Night Owls, Teens, and Sleep
I was recently referred to nbm's blog -- another sleep blog by an admitted non-professional. It does show some excellent insight into the sleep disorder Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome aka night owlism or those who are up at night and sleep during the day.
I was affected by this very condition as many of us are when I was a teenager. I would stay up playing the latest video game ( at the time it was Atari, watching my favorite movie ("Caddyshack" - who doesn't love Bill Murray?) or on the phone with friends. I would usually stay up until about 3-4 am and finally doze off to sleep. After about 3 hours if it was a school day my father would enter into the room, and tell me that my alarm had been going off for the past 1/2 hour and that I needed to get up. I was often late for school and often slept in my first class. I of course was not alone. If it was the weekend I could actually sleep until about 3 in the afternoon - man those were the days!!
It was only later in my career that I was able to identify this as a time when I was having a delayed sleep phase, but I was fortunate enough to grow out of it. Interestingly this situation can be a disorder which is long standing in many people. They are often called lazy, unproductive and weak. Since a large part of this situation can be transient I never worried about it much and eventually as I said I grew out of it, grades not withstanding.
On a quick side note, if you check out the National Sleep Foundation's website on Teens and Sleep you will see that:
Back to my own ranting, one needs to understand that these people are often struggling with this problem more than anyone could know.
I have also had the pleasure of treating several of these patients and it has been quite a challenge. Some of them have responded to medications, some have failed miserably, some respond to sleep hygiene and light therapy, and others have not. I have suggested Melatonin in only a few rare cases, but is has shown good results.
The only thing I really did not think was accurate was this blogger's rant and rave about how dumb her sleep specialists were. Now I will give her credit she did explain some rather strange situations (like asking someone who stays up all night to come in for an early appointment with a long drive) but what she needs to realize is that we are all frustraited with this disorder since science has not yet found a great way to treat it.
I think we need to give our sleep specialists credit for making an attempt and working with those who have these issues and struggling with trying to help them find the answers.
Related Topics: Sleep Solutions, Teen Sleep Deprivation: A Serious Problem
I was affected by this very condition as many of us are when I was a teenager. I would stay up playing the latest video game ( at the time it was Atari, watching my favorite movie ("Caddyshack" - who doesn't love Bill Murray?) or on the phone with friends. I would usually stay up until about 3-4 am and finally doze off to sleep. After about 3 hours if it was a school day my father would enter into the room, and tell me that my alarm had been going off for the past 1/2 hour and that I needed to get up. I was often late for school and often slept in my first class. I of course was not alone. If it was the weekend I could actually sleep until about 3 in the afternoon - man those were the days!!
It was only later in my career that I was able to identify this as a time when I was having a delayed sleep phase, but I was fortunate enough to grow out of it. Interestingly this situation can be a disorder which is long standing in many people. They are often called lazy, unproductive and weak. Since a large part of this situation can be transient I never worried about it much and eventually as I said I grew out of it, grades not withstanding.
On a quick side note, if you check out the National Sleep Foundation's website on Teens and Sleep you will see that:
"On April 2, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), introduced a congressional resolution to encourage schools and school districts to reconsider early morning start times to be more in sync with teens' biological makeup. House Congressional Resolution 135 or the "ZZZ's to A's" Act would encourage individual schools and school districts all over the country to move school start times to no earlier than 8:30 a.m."
Back to my own ranting, one needs to understand that these people are often struggling with this problem more than anyone could know.
I have also had the pleasure of treating several of these patients and it has been quite a challenge. Some of them have responded to medications, some have failed miserably, some respond to sleep hygiene and light therapy, and others have not. I have suggested Melatonin in only a few rare cases, but is has shown good results.
The only thing I really did not think was accurate was this blogger's rant and rave about how dumb her sleep specialists were. Now I will give her credit she did explain some rather strange situations (like asking someone who stays up all night to come in for an early appointment with a long drive) but what she needs to realize is that we are all frustraited with this disorder since science has not yet found a great way to treat it.
I think we need to give our sleep specialists credit for making an attempt and working with those who have these issues and struggling with trying to help them find the answers.
