What Makes a Night Owl: Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

I've always considered myself a night owl. But how does one become a night owl?

My mother used to get so frustrated with my reversed sleep pattern when I was in high school, she would try her damnedest to make me sleep like a normal person. But no matter how hard she or I tried to change my pattern of amazing alertness after 10p.m. and grogginess until noon we just couldn't seem to manage it. I tried everything from skipping my after school naps to going more than 24 hours without sleep all in hopes that when 10p.m. rolled around I would be so exhausted that I would have no choice by to fall asleep. After nothing worked I explained to my mom that abnormal sleeping patterns are normal in adolescence and that must be why I am very alert while others sleep and half awake throughout the day. But now that I am older I still find that I suffer from the same affliction. And I do mean suffer. It's lonely at night when you are the only one awake, and it's painful going through your day yearning for nothing but your bed. It's hard to stay awake through lectures, stay on task at work, and many times I can sit through a whole class without remembering more than one or two points that were made.

I figured that some people were just naturally wired to be more alert at night. I've never been able to maintain a normal sleep schedule for more than a week at a time. I usually find myself going through the day on 4-5 hours of sleep and then napping whenever I can. I often miss classes, am late for work, and I hardly ever look put-together because I am usually just rolling out of bed when it is time to leave. But am I really going to be like this for the rest of my life? How will I hold a regular 9-5 job if I can't get up before noon? And what about when I have children, how will I get them ready for school?

Sometimes no matter how much I want to, I just can't sleep.

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