> If you go to sleep when you're so tired, as opposed to when the societal clock says you should, you won't have any trouble sleeping.

Great PMA, but you're absolutely wrong.

I did that last night, got tired and went to bed around 10pm. And then I woke up at 1am. Now that it's approaching 6, I'm getting tired. But this happens to me occasionally and I know from past experience that my two options are:

1) Go back to bed at around 7, wake up at 8 or 9, and feel awful all day

2) Power through, and feel awful all day.

Maybe I'll be tired enough tonight that I'll catch up on this morning's loss. But given past experience, I'll probably get 2-4 hours of sleep a night for the next week. When I say "wake up" I mean that I'm alert and can't get sleepy -- I can stay in bed and be bored for hours, and sleep won't come no matter how tired I feel.

> I did that last night, got tired and went to bed around 10pm. And then I woke up at 1am. Now that it's approaching 6, I'm getting tired. But this happens to me occasionally and I know from past experience that my two options are:

This is how your sleep schedule is naturally designed to work. Sleep for a bit, wake up, sleep again.

Nope. I typically wake up for a few minutes at a time and get a full night's sleep. Every few months, I have a bout of insomnia that reduces me to a couple of hours of sleep for a while. Believe it or not, I know what my normal is better than you.

This happens to me. It's a nasty feedback loop where lack of sleep makes me hyper and too alert to sleep. I suspect the cause is high cortisol levels.

Remeron/mirtazapine works really well for me as a reset to baseline. Talk to your Physician about it.

This is the one thing that finally, after four years, successfully treated my insomnia.

>I did that last night, got tired and went to bed around 10pm. And then I woke up at 1am. Now that it's approaching 6, I'm getting tired. But this happens to me occasionally and I know from past experience that my two options are:

>1) Go back to bed at around 7, wake up at 8 or 9, and feel awful all day

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Faced with this scenario, I would get up at 1AM, go back to bed around 7 or 8, and sleep into the afternoon. Wake up feeling great.

> This is exactly what I'm talking about. Faced with this scenario, I would get up at 1AM, go back to bed around 7 or 8, and sleep into the afternoon. Wake up feeling great.

Good for you! I went back to bed around 7, slept for about 15 minutes, and woke up again. I would love to sleep 'til noon, and my work schedule permits it. I've never been able to sleep during the day, except when I'm sick or have multiple days of exhaustion piled up. Your experience is not my experience, stop giving me advice based on what works for you!

Edit: Also I guess I should point out, sleep was way easier in my 20s, but I'm approaching 40 and encountering the same issues my parents did at my age.

Will you talk to my boss and get her to start letting me come in and go home whenever I want every day?

I tried telling her that my body doesn't run on the same schedule as the rest of society, but all she did was laugh in my face.

Thanks in advance, doc.

And vaccines cause autism right?