Sleep Dynamic Therapy

Archive for the ‘Circadian Rhythms’ Category

This article is most interesting for linking economic tendencies and prosperity to morning people over evening people. But, what it misses, as almost every other article on this subject misses, is that genetics are not the only reason people develop morning “lark” or night “owl” tendencies. Two prime influences are sleep disorders and psychiatric illness that steer people away from the morning mode. Sleep apnea patients are exhausted much of the time, so it’s more difficult to get out of bed and to rev up their motors. PTSD patients, particularly someone who might have been traumatized at night, may fear the bedroom or sleep and prolong their bedtime to the point of becoming a regular night owl. Treat these patients’ sleep apnea or posttraumatic stress, and it would not be surprising for many to revert back to morning status.

I just completed a brief interview on WTOP-AM in Washington D.C. on the impact of DST. As before, in my clinical experience, the more severe your complaints following the DST change, the more likely an underlying physical sleep disorder is part of the equation. The astute interviewer, Nathan Roberts, asked me if this problem was similar to jet lag. And, I feel once again that the more sleep difficulties you report following your travel experiences, it strongly suggests the presence of an underlying sleep problem.