Related Topics: Sleep Solutions, Teen Sleep Deprivation: A Serious Problem
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34 Comments:
I think that I can officially say, even with a doctors says so, that I am a “night owl.” As of right now it is 10:07am and I have been up since 3:00pm the day before last. Usually I hit my wall at about 36-45 hours of no sleep. This is absolutely not by choice or life’s demand. I will lay awake in bed for hours… and hours… and hours… I have just gotten to the point that instead if even trying to sleep I just find things to do. I have been so tired that one day at the grocery store I had to look on my license to remember my name to sign my check; the lady thought I was a nut! As a mother of two small children this issue is not a small thing. This problem is completely consuming my entire life; I feel as if I am dying a slow death. I have no energy or motivation to do anything and I am afraid that it is leading to depression. I knew that I had a problem but I had no idea that there was a name for it, or that many other people have the same problem. My OBgyn was worried enough that she put my on Ambien while I was pregnant, and while I was breast-feeding. I have to say, I love Ambien. I feel so much better when I use it; literally like I am coming back to life. But alas, I have no medical insurance and Ambien costs $125.00 a month without insurance. If I can not afford to buy the Ambien what else can I do? What will sleep depravation do to me in the long run? Is there any other drug that works as well as Ambien that is not so expensive? I have tried relaxation techniques but to no avail. I am sure that proper diet, no caffeine, and exercise will help; however, I have a sneaking suspicion that they will not solve the problem. Money is such a huge factor, what options are there for someone like me? A sleep specialist…. Ha ha ha; I wish I could be so lucky. There has to be a way for me to get my life back.
yea i know because i am 15 and i do tend to have that vary sleeping disorder and i do fall asleep in classes i fell asleep at 4 am this morning and my mother came to wake me up at 6:30 am to go to work with her so i pretty much get no sleep and latley i have been up at night with rageing tooth aches and back pain. i have been sick and staying home from school for a while too because i am on antibiotics that make me dizzy. but yea i thought i would leave a comment and say it does look like u kinda still do have a sleeping disorder even though ur not a teenager. will my sleeping disorder follow me for the rest of my life? i was jus wondering that because u left this blog at 3:49 am. well i gotsta bounce!
*~Sammi~*
Ihave the same problem. I am a 30 year old mother of 2 and I have been awake since 3 pm yesterday.I stay awake all night (not by choice) and get the kids off to school, and THEN I hope I can fall asleep after they leave so I can be awake when they get home.I set my alarm for 2pm and my day is completely shot. I feel like a vampire cause the day means to sleep (if at all possible). I can't concentrate, and I feel like I'm going crazy. Haven't tried ambien yet tho---I'm scared of pills. I hope this makes some sense-haha
And then there are people like me...
I am up, wide awake until 0400 and I sleep until noon or 1300. Because I am a nurse and I work 3p - 3a, this is actually not a problem!
But interestingly enough, my paternal grandmother, my father, my son and myself are ALL this way. My dad did shift work, my grandma worked 8-4 and my son is an honor student in college.
Are we just "made" this way?
If I do need to sleep earlier, Melatonin works great for me...
Thanks for the mention and for acknowledging that I understand my DSPS to some degree. My specialist said the same in my disability application. And note that HE only sees people like me Wednesdays noon to 8 p.m., unlike the other doctors I was ranting about.
I'm in touch with several people with similar problems and am quite upset about what I hear about lack of understanding among doctors. Knowledge from the last decades of research should be seeping down to more primary care physicians by now! Your blog should help some.
Finally, thank you for these words which almost brought tears to my eyes: "one needs to understand that these people are often struggling with this problem more than anyone could know."
--nbm
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I was quite the nightowl when I was younger also, of course that was by choice. Now that I am an 37 year old working mother of three, I can barely make it past 9 pm. Usually the only time that I really have trouble falling asleep is when I have something on my mind. I do wake up easily during the night, but I am usually back to sleep within minutes. I can only imagine how difficult life can be for someone with this disorder.
what is fragmentary myoclonus. This came up in a sleep study for my son. consultation with a neurologist familiar with movement disorders in sleep is recommended. What does it all mean??
