I woke up at 7pm today. Tomorrow I'll probably get up at 9pm. Around this time next week, I'll be waking up at 7am.
This is normal for me. I have a rare-ish circadian rhythm disorder known as #Non24. My sleep cycle doesn't track with the sun. It's not at all rare amongst people who are blind, but it's rare amongst sighted people.
I also suspect it's actually more common than believed & there are people out there reputed to be lazy, immature, or erratic when they just can't sleep normally.
@sysop408 I too have sighted non-24, clinically diagnosed after sharing my sleep actigraphy data from a Garmin watch which I wore for a few years prior to diagnosis.
Pre-diagnosis, I was struggling to entrain to the day/night cycle for all of my life, since literally as early as I can remember. It has affected my life in so many ways, the most recent being becoming unemployed directly due to my disability.
@TrinitronX I wonder if other people who have undiagnosed or late diagnosed Non24 have the same fascination with stories about people who can't sleep.
Even before I realized I had a bonafide sleep disorder, I had been fascinated with stories about sleep, or especially people who couldn't sleep. It's as if subconsciously, I recognized that was my own representation in front of me.
I remember watching the 2002 remake of the movie Insomnia and being completely riveted, not by the suspense or mystery, but by its depiction of #sleep deprivation.
@sysop408 I"m sure it's a common trend to have a more focused interest in topics that are relevant to one's personal lived experience.
The primacy of direct experience likely affects one's own reticular activating system to filter for things relevant to them.
In my case, I was focused on things that might help me get to sleep easier, with the (incorrect) assumption that I had standard "insomnia". Post-diagnosis, I know that I can sleep perfectly fine if only on a phase-shifting schedule.
Sheldon
TrinitronX 
