now the red ones make me fly and the blue ones make me fall

[cupcake_goth]

 Adventures in brain chemistry: I have tapered off of the sleep medication I'd been taking for decades, yay! But the nighttime Trazodone isn't enough to thwart my delayed sleep phase disorder, boo!

In other words, no matter how good of sleep hygiene I follow, I generally won't fall asleep until sometime after 1am. Usually later. Yes, I will be talking to my psych about this, because I don't want to return to a life of constant sleep deprivation. 

Comments

[staxxy]

I thought sleep after 1am was your normal circadian rhythm. Is it not?

[cupcake_goth]

That is my natural rhythm, which is ... not helpful when one has a day job, even when it's WFH. My ideal circadian cycle is to fall asleep after 2:30pm, wake up after 11am.

(Delayed Sleep Phase disorder is essentially when a person's circadian rhythm sets them to fall asleep after something like 11pm. Dad has the same thing.)

[staxxy]

ah, yes. I have that same thing myself.

[sistawendy]

No more Ambien hallucinations? I'll miss reading about them, but if the drug doesn't work, it's got to go.

[cupcake_goth]

Oh, it was working just fine. But my psych and neuro felt that maybe it shouldn't be a lifelong medication for me. I'm going to have to explain that I still need some sort of sleep medication, because fighting my natural circadian cycle is a losing battle.

[cutecabaret]

honestly the only solution i have ever been able to find (because i have this same problem) is a job that naturally falls within your own circadian rhythm which is...impossible in some fields. :( which sucks.

[melchar]

I realize that you likely cannot shift your sleep/awake times to vampire hours, but I was able to so do and it helps so dang much. Sleepy time at 8am, waking at 4pm also lets me miss much of the brightest & hottest parts of the day. Then I am active all night and sleep so much better now.