I wanted to ask,I am a 18 year old teen and i stil go to school i used to get nothing but A+ but then somehow i started to get less and less sleep and now i see my grades over the years have been suffering because of it i have trouble concentrating and staying focussed on things and having trouble studying.
i usualy lay awake for hours in bed staring at the sealing
Is there any way of getting rid of this problem if so please email it to me at rensole@gmail.com , thx in forward
Iam a 38 year old female and i dont sleep well and im a light sleeper when i do go to bed it usally at 3 or 4 am and have to work at 830 but i do it on weekends i stay up all night (like i did when i was younger ) and sleep all day which leaves no room for house work lol probally why im still single. then when i do sleep i get woken up by leg cramps or a little noise and it will take house usally to go back to sleep
I have to say that I have a problem with sleep too. I usually wake up around around 2-3pm and awake till 6-9am the next morning.
I've tried waking up earlier lil by little, and it works for a day or 2 then goes back to the way it was. I've tried advancing by staying up later and waking up later and it still falls back to the same pattern.
I've had this problem since i was a young child and i'm 24 now.
The one odd thing I did notice was that when I moved to Hawaii for 8 months after living in the eastern shore on the U.S. I had no problem getting to sleep an decent hour 10pm-12am.
The only thing I can think of was the 5&6 hour timezone difference(depending on the time of year) affecting it.
However when I moved back to the eastcoast things went back to the way it was.
I've got cerebral palsy. I was born breech. I've had cerebral palsy all of my life. I'm 47 years old now. I'm also a night owl
i am 30 yrs old and i have nite owl syndrome, like most people with this condition im considered lazy and someone who cant be bothered dealing with her kids....if that was true i woulda put them in care a long time ago..im failing to be able to stay awake till 8am longest i manage is 7am (usually fall asleep at 4 or 5am) and its interfearing with my kids schooling.i saw my doctor the other day and he had nevr heard of dsps so he is gonna check it out, however he didnt tell me to make another appointment.i desperatly need this sorted as i have other health probs to and so does my son and i need to be at appintments which im not cause im sleeping.im getting to old not to sleep when i need to because it affects my mood i also have pcos and high blood pressure ibs and query chronic fatigue, i just want a normal life...
Hi I’m a 19-year-old male. I’m having the same issues with sleep. I sleep all day and stay up all night, not by choice. I feel like my life is passing by me and there’s nothing to stop it. I’m currently in College upgrading in my high school courses, but I barley go because of my sleeping problem. I tell myself I have to go but next thing I know I’m awake at 6pm and I feel dumb. I told my teachers I’ve been having a sleeping problem and I show up to school once every 4 days but when I show up I’m to tired from staying up the following evening to concentrate. I have tried to fix the problem by staying up all night and all day and fall asleep that following evening. It has worked but only for a short time, my hours get straitened out for about 2 weeks then I start to fade back in to my old routine of staying up all night and sleeping all day. It is a vicious cycle. Not only the school it’s affecting but my love ones as well. Making promises to come over but don’t because I’m sleeping, ect. I really hope my body will fix itself before something bad happens. The sad thing is everyone is mad at you and you start to be mad at yourself because of the problem, which causes depression. If only some people would understand, what people with a sleeping problem go through.
I am 16 I stay up between 23 and 37 hours at a time. I fall asleep whenever I feel ready to fall asleep.
I usually awake in the evening.
I have no Idea how to fix this. It is really putting a strain on my relationship with my girlfriend since i am either sleeping or very tired when I see and talk to her. please any advice would be great. i have tried melatonin it does nothing.
I'm 42 and have always had odd sleep patterns. As a child it was put off as an inherited trait from my mother's family---most of the women were nightowls. In college it change drasticly, I went from being a nightowl to going a min. of 36-50 hrs before I hit my sleep wall. (I figured it up and I avereged approx. 1 hr. of sleep per a night for 24 month peroid) After that I evened out a little. As I've gotten older I have found that personal and professional stresses have changed it yet again. I'm all over the board. I have many of the sleep issues that have been discussed here. I had been to my family doctor repeatedly over 10 years, knowing something was wrong, I was told I was in a rut.(lovely wasn't it.) By the time I was diagnosed (approximately 5 years ago as "Chronic sleep deprivation" by a neurologist) my body was swelling up, I ate only lunch at work(I never remembered to eat anywhere els--strange because I love food) & my friends had started to keep conversations short because I couldn't hold a train of thought and easily became irratated,angry or distracted.
