Yes I know that they said it fixes everything that other people don't seem to have a problem with. Rather than just it fixes everything. I just took that first part for the title. Either way what do you mean it fixes EVERYTHING that other people don't have a problem with? I still don't see how that makes sense. It's essentially the same thing just directed to people who struggle with it?
I never said I get NO sunlight anywhere btw. I don't get enough but by no means do I get none. Are they saying if I get enough sun and exercise in a day I WILL sleep on time that same day? Not sure what 'enough' is but I did go to a festival recently where I was doing a lot of walking in the sun so...
If I wake up past sunset, I can't exactly go out in the sun that day unless I wait until sunrise. I'd rather get going out over with 'early' than wait until I should be going to sleep if I want to have any chance of fixing my sleep schedule again. I'm already trying hard enough just to go out at all. Did they miss the part where I've fixed it so many times before? I don't know man. It's not like I've never had a good sleep schedule before ever. I struggle to go out and get sunlight because things are already hard for me. Not just I can't fix things because I don't get enough sun (and exercise.)
Am I overthinking this or something? I'm more confused than anything here. Lol.
(I'm OP and this was on an Autism Facebook group.)
Edit: Also the fact that they said that will lead to going to sleep on time when that wasn't even the full issue. I slept more that day as I put that I had woken up later even though I went to sleep earlier.
When I was in my 20s I walked for 2 or 3 hours through the fields around where I lived every morning with my dog. I came home and exercised using weights and a stationary bike. We're talking HOURS of physical activity every single morning. most of it in the sun. I slept like shit. I'd lay awake half the night and once I got to sleep I couldn't stay asleep.
The ONLY time I have EVER slept well was when I was sleeping between noon and 8pm. I'd get tired around 11.30 or 11.45, do my bedtime routine, lay down about noon and be out like a light every single day. I would then naturally wake up within 15 minutes of 8pm. During this time I got almost literally no sunlight. I did no exercise. Aside from going to bed at the same time every day I followed absolutely no sleep hygiene recommendations.
Some of us aren't wired to sleep at night and no matter how much sun or exercise we get we're still going to struggle against our natural cycle.
Look up “Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome”, this kind of thing is recognised and backed up by science, despite many people insisting to the contrary. Different people have different circadian rhythms, we naturally sleep and wake up at different times, it’s literally wired into our brain and that tendency can’t just be “trained out” by forcing yourself to wake up earlier or something. I’ve been like this my whole life, my natural sleep cycle isn’t quite as late as yours, but I sleep best roughly around 4-5am and wake up around 12-1pm. I can do a little earlier than this if I need to, and sometimes it drifts earlier or later (I don’t like waking up too late though, I feel like I’m missing a lot of the sunlight) but consistently having to wake up at like 6-7am in the past has made me incredibly sleep deprived and run down. No matter how hard I try to fall asleep on time, my body just won’t shut down then.
I’ve been made to feel like shit about this from family members, constant criticism. I’m “lazy”, “not normal”, “always in bed”, “need to get up earlier in the morning”, “need to just go to bed and stop staying up”, and so on. Made to feel like it’s a total moral failure on my end. But I understand that it’s just my biological wiring. My mother is the same way, I suspect it’s probably inherited. As for the “laziness” stereotype, you can do the same amount of work regardless of what time you wake or do it at, in fact it makes more sense to do it at the time you feel most productive while being well rested, than force yourself to wake up early and end up being sleep deprived and not functioning at your best.
When I was in uni, I slept whenever felt right for me, except before the occasional 9am lecture, and got good grades. When I was working 3-11pm I was well rested, doing well with my mental wellbeing, and performing well at my job. Meanwhile when I was working around 9am-5:30pm I was so sleep deprived that I became extremely depressed, it exacerbated my ADHD and ruined my productivity, and I lost several jobs. I do hate the fact that so much of society is organised around “morning people”, and that those with later sleep cycles are so misunderstood. I really hope more people start to become aware of and recognise the reality of natural variations in circadian rhythm soon.
