So what have I learned about DSPS, or delayed sleep-phase syndrome, so far?
Wikipedia says it’s a circadian rhythm sleep disorder.
Circadian rhythm is your body’s biological clock—that drummer which only you can hear—and it affects stuff in your body like temperature, alertness, appetite, the release of hormones, and of course, your sleeping and waking time. This unseen clock inside of every one of us, when it’s working properly, would wake us up when it’s time to wake up so that we don’t sleep the whole 24 hours of the day through, and tells us to go to sleep when it’s normally time to doze off at night so that our body can heal itself.
When you have a disorder in this area, then it just simply means your body clock is out of whack. And like most every time-telling device, if it goes faster or slower, someone somewhere is too late or too early for something. In this case, it’s the time when you go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning.
DSPS is a chronic disorder.
Meaning, you didn’t get it overnight. (No pun intended, honestly!)
It developed over time so even if you didn’t have a name for it then, it may have been around since your birth or teenage years. If you’ve a child who refuses to sleep before midnight and is so perky and playful ‘til the early hours of dawn while all you want is to snore—on a continuous basis, not just once or twice a month—then you may want to think sleep disorder.
When every one’s asleep, you’re awake. And when every one’s going to work in the morning, you’re busy snoring your “night” away.
One thing I learned about this chronic disorder is that the “time of sleep” is not aligned to what’s normal to society.
In this case, while everybody else can go to bed at 10:00 in the evening and wake up at 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning to go to work, you just can’t keep those same hours. Truth is, Hypnos comes for you hours after midnight and doesn’t let you go until you’ve dozed the best of the morning away…well into lunch, as a matter of fact.
It’s scary but you may have to accept the fact that, if it goes untreated or unmanaged, the 9-to-5 grind may not be for you because you’ll have the darnedest, most difficult time getting up in the morning and staying alert and awake.
Earlier on in my employed life, I’d always choose to manage the middle and night shifts when I was working as an assistant store manager in a pizza joint. Those times when I had to accommodate the morning shift that began at 7:00 in the morning—which meant waking up an hour and a half before that—had always been hell! I had difficulty focusing on things, I couldn’t make quick decisions, and I generally moved slower than everybody wanted.
Oh, and when I was in grade school and high school, I’ve always been called to the principal’s office for being too early for the second subject in the morning!
It goes without saying that you’re awake ‘til early morning but…bet you didn’t know that you get sleepy at the same time every “night”.
DSPS isn’t like insomnia where you can’t go to sleep even if you wanted, still feel exhausted after you’ve managed to get sleep, or can’t maintain sleep. You can still sleep well—and soundly, for that matter!—wake up without difficulty, and will be typically alert during the “day”.
That is, if you and I can follow our own sleeping pattern freely. Absent that, and well, you know: you’re sleepy during what society calls “day”, you’re out of focus, and simply sluggish.
Working in a government agency in the late 90s which was so strict with time keeping, there was never a week when my time sheet wasn’t peppered with red late-and-half-day marks. And because I was way below the bureaucratic ladder—the lowest rung, btw!—my pay envelope and my bills usually missed the hundreds that had been shaved off due to my, er, punctuality challenged body clock. Those days were spent downing jugs of coffee in the morning to push up my awareness level, and bedevilling my colleagues in the afternoon with my perkiness.
Oh, and if you have DSPS, you’re one of three among 2,000 people who have it.
There’s no distinction among men and women. Both, according to Wikipedia, are equally suffering from the syndrome. Nice to know DSPS is equal opportunity. 
How about you? I’m sure you found this post because you were looking for more stuff about DSPS. Can you share with me what you know by leaving a comment below?
