Without meaning to internet-diagnose, and you really should see a sleep specialist: Ah, welcome to life with what certainly sounds like a case of DSPS. If you're falling asleep regularly around the same time at night and sleeping regularly to the same time in the mid-morning, it could very well be DSPS and not just insomnia. (I have DSPS's bigger nastier cousin, Non-24-Hour Sleep/Wake Syndrome. Worst case my doctor's ever seen.[1])
First off, for the alarm: Have you thought about one of the sleep-cycle alarm clocks (they have apps for iPhone/iPad and Android, if you have either of those; if not you can get a wrist gizmo that hooks into your computer) -- that will let you set the alarm to wake you gently around a period of light sleep, which will avoid the alarm blaring you awake and will help you wake at the optimal time for your body.
Dealing with DSPS is very individual. Some people get really good results from light therapy in the mornings and from adjusting their environment to completely prohibit light exposure in the hours before bed (so, like, turning down the brightness of your computer screen and altering the "temperature" of the light with F.lux); some people get good results from large doses of vitamins (vitamin D and/or vitamin B12) or large doses of melatonin (but there's a connection between taking large amounts of melatonin and depression, so be careful there). (On the other hand, there's a connection between DSPS and depression, in that they are often seen together, and treating one often helps with treating the other.) Interestingly, the few times I went on hormonal birth control, my sleep schedule snapped into a perfect 24-hour day cycle. For the three weeks before the BC made me go crazy and I had to go off it. (I react very, very badly to any hormones.)
It will take a lot of experimenting to see what works for you, though, and unfortunately, many people with a more-than-mild case of it will never be able to wrangle it into a "proper" sleep schedule long-term. The best thing to do is often to recognize that you have a disability (DSPS is considered a disability under the ADA) and adjust your life to fit your sleep schedule, rather than adjusting your sleep schedule to fit your life. It's not impossible to find second or third-shift jobs (and often they pay a shift differential, since people who are willing to work the night shift are few and far between) and with a formal diagnosis of DSPS you can generally get your employer to make reasonable accomodations such as a later start time if the job you're working isn't time-dependent.
From a personal standpoint, I grew up with DSPS as far back as I can remember: some of my earliest memories are fighting with my mom over bedtime. Once I hit puberty (sleep cycle is also tied into the endocrine system and I have a bunch of endocrine disorders) my delay started shifting later and later, and it came totally loose from the clock around age 20 or so. (Seriously, my doctor took a look at my sleep chart and said "This shouldn't happen unless you live in a cave."[2]) I could wrangle my sleep schedule a little during my early 20s, enough to let me keep working (night shift jobs, though) in the Real World, but by the time I hit 30 I just gave up. Fortunately my job lets me set my own sleep schedule now, and once I started indulging my natural sleep pattern, life got so much better.
One thing I'd change right now if I were you, I'd move the time you take your Wellbutrin, since it's really stressing you out to keep taking it at the early time. I'd also go back to keeping a sleep log, with notes about things like how many times you woke up in the middle of the night, how rested you felt when you woke up, etc. Even if you're getting a "proper" amount of sleep, a sleep disorder specialist can look at the data later and tell you whether you're exhibiting signs of a circadian disorder. From there, start looking into circadian disorders and the ways that people cope with them, and start pursuing a diagnosis with a sleep specialist -- but also, you and your parents should understand that you're not just "lazy" and you aren't just being difficult; life with a circadian disorder is like living with eight hours of constant jet-lag, and everything you can do to ease the way for yourself will help. If that means scheduling all your college classes so they don't come before noon and eventually getting a second-shift or third-shift job so you can indulge your body's need to sleep from 3AM-11AM instead of from 10pm-6am, well, it's inconvenient and annoying and will involve a lot of workarounds, but it can be done!
Good luck. :)
[1] no, really. My "day" runs between 30-36 hours long -- not only do I have Non-24, I have freerunning Non-24. Here's my sleep log for February '12 so far, which I round to the nearest 15m:
Some of those periods are because I had to get up out-of-cycle to do something out in the Real World, like a doctor appointment or a night out with my wife, but that's a fairly representative sample of what my sleep chart looks like. If I pasted the whole last year's worth of data, you'd see a periodicity of several days of 'awake 20-25 hours, asleep 12-15 hours', then a shorter periodicity of 'awake 15-16 hours, asleep 7-9 hours' -- but only when I've yanked around to sleeping during the day and being awake at night; I almost never 'stick' at the part of the cycle when I'm sleeping at night and awake during the day -- then back to the longer periodicity.
I share this with you to let you know that even with a circadian rhythm like mine, it's perfectly possible to lead a happy, healthy, and productive life! Even before I was working for myself, I could work third-shift jobs and find employers who didn't care when I did my work as long as it got done.
[2] Light cues set a lot of sleep cues. This is why blind people usually have some kind of sleep disorder, and why light therapy is often used to treat sleep disorders.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-02-13 02:55 pm (UTC)First off, for the alarm: Have you thought about one of the sleep-cycle alarm clocks (they have apps for iPhone/iPad and Android, if you have either of those; if not you can get a wrist gizmo that hooks into your computer) -- that will let you set the alarm to wake you gently around a period of light sleep, which will avoid the alarm blaring you awake and will help you wake at the optimal time for your body.
