Circadic sleep disorders

I’ve been learning about the work of Dr. Sarno, Dan Buglio and TMS generally. I've managed to really improve some of my chronic issues. But theres this one health issue i have thats very rare, under researched and those that have struggle a lot with it.

For context my TMS History:

• Age 12-18: Bad bullying in school, honestly was terrified and on alert at all times, a real anxious mess really.
• Physical Symptoms: Around this time, I developed IBS, vestibular issues (dizziness), and pelvic pain/ED. Fatigue. Sunlight Headaches/senstivity

My main issue now is something called Sighted Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Disorder.Its most common in blind people (50-60%) as they dont have the sunlight eye perception to help with sleep entrainment which is regarded as the most potent for circadic entrainment. I've had bad sleep timing since my teen years 15/16ish. Mine was origionally seemingly more Delayed Sleep Syndrome (your circadic sleep is seemingly stuck at a specific later time) my sleep time was 3-4am to 9am. But it latter developed into full blown 24 non hour sleep at 20ish when really i just let it do its thing and i'd sleep when i felt like it to feel more rested.

To explain what is is, essentially, my internal clock doesn't stay at 24 hours. It "drifts" or "swings" forward every day. I might sleep at 2 AM one night, 3 AM the next, and eventually, I am sleeping during the day and awake all night. It often "settles" into a 4 AM–6 AM sleep time for maybe 1-2 months before starting to move again by which time i let it go around as my sleep gets too incompatible with the real world. I also have a "split sleep" pattern where I feel a biological "need" to nap in the middle of my cycle—a habit that started as a 5 PM "collapse" after school during my school years.

Standard medicine/sleep doctors i've seen just effectively say this is a genetic/biological glitch. The only test is letting your sleep do what it wants for 2 weeks and see how much it swings around (called an actigraphy test). My circadic day for instance across 2 weeks averaged at 25 hours. Most humans theirs is 24.2 hours and that .2 gets naturally entrained through meal times, light, etc. I just wonder if given my history of bullying at school (where my day felt dangerous) and the presence of all these other tms symptoms, i just wonder if this was a survival mechnism from the brain. My brain learned that nighttime was the only "safe" time to be awake and that the "Daylight World" was a threat. Even though I now work from home and have no "real world" pressure, i've for the longest time just believed this is a set thing, a genetic thing.

I think its the most niche area of sleep issues which means there isn't much research or people looking into it. I've never heard any sleep doctor or anyone on the small circadic sleep forums mention the role of the nervous system in this. Advice was purely light therapy and melatonin tablets. Maybe it is just a genetic/hard wired thing for a rare few me included. But its odd because if people who are literally blind and rely on other weaker zeitgeber's (meals time, exercise, and social interaction) can entrain then surely someone with perfectly fine eyes should be able to. Because its not like my sleep cant entrain at all, with a good amount of light and darkness in my evening hours it can slow the sleep swinging down. Its like i just have a poorly performing circadic clock. And the naps from what i've asked google about might be reducing sleep pressure which doesn't help entrain sleep. If i cut them out today i'd likely still sleep only 5 hours and for my health i've just accepted them i'd say for the last 5 years.

This has been the most limiting health issue i've had and those with it really do struggle a lot as the world is not that accomdating for such a thing. Attempts to just set an alarm and stick to that would never work. I'd just become progressively fatigued, i had to quit working at this call centre because of it, i could not retain any information at all from training.

I'm just wondering what people think. I haven't seen circadic sleep issues discussed anywhere on these types of forums. When my sleep gets round to a good time i'm going to avoid napping so i dont reduce sleep pressure later on. And try apply tms principles while working on my journalling stuff.

 

I think meditation is something you should explore for this.

 

Id just try treating it as tms. My 'problem' is very very rarely mentioned in tms groups (just once on this side and just as a side piece) and i wasnt getting any results without tms work so i just started doing it. It sounds like your body has a good reason for not wanting to wake up. I think youre on the right track.

My big piece of advice is doing these things out of self compassion, not purely to get improvements with your rhythm. A lot of us desperately need to be more in touch with ourselves.