With the treatment the neurologist prescribed (with added ambien)I did ok for a while and actually improved some. My fiancé died in Feb. from pacreatic cancer and of course since then my sleep has gone to hell. And with that work's in the toliet as well. (You would think that working in a hospital would breed some understanding of medical issues. It seem a diagnosis only helps if it is a mainstream one. They understand nothing about chronic sleep disorders nor do they appear to want to learn.) Work is saying I have a grief and an anger mangement issue. As I said earlier------ clueless!
I have no idea what to try anymore. The medication that helped me before has become a real issue--I think due to hormone changes, but I'm really not sure. It is either ineffectual or to effective (even with adjustments).
If anyone has any suggestions feel free to e-mail me @ vanata7@yahoo.com.
Hi I have a problem while sleeping, falling asleep is not a problem, but In between at mid night or early in the morning I always wake up as my nose gets blocked, even though I do not suffer with cold or cough.
Can you give me some suggestions how to solve this problem. thank you.
I've had sleeping problems as long as I can remember. When I was young it was just that I wasn't a morning person. As I got older it balanced out for a little while and then I began falling asleep in my classes. My grades began to suffer because I was too tired when I got home from school to concentrate on homework. During my senior year of high school I began turning into a night owl and getting at most 8 hours of sleep usualy six. Then i would sleep during class or start misspelling my name and stuff like that. Now that I'm in college its only gotten worse. I rarely go to class because I'm sleeping and i find myself more and more tired. Many people have used the term lazy or depressed. I have no insurance and no idea what to do, and i desperately don't want to fail out of college. If anyone can help, amanda.aguilar@ttu.edu
hi,my name is angie and i suffer with extreme night-owlism. I don't know what is wrong with me but for some reason I find it awfully difficult to sleep during the night and now I have gotten to the point where I envy those who can sleep at night.I am sixteen and still in school and I dont have a problem focusing, sleep or not(lucky me)I did'nt know that there were others suffering from this same sleep disorder.thank you for posting your comments and experiences with people like me by the way. Like the one person also posted, I feel like a friggin vampire or something because now I'm at the point where when I stay up all night I get annoyed when the sun comes up all bright and shiney and i feel like i just want it to be night all the time. I just want to be NORMAL not friggin dracula. If there is anyone out there with any helpful tips,advice, or solutions,please e-mail me asap at pinkprincess9227@yahoo.com sorry to give you my whole life story, but if there is anyone out there reading this, know that you are not alone. thank you
I have been trying to figure out what is wrong with my sleeping for over a decade. I am 31 now and having made the mistake of taking a job that requires that i wake at 2-4am after nearly a decade of 3rd shift jobs, i thought i had found a solution, yet still 9 or 10 pm rolls around and i feel i am hitting my stride and seem to be at my most productive. I manage to get 2or 3 hrs per night and can not seem to get in to waking up early even after 2yrs of this routine. Every time i have attempted to work 1st shift i have failed miserably quickly getting my self into hot water for sleeping through my alarms- i have 5 alarm clocks with a total of 12 alarms and have slept through them all, phone calls, even the noise of machine guns and concussion of grenades, close enough to push in the sides of my tent from the blasts, while in training in the marines. Not even boot camp or having a family depending on me seems to be able to make a dent. I gave up alcohol and caffine years ago, but the difference has barely been noticeable at best. I am desperate to find a solution or at least find out if there is something going on that i need to seek help for. i can't take losing another job or having to leave my current one anytime soon. I took the test online for ADHD and, scored very far into the severe symptoms side, after finding that the symptoms seem to have been written with me in mind. Then discoved that my brother has been being treated for it, but the restless part of ADHD doesnt say anything about being up all night and nearly comatose when i do fall asleep. Does anyone who has this disorder sleep in a nearly comatose state? any suggestions on where to look or things to try for ruling out possible causes?
