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I have recently learned that this is called Delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS) and is very common in many people 'on the spectrum'. I think it's nonsense to call it a syndrome but that's modern society for you.
Anyway, I usually don't sleep before 4am, often even later. It's rough 😬
How do you deal with it?
I kinda.. don't lol. But I work just 4 days a week and on 3 of those I start relatively late (10:30), so that helps a bit.
Absolutely believe in chronotypes. Retired now, thank god. But my best REM sleep has always happened somewhere between 5 am and 9 am. Even when I had to follow everyone else's schedule, I absolutely had to be able to sleep in Saturday morning. If I didn't, at some point I'd have to go off in a corner later in the week and just sort of waking-dream to catch up on REM.
I fought against my nature for years and tried the "push through the pain" method for most of my career. I burnt out of yet another job at the beginning of this year and decided I never wanted to work 9-5 again. I retrained to be a teacher and now I give afternoon and evening classes. I do sub work on the occasional morning but I won't do two days in a row.
I'm finding a lot of my executive functioning is better now that I've had enough sleep! I'm no longer living in survival mode constantly.
The improvement in my quality of life is incredible. I feel like one of those people who starts their day at 5am now. I have time in the morning to eat, exercise and get ready for the day before I head in to work. But instead of getting up at 5 I'm getting up around 10 instead. It's glorious.
Is it worth it? Yes. Staying up late is bad for you in many different ways. Daylight hours are important for your health. Even divorced entirely from capitalist society and the need to work 8 hours a day, its still bad for your mental and physical health. I struggle with it too, but it absolutely is worth it to work on it.
chronotypes are real. But there's no type that stays up all night. You'll just get tired a few hours later and thus wake up a few hours later max.
Try getting enough sunlight during the day, avoid bright light after sundown. Sleep in total darkness. Maybe try a light therapy lamp for 15 minutes after wakeup in the morning. Avoid coffee during the day. Physical activity, even light one, helps a LOT.
You should notice a difference after 2-3 weeks. If in doubt, ask a doctor.
So is 2-10 (about what I default to) highly abnormal?
When I work the best I find I can do is 1-9.
8 hours sleep is pretty normal but your inner clock is off a bit. There are tons of reasons I've heard off over the time (not an expert, just hating alarm clocks).
Some of those reasons are:
If any of these fit for you, try working on it and see, if it changes after a few days/weeks.
If not: Chronobiology is still kind of a young field and not all doctors know about it. You could try to give your local university a call/visit if they have chronobiologists. They will have excellent sources and probably can name doctors near you or even might be interested in you as subject to study.
The reason I post here on neurodivergence is because, yes I know these things, but also I can’t stick to a habit for more than a week that requires executive function. I will always relapse on exercise, diet, sleep, work, or social life. Idk how people do all 5.