With circadian sleep disorder (officially: sleep disorder linked to the circadian rhythm; previously: disorder in the sleep-wake rhythm), the difficulties do not arise from an inherent problem with your ability to sleep, but from a mismatch of your innate sleep patterns. waking cycle and the demands imposed on you by your environment.
There are four different scenarios
The first is that of the ‘night owl’. Your internal circadian rhythm has slowed down so that when you wake and sleep, you are several hours behind the rest of the world. If you can sail at your own helm, you will fall asleep well after midnight and wake up around noon or later. You won’t have any problem with this sleep pattern unless a nine-to-five workday forces you to adapt to a normal sleep-wake rhythm. You find it impossible to fall asleep and wake up when everyone else does, you gradually suffer from sleep deprivation, you are excessively sleepy during the day, you have to set several alarms to get out of bed and you feel miserable all morning.
The pattern of the advanced sleep phase, that of the ‘early birds’, is seen in people with the opposite problem. You fall asleep shortly after dinner and wake up hours before sunrise with energy. This usually means less disruption at work or school than night owls (and may even make you more productive), but early birds can also miss out on a lot of evening relaxation and put a big damper on a pleasant family life.
The third type of circadian sleep disorder is caused by frequent jet lag due to repeated travel to completely different time zones. There is a high correlation between the severity of the condition and the number of zones you pass through. The biggest problems arise when you travel through more than eight different time zones within twenty-four hours. Most people have an easier time adjusting to traveling west and really struggle when they go east. Early birds do better because they have less difficulty with moving the day forward on an eastward flight.
The fourth disorder within this class arises from the disruptive working hours of shift work. Almost half of Dutch employees work in a position that does not involve the typical eight to five working day. Working the night shift, or in constantly changing shifts, leads to insufficient hours of sleep, poor sleep and disruption of the circadian rhythm. People who work varying shifts generally suffer the most damage because they have to constantly adjust their sleep-wake rhythm.
Even those with a permanent night shift (where, for example, they work four nights followed by three days off) experience problems, because on their days off they prefer to maintain a normal daily schedule in order to be able to synchronize with other family members and the store opening hours. Insomnia is also a common consequence of disturbances in the daytime environment (traffic noise, sunlight, ringing telephones, family and social obligations). Work performance and morale can be compromised by fatigue in the workplace as a result of not being able to sleep during off hours.
Diagnosis according to DSM IV
- According to the diagnostic manual, you have a circadian sleep disorder if the following occurs:
- You have difficulty falling asleep or are excessively sleepy during the day due to a poor connection between your internal clock and the demands that the outside world places on you in terms of sleeping and waking.
- This poor alignment is the result of being a night owl or an early riser, having to work shifts or constantly crossing time zones so that your body can never adjust to the time changes. Your sleep problems are serious enough to hinder your daily functioning.
