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I can tell the author of this article does not suffer from DSPS

I have done all of the above many times as I have tried to be in sync with the daytime world. By getting up early and depriving myself of sleep, I find I end up actually sleeping twelve to sixteen hours when possible. Fortunately, I now realize at 61 yrs of age, that it is better for me and my health to give my body the sleep it needs when it needs it. And that can still be on a regular schedule of 8 hours (4:00 am to noon). Fortunately, I do own my own business and work from home.


This was not always the case and my health has suffered from dealing with this for over 40 years. It is so refreshing to finally have an actual name for my problem. If you read the Wikipedia information you can see it is not so lightly dealt with.

Kevin's Thoughts

You're right in that DSPS is not to be dealt with lightly in many cases--it can be seriously disruptive and harmful. My own biological clock is no stranger to delayed sleep phases, although I've always been able to shift the phases back up with some effort if I want to. It's been enlightening reading some of the other visitor-submitted stories and learning about the real struggle individuals have with their circadian rhythms.

That's great that you give your body a sufficient amount of sleep and have the freedom with your work to sleep in when you need to. The temporary sleep debt strategy for helping to curb DSPS (which I believe is what you are criticizing) is really a transitory tactic for mild delayed phases aiming to help shift the sleep schedule up for the long term, for those who do not have the luxury of sleeping in and need to adjust their circadian rhythm schedule so that they wake up refreshed at the time of the morning they need to.

Anyone have any further thoughts? Share them using the "Post Comments" link below.

edited 11/29/10

Comments for I can tell the author of this article does not suffer from DSPS

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Aug 10, 2010
 Syndrom
by: Tobias

If you effectively change your circadian rythm you might get à delayed sleep phase but it is the inability to change the rythm that makes it a syndrome. I am myself diagnosed with dsps and I am about to try something called free running the sleep to see if I can get out of my 12 hour sleeping.

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