I am 26 and have always been a nightowl in one way or another. I was home schooled until my junior year in high school. So I always thought I just never got used to getting up early. Until recently, I would stay up till about 4am, then sleep until 2pm sometimes. As it is now, I try to be in bed by about 1am, read until 1:30 or 2am.. then fall asleep (which is a big improvement for me). I will try to be up by 10am, but I could easily sleep until noon. After all that sleep, I would think I'd feel alert and awake during the day. But I am ALWAYS tired. I do wake up often during the night, so that may have something to do with it. I have been taking 50mg of Benadryl for a few months now to help me get to sleep, but I think that may be attributing to my being to sleepy all day. Can anyways give me any advice?
Hi i am nick i am 21 and i have dsps. my doctor said i had it and my parents jsut call it lazy and unproductive my whole family does. they just dont understnad me. i try telling them that i am tring but they want me to be like my sister. they say"Why cant you be more like your sister she gets up everyday and works and has a steady job" i tell them i will try so i stay wake all day then go to bed at 7p.m. i do good for a week them bam back to where i was. they say well you stay up all night plainyg video games and watch tv. but there is not much i can do at night. So i said okay i will try again but same thing..i have tried it 7 times but always end up at being awake at night again i also am bipolar add those two togeather not good combo. I just wish i could be normal to make them happy. to be like my sister for one day would be enough for me for 4 years. To be able to have a job during the day and be awake at night would be awsome to be normal for a change. I mean i fell like dracula off a horror film by being awake all night but i am glade to have found a sight that could be a place for me to read that others have the smae problem as me. I am glad that i am not alone at all.
hi umm i am a 19 year old college student. i was never a good student in school espcially my morning classes. but now that i am in college and really making an attempt at moving ahead in my life and being a good student i feel like i am cursed to fail in that i never get enough sleep for my morning classes. there are nights where i dont fall asleep until an hour or two before i have to get back up to go to school and in which while im there i have absolutly no interest in being there and then come home and imediatly go back to bed. the only way i am ever able to correct myself is forcing myself to stay awake for long days under no sleep until the night and then falling asleep its just miserable and i want to kno if anyone has any advice on how to regulate myself and stay regulated u can email me at Th3w1ngman@yahoo.com
Charlie
I am a night owl. I see myself as lazy and unproductive, when I decide I really need to change my sleeping habits. I cannot go to my favorite church and be a deacon because I don't get up early. I remember when I was young that I watched tv till late. Wow David Letterman is still on. Most important things happen in the morning:jogging, appointments, lunch dates, working. I think the sun actually makes me tired. Lunatic comes from the word Lunar or moon. Is that what makes me crazy? I need a different blog for that lol :) Probably has something to do with it. A facination with night? I don't know. What is this Melatonin? I will check it out. I am slowly getting worse about not handling my sleep. I guess I will be a night truck driver or something. They are out there.
Ok. Here goes. I'm not professing to have all the answers but I can speak about what has worked for my life.
I'm not sure which order to put things but I'll begin with how they were, how they are now and what changes had to occur for me to be where I am now.
My sleepless nights began when I was 18 at university. I would stay awake late on my computer studying, reading or just lying in bed with the same thoughts, aspirations, worries, hurts, past events rotating in my head. I would end up missing classes the next day, sleeping in till 1pm or later,I became absorbed in my own world. I missed catching up with people, missed events or were always very late for them, I felt lazy, uninspired and self-hate came into play which made things worse. My insomnia continued. It was affecting my quality of life. I became more cynical, saw life with the glass half empty instead of half full, I tell you, lack of sleep can do some strange things! It effects your mental state, your health and can make you feel like there is no hope. I know.
I am now 30 and in the last year things have changed. I now enjoy a good nights sleep. Wake up in the morning (sometime its a struggle to get out of my warm bed but it's a different kind of struggle to before) and see the morning sun, read the morning paper with a cup of tea, do the little things I want to do before work begins.
The progress to me getting better began with the question of what am I here for, what is going on? Why do I feel like a machine sometimes, why am I tired. Surely this is not what life is about. I began to look around me in nature and noticed the little things. A flowers potential realised when it is in full bloom. All that time as a seed, than as a plant growing and being nourished and now this beautiful flower, serving a purpose on this earth. The same with the not so visually beautiful things in nature but beautiful for reaching their full potential and realising their purpose - like worms, not the most prettiest of creatures but they grow and develop and mature into beings that purify our soil and help put the goodness back into it. Surely we are the same I concluded. We must first find our purpose and than realise it. All humans have a purpose and each person has a different purpose. One is the hands to the body of humanity, some are the feet and others are the heart. So I went on a quest to find out what my purpose was and I had a strong feeling that this would relate to my natural gift. I had tried everything else. I brought a book about purpose called 'Soul Purpose - Making a difference in life and work' which helped me a lot. But I was still confused as to what my gifting was - I needed to find out my gifting.
