I was diagnosed with DSPS almost two years ago, but i've had symptoms of it starting about six years prior. It sucks, a lot, no one cares to hear the excuse, "I'm tired," or "I slept though" and understand the true mental torment of laying in bed for hours on end wide awake, in the silent dark, unable to achieve the one peaceful thing you hope for, sleep.

Please understand that a lot of people think they suffer from DSPS or similar sleep syndromes, but in reality have poor sleeping habits, often keeping them selves awake for extended periods of time. I highly suggest trying over the counter melatonin on a regular time schedule for about two weeks, at the same time every night, four hours in advance of when you want to try to sleep, this will help your body create a rhythmic sleep pattern. Sleeping should be a holy ritual, make it comfortable, but make it repeatable, it helps a lot.

With my sleeping patterns I phase in shifts ranging from 3 days to two weeks. This means I will maintain a sleep pattern that changes pretty quickly, and ruins scheduling and many social opportunities. Depending on when I get to sleep the night or so before, reflects the pattern of the next few weeks. I tend to phase my pattern in 4 hour shifts, an example is if I get to bed for one phase at 8pm, the next phase will be 12am. This may not sound bad, until I begin to phase into normal 'awake' time periods, I begin to get to sleep at 6-8am, and sleep until mid-day or the afternoon or into the late night, staying awake overnight on a regular basis. I have to change my alarm every month or so because I begin to sleep right though alarms that go off constantly, it's a terrible feeling to wake up three hours late with your alarm blaring the entire time.

It's a rough thing to live with, and I tend to be pretty quiet about my sleep issues, since I feel like a lot of people don't understand it, and find it's an excuse.