Sunday is cancelled

Although going to bed at the usual time (say 11 pm or so), she can sometimes not get to sleep until 4 in the morning. And it isn't - apparently - because she is lying there thinking about problems, or worrying or anything like that; she just can't get to sleep at a 'normal' time.

I am blessed (or cursed, depending on your point of view) by the ability to sleep six hours and still perform well enough all day, getting up normally at around 6:45 am. This reveille time was drummed into me during 9 years at a military boarding school back in the fifties, and it still works. But it isn't unusual for me to get up and, on entering the kitchen to put the kettle on, finding a note along the lines of the one from a couple of days ago: "5 AM. Sunday is cancelled; don't wait for me to organise shower, lunch etc."

All I could do was to carry on with what I would normally do. There was no real need for being super-quiet; once asleep, she sleeps very soundly (and snores - but that's another post!) and the traffic outside - the bedroom is at the front of the house on a busy street - would cover any noises I made under normal circumstances. And before anyone makes the suggestion, it isn't the traffic outside that prevents my SO from sleeping in the first place. It affects me, but I've got good earplugs!

So Sunday didn't start for her until about noon, and at that point, she was absolutely knackered, remaining like that for the rest of the day, not really recovering. She went to bed early, and slept through until about 9 on Monday, but was still a little groggy.

I'm told that this DSPS not only prevents sleeping at the right time, but also makes it hard to awaken. I don't think she has any problems waking; just feels like crap for the first couple of hours after doing so. She gets a fair bit of exercise during the day, and it isn't 'idleness' or 'lack of moral fibre'; it's a real problem.

There doesn't really seem to be any effective treatment, other than giving in to the syndrome and trying to bring the start of sleep time back to normal gradually. At the same time, she can go a couple of weeks and not have this happen. But it does seem to be becoming more frequent.

It is as well that we both work from home, so that these bouts can be accomodated by working a little later, but it is sometimes difficult when a client calls to speak to her, and you have to announce that she is out for the morning (without adding the words 'for the count').