And just like that… I got diagnosed 🫠🤷🏻♂️
Hi, yo hello oh what’s up 🎶
First of all I’m kinda pissed because I had written multiple posts on this subreddit that led to really interesting conversations, but because I had disclosed a lot of mental health stuff (I was, like many of you guys, at the end of my rope 🫠), I deleted them. Kinda wish I could look back on them now. From here on out I’m leaving my posts up so I can “journal” this whole thing and hopefully come back with good news 🤷🏻♂️❤️
I first found out about DSPD exactly 154 days ago (that post is still up lol). Since then I’ve lurked and rage-posted on this subreddit a couple times. Honestly, I had a hard time believing it was a “real” condition at first… but I related SO much to what people were describing, and seeing others deal with the same thing was genuinely relieving. I already had an appointment booked at a sleep clinic back then, but it got postponed because I unexpectedly had surgery 🫠
So I finally went yesterday. I made a conscious effort not to use words like “insomnia,” “chronic fatigue,” or “DSPD.” I’ve noticed some doctors can get biased when you walk in already suspecting something, so I ONLY described my symptoms:
-Icome alive around 7 PM
-My energy levels are super high at night
-Even if I force myself to wake up at a “normal” time (10-11 AM), I’m basically useless for most of the day, even my ADHD stimulants feel like borrowed, lagging energy
-I’m an avid runner, and I can easily run 2-3 hours after 7 PM (which probably makes things worse because it wakes me up even more 🤡), but if I try running earlier in the day I struggle to make it 45 minutes…
And voilà 🤷🏻♂️
Lil background check; I’ve dealt with this for YEARS, to varying degrees. I’m diagnosed ADHD and on a very low dose of stimulants. I’ve also been unemployed for a while now, which definitely didn’t help because I have zero structure/wake time, so my sleep schedule slowly turned into full-blown sleep reversal (awake all night, sleeping until 3 PM 😭). I also work in healthcare, so when I do work it’s usually split shifts with random naps in the afternoon, which can absolutely wreck your sleep schedule too.
On top of that, I’m tapering off Valium, and recently added trazodone because I just couldn’t deal with the not sleeping anymore. It helps… but only if I take it around the time I naturally get tired anyway (3 AM on a GOOD day 🥴).
So without me mentioning any diagnosis whatsoever, about 30 minutes into the appointment she goes: “I really think you have DSPD.” She also immediately linked it to ADHD, which kinda blew my mind because I had literally made a whole post about the correlation between the two 😂
I was honestly shocked. I’d never even heard of DSPD before this subreddit, and seeing so many of you struggle to be taken seriously by doctors, I really wasn’t expecting her to bring it up that quickly (or at all.)
Of course I still have more exams to do, but we already started a first-step treatment plan!!!! The clinic lent me one of those sunlight lamps for 2 weeks and told me to pick a realistic wake-up time (instead of forcing myself to suddenly wake up at 8 AM 🤡). I’m starting at 11 AM for 3 days, then advancing my wake time by 15 minutes every day after that. If my math is mathing, I should end up around 8:15 AM by the end of the 2 weeks 🥴 Apparently I can either blast the lamp directly into my face for 30 mins OR keep it a little farther away for about an hour while doing other stuff. Honestly if all it takes is waking up and staring at a blinding artificial sun while being in a semi coma, I’m willing to try 💯
That being said… my first night SUCKED 😂 I think I put too much pressure on myself to fall asleep earlier than usual, so I ended up sleeping super late. But surprisingly I still woke up at 11 AM, so I’ve officially decided that’s my wake-up time now 🤷🏻♂️ I’m exhausted. But I’m genuinely ready to commit to this experiment.
The “ideal” treatment plan also includes low-dose melatonin, which I was shocked to learn isn’t reimbursed by insurance where I live 🤨 (I’m not from the US and usually pay basically NOTHING for meds, including ADHD meds and trazodone). But honestly, if it helps, I’m down to try it. For now we’re starting with just the lamp for 2 weeks.
I do have one question for you guys though: Do you actually STARE at the lamp for 30 minutes straight 😭 or do you just let it sit nearby while reading/doing other things? Because the instructions say if it’s farther away you should use it for like an hour to an hour and a half, which I don’t mind… but surely you’re not meant to fully stare into the sun that whole time lol.
ANYWHO!!! I’ll keep you guys updated in 2 weeks, and I’ll probably add melatonin by then too.
But I mainly wanted to say this: if, like me, you’ve been skeptical about DSPD (I REALLY was lol), don’t be. It might not be super common, but it’s a legit diagnosis, and good sleep clinics do take it seriously.
Good luck everyone. Until next time 🫡❤️