DSPS (Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome) Help??

[laydeechaz]

I'm 19 and i suffer from Anxiety and on and off Depression. With my Anxiety i used to suffer from a fear of dying in my sleep which resulted in me not going to sleep or falling to sleep until the early hour's of the morning so i didn't wake up until lunch time. Even though the fear has gone i have found it really difficult to snap out of it.
I seem to have load's of energy at night espcially around 11am-2am and so don't go to sleep till like 3am-4am even 5am sometime's, so i don't wake up until like 1pm-2pm which is really bad! If i have to be up earlier i just cannot cope, i can't function, i'm literally in my own world and get a bad headache. I even find it difficult to wake up at 2am! I just want to sleep constantly. But the other problem is i'm literally falling to sleep in the day (after waking up) especially in the late evening around 8pm-9pm, i just can't keep my eye's open! But then after 10pm i won't be tired anymore.
My doctor sent me to get some blood tests cos i used to be Anemic from lack of iron, so she made sure that wasn't the cause again and she also wanted my thyroid checked for any hormonal imblance's. Everything came back normal apart from my iron levels that have dropped a bit but nothing like it was. So she was a bit confused, she said it's obvious your body clock is all over the place and cannot cope with your sleeping pattern so she looked up sleeping disorders and came across DSPS and ASPS, she said it sounded alot like DSPS which is when a person find's it difficult to fall to sleep before 3am and have terrible problem's with waking up in the morning's and when is woken up early they cannot function for hours and rarely wake up before lunchtime, which is exactly like i have. And ASPS is the opposite, a sufferer will go to sleep early and wake up early and fall to sleep in the evening. It's all to do with disruptions in the Circadian Rhythm, which i don't properly understand.
My doctor said i will need to see a specialist to be diagnosed, but here in the U.K that isn't easy.
Doe's anyone here suffer from DSPS? Doe's my symptom's sound like it?
I'm really struggling here. :(
x

[KatEyes]

Once we get our sleep out of kilter (for whatever reason), getting back on track can take time and discipline, For starters you can Google sleep hygiene and implement the suggestions. But DSPS generally requires more effort than just correcting bad sleep habits. I find I easily fall back into bad patterns if I allow myself any leeway. The only thing that has really worked for getting me back on track AGAIN is forcing the issue. No matter how late I went to bed, I forced myself up early and refused to allow any naps. No excuses. It was a brutal few days, but by the evening of the 3rd day I was watching the clock, and fighting to stay up until it was late enough to call it an early bedtime.

We can't have it both ways - if we sleep all day, we simply are not going to sleep at night. My concern for you is based on my own history. My avoidance of sleep was a subconscious self preservation move because my sleep was not only miserable, it was dangerous. I wish you could get a sleep study to see it there are any underlying sleep disorders going on, particularly obstructive sleep apnea or periodic limb movements.
Other things can disturb sleep, as in some medical conditions, side effects of meds, or mood disorders.

Sure hope you find resolution to your problems..

[laydeechaz]

Thanks for replying :)
Yeah my Doctor said i really have to want to go to sleep earlier to be able to achieve it, and obviously getting a normal sleep pattern back isn't going to be easy and it will take time.
She gave me aload of leaflet's to try and help me but she also said seeing a specialist will also help a great deal because they have technique's and they know how to help me.
How come your sleep problem was dangerous? Was it from the lack of sleep you were getting?
If i go to sleep at 4am i still get atleast 8 hour's sleep so that isn't too bad, it's just the sleep pattern that's the problem, i also take age's to fall to sleep at night, i have to be really tired, which is not alway's the case.
The bungle's of energy i have at night also need's to be sorted, but my Doctor said that's to do with my body clock.
So i think i just need to go to bed earlier step by step, like an hour before i usually do then 2 hours etcc, cos forcing myself to go to sleep like 4 hours earlier won't work i've tried it, it just make's me wake in the night constantly.
What is obstructive sleep apnea? I've never heard of that.

x

[KatEyes]

Wanting an better sleep schedule is a problem for me too, but my sleep doc is adamant about it. She talked to me about hormones and how the best quality of sleep will happen in sync with those hormones. There is these days a specialty within sleep medicine called sleep behavioral therapy. Maybe you could benefit from it. I think I saw a list of those specialists by location on the American Academy of Sleep Medicine's (AASM) site.

What I've had to face is I can't keep crying to my doc about how bad I feel but continue to not do those things that can improve my well being. And I had to have a little talk with myself. My staying up at night was born out of misery. I had to stop idealizing and defending it with words like "I'm at my best at night" or "I get my best sleep if I go to bed near morning" or "at least I have a night life". Real talk is that it is not beneficial to my health goals. Period.

My Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a condition that is common but widely underdiagnosed. It causes the airways to be repeatedly blocked and breathing to stop while sleeping, sometimes causing dangerous drops in oxygen reaching the brain and body organs. It puts one at risk for stroke or heart attack, and can impact the appetite hormones, stress hormones, metabolism, insulin resistance, and blood pressure. A common  misconception about OSA is that it is only seen in obese older men who snore. OSA can affect men and women of all ages and sizes.

I also have Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD). Anything that repeatedly disrupts one's sleep stages can cause cognitive dysfunction and a general lack of well being. For me, diagnosing and treating these sleep disorders was key to beginning to turn my sleep around. Not everyone will have underlying disorders, but I think it's best to know for sure.

[laydeechaz]

Yeah i've heard of sleep behavioral therapy, i think that's what my Doctor is trying to get me into. But also a big treatment for my problem is me, i've got to help myself, but because my body is so used to this system it's going to be hard, even though i'm struggling because of it.
Ohh yeahhh, my Dad used to have OSA (i just remembered that's what it's called), but now it's just his bad snoring that's a problem for him. Do you snore? I don't. I do sleep soundly when i'm actually sleeping, i don't wake up easily, well unless it's my cat trying to get in my room in the morning, it depend's if i'm in a deep sleep or not, in the morning's i'm usually woken up by my family making noise and if the phone rings and i don't wake up in the night. I don't think i have any problems with breathing whilst sleeping, how would i know? I do have allergie's that can keep me awake at night because of my sinuses, no high blood pressure, i'm only 19 and slim. I never had any sleeping problem's before all this, my sleep pattern problem has come from a fear but because the fear was affecting me for atleast 10 months before i settled down the sleeping pattern has been hard to change back to normal.
And with Periodic Limb Movement Disorder i don't think i have that either, yeah i'm fidgity and been known to move alot in my sleep but it never wakes me.
What were your symptoms of OSA?

x

[KatEyes]

Ok, couple things. People who have disorders that take place while they are asleep are usually the last to know. Sometimes the stages of sleep are disrupted without waking enough to become aware. Also, while snoring is common with OSA, there are young slender non-snorers with OSA. When OSA is caused by jaw and/or throat structure, it is not unusual to see multiple family members with it. I'm not saying you have either PLMD or OSA, just saying, without a sleep study, it hasn't been ruled out.

I've read many personal accounts of people diagnosed with mood disorders that later after being diagnosed and treated for sleep disorders found they had either been misdiagnosed or else their symptoms significantly improved. I can only suggest to you that if your sleep issues persist even with your best efforts, getting evaluated might provide answers for you. Best wishes.