Sleeping forward

[ViewsAskew]

When people have "long" clocks, they say that one way to reset them is to stay up later each night - a couple hours - so that over a week or two, you move everything to the time you want to be going to sleep.

I'm doing it....again. I've done it multiple times and it's never worked for long, so this likely meets Einstein's version of insanity. But, I'm tired of going to bed at 6 AM or later each day. I miss daylight now that it's winter - some days I only see 2 hours of daylight...

So, today I got up at 12 AM and will try to go to bed at 4 PM this afternoon.

It's nice being up with the sunshine! And, I've already accomplished A LOT! And, not WED at 3 in the morning and I'd not taken meds since about 3 in the afternoon. That was pretty weird.

[Rustsmith]

It sounds like you may be experiencing what I believe kept my WED at bay for years without drugs, namely circadian disruption. You are doing it by shifting your day and I did it with jet lag caused by traveling between time zones with changes of 6 to 12 hrs at least two times per month. If your body cannot figure out what time it is supposed to be, then I guess it cannot figure out when it is supposed to activate the WED!

[Polar Bear]

My bedtime has been getting later and later. Bedtime is now at around 4am although this morning it was 5.45am when I got back to bed and sleep.
Even though I had taken 30mg amitriptyline and 7.5mg zopiclone earlier at 11pm.

I awoke this morning at 10.30am - at which time I should have been at an appointment.

[ViewsAskew]

It sounds like you may be experiencing what I believe kept my WED at bay for years without drugs, namely circadian disruption. You are doing it by shifting your day and I did it with jet lag caused by traveling between time zones with changes of 6 to 12 hrs at least two times per month. If your body cannot figure out what time it is supposed to be, then I guess it cannot figure out when it is supposed to activate the WED!

I am not sure that works for me, Steve. But, too foggy and tired to muddle through it to determine an answer .

The ongoing issue, for me, is mostly a long body clock. I've always had one. I've always wanted to sleep 9-10 hours and be awake about 16-17 hours. Even if I force myself to sleep 8 hours, I still want to stay up an hour or so later each night. So, when I should be falling asleep, I'm still - whatever. Reading, writing, watching TV. If I force myself to go to bed, I just lay awake. I've done this since I was a young child - many a night I was caught reading under the covers...it was boring being awake!

That said, it's been made MUCH worse because WED is at its worst from 11 to 2 or so. Since I want to stay up later, when I am tired, the WED is at its worst. SO, like Polar Bear, I stay up PAST the worst of the symptoms. Even medicated, I often don't sleep well in that crucial time and it's just easier to be up than try to sleep and have to get up.

It's now 3:41 PM and my legs are very, very unhappy.....I'm behind on my meds because I wasn't thinking about them, I was finishing work for a client. Ugh....so, now to wait for them to work before I can sleep....

[debbluebird]

I know exactly how you are feeling Ann. I always find myself sleeping later and later at times. Then there is the day that I have to get up three or four hours early to get somewhere and that usually gets me back on track. Good luck.

[Polar Bear]

It is always difficult to be going to sleep at around 5am on the day when the grandchildren are arriving at 7.30am for my child care day.
Last week worked well.... got one to school and when back home with the 2 year old told him we'd have a treat, toddler and granny up into bed to watch cartoons.
I got a couple of hours out of that one.

[ViewsAskew]

It is always difficult to be going to sleep at around 5am on the day when the grandchildren are arriving at 7.30am for my child care day.
Last week worked well.... got one to school and when back home with the 2 year old told him we'd have a treat, toddler and granny up into bed to watch cartoons.
I got a couple of hours out of that one.

Whatever works!

I was sooooo tired last night - I slept 11 hours but had to get up to finish work for my client. I just finished and I swear I'm heading back to bed....except then I won't be tired tonight and I'll stay up too late....and be back on the crazy train....

[ViewsAskew]

I know exactly how you are feeling Ann. I always find myself sleeping later and later at times. Then there is the day that I have to get up three or four hours early to get somewhere and that usually gets me back on track. Good luck.

That sort of works for me, but never as I wish it did - all because of the dratted activating side effect of the methadone. I'll be really tired at 8 PM because I didn't get enough sleep. By 10 PM, when I should be ready to sleep, the methadone has kicked in and I do just one more thing before I go to bed. By midnight, I'm doing cartwheels in the living room - well, not really but you get my point. Soon, it's 4 AM and I'm still not in bed.

Yesterday I was supposed to go to bed at 3 PM. I still had to finish work for a client and also realized I'd not taken my meds. By the time I finished the work and the meds had worked, I wasn't so tired. At 7 PM, I convinced hubby it was a good time for some intimacy. I didn't go to bed until 9 PM - a full 6 hours after I was supposed to. Of course, then I was REALLY tired, so I slept 12 hours. So, I'm already "back" to a normal schedule.

[Polar Bear]

To sleep 11 or 12 hours.....

[ViewsAskew]

To sleep 11 or 12 hours.....

That's what methadone does for me. It completely takes away my daytime WED. So, as long as it's during the day, I'm good. But, I have to take a lot of it to get that - and there's a price. Sleeping 12 hours and being continually off schedule.

[badnights]

So, I'm already "back" to a normal schedule.

I've done that 3 or 4 times in the last 4 years or so. It never has any effect. It's just nice while I'm doing it, because I don't feel guilty about staying up as late as I want! If I could just let my clock free-run, I could probably be quite productive - except for the fact that I need to mesh with the world, with at least a few parts of it, and that's impossible when you're free-running. Sigh.