Hi guys, since a very young age i had problems with sleep, where my biological clock would shift constantly and I would often sleep and wake up at different times, regalrdless if I had some kind of routine in the day or not. Sometimes, after a week or two of sleeping relatively well, there would be a night, when I just can't fall asleep no matter what, or I fall asleep much later than I wanted, then I'll suffer in the day, probably fall asleep in the afternoon for a few hours, struggle to sleep in the night, or sleep a bit and wake up in the early morning. This cycle would repeat from time to time and when I was younger, it was easier to accept and tolerate, but the older I'm getting, the more I see the impact lack of sleep and unstable sleep is having on me. I often have low energy, simple tasks tire me out quickly, I often have brain fog and memory issues, when my clock is out of sync with the regular waking up hours, that is. I am trying to find my sweet spot when it comes to melatonin dosage and timing, but my body seems to resist it too sometimes and run it's own course. I mean, let's say I take a low dose a few hours before bed to shift the clock earlier when I'm waking up too late, then I might wake up at 3 or 4 am like today lol. Do any of you struggle with sleep problems related to absence of light and your blindness? How do you cope with it? Thanks.
I don't think light or the absence thereof is causing my sleep issue. I fall asleep easily but I always wake much earlier than I want. Sometimes I can get a little more sleep but all too often I can't manage any more. Then I nap later in the day and probably screw myself over for the coming night, ugh!
Well, our body doesn't seem to produce enough melatonin by itself, but the only reason I can think of is the absence of light to regulate when it's day or night.
I've got a condition called Non-24, which essentially means that my brain doesn't know when to flood it's self with the melatonin needed to send me off to sleep, so to compensate it's created an iregular circadian rhythm. Every couple of nights my sleep schedule moves forward by about a half an hour until I'm sleeping at 12:00 and waking up at 18:00 for example, and it's hell. There's next to nothing I can do right now, sans taking a hole bunch of meds that effectively zombify me which I don't want to do, or just live with cronic exhaustion the rest of my life. what @1's describing sounds verry similar to what I've got.
over and out. I stand with the people of Palestine
Yup, sounds about right. I'm dealing with the same thing and the only thing that's kind of helping is melatonin, but it's not ideal. I mean, how it helps is I can often fall asleep in general, but my sleep won't be healthy or restorative.
yep, it's just a way of life for us ey? There are studies out there that I'm desperate enough to sign myself up for, but until I move to Europe I can't take part because here in the states your health insurance doesn't cover stuff like that and I haven't got the multi-thousands of dollars they ask for.
over and out. I stand with the people of Palestine
from what I've herd they're working on a medication that could regulate our circadian rhythms. It would alter the brain chemistry in such a way that it would flood the brain with melatonin every, 16 hours I think? The idea is that you get a balanced 8 hours at the end of the day. You take it daily at a scheduled time and it's supposed to help our brains regulate that flood of melatonin. I'll update as I do more research.
over and out. I stand with the people of Palestine
Wow, that sounds fantastic and exactly what we might need, because trying to regulate our internal body clock with melatonin on our own is wild, especially that we can't always perfectly sleep at the same time.
here's some food for thought for you. I've been doing some research into this just now, and I've come across this place. If you're located in Warsaw as suggested by your visiting card, it might be a good start. The institute of Psychiatry and neurology (Instytut Psychiatrii i Neurologii) reckon that they've got a sleep medicine center with knowledge on circadian problems. I didn't read through their hole websight because my Polish is nowhere near where I want it to be, but you might wanna get in contact with them. They sound promising.
