Sleepy during the day, awake at night

I have always been this way, ever since I can remember. I will feel very sleepy during the day and then start feeling wide starting from late afternoon...and if I don't make myself go to bed I easily stay awake the whole night.
Does anyone else have this problem? If so, what do you guys do to cope with the drowsinness during the day?

Hi,
This is a problem of self discipline. It is logical that if you're dozing during daytime, you don't need to sleep at night.
The reason you sleep during the day is because you get bored. Get yourself some interesting hobby or an exciting job you like to do. If you get sleepy during the day get aquick cold shower and do something that you like to do!
If you can stop yourself napping during daytime, you will sleep better at night!

Yes, you should get your circadian rhythm back in order so you don't run into school/work and serious health problems: http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders...ythm_disorders

I survive on naps

I have this problem too, and I do not nap EVER. I can't sleep at night because when I get into bed, I just have a hard time shutting my mind off. I stay up all night worrying about things. During the day I'm exhausted from not sleeping at night. What's helped me most, honestly, was anti anxiety medications. They helped me fall asleep and with that, I got my sleep cycle down.

I know, I never nap either lol yet i still feel sleepy and wide awake at night
lol

thank you everyone! i will use all of the advice that you guys have given me =)
cheers!

I have this problem as well. I sleep during the night but when I'm at college I'm sleepy. I have a walk when I feel drowsy. Wakes me up. You should try to go to sleep during the night

Oh yes I have these days .What I do is since Iam tired in the day I force myself to stay up I dont even take a nap In the day bevause I know I want be able to sleep at night.Your meds also can be causeing this that what I had to found out .I was on ritalin and I would take it in the day time and I was so sleepy in the day time .And another thing you can take your meds at night if they make you sleepy.Good ;uck

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.

I go through this every time Im on the night shift of manning the phones and being on call.

everyone has their own internal clocks. most internal clocks dont run on a 24 hour schedule but some through habit and training can change their internal clocks to run on schedules.

many people who work different schedules doctors, military, even non career people can manipulate their internal clocks. for some it takes medications and others non medicated ways.

the way I handle it is we all know a few days to a week when its our turn to man the phones and take the beeper to be on call. I know I have trouble going from sleeping nights to days and then back again. so I use an alarm clock. when I need to be up nights I start setting my alarm to wake me up every few hours at night during the week before I have to be up at night. this way my body slowly adjusts to being awake at night. when its time for me to go back to a normal up during the day and down at night the first few days back on days Im setting the alarm so I get 2 hours of sleep then up for about 4 hours. then stay up all day and sleep at night. each night I go to bed later until Im back sleeping nights again.

I have tried sleep aids to keep me on a sleep at night schedule but that ended in disaster with my becoming dependent upon them and needing more and more, leading into being addicted so I can not use that way any more.

I have never tried the medications that are newly coming out for people who are tired during the day and up at night so cant help you there other than to suggest talking to your treatment providers and they can help you find the right one for you.

Someone might have already suggested this. If you want to be up during the day, a good thing to try is aerobic exercise. This will help keep your blood moving and help you stay up during the day, and then in the evening you will be tired. It is better to do it earlier in the day because if you do it in the evening it might keep you up at night.

A lot of people will say that you should get on a normal schedule and go to bed on time and you'll get back on track.

I say, if it's not giving you trouble with work or your responsibilities at home, just embrace your internal clock. Especially if you get the most work done at night when you have quiet and can concentrate. Work when YOU need to work, and for heaven's sake, SLEEP when you need to. Listen to what your body needs. Everyone else can shut the hell up.

Now if you can't get out of bed on time for work, or you sleep all day and can't pick up your kids on time, etc., then consider switching things up a little. Do whatever you have to do--avoid naps, run 5 miles, whatever will wear you out by bedtime.

Whatever you choose, it may help to give yourself some limits--realistic limits. Like, I can't go to sleep at night until at least midnight. But I do have to get up for work. Since I'm so awake at night, it's easy to lose track of time and before you know it, it's 2am. So I got this little white board and every day I write down a bedtime (" in bed by 12: 30") and put it up where I can see it. Then I know I have a schedule to keep.

And for all the rest of you guys, there's nothing more annoying than hearing all the time how you need to exercise and eat well and go to sleep like normal people. We know! Just sayin!