Sadly I know this pattern all too well. I drag myself through the day and then come 9pm I am suddenly roaring to go and I can last all night without a yawn. Full of energy, my mind is quick as a whip, creative juices are flowing and I am in my element. I feel great and I don't want to cut it off when my 'bed time' rolls around. I want to enjoy feeling good especially after a really draggy day. Trying to sleep when this wired is impossible anyways so I just don't bother going through the frustration of trying. If I could I would flip my days and nights. I think I would be the perfect graveyard shift worker.

Even though I know how important it is to maintain a regular sleep routine it is still very difficult for me to achieve with any consistency. I am always having to start again. At the time when my health really started to deteriorate I was a full blown workaholic. I would drag myself through a full and stressful workday, dragging a slow paced body through a fast paced job and when that energy burst hit after putting my son to bed I would be in my office working until early into the next morning. Too often I just stayed up all night working because I was too wired to even give sleep a consideration. And around and round I'd go.

Sometimes when I wake up after a long night's sleep following a couple of days without sleep I will wake up really depressed. It gets to the point where I am afraid to go to sleep when I am feeling good and may have been deprived of sleep for a while because it can mean that I will wake up depressed and could be weeks before it turns around again.

I am a long ways from mastering this whole sleep business dispite my many efforts. I might get a good routine going for a few weeks at a time but one day off schedule or just one time giving into a nap or the call of the late night energizer bunny and I am back to square one.

I think there are several sides to the question of the daytime slows. First is the obvious one we know but hate to hear and that is to get the recommended 6 to 8 hours of sleep EVERY night. Sleep deprevation does catch up on people.

Another side is diet. Certain foods at certain times of day will cause a rise and fall in blood sugars that play havoc with energy levels. Keep a journal of your eating habits and how you feel after eating something and see what it reveals to you. When I realized the glutton in my bread at lunch was causing my blood sugar to rise and fall I switched to using flax bread or eating more salads and veggies. The after lunch slows were much less severe. Late after noon slows can be treated with a shot of potassium from a banana and keeping myself well hydrated with water.

A third side of the day time slows is activity and fresh air. When that urge to take a nap in the afternoon starts to tempt me because I have been inactive, like sitting at the computer for hours, or I am sleep deprived and it is catching up on me, I will push myself outside to do some yard work or go for a long walk, anything that gets my body moving. It always re-energizes me, at least for a few hours.

One last trick I will leave you with that always works to give me an energy boost and that is to lay on a bed with your head hanging over the edge. Stay that way for 10 minutes or so. It doesn't take long before you start to feel re-energized. Something to do with blood flowing into the brain or something. Who knows but it works wonders for me so long as I am not too terribly spent of energy. I suppose if you are one of those people who likes to stand on your head that would work too but might not be as relaxing. lol.

Oh dear.... I have babbled past my meditation time (my attempt at a sleep aide discipline) and will now be late to bed. How appropriate it should happen while posting on this thread and talking about the importance of sleep discipline. Too ironic!

See how easily I can fall of the wagon. lol.

So I will say goodnight and wish you the best in your efforts to flip your energy clock around. You are definately not alone and symptomatic of a condition or not we still have to find that discipline, find those strategies and tricks that can help us maximize the quality of our sleep time and our awake time so that we are better able to then cope with the zillon other challenges we face.