I’ve long suspected that I may have DSPD, although much less severe than many here. I was doing okay for a few months but then had an early class that really fucked me up. I had to wake up at 6 am, and now that I’m done with it, I’m still not getting normal sleep.

I’m having some trouble falling asleep before 1-2 am, and while that is a great improvement on how late I used to stay up, I am also now unable to sleep late even though I don’t need to wake up early for anything. Even on weekends and days off school, I wake up around 6-7 and can’t go back to sleep. For the last couple weeks, I’ve been getting 5-6 hours a night on average.

Despite this not being ideal, I don’t actually feel terrible. I’m doing okay cognitively and have tried to accept it. Could it be that some of us are just okay on less than 8 hours? I looked it up and the only thing I could find was that decreased need for sleep can be a sign of mania, which I definitely don’t have.