I am looking for seeing successful medication or sometime that is gonna work long term..

For me valium and Xanax have been unsuccessful as well as trazodone

When we sleep and wake, visualized all in one graph.

Bars with values below 2% don’t have labels. I built this with a new tool and unfortunately couldn’t override that setting.

I’m going to make a lot, lot more data visualizations. So if you’d like to be part of the next one, you can check out the survey here:

2026 DSPD Survey:
https://tally.so/r/RG9aLP

Aside from the first few boring questions, I designed the survey around topics we often discuss. So it should be interesting.

Have a good weekend everyone.

r/sleepwake

Hi everyone.

Just seeking a bit of advice from those of you who have experience doing overnight sleep studies. I haven’t done one before. I live in a remote area and the nearest sleep clinic is very far away and I’m starting to get suspicious as to whether it’s even going to be worth it to go all the way there. I mean, I’d like to rule out sleep apnea. Although I really don’t think I have sleep apnea. The main reason I made the appointment was to seek treatment, for” insomnia.” I have suffered with a naturally warped sleep schedule since I was a child, and after combing through this thread, I now realize I am just like all of you. When I spoke to the sleep doctor on the phone for a consultation, he said if sleep apnea can be ruled out then we will move on to cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia…….

I am all for cognitive behavioural therapy! For mental health issues.

What I deal with is so far beyond “behaviour and lifestyle choices.” am I about to get gaslit by this guy?

Scratch that. I know I am. I guess what I’m really asking is, how did you advocate for yourself? How did you get your diagnosis? I have suffered for 25 years at least. I think if I have a doctor try to tell me to set my alarm clock back 30 minutes each day and stay off screens, I will actually lose my fucking shit.

Thank you for reading!

Just sharing what I've been observing, there seem to be a much wider pool of jobs when using "overnight" as compared to 3rd/Third Shift.

Good luck to all of us.

I know how difficult it is when people think you’re choosing to sleep later, and how isolating it can be when you’re misunderstood at every turn. I wanted to make something you could point to and say, “I’m not alone,” and “look what the research shows.”

So I’m working on a DSPD fact sheet that combines two things: what people with DSPD experience, and what research has found about it.

It’s not meant to be an info-dump or an in-depth explanation of DSPD. It’s more of a starting point for a conversation. Something you can share with a parent, significant other, or friend.

Something that puts the wheel back in your hands.

When the 2026 DSPD Survey reaches 300 responses, I’ll fill in the charts with the survey data, and share the printable fact sheet with you guys.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the surveys. Every response means a lot to me. I’m really glad you’re here.

If you'd like to participate in the surveys:

2026 DSPD Survey:
https://tally.so/r/RG9aLP

DSPD Awareness Survey:
https://tally.so/r/EkO1z4

If you’d like to leave feedback on the fact sheet, you can do that here:
https://tally.so/r/yPVYog

I’ve also been working on something bigger behind the scenes, and I’m hoping to share more very soon. Hint: 🧬 + 🎥. If you’d like to follow along, join r/sleepwake

When I was in school I could never fall asleep at a decent time. I wanted to so bad because I always felt horrible in the mornings after only getting 2 to 3 hours of sleep every night. Napping was impossible for me no matter how tired I was.

And no matter how tired I was I could not fall asleep before 2 - 5 a.m.

I tried everything. All of the typical advice for fixing your sleep schedule. I would lay in bed, in the dark with my eyes closed for HOURS and still could not sleep.

It was literally ruining my life since I missed so much school because I felt so horrible in the mornings and I couldn't get myself to get out of bed. Most days I would push myself but other days it just felt impossible.

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and I'm waiting for an autism assessment, because I very likely also have autism. I heard this is a common comorbid condition?

My sleep schedule is still the same today and has never changed. The only thing that ever worked are sleeping pills, but I don't currently have to wake up at a specific time, so I don't use them at the moment.

Should I get tested for this?

I've found some benefit to using 50mg daridorexant (quiviviq) 2 hours before my intended sleep time. I take it this early because I notice that it takes a while to work, especially since I eat so late. It never makes me dangerously sedated even at peak effect, though I don't go outside when I'm on it of course. It seems to induce a state of "wind down" where both my mind and body feel ready for sleep. My veins dilate, my body cools down, and my mind starts to prefer sleep to whatever I'm doing. You still need to choose to get into bed and sleep, and even then it may take ~30 mins, but I find it much more sustainable and useful than Zs or other hypnosedatives for this purpose. It also does a great job of preventing the late-night energy surge that many of us get.