As I began to search for answers pertaining to my purpose in life, I used the time at night to sit in bed and read and research toward this answer. I would shut my book earlier each night, I had a feeling in me that that I was on the right path. I would still stay awake for awhile thinking about things in the past but my thoughts were now starting to rest around things of the future, good things, I started to become a little excited about the next day. I would fall asleep and wake up a little earlier each day. My body had a little more sleep so it felt a little better. But it was still far from good.
At some point, I began to realise the self torture I was putting myself through by regurgitating past events, arguments, moments and people over and over in my mind at night had to stop. These thoughts kept me awake and prevented me from sleeping. To resolve this I would 'A' either address this issues in the physical world and rectify or resolve these moments or 'B' leave the past behind me and begin to focus my thoughts on future hopes and aspirations. Option B became more possible as hope had started to become a reality in my life. Hope that I was moving forward, growing towards my purpose.
I didn't much like my job at the time, I couldn't say exactly why but it was more a case of random selection than purpose driven choice. None the less, bills needed to be paid, so I attended still getting in trouble for being late quite often. But now I started to use my time at home to think about what my gift might be I remember enjoying music, singing, dancing and acting as a child but which could it be, it had been such a long time ago. I even rang mum to help me and she mentioned that I always had a song in my heart and a natural gift for this. When she said this I knew she was right. Having late nights had also left me indecisive and looking at too many angles of a situation instead of seeing clearly. Having someone I love bring back memories of times gone helped me. I thought I would learn the guitar so I had something to play along to with the songs I would write. I organised lessons for in the evening. I had started to become more active in life with things that were natural to me and that I enjoyed. I began to find a rhythm.
I decided to stop drinking alcohol because I decided this was a drug that inhibited me from realising my potential. I only suffered hang-overs from them the next day and this didn't help my situation. I began to sit in bed at night and research about things, I began to have a thirst for knowledge. I wanted to know what was going on in life, be informed about what was going on around me.
I started to learn things about preservatives and colour additives in our food and how these artificial chemicals affect our body and health - consequently the mind. I started to become more conscious of what I ate, eating healthy things, things that are medicine to my body, like oranges, apples, fresh meat. I now realised how much what we eat effects our brain and body. I started to become more informed, as my knowledge grew I began to feel the power to make decision and take control of my life. I began to turn the light out earlier. I began to sleep well. I began to look forward to waking up the next day to learn more. To grow more. I am only 30 now and as I feed myself good things - good things for the mind (knowledge), good things for the body (things that are natural), good things for the spirit (being thankful every day for all I have and living in faith that God will provide my needs - this trust in God certainly took a lot of stress off my shoulders).
If you had spoken to me over a year ago I would not have a thirst for life. I would most likely be too tired to be able to care. Now I have a thirst, that gets stronger every day. Now I know when its important to turn off my cellphone and stay away from the computer and go out and enjoy nature - regularly! I am working towards my goal I write songs about the way I feel and how I see things and am working with a producer on an album at the moment to tour at the end of the year. Dreams I never imagined coming true. Dreams that would never have been realised if I hadn't asked the question.
All I say is don't rely on docters to give you the answers, don't let them prescribe you with drugs whose side effects may be worse then the symptoms they relieve. First try seeking, look for your gift, the thing your naturally good at and enjoy doing, begin to master it. Teach yourself or find a teacher it's up to you. Begin to use your 'Night Owl' hours on something that develops and grows your knowledge and skills in the area your passionate about. If it's gardening, start researching the net and begin one of your own at home or if its nursing start researching about how you can become qualified to do that. Whatever it is just start. One step at a time. It brings far more joy than reading a fantasy book to help you escape, or playing a playstation game to pass the times it will actually start changing your life and your sleeping patterns.