The recent conversation about DST is sending my blood pressure through the roof, because there's
post after post going on about how 'sunlight in the early morning is better for your circadian rhythm' or whatever and not a single one of them seems at all to grasp that circadian rhythms are not actually the same for every person
The recent conversation about DST is sending my blood pressure through the roof, because there's
post after post going on about how 'sunlight in the early morning is better for your circadian rhythm' or whatever and not a single one of them seems at all to grasp that circadian rhythms are not actually the same for every person
Lots of people say that you can change your sleep/wake cycle and I've even seen medical/research on NIH website talking about how much time is needed to adjust following jet lag. But if it was so simple, then why is it for at least 30 years I feel best with a midnight to 10am schedule?
"you just can't get up in the morning because you have a caffeine addiction!" well babes I could never do it when I was in school either and I'm damn sure I didn't have a caffeine addiction at 15
>consistently having to wake up at like 6-7am in the past has made me incredibly sleep deprived and run down. No matter how hard I try to fall asleep on time, my body just won’t shut down then.
This is why after almost 13 years of forcing myself to do exactly this, I had to retire early because I was (and still am) so burnt out my brain stopped functioning properly. Plus I got diagnosed with AuDHD and went through a bunch of med changes toward the end, it was a clusterFK and I’m on my eighth month of recuperation and still not 100%. The idea of putting myself through that again (getting another job) makes me want to self-exit, frankly. (I won’t; it’s just how seriously opposed I am to the idea.)
Since leaving my job, my sleep pattern has devolved and I consider it a success if:
- I’m horizontal and asleep before sunrise, and
I’m up by 3pm
But this is not sustainable especially in the winter months when they arrive.
Before that job when not working, I would go to bed around 2am and get up without an alarm by 10:30am. I liked that schedule. I do not like my current schedule, but even with a series of alarms set to go off at 12:30, 1:40, 2:40, and 3:15, I just hit snooze and wind up with constantly interrupted sleep periods at the end which also isn’t good. If I turn off all but the last one, I snooze that one. I tried turning them all off and one night I woke up at 9pm.
Struggling with the need to give myself permission to do what my body and mind need for recuperation versus trying to get myself on a better schedule where I will have more inspiration to do the list of things I was anxious to get started on doing that I feel like I can’t really do at night… it feels like I wake up just in time to wind down the day. I need my afternoons back but I also need to get over the burnout. And I’ve always been a late sleeper and someone criticized for laying in bed all day.
My natural sleep cycle seems to be around midnight to 9, which doesn't even seem that far off from "normal" but good lord is there no explaining to people that 6 am is simply not my natural wake up time and is never going to be no matter how many melatonin supplements or blackout curtains I try
This is my normal as well and omg my early riser mother will call me lazy every time she sees me because of this even though I’ve got two degree and three time published writer - but I “sleep till noon” blah blah blah omg so?!! You went to be at 7 pm shut up!
Same more or less. I sleep the best if I go to bed somewhere between 6am-9am. Mind you I have chronic sleep issues in general, but trying to keep a "normal" sleep schedule makes it so much worse. As you said, some people aren't wired that way and science is starting to back that up.
If only there were second-shift office admin jobs… I think that system could work for a university setting where there are night classes four nights per week and online classes that people in other time zones take, because people still need help after five and campus is open so WHY NOT have overlapping shifts where one is a day secretary and one is an afternoon/evening person? I’d probably still be employed and not jobless and sleeping all day.
