Anyone here suffer from delay sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) or night terrors?

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I've had sleeping issues all of my life, had a hospital apointment today at a sleep clinic and was swiftly diagnosed with night terrors (which I was wholey expecting) and DSPS which came as a shock.

I was just wondering if anyone on here suffers from either, if night terrors how you've shared this with other people as I'm a bit wary of telling future girlfriends, however I'm known to freak in the night with my terrors so I think I should say something... If DSPS then have you managed to work you're way into a more reasonable sleep pattern and how long it took how long it took or how you did it (I've been trying for a while but I always fall back into the same old patterns after a few months).
 
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I've never, and will not ever ask for special treatment over any issue, I've lived my life with both problems and I can function perfectly well, its never affected my work either, if anything its nice to have some closure on these things. I'm just looking to see if anyone else is affected and, in the case of DSPS, how well attempting to change sleep 'phases' work.
 
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If I smoke before bed, 95% sure to do something stupid like shout, talk, sing, go for a walk, etc etc. Mentioned it to a GP, they were told to ignore it at med school!
 
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Iv hear never heard of either of them conditions, however i have all sorts of grief with my sleeping.

Generally wake up 10-20 times per night. Often have that strange sensation that i am awake, however my body will not move a muscle.

Dont think i freak out during my sleep though.
 
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Having flown to wikipedia I'm almost entirely sure I have a mild case of DSPS (uh-oh, beware the internet hypochondriac).

Mild though, I've always been able to force myself up and about at the same time - but it takes me ages to sleep, usually have to read until at least midnight even if I jump into bed early (reading helps, if I'm not distracted I lay awake even longer) - and it's always a struggle getting up.

Interesting! How delayed are you?
 
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Often have that strange sensation that i am awake, however my body will not move a muscle.

I used to get that a lot, though now it's very infrequent. It used to really freak me out as i assumed the paralysis would prevent me breathing and i would then panic - one of the symptoms being breathlessness, feeling that i'm not getting enough air!! Soon realised that i could remain calm and would slowly wake fully and be able to move. Very weird :eek:
 
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Meh I can't believe they give these things names :/ next thing we know you'll have special treatment and be allowed to sleep during work etc... pfft

noooo I think they pretty much frown on sleeping at work ;) and you only get night terrors while sleeping. or it would be called day terrors.

I'm told they are really freaky.

I get the other thing. Lucid dreams. Love those.
 
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@dodgem & danny_mac: That's sleep paralysis, I've never had the fear of breathlessness strangely from paralysis alone, but sleep paralysis is one of the extra added bonuses of night terrors.

@Sara: depends on what you'd class as normal, but I go bed at roughly 3-4am and wake at around 10-11am now by 'choice', I've shifted it down from closer to 6am, just hoping I can keep it up.

@codec: Night terrors have been the bane of my sleep for as long as I can remember, up until about a year ago I thought it was perfectly normal as its been happening all my life, a conversation with my mum changed my views on it and I've since been bounced from different medical people to find a cause/diagnosis. I've woken on a number of occasions too frightened to return to sleep, or with such dread that if I could move I'd do something stupid. I've also woken shouting in fear and even had a panic attack once which lasted for over an hour, all very frightning.
 
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I can wake up, I am not "awake" but my nightmares carry into the real world, I think people are outside or downstairs, breaking in trying to get me takes me a few minutes to stand in the room and work out whats happening, use to suffer badly when I was younger but now they are mild. Feels surreal and like I am high when it happens.
 
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Very interesting, I've never been to see a doc about a sleeping disorder but pretty much all my life I have had trouble sleeping. As a kid I was plagued by re-ocurring nightmares and waking dreams. As an adult I find i'm woken up by the slightest things, that doesn't seem to bother anyone else, I often "jump" in my sleep which then wakes me up and it takes me 1-3 hours to get back to sleep, occasionally I just can't fall back asleep.

I go through stages where I will have a few nights in a row of seemingly bad dreams, where I wake suddenly with a instant feeling of dread, fists clenched and I either jump out of bed expecting something "bad" to be there or I have to turn the light on to see, which really annoys the missus. I'm 31 now! and the problem hasn't really gone away in all this time, sometimes it's worse than others can't really pinpoint it - if you find a solution let me know I could do with a good nights kip :)
 
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Its basically where you don't feel tired and sleep at the 'normal' times, however have a perfectly normal sleeping pattern (I.E. the average 7-8 hours sleeping, 16-17 hours awake), common analogies are with jetlag or doing night shifts, or so Wikipedia says, to be honest I'd never heard of DSPS and I'm still reading up on it.
 
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I use to have nightmares where I was unable to run, my legs would never work that was freaky and died a few times in my nightmares, like being stabbed and run over.

Freaky.
 
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Its basically where you don't feel tired and sleep at the 'normal' times, however have a perfectly normal sleeping pattern (I.E. the average 7-8 hours sleeping, 16-17 hours awake), common analogies are with jetlag or doing night shifts, or so Wikipedia says, to be honest I'd never heard of DSPS and I'm still reading up on it.

Interesting. Just a long shot but I was wondering if this is something to do with the body's production of, I think its called, 'Arexin' - the chemical messenger which makes you tired and sends you to sleepy land. If you don't produce enough Arexin (not sure of spelling but it is pronounced how I have spelt it) you are not going to 'need' to sleep, not feel tired etc. Saw a programme on it once.
 
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