Regularly take yourself outdoors to a natural area to remind yourself that things exist outside the stress' of a mortgage, this months bill and other things we put on ourselves. Don't let self-doubt eat at you, it has no rightful place in your life!
Ok I've gone on a bit now - but it's only because I finally have a passion for life - after so long without it. I believe no matter what age you are you can get it back. I'm still growing and learning but most importantly I am sleeping! And now my mind is clearer. I no longer suffer.
I know everyone is different but I thought I would write this on the off chance it would help someone else sleep better, feel better and ultimately taste what life is really about!
I am 28 years old. I have had a sleep problem all of my life. I was a premature baby, and my mother says I slept for so long she would have to wake me up to eat, and even while I was eating. Through my grade school years, I was always in trouble for not getting out of bed, and making my sisters late, along with myself, for school. When I got my drivers liscense I was late for school everyday. I have worked evening jobs since I was 16, and have always wanted a "normal" 8-5 kind of job, but I cant get up. My husband doesnt understand my problem at all, and says I am lazy .I have been called lazy all of my life so Im use to that. My husband has gotten me a job with the company he works for, I guess to try and help me to get up earlier, where I have to start work at 8:30 am. I am late every day. Sometimes, I am even 1 to 1 1/2 hours late. I work outside of the actual office/building (contract labor) so I dont have to clock-in or check in with anyone unless there is a problem. The alarm clock doesnt wake me up... it hasnt, or they havent and I have tried several beeps whistles bells and radios. So its good to know its not just me.
I have a question. I am a freshman in college and typically I go to bed between 1-3:00am and get up between 7 -9 am. I average between 5-7 (usually closer to 5) hours of sleep a night. I don't feel that tired during the day and I have no problem getting good grades. I play sports and I don't notice any problems with my performance due to lack of sleep. Could this sleep pattern cause a problem?
I don't get much sleep at all. I usually stay up all night until 5am and then sleep until late in the evening. My problem is im always on the computer time i get up until time i go to bed. I know crazy. but when i do go out with friend's for the first few minutes i am fine then i get lightheaded and dizzy alot and throwing up sick. I think its could be because i am not getting enough hours sleep at night and sleeping during the day and im on the computer alot its not healthy and its making my body weak. If anyone has any ideas i dont know what it is. please tell.
im a 24 yr old college student who works as a bartender 5 nights a week. i experienced some traumatic events my freshman year of college and have had trouble coping. i feel like ive dealt w/ all of that but i still cant get back into a normal sleeping pattern. since i moved back in w/ my parents it has become especially difficult. they see it as im being lazy during the day and wasting energy(as in using the tv) all night. i just cant sleep. ive tried going to bed around 10pm but i just end up awake by midnight. ambien only makes me dizzy, and melatonin doenst do a thing. being a bartender, my co-workers suggested wine, but i dont want to develop a habit. i would just move out, but i really do want to sleep!
I have always all my life been a night owl. I also always needed more sleep than most people even now & I'm 40. I can stay up all night like it is nothing & go to sleep at 6:00 a.m. & sleep perfectly till 5:00 p.m. Of course, I always am late for everything, it didn't fit in well with being a stay at home mom at all. I was lucky if I could take care of the kids let alone do anything else. Of course since I've been sharing my life with someone else, I have felt nothing but lazy (and suggested that way too many times). Plus I look at normal people and all they get done and it just makes you want to give up. I had double problems because I was a night owl who needed a minimum of 10 hours of sleep & still was tired all the time. I did get a break & had a daytime sleep study done & was never diagnosed but at least admitted that I was unusual so they perscribed me Provigil which has been great for at least functioning during the day without having to take 4 naps. Unfortunately like everyone else I can't stay on the routine like day people no matter what. When I went to school I would fall asleep through anything boring especially in the afternoon & had detention all the time for being late & missed school days. When I had a
1st shift job, I would be late every morning & have to knock off eventually just to catch up on sleep. I would get so tired in the afternoon I would hide in the bathroom for a while to close my eyes. I love working 3rd shift it fits into my life perfectly but no one else seems to like it. My counselors say that is why your depressed, my husband says it not healthy. My kids who unfortunately are just like me are the only ones who enjoy it, we have great times together in the summer, but my husband says I'm ruining them into my lifestyle.
