Sleeping too much / trouble waking up

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Hello,

currently I work at home most of the time and don't have to necessarily get out of bed the same time every day.

Basically if I don't wake myself up with about 120dB music from my stereo, I don't hear any alarm clocks and will just not wake up in the morning. But I might even turn the stereo off while half asleep and will just continue sleeping, especially when I don't have to work immediately and if there is no external stress to keep me awake enough to get past the first hour of the day. This happens even more so if I set the stereo alarm clock many days in a row to get normal amounts of sleep, like 6-7 hours. It will just proportionally become more impossible to wake up in the morning.

If I sleep without alarm clock it are usually 10-15 hours, sometimes even 18 hours. I am never particularly tired during the day and I am used to being up 18 hours straight before I get tired and can sleep. This never changes. I don't have light sleep but very deep sleep.

This causes problems because the day has only 24 hours (my sleep/awake pattern has 28h to 33h) and my circadian rhythm is by itself somewhat working on 24-27 hours, that's also why the 10-15 hours are sometimes expanded to 18 hours and why I can sometimes sleep after 12 hours again, if it matches the circadian rhythm.

Now I know it is likely to be a psychological mechanism to cope with extreme stress. If I am not faced with extreme stress from the outside (like it is the case most of the time now), I will so to speak brute-force regenerate by leveling down brain activity in any way possible. It might also be partly light depression, but I am not really depressive. Related to extreme stress exposure for years over a year ago, the non-medical condition adrenal exhaustion probably also fully applies. Asperger's Syndrome and Burn-Out-Syndrome are not really distinguishable anyway, in my opinion. Past physical exams (also thyroid check and what not) didn't show anything wrong, but I had the same problems at the same time. I am physically strong and never get sick. My sleep is entirely undisturbed, because I sleep so deeply. You could say that everything physical about me speaks against my sleeping behavior.


So, do you also have a similar problem? Not getting awake by any conventional means but being not tired and having a normal undisturbed sleep otherwise (even if sleeping less)?

I am not really interested to speculate about the cause for this. To my belief the current situation is pretty much due to 'facts of life', but that's not helpful in any way. Rather: How to fix this?


Greetings,

C0MPAQ

Sounds like you are functioning fine. Although your sleeping pattern is not normal, you seem to be living ok. I think many people, given the choice, would sleep irregularly. It's still better than not being able to fall asleep at all (insomnia) in my opinion.

I've been having a similar sleeping condition to yours. Whenever I stay home for a long time (such as a weekend without any commitment), I could be sleeping at any time of the day or night and also as long or short as it happens. For example, sometimes I might be sleeping from 9am till 1am the next morning. But if I need to, for any reason, such as work, then I can be up and be feeling fine for more than 24 hours. I'm quite fit and healthy physically.

In addition to sleeping, I have very irregular eating patterns as well. I'm pretty much eating all the time when I'm at home, but may not eat at all for almost a day sometimes if I'm busy at work or something.

Any way, if you are not actually suffering or suspecting something physically wrong, then you might as well see how it goes. If you change your job and get into a different pattern of life, it might also change.

I have similar issues. I generally find it very difficult to unwind on a night. I will either stay up busying myself with some of my interests until 4:30am or will come to bed at a reasonable time, lie awake unable to switch my brain off and eventually give in and just get up again. Once I do get to sleep I usually have very little time before I have to be up for work meaning I am constantly sleep-deprived. I am very often very late into work and sometimes miss days because of this (and also just occasionally not being able to face going out).

Might not be the same issue exactly but would be interested to hear an suggestions. Tried sleeping pils and they do little to help.

I would point out that you mention you live under extreme stress atm, and though you went to extreme lengths to detail your physically good health, and your interesting sleep schedule, you didn't go into what was causing this "Extreme stress" at all.....

Honestly, I would wager stress is causing it.... Unless this has been a life long issue (Like since you were a toddler), I would wager the cause is Environmental (Such as stress caused by something going on in your life).

I used to have sleep problems when I was in high school very similar to yours. I would be taking no drugs (not even caffeine beyond a soda pop every once in awhile), but be able to stay up for 3 days straight, then crash for 18-20 hours. My life at school and at home was very stressful though. It was fairly common for me to be awake in 20-24 hour blocks, followed by 12-15 hour blocks of sleep, with no regard for night or day, and I felt pretty powerless to change it.

When I moved out, initially my sleep pattern stayed goofy, irregular, and generally whacky, but after a few years (And alot less stress), I now tend to sleep 7-9 hours every night. I still have a hard time starting in the morning generally, but I haven't unconsciously hit the snooze button or slept more then about 11 hours in years. Further, I only tend to sleep longer then "normal" now when expected (IE, after a day of hard physical labor, or not eating enough, or the usually expected reasons to cause fatigue/a need for sleep).

Good Luck,
Aldran

I have extreme trouble waking up, even on weekends. Not only do I seem to need more sleep than the average person, but also my sleep pattern is very weird. Sometimes I get really sleepy in the afternoons instead of the nights, and even on weekday mornings. I sometimes have a lot of trouble trying to stay awake at work, even if I slept well the whole night.

It could be that you just need to have at least ten hours of sleep every night, and need to adjust your alarm clock and sleeping patterns for that.