Regarding the hour

[prog]

A weblog from someone with similar sleep patterns as me, but putting some actual research into it, including consulting physicians. One gave the person an actual diagnosis I have not heard of before: Delayed Sleep-Phase Syndrome.

That certainly gives me pause for thought. I was also struck by the writer's description of spending hours lying awake after being sent to bed, as a child. By gar, my own bedtimes were just so, night after night. I haven't thought about it in a long time, but I absolutely remember the truth of it. Have I been shifted forward like this my whole life?

And now that I have a new straw to grasp at, should I try again to do something about it?

Comments

[radtea.livejournal.com]

Fascinating. I suffered from chronic insomnia until my late 20's, and spent endless childhood hours lying awake. In my grad student days I would work until 2 am, be in bed by 3 am and get up around 11 am. Eight hours sleep, shifted by five hours. Fortunately I didn't have many morning classes.

Poor diet, not much physical activity and constant stress were probably contributors. Now that I'm working for myself again I tend to get up a little later and go to bed a little later, but not much. The key difference seems to me to be one of flexibility rather than changing a fixed pattern. That is, healthier living has given me a more flexible sleep-cycle, so I can adjust to a more normal pattern fairly easily. No coffee after 1 or 2 pm, and less coffee overall, helps as well. But the supposition that some of us have phase-shifted sleep cycles certainly would explain my own childhood and early adult experience perfectly.

One could tell an evolutionary just-so story about this, too, for whatever small worth that has: it would certainly benefit the tribe if a few people were phase-shifted, making it easier to maintain a night watch.