Delayed sleep phase syndrome is a disorder where people struggle to fall asleep at their desired bedtime, leading to excessive daytime sleepiness and other symptoms. It can be treated with light therapy, chronotherapy, and supplements like melatonin or vitamin B12. A doctor will take a patient’s sleep history to diagnose the syndrome.
Just as it sounds, delayed sleep phase syndrome is a disorder that occurs when a person regularly fails to fall asleep at their desired bedtime. Those with this syndrome often take two or more hours to fall asleep, which not only often results in difficulty waking up at the desired time, but also often results in not enough rest. It is considered a debilitating disorder because sufferers’ sleep patterns do not adhere to the normal circadian rhythm, which is the body’s biological cycle that normally repeats at 24-hour intervals. Due to the inability to sleep at night, people with delayed sleep phase syndrome are often excessively sleepy during the day, which interferes with work or school.
Symptoms include insomnia, high energy during the evening hours, and excessive daytime sleepiness. The effects of Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome include irritability, depression, and sleep deprivation. The syndrome differs from insomnia in that patients with delayed sleep tend to fall asleep at nearly the same time every night/morning, regardless of what time they go to bed.
Delayed sleep phase syndrome often begins in adolescence; although some cases begin in infancy. It rarely starts in people over the age of 30. Similar symptoms, but not the syndrome itself, can be triggered by an event such as staying up all night studying or partying or shift work.
Most patients experience deep, restful sleep and wake up normally, provided they get the appropriate number of hours of sleep. These patients are often described as “night owls” or “night people” due to their alertness and high energy level which tends to manifest in the late evening and night hours.
There are many possible treatments for delayed sleep phase syndrome. Exposure to bright light early in the morning can be helpful. This light therapy is similar to that used for people with seasonal affective disorder.
Chronotherapy is a process of moving the bedtime later by three hours in each 24-hour period until a patient reaches their desired bedtime. Other patients have found benefits from melatonin or vitamin B12. Patients generally do not find long-term success by going to bed early, using relaxation techniques or sleeping pills. In fact, the use of sleeping pills can aggravate daytime sleepiness problems.
Because there is no diagnostic test to determine delayed sleep phase syndrome, a doctor will take a patient’s sleep history. A patient should keep a sleep diary so that he can provide long-term and accurate information to the doctor. Symptoms usually need to persist for at least a month for a diagnosis, but symptoms often persist much longer.
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