Dealing with DSPS is very individual. Some people get really good results from light therapy in the mornings and from adjusting their environment to completely prohibit light exposure in the hours before bed (so, like, turning down the brightness of your computer screen and altering the "temperature" of the light with F.lux); some people get good results from large doses of vitamins (vitamin D and/or vitamin B12) or large doses of melatonin (but there's a connection between taking large amounts of melatonin and depression, so be careful there). (On the other hand, there's a connection between DSPS and depression, in that they are often seen together, and treating one often helps with treating the other.) Interestingly, the few times I went on hormonal birth control, my sleep schedule snapped into a perfect 24-hour day cycle. For the three weeks before the BC made me go crazy and I had to go off it. (I react very, very badly to any hormones.)
It will take a lot of experimenting to see what works for you, though, and unfortunately, many people with a more-than-mild case of it will never be able to wrangle it into a "proper" sleep schedule long-term. The best thing to do is often to recognize that you have a disability (DSPS is considered a disability under the ADA) and adjust your life to fit your sleep schedule, rather than adjusting your sleep schedule to fit your life. It's not impossible to find second or third-shift jobs (and often they pay a shift differential, since people who are willing to work the night shift are few and far between) and with a formal diagnosis of DSPS you can generally get your employer to make reasonable accomodations such as a later start time if the job you're working isn't time-dependent.
From a personal standpoint, I grew up with DSPS as far back as I can remember: some of my earliest memories are fighting with my mom over bedtime. Once I hit puberty (sleep cycle is also tied into the endocrine system and I have a bunch of endocrine disorders) my delay started shifting later and later, and it came totally loose from the clock around age 20 or so. (Seriously, my doctor took a look at my sleep chart and said "This shouldn't happen unless you live in a cave."[2]) I could wrangle my sleep schedule a little during my early 20s, enough to let me keep working (night shift jobs, though) in the Real World, but by the time I hit 30 I just gave up. Fortunately my job lets me set my own sleep schedule now, and once I started indulging my natural sleep pattern, life got so much better.
One thing I'd change right now if I were you, I'd move the time you take your Wellbutrin, since it's really stressing you out to keep taking it at the early time. I'd also go back to keeping a sleep log, with notes about things like how many times you woke up in the middle of the night, how rested you felt when you woke up, etc. Even if you're getting a "proper" amount of sleep, a sleep disorder specialist can look at the data later and tell you whether you're exhibiting signs of a circadian disorder. From there, start looking into circadian disorders and the ways that people cope with them, and start pursuing a diagnosis with a sleep specialist -- but also, you and your parents should understand that you're not just "lazy" and you aren't just being difficult; life with a circadian disorder is like living with eight hours of constant jet-lag, and everything you can do to ease the way for yourself will help. If that means scheduling all your college classes so they don't come before noon and eventually getting a second-shift or third-shift job so you can indulge your body's need to sleep from 3AM-11AM instead of from 10pm-6am, well, it's inconvenient and annoying and will involve a lot of workarounds, but it can be done!
Good luck. :)
[1] no, really. My "day" runs between 30-36 hours long -- not only do I have Non-24, I have freerunning Non-24. Here's my sleep log for February '12 so far, which I round to the nearest 15m:
wed 1 feb: asleep 6pm
thu 2 feb: awake 9:45am
fri 3 feb: asleep 3:45am awake 12:30pm
sat 4 feb: asleep 8am awake 3:30pm
sun 5 feb: asleep 6:30am awake 5:30pm
mon 6 feb: asleep 1:30pm awake 8:45pm
tue 7 feb: asleep 5:30pm
wed 8 feb: awake 8am
thu 9 feb: asleep 6:15am awake 8pm
fri 10 feb: asleep 4:15pm awake 9:15pm
sat 11 feb: asleep 9:30am
sun 12 feb: awake 12:15am asleep 8:45pm
mon 13 feb: awake 8am
Some of those periods are because I had to get up out-of-cycle to do something out in the Real World, like a doctor appointment or a night out with my wife, but that's a fairly representative sample of what my sleep chart looks like. If I pasted the whole last year's worth of data, you'd see a periodicity of several days of 'awake 20-25 hours, asleep 12-15 hours', then a shorter periodicity of 'awake 15-16 hours, asleep 7-9 hours' -- but only when I've yanked around to sleeping during the day and being awake at night; I almost never 'stick' at the part of the cycle when I'm sleeping at night and awake during the day -- then back to the longer periodicity.
I share this with you to let you know that even with a circadian rhythm like mine, it's perfectly possible to lead a happy, healthy, and productive life! Even before I was working for myself, I could work third-shift jobs and find employers who didn't care when I did my work as long as it got done.
[2] Light cues set a lot of sleep cues. This is why blind people usually have some kind of sleep disorder, and why light therapy is often used to treat sleep disorders.