It is amazing how we tend to skimp on sleep. Everything else seems more important. there was a time I needed at least 9 hours per day to reduce stress and prevent some serious conditions from flairing up. Now with improved health perspectives, I am able to get along with about 8 hours for optimal health.

Kim, I can totally sympathize with you. I have been that way since I was a baby and as an adult finally came to terms with the fact that my circadian rhythm is just not in sync with the rest of the world. It's something known as Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome. If you really want to shift your sleep cycle, you will need to use light therapy, and you will need to be strict about your sleep habits. My normal sleep cycle (if left to my own devices) would have be going to sleep around 3am and sleeping until noon, when I will wake up totally refreshed and ready for the day. But, using light therapy, I can shift my cycle to have me going to bed by 11pm and waking at 7am. I was relieved to have participated in a study at NIH about this some years ago, and to discover that this was just part of my physiology, and not a problem of discipline. When my daughter was born, everyone told me that I would have to change, but fortunately, she seems to have inherited my tendencies, so nursing through the night was never a problem. If your child is waking early in the morning, and you need to wake too, then look into trying the various forms of light therapy to help shift your cycle, and then stick to it regularly.

I am not sure about this "before midnight" being better than "after midnight". I have had 4 overnight sleep studies, and in all cases I entered the deep stages of sleep in the last couple hours before arising. This is consistent with the fact that, like Kim, I do significantly worse if I deprive myself at the end of my sleep versus the beginning. Therefore, I think it may be a personal variable. After 5 years of working on my sleep with sleep doctors, and reading "The Promise of Sleep" by one of the early sleep medicine pioneers, Dr. William C. Dement, and everything else I could find, I have my sleep hygiene down pat, and am happy with at least that aspect of my sleep patterns. So, under the best conditions I can contrive, morning sleep is my best sleep.

Hi Kim. I have a similar problem with my sleep schedule. Ever since high school (in the early 70s), my sleep cycle has wanted to go around the clock. Following all the "rules" for a good night's sleep -- or even taking sleep medications -- did not help. Sometimes, when I didn't pay attention to my body's clock, I'd lie in bed for 15 or more hours -- staring at the ceiling -- before I went to sleep. When I finally decided to listen to my body and go to bed when it said I was ready, I generally slept pretty well -- despite my Fibromyalgia. A few things that have really helped with my sleep are: 1) a pineal gland tissue supplement, 2) essential oils. I also run a fan in my bedroom to block out unwanted noise. With reference to the essential oils, I apply lavender oil to the bottom of my feet, to my chest, the back of my neck and/or my pillow before bed, and the effect is amazing. If the oil is applied to my back, I hardly roll over in the night. I also know of an oil blend that is truly amazing. It is called Peace & Calming. Put some of that on the bottom of your feet before bed, and you'll sleep great. "Ocean" mentioned having trees close to your bedroom window. Well, I can't plant any trees, but I use an oil blend called Sacred Mountain, which contains spruce, fir and cedarwood oils (as well as ylang ylang). It is very grounding and quieting. Another blend is Grounding, which contains several tree oils. It helps with sleep, as well as to focus you during the day. This hasn't helped so much with the WHEN of my sleep, but it has certainly helped its quality.

Kim, I assume by your comment of currently nursing through the night, that you feel this is robbing you of sleep.  I nursed three children throughout the night, and found the following information to be of reassurance that I was doing what was best for the baby and me.  LaLache League could probably supply the actual studies, but what I remember is that when the sleeping brain waves of mothers and babies were studied, and then over lapped, surprisingly, the wake, sleep cycles over lapped.  That means for you, that when the baby awakes to nurse, it is during a sleep cycle of light sleep for you.  Nursing the baby in bed , first on the breast closest to the bed, and then the other, allows you to quickly return to sleep.  Placing the baby between both parents keeps the baby safely in bed, until you awaken and return the baby to the crib.   Rest / sleep is not compromised by nursing.

Numerous studies have shown that when we need sleep is as genetic as our height.  Getting enough sleep is important for everyone, but telling me when I should be sleeping is totally inappropriate.  There was a great article in the NY Times about a year ago on this.  Some people are better staying up late, while others are better going to be early -- the thinking is this goes back to the cave-person days when some people had to stay up at night to stand watch, so we evolved to have this kind of internal clock.  Telling a late night person to go to bed early is like telling them to grow taller.

I need 8-9 hours of sleep, and it's best when I go to sleep between 12 and 1 am.  My body definitely has a clock, and if I go to a new time zone for even a few days, I still end up falling asleep at the same clock time.

Western medicine seems to try to fit everyone into the same mold, but we are all different.  I find that most of what Dr. Mercola says takes this into account -- finding my metabolic type and eating for it has made a huge difference in my life.  However, he takes two steps backwards when telling me I should get to bed early.  Understand that like with food, we have different sleep requirements and optimal health starts with understanding yourself and that your needs can be vastly different from the next person.

Greetings!

This is an issue I struggle with myself.  I will point you to the information that was most helpful to me.  Reading these articles helped me to overcome my morning woes!

Article 1 - How to become an early riser!

Article 2 - How to get up right away when your alarm goes off!

Enjoy and I hope this information helps!



Matthew Jabs
www.eJabs.com

Sleep is a crucial element to the health of most Americans.  My clients are shocked when I make the connection for them between their lack of quality sleep and weight issues.  Our culture is so stressed and overworked, most people working full time jobs, then picking up when they get home with jobs as parents or extra-curricular work.  The average person doesn't have a nightly ritual for calming themselves either.  They go from 60-0, expecting their bodies to follow along.  There is a chicken-or-egg situation here as well, with it being unclear as to which came first: stress/over-working or lack of sleep.

Duane -
I would agree that there are many personal variables with regards to sleep habits.  However, I just want to throw in for discussion the Chinese medicine form, which states that specific detox processes occur during the hours of 10pm and 2am.  They cannot work efficiently, or at all in the case of someone who is awake and active or eating during those hours, if we are not in a decent REM cycle at that point.  I have always been a "night person" myself, but have found as I trained myself to follow the natural rhythms of the sun and moon, nature, in the long run I do better.

That being said, it's important to get sleep with whatever pattern works for you.  Better to get sleep outside that time period of 10 and 2 than none or poor quality sleep.

My only question about this was where the study was done.  China or America?  Do we go to bed at 10pm China time or 10pm USA time, and what time zone shall we use PDT or EDT?  And how does my brain know what time zone it is in etc.etc. 

Has anyone found out that they need  less sleep overall once they start going to sleep by 10? As in, their sleep quality improves overall and thus they can naturally need less sleep. I currently average about 7.5 hours of sleep and do not use an alarm clock and have a job that starts later, so I can sleep in when I need a little more sleep. I follow all the secrets of a good night sleep that apply to me (except of course, the going to bed at 10 part.). I am a 22 year old female with no serious health concerns and I follow many of the suggestions on this website.

Thanks ahead of time if anyone has a comment.

As the hours of daylight/darkness change throughout the year, so does the "clock" time of midnight (halfway between sundown and sunup), so 10-12 PM has to be calculated by proportional hours, not the clock.  Clock time is an abstract which our bodies do not know about.