My girlfriend says she has insomnia, but I have my doubts. I think she simply has her sleep schedule all jacked up.
On a typical night I will go to bed around 10:00PM. She says she can’t sleep and then finally comes to bed around 5:00AM. But she sleeps from 5:00AM until around 2:00PM. And it is generally good sleep. It seems to me that this isn’t insomnia, but rather someone who needs to get thier sleep schedule back on track.
It is my understanding that insomnia would result in either much less total sleep, or not restful sleep. It seems like she is getting plenty of sleep time, but just during the wrong hours.
A Medical Journal Article on Insomnia:Insomnia: Definition, Prevalence, Etiology, and Consequences
Short answer- Insomnia is pretty subjective, and tough to nail down a hard and fast definition for it- especially since it can be both a symptom of a disease; or it can be primary insomnia and the actual issue itself; or it could just be related to poor sleep hygene. Usually it’s by the patient’s report- they have unrestful sleep/negative quality of life based on their sleeping habits.
So it’s sort of a YMMV sort of deal. If she’s okay with the amount of sleep she gets, feels fully rested at her time, and is not distressed by the fact that she’s staying up late, and it doesn’t bother her quality of life. :shrug: Then she’s okay- just an odd sleep schedule.
She sounds a lot like myself. My back injury prevents me from sleeping well, so it isn’t unusual that I go to bed only to find myself staring are the ceiling until 4 or 5 am. I will finally fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion. when I do I will sleep until noon, sometimes 2pm. Usually no more sleep than normal, 6 to 7 hours, but if that happens more than a few nights in a row, my sleep schedule is now farked. I am now unable to sleep at a normal hour and I am out of synch with the rest of the family.
The way I deal with it if I happen to have a few consecutive nights that alter my sleep schedule, I will force myself to stay awake and not sleep. Then when the next night rolls around l am tired and will sleep at a normal time. It sucks to have this trouble, but the longer she continues tospattern, the harder it will be to get back to normal. Good Luck.
She has delayed sleep phase syndrome (Wikipedia here). I have it too, and default to pretty much the same pattern as she does, by the sound of it. It is not a problem in itself until you have to get something done in the daytime, on someone else’s schedule. Then it can be a real bitch. I have tried to get treatment for it, but haven’t had much luck.
Whether or not one wants to call it a form of insomnia is really just semantics, but if she tell the doctor it is insomnia, without more explanation, she will not get the right treatment (although, by my experience, she may not anyway).
That’s pretty much my schedule, when I don’t have a job. And every summer in high school or college. My clock totally turned around. Literaly 4-5 a.m. and sleeping 12 hours, getting up at 4 p.m.
Went on a vacation with friends one summer after my schedule had already turned around. The first night I didn’t sleep a wink.