unusual sleep pattern

[kman0912]

I'm a college student and ever since around my senior year in high school I've developed an unusual sleeping pattern. I will sleep for 13-15 hours one night, and be tired all day even though I just slept for 1/2 of it. So lets say I go to sleep at 2am, if I don't set an alarm the earliest I will expect to wake up is 2-3pm but then I won't get tired until about 4-5am the next night...but if uninterrupted, I'll sleep until the 5-6pm the next day. If I do set an alarm, I feel exhausted upon waking - even when getting the recommended 7-9 hours, and sometimes get so overwhelmed with exhaustion that I just go back to sleep and miss whatever commitment I had (usually class).

Also worth noting:

Some nights I can get very little sleep (2-3 hours) and usually just one night of this can start an entire week of this chaos.

Eventually, after about 5 days or so of this pattern my sleeping should eventually plane out to 7-9 hours.

My question I guess is...when getting very little sleep one night is unavoidable, is there any way to right my circadian rhythm other than the way my body is currently handling it? And are there any vitamins or anything that enhance the more important sleep stages such as REM?

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hi.

You seem to be suffering from what is called as Circadian rhythm disorder. There are many types. Are you following the sleep hygeine ?

In my view, you should see a Sleep Specialist soon.

Regards

DrAbhijeetMD

[Mikef88]

Hi, I usually sleep 4 - 5 hours per night. This has always worked for me as I am very hyper and don't need much sleep. Sometimes, I would like to sleep more and have taken ambien (2 1/2) to 5 mg. For he past year ambien stopped working. ambien cr never worked. I am being treated for an astrocytoma for the pas year. Is it coincedence that the ambien stopped working, or is it related to my treatment?