Boy if they ever find a name for it & a diagnois I will rub it in some peoples faces so bad. Oh my she isn't lazy.
It irks me how everyone says its so bad to be a night owl & early birds are normal yet if everyone followed this early bird routine who would work 3rd shift jobs. Plus why is it if you are a night owl & sleep in your lazy but if you go to bed early & get up early your normal. Why can't we just be 2 types of people. I feel like I spend my whole life worrying about my sleep & hiding when I sleep. Its as bad as hiding when your eatting because yes if you are a night owl you don't eat at normal times so that is why your fat also.
Sorry guess I want to be considered normal I mean won't it be nice to just say these are who these people are & these are the jobs they need to go into. Thank God we have nurses, doctors, truck drivers, policeman, etc. who are night owls right. My daughter loves to write & she says she is going to be an author so she can have her own hours & to hell with it. Unfortuately that is not how the world operates so I pray she at least marries a night owl.
Thanks for reading my ramping. It just feels better to see I'm not the only one.
i have always been a night owl. ALWAYS staying up later than all of my friends. sometimes it was a good thing, so at birthday parties or sleepovers, i wouldn't ever get "pranked", but other times, i would stay up and do nothing but look at shodows on the walls for HOURS. then school started again over the summer, and i started to sleep better, since i had PE and walked home after school. but then i started getting stressed as homeowrk got even more and more difficult. i just put it off unti the last moment, then i am getting my books out at nine, when my mom wanted me to be in bed by ten. and now i freak. i rush and rush, and i know i dont get the homeowork right, or i know i dont have the time to study for a class that i am trying to get into AP classes for my first year of high school. and when i finally have the time to rest, i am thinking about how i should be studying and how BAD ima fail this test, and i also think about people like my friends and family, and enimies. i cant stand not sleeping. i think part of teh reson is that ever since i was 6 i have slept with a bright nightlight, and thats because i like to read and write before actually falling asleep, and then i also turn on the radio, and i never fall asleep, so for the last two days i have turned my radio off and used a darker nightlight to reda for a couple minutes, and go to sleep, but i still dont wake up refreshed. and i think it may have something to do with MySpace, ever since my mom allowed me to have one, i have been sleeping a lot worse, and it just gets worse and worse. i love talking to my best friends for hours, but i know i should be doing somthing more...as my mother calls it..."constuctive".
what is the difference between teens and people over 40??
do teens need more sleep that people over 40
I thought that i was the only one with this problem. since i can remember I have always been a nite owl..Im 19yrs old. i stay up all night and then about 10am in the morning i climb into bed a sleep until about 6:00pm. i remember when i was in high school i would stay up all nite and not go to sleep and going to school. believe it or not i sleep better during the day then when i sleep at night. i stay asleep the whole day but when i try to go to bed at night i find myself waking up in the middle of the night about 5 or 6X. some nights i might get a good nite sleep but i got to smoke a blunt and take me two Pm pills to fall asleep. I dont see myself really ever stoppin my habbit. I think it will affect my life. i dont got a job right now because i got fired for being sleepy on the job about two weeks ago. so im conidering getting a job at night. and im having trouble mantaining my weight because i find my self snacking at night. is there anything i can do
down south: I've had problem sleeping for a full 8 hrs for about 30 yrs. I've tried it all..dark room, ambien cr, melatonin, no caffeine, no wine, exercise, no heavy meals & eat early. Some times it works for a day or two & then I go back to the same routine. Ijust live for the weekends when I can crash. I've been asked if there was something on my mind (No). I do not have a clue & do not believe anyone has an answer. I usually go with 4 hours sleep a night. The worst is 2 hours. Once in a great while, I experience 8 or 12 hours sleep & feel like I'm in heaven.
Will this last a while? I'm 14 and I've been awake since 10:00 in the morning yesterday and its 6:15 am right now. I sleep until about 2:00and my dad always gets me up and calls me lazy. I'm always tired in school and I've been so tired lateley that I have to leave basketball practice because I'm so tired. Yet, at night I'm never tired. I also wanted to know if things like this are hereditary? My aunt has the same problem as I do.
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