Having trouble breaking oversleeping

[Remnantique]

A brief backstory, i've been oversleeping since I was a boy of 15, i've gone through multiple psychiatrists and counselling throughout my life for not having "the will to life". I've been through multiple depressions and come out of it.

I'm 27 now, and my life is pretty good, i'm out of work due to studying but my bf is supporting me so it's pretty chilled. I go out with friends, still have money to buy things, have a good career on the horizon yet...I can't get out of bed in the morning and sleep in everyday up to 13 hours. I feel it's more like a by-product now of my depression, a habit.

I'm unsure why i have no discipline to break this as when i'm awake I so hate it and never want to sleep in again but come the morning I do it again.

I'm guessing it's a deep rooted not wanting to deal with life mechanism? I also love the idea of being able to astral project through my sleep but I can't go on wasting my life.

I've tried everything, no caffeine, loads of exercise, recording my sleep....unsure what to go about it now. I've even had a recent medical blood test and nothing came back, no sleep apnea, no hypersomnia, no chronic fatigue syndrome...this must be all psychological. I also go to bed same time every night at 1am and get a decent 8 hours sleep so it's not like I go to bed super late every night.

Please help. I want to stop sleeping in but every morning I roll over because I love it (and medically you can't be addicted to sleeping so go figure). Any adice?

I think I could do with some positive reinforcement, so give me all your reasons why mornings are good!

[inavalan]

I suggest to firstly take a chance and ask your doctor about it. There might be some physical condition that makes your body need so much sleep. You can look it up on the internet too, just be very cautious in following unqualified advice and suggestions!

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Remnantique

A brief backstory, i've been oversleeping since I was a boy of 15, i've gone through multiple psychiatrists and counselling throughout my life for not having "the will to life". I've been through multiple depressions and come out of it.

I'm 27 now, and my life is pretty good, i'm out of work due to studying but my bf is supporting me so it's pretty chilled. I go out with friends, still have money to buy things, have a good career on the horizon yet...I can't get out of bed in the morning and sleep in everyday up to 13 hours. I feel it's more like a by-product now of my depression, a habit.

I'm unsure why i have no discipline to break this as when i'm awake I so hate it and never want to sleep in again but come the morning I do it again.

I'm guessing it's a deep rooted not wanting to deal with life mechanism? I also love the idea of being able to astral project through my sleep but I can't go on wasting my life.

I've tried everything, no caffeine, loads of exercise, recording my sleep....unsure what to go about it now. I've even had a recent medical blood test and nothing came back, no sleep apnea, no hypersomnia, no chronic fatigue syndrome...this must be all psychological. I also go to bed same time every night at 1am and get a decent 8 hours sleep so it's not like I go to bed super late every night.

Please help. I want to stop sleeping in but every morning I roll over because I love it (and medically you can't be addicted to sleeping so go figure). Any adice?

I think I could do with some positive reinforcement, so give me all your reasons why mornings are good!

1am is super late, so an earlier bed time might be an idea. Besides that, you could google 'sleep hygiene' and see if anything helpful pops up.

[Remnantique]

Originally Posted by inavalan

I suggest to firstly take a chance and ask your doctor about it. There might be some physical condition that makes your body need so much sleep. You can look it up on the internet too, just be very cautious in following unqualified advice and suggestions!

Thanks for the response! I've been to the doctor recently and got a blood test and they've ruled out any medical reasons. In regards to mental health, doctors haven't been very specific in how to help...they've just been rather confused as to why i'm finding it so difficult.

The only things they've suggested is moodgym's website and mental health services to see if i'm depressed.

[Remnantique]

Originally Posted by Gem

1am is super late, so an earlier bed time might be an idea. Besides that, you could google 'sleep hygiene' and see if anything helpful pops up.

Yea I had a look at sleep hygiene and for the most part, going to bed isn't the problem, it's how long i'm sleeping. I've gone to bed earlier and I still sleep 13 hours so a bit at a loss as to what to do now. I know once i'm up I feel great albeit a bit anxious at times.

Atm it's a massive habit and whilst doctors tell me you can't be addicted to sleep, I feel I am

[Tobi]

Well....some people do need more sleep than others. Are you certain this 13 hour sleep isn't something you actually need?

There's another thought, and that is your nature may not be naturally the sort that is totally diurnal...
Some people are perfectly well and healthy and productive but operate best by sleeping later than most folks, and going to bed a bit later than the average. That is called "delayed sleep phase syndrome". But doesn't necessarily involve sleeping 13 hours.

How do you generally feel when you do get up early? Do you feel not as good as normal? Tired all day?

And another thought of an opposite kind is that the body and system does get used to a particular habit, so sometimes with the best will in the world it can be hard to break, simply because your system has got used to it and it feels normal for the body.

