My adult son is undiagnosed but for over 20 yrs has had a sleep cycle disorder. It began with his inability to get up for school or work. If he forced himself to get up he had little energy or was completely burnt out by the time his activity finished. It took him days to rejuvenate. Over the years his sleep pattern became more noticeable and seemingly worse. What he now sees is a wake-sleep cycle that slowly works around a 24 hour clock. For example, during the summer he cycle is more normal to the point where he goes to sleep 6-7am and wakes up to see daylight for a few hours. As October-November approach his sleep slowly shifts to where he begins sleeping at a later morning time and gets up at a late afternoon to early eve time and there he sees no daylight. Currently as of Feb thru April, he is going to sleep around 10-11am and gets up at 7-8 pm. So he is sleeping more hours and is completely nocturnal in his awake as a functioning person. Even if he awakes at 6pm it takes him 2-3 hours to get his mojo going. And yes he is severely depressed bc he cannot hold a job, has no social life and has become more reclusive. He has read blogs on Reddit where folks claim they have the same symptoms, have tried everything to change their cycle but nothing seems to work. So I am wondering if anyone has found help and has any advise. Doctors I have contacted will not even speak to me b/c I am not the patient. My son needs a glimmer of hope or I will not be able to convince him to “keep going” and trying.
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Hi there
This may not be helpful at all, for which I apologise in advance.
I work with neurodiversity. Cognitive disengagement syndrome (also used to be referred to as sluggish cognitive tempo) is not a formal DSM or ICD diagnosis but symptoms are often seem in relation to circadian rhythm issues. Maybe have a look on Google scholar at some open source research. Just a thought.