep quality was shit but not so shit as now it is , wondering why it did not improve with getting rid of sleep apnea almost ( went to very mild like 6,4 AH ( limit is 5)

So the consensus on this sub seems to be that, where possible, it is best to allow your body sleep the way it wants to, in order to be your happiest, healthiest self. But I assume that advice is mostly aimed at DSPD folks, who are able to still have a consistent schedule, even if it's delayed.

What about N24? It seems like an inconsistent, constantly-shifting schedule can't be good for you? I haven’t noticed any visible adverse effects apart from major social and lifestyle constraints like difficulty keeping a regular job, committing to appointments, events, etc.

So I know most people would want to fix it for the sake of being able to fit into society and function better, but is there anything to be said about negative effects on the body and mind from an inconsistent schedule?

When I let myself sleep the way I’m naturally inclined to, I end up sleeping around the clock and feel genuinely good and rested. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for me.

What makes this hard to think about is that all my life I’ve been made to feel I’m self-sabotaging, that my sleep schedule (even with just DSPD) was maladaptive and unhealthy. But from being on this sub I realised that there is merit in listening to your body, and that it is not that I am doing something bad because it feels good, but that I'm actually wired differently. Could the same thinking apply to N24, keeping aside the social part for a minute?

I have final exams coming up and I’m getting pushback for an accommodation request. I am preparing myself to fight them on this if I need to, but am looking for help in having evidence ready if it’s needed.

I am trying to ask for an accommodation that would allow me to take my exams in the afternoon. I am worried they are going to claim that it is not a reasonable accommodation because with small class sizes, people will be texting about the exam afterwards and I could see information I shouldn’t have before I take it. I am looking for any websites, parts of the ADA, or anything like that which would help show that changing the time of an exam must be considered a reasonable accommodation.

I am all set in terms of proving my need and my disability, I just need information that shows they cannot claim it as an “unreasonable” accommodation legally. Any resources would be appreciated :)
I also am just having a rough time of dealing with people who don’t understand DSPD this week and am hoping hearing from other people who get it entirely will be helpful

Edit:
Like a silly internet american who forgets the rest of the world exists, I forgot to explicitly mention I’m in the U.S.
:)

Hey DSPDers. I have the original Luminette and have recently started using it, with promising results. However, I'm spending more than expected on batteries as I need to put a new one in every 2-3 days. It's also kind of heavy and I've had to build my own nosepad, as, unmodified, the one they include leaves red marks and is a bit painful.

I can see that the newest Luminette is lighter and works via charging. I'm considering getting a refurbed one during a Luminette sale, which would bring it down to £111. I don't know if anyone has thoughts on whether this would be worth it cost-wise over time, in combination with the presumably higher comfort levels when wearing it?

I diagnosed myself with DSPD based on this:

I have always struggled to fall asleep for as long as I can remember. I would HAVE to keep myself occupied until I felt sleepy enough otherwise I would be up while the world sleeps around me and I would be lonely and depressed.

I wake up with no motivation, kind of already dreading the day.

I’m in my early 30s F, already have a MDD, GAD, and ADHD diagnosis.

I have been told over and over again to practice good sleep hygiene but I tried all that and it Does. Not. Work.

After 8pm, this sinking feeling starts to set in, a sadness creeps in. I go to sleep at 4am on a good day. Usually it’s around 6am. When I hear the birds start to chirp, my body starts winding down and I fall asleep. I wake up between 11am and 1pm.

I have a 10,000 lux light therapy slate. I use it sometimes, not daily because some days I genuinely wake up with zero motivation to be a functioning person. I hate it when people tell me I am self sabotaging because I am desperate to be better and I have been seeking help. I can’t keep living like this. I feel so frustrated and alone.

Please let me know if your experience has been anything like this. I would love some advice, feedback, comment, or to even hear your struggles/journey with this.