I am not an early morning person either. I can make myself get up early but never feel right when I do. I recognise there is a slight trend in me towards being semi-nocturnal naturally, and I have always been that way and can't help it. But usually I don't need more than 8 hours and can get by okay on 6-7 for a day or two. If I go a whole night without sleep, I will need 10 or sometimes 11 the next night. But once I am awake and had enough sleep I couldn't sleep any more.

How to like getting up in the morning (considering there's been enough sleep...) Well it helps to have some simple thing to look forward to. For me it's my morning coffee -always worth getting up for, and I have one I really really like, not just the average instant.
But you have given up caffeine. So is there some other thing you really like which you can have in the morning? A special juice or something? Or favourite food?
Or some project which you are eager to get to work on? Something you can't wait to get back to? Building something or painting? Or basically doing anything you love doing.
You need a dog to wake you up and get you out for a walk in the morning! haha!

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Remnantique

Yea I had a look at sleep hygiene and for the most part, going to bed isn't the problem, it's how long i'm sleeping. I've gone to bed earlier and I still sleep 13 hours so a bit at a loss as to what to do now. I know once i'm up I feel great albeit a bit anxious at times.

Atm it's a massive habit and whilst doctors tell me you can't be addicted to sleep, I feel I am

I've had a lot of sleeping problems, which is a bit of an ongoing battle really, but I recently became determined to sort it out because the erratic sleep disorganises life in general. I made a little strategy to deal with it including not having caffeine late in the day, turning off the computer early in the evening, reading a real paper book in bed, taking a 10 minute walk first thing in the morning, having breakfast outside and opening more curtains to let more natural light inside. I followed that routine last week and it seemed to work well. I dropped it on the weekend so I could stuff around on Saturday night, but started picking up again in the new week. It's a small adjustment so I'm taking a while to settle in to it, but it sure shows some significant improvement.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Remnantique

Yea I had a look at sleep hygiene and for the most part, going to bed isn't the problem, it's how long i'm sleeping. I've gone to bed earlier and I still sleep 13 hours so a bit at a loss as to what to do now. I know once i'm up I feel great albeit a bit anxious at times.

Atm it's a massive habit and whilst doctors tell me you can't be addicted to sleep, I feel I am

Being one who hits the hay late, I know the quality of sleep of late sleepers is disturbed as they wake up more frequently when daylight comes around. 1/2 the sleep is more erratic so I need longer hours of it. The issue then isn't length of sleep even though its true I need the 11 or 12 hours. The issue is quality of sleep being disrupted by sleeping erratically due to daylight hours. Your sleeping at 1 am is like this. The body is chemically arranged to sleep in the dark and arouse with the light, so it would be a very unusual case indeed for a person to sleep equally well in daylight hours. This is why I reccomend a bedtime much earlier than than 1 am, so that the greatest majority of time spent sleeping is at night, making for much high quality sleep, which decreases the quantity of sleep needed.

[Kaere]

Originally Posted by Tobi

Well....some people do need more sleep than others. Are you certain this 13 hour sleep isn't something you actually need?

It's worth considering this imo. Myself, I function best on 9 to 10 hrs (I only ever seem to get 5 to 6 though, that's life).



I am right on board with Gem's thoughts about quality of sleep as well... you may not even realize you're being roused, y'know? I sleep much better, much more 'solid' and I wake up more refreshed when I have a fan going with some white noise, it masks traffic and household noises. Blackout curtains are also a must for me, they help tremendously. And a heavy blanket, something with weight to it. You might consider giving these things a try to improve your quality of sleep if you haven't already.


But I say, if you need sleep, then sleep and enjoy it

[Remnantique]

Originally Posted by Gem

I've had a lot of sleeping problems, which is a bit of an ongoing battle really, but I recently became determined to sort it out because the erratic sleep disorganises life in general. I made a little strategy to deal with it including not having caffeine late in the day, turning off the computer early in the evening, reading a real paper book in bed, taking a 10 minute walk first thing in the morning, having breakfast outside and opening more curtains to let more natural light inside. I followed that routine last week and it seemed to work well. I dropped it on the weekend so I could stuff around on Saturday night, but started picking up again in the new week. It's a small adjustment so I'm taking a while to settle in to it, but it sure shows some significant improvement.

I did all this and it was great when it was going, but I knew eventually I would hit a day where I slipped up. I think for me the important thing is to not give up. Right now it's hard to be hopeful because i've failed so many times.

I almost got up today early but I went back to bed and got up at 4pm (slept 1am-4pm). Unsure what to do now to fix it. I know when it's good..it's good and I keep going but on a day or two when I slip up I start thinking what's the point and sink back into old habits.

Perhaps it's finally time to forgive myself for failing so much and pick myself back up.