I have never officially been diagnosed with DSPS, so I'm not having any official treatment for it - I take Ambien as needed, but my most frequently used treatment is my current job, which requires me to get up at 5:30 am. This basically means that I begin to get on my late schedule on weekends, don't get to bed on time on Sunday night, and get continuously more sleep deprived during the week, so that I eventually start getting to bed on time (or even early) just because I am so exhausted from the accumulated sleep deprivation. Then as soon as the weekend hits and I get enough sleep, I start staying up later and later until I get sleep deprived again during the next workweek. Not the best method of dealing with the situation, I know...

Ambien is helpful for getting to sleep, but it won't necessarily solve the problem in the long run (meaning I still tend to get on that schedule whenever I don't take it and I'm not overtired from work). The Ambien doesn't solve the problem of helping me to get out of bed in the morning, either - if anything, it can sometimes make it worse if it hasn't worn off yet. Ambien or not, I have a really hard time getting up and getting to work in the morning - after it takes me about 5 alarms going off at different times to get me out of bed, I find myself practically falling asleep in the shower because I am so tired. I try to take my medication first thing because it helps me focus and wake up a bit better, but it is still hard, and I am still usually running late in the morning.

I have read somewhere that a certain kind of bright light therapy is used for DSPS, as it is with seasonal affective disorder, etc - I read that on the website of the company that was selling the lights, though, so it wasn't exactly an unbiased source, but you might want to look into whether it's a validated treatment method (and a more pleasant one than having a job that requires you to get up at 5:30!).

Let us know if you find any useful info - I should look into treatment for DSPS too.

P.S.: Just a warning NEVER to take Ambien when you will be really short of sleep - I took it one night when I couldn't get to sleep but I only had 3 hours left before waking up. Besides the fact that I wouldn't have woken up for work if my bf hadn't dragged me out of bed, I ended up calling my father about something that made absolutely no sense, while I was driving to work, at 6:30 in the morning when he was still in bed - worse still, I had NO MEMORY of doing so afterward. As best i can figure out, this means that I basically called him while i was DREAMING (i.e. asleep but awake) while driving down the highway in lots of traffic - definitely not a good thing to do. I have read that this kind of thing can be a side effect of Ambien. I have never had a problem with this, though, when I got enough sleep during the night when I took it.