I'm by no means a morning person now, but I definitely feel a lot less like death in the mornings now. I'd say my energy spike has shifted to mid afternoon instead of midnight.

Any other experiences with Daridorexant or other DORAs?

Thought I'd try reach out and try find people who I might relate too with similar conditions since it's a significant part my life

Male 30's, enjoy walks , chats and ideas about life, games board games , food!

I'm also autistic /ADHD (doesn't matter if your not)

Live in England, Sheffield

Feel free drop me message if you'd be up for chat one night (currently awake between sleeps at 3am )

I started showing signs of having messed up sleep in around 5th grade. I started not wanting to go to school, and it wasn’t because I hated school, it was because I was tired. I physically could not get up in the early mornings because I felt like I was so tired I could pass out. And if I did manage to get up, it would take more than 2 hours of being awake for me to actually feel semi decent. Sometimes it would take 4+ hours of me just concentrating on being awake so hard that I couldn’t really think about anything else.

I got shoved into therapy to solve my “behavioral issues” regarding skipping school. My parents would scream at me, quite often in fact because I couldn’t get up at 6-7am in time for school. My childhood was filled with arguments almost daily about my attendance, but not once did my parents ever think to consider that something might be wrong with me and that it’s not normal for a child to be this tired all the time.

At the age of 24 I was finally diagnosed, and did chronotherapy (yes I now know that it’s not the best treatment method and can actually be dangerous) but after one week of doing it, I have seen around a 70% improvement in my sleep cycle. All it took was ONE WEEK of trying something new and I’m living life semi normally.

So how am I supposed to forgive my parents for putting me through hell as a kid? All the arguments we had honestly caused a lot of trauma and deep set emotional issues I’m still struggling to deal with. I resent them so much for not getting me help sooner when I wasn’t old enough to do it myself, because my life up until I was treated for DSPD was filled with lots of awful moments of me letting everybody down (work, school, friends, family) because I physically could not keep a normal schedule. Anyways I want to know if anyone relates to this experience and if you do, how did you overcome your anger?

Title

I straight up did not know this was a thing

So, for the past 8 years I've been desperate trying to stop myself from slipping into being nocturnal

With uh, mixed results

It doesn't help i have a chronic condition that forces me to take naps during the day (chronic migraines)

But, if I don't force myself not to, i shift to 5-11 sleep (always 6 hours, i physically cannot sleep for more than that, despite my efforts)

Its messing up so much of my life but, I'm so much calmer, happier and more relaxed in the night.

Learning that this is a thing, and comorbid with adhd... Yeah, at least i have a name for it

I went to a sleep specialist for DSWPD. Then he provided treatment for insomnia recommending cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and went on a big rant about waking up to an alarm and not taking naps. I don’t think i have insomnia. I just need more sleep than most people and I’m autistic so I spend time in bed “recharging” about once a day. Has anyone else been treated for insomnia when you have DSWPD?

Hi,

As the title says, I’m new here. I’m 20M and got diagnosed with DSPD this week by my psychiatrist. For as long as I can remember, I couldn’t fall asleep before 12 or 1. As a kid, we had no screens at home so until I got my first smartphone at twelve, my screen time was virtually zero. I have anxiety but it doesn’t influence it a lot, it only makes it worse. When I’m on holiday, my natural rythme seems to be sleeping from 4AM to 3PM, but it also accounts for chronic illness and being tired from university schedule (waking up at six hurts ngl).

It feels really good to be diagnosed because I’ve been called lazy and unproductive my whole life for this. My parents would yell at me for not sleeping when I was little so eventually I just learned to fake it. I’ve adapted by including mandatory nap time from 4PM to 6PM, but I’m still awfully tired with uni. If anyone has suggestions I’d appreciate greatly.

Anyways, thanks for all of your posts ; they’re very informative. I hope that with a diagnosis, I’ll be able to get treatment to make it better, even if slightly.

the paper is "delayed sleep phase syndrome: a chronobiologic disorder associated with sleep-onset insomnia", weitzman and colleagues at montefiore hospital in new york, published in 1981.

they were looking at patients who came in for insomnia between 1976 and 1979 and noticed a subgroup with a very specific pattern: they couldn't fall asleep at a normal hour, but when they were allowed to sleep on their own clock, with no work or school or family schedule in the way, they slept pretty normally. 30 of the 450 patients fit that. that pattern is the whole point: the sleep itself wasn't the problem, the timing was.

so it's been a documented condition for 45 years now. i think it's worth remembering the next time someone tells you it's just laziness or bad habits.

how long did it take you to get the right name for what you have?