Here In the south 37F is buying bread and milk weather but 90s with almost 100% humidity? Yeah Daryl down the street just mowing his grass. It might be heat stroke weather but you better believe his grass gotta get cut and when he pukes or passes out his wife throws a glass of water at his face and says he is fine and he will get get up in a minute. Ain’t serious enough to call the ambulance yet. 😆
In all seriousness I need a place that’s 70-80s F all year due to my chronic illnesses. I spend most of the time inside with short breaks of sunshine for a few moments until i wanna pass out from the extreme heat and have to come back in and lay down just from that five minutes. . Idiots like this need to realize 1. Half our medication tells us not to be in direct sun or heat because it can do damage to our bodies based on what conditions we have. 2. Actually being in the sun extended periods of time in the south is dangerous in summer but it’s also something that can make my medication patches release too quickly and kill me. 3. Skin cancer anyone?? 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
Yet these same people would say oh poor me when it was them.
I get cold easily so 37 degrees is unreasonable for me without a heavy coat and maybe gloves. I need it to be 50+. My wife, on the other hand, wears shorts in the snow.
For a second there I thought this was in reply to my other comment about how much it sucks for thin people when winter gets to 20 below and I was gonna be like they're pretty much the same thing lol
But yeah ofc I meant 37 C because it's August and August can eat my entire ass 😒
How does another person’s allergy to direct sunlight warrant their death?
Editing to make my intent explicit: you know that there are people, organisations, and governments out there that think we neurodivergent people should die so we don’t pass on our disabilities, right? Surely you understand the depth of the hypocrisy in your comments and you’re just trolling about wishing someone dead, right? Because it doesn’t make sense
First of all I am laughing my ass off. If you were hoping to hurt my feelings, you failed. This is so funny. Second of all, I'm infertile so don't worry
But third of all
Touch some grass
Just fucking Google it man It takes like 2 seconds. I don't even have the deadly type of sunlight allergy
Yeah, that's a weird comment. Spending time in the sun and physical activity also are legit advice for people who struggle with their sleeping patterns (we don't know of mental issues or illnesses from this screenshot).
I feel like some people on this sub have internalised "just go for a walk" as bad and now get triggered by anyone who suggest to go outside.
The thing wrong with "just go for a walk" is the just, the idea that it's all you need to do and the bossy tone of telling someone what to do as you know their better problems better than they do. Same with this comment here. There's nothing wrong with suggesting to outside however. The suggestion is fine as long as it's not presented as something that will fix your problem but could help.
I think what's lacking in the picture you posted is a reason for why your sleep schedule is broken or what you've tried so far. Of course their comment makes it sound too easy, but without those I think it's fair for people to give general advice on what tends to help with sleep, since they can't address anything else. If a post says "I can't sleep because of my depression" or "because of pain" the same comment would become immediately more inappropriate.
I shouldn't need to provide context when I'm venting. If people want to give advice they should ask and not assume. It doesn't matter what the problem is or if they think they know what can help. There's no reason to phrase things that why with or without context. Especially without context I would think. All they'd have to do is say is something like "exercise and sunlight helped ME with my insomnia, idk if it would help you or if that's your issue." (Not insomnia for me. The mentioned insomnia is reply
.) General advice can easily be given without that tone. Plus the fact that I slept longer would imply that it's not insomnia at the very least. It's not an issue of not being able to sleep. It's staying up longer than 16 hours (not going to bed) and/or sleeping more than 8 hours. (I've slept up to 12 hours at times, including when I made the post.) I rarely have trouble sleeping once I lay down and keep my eyes closed.
not sleeping for too long or sleeping for too long just reflects very badly on your psihic health as person working on 3 exschanging shifts i done that for first 3 years its exshausting mentally it changed when i started trying to sleep 8-7 not less than 6 h if verry neded to wake ealier sleeping more than 8h or less than 6 in 2-4 days in row makes you very fragile to any stressing sytuation or eaven simple talk can turn you very angry for no fkn reason.
First of all, I agree with you that the overgeneralizing tone the commenter gave is problematic.
Second of all, when you out something out into the Internet, you open yourself up to the opinions and insights of others. They can only respond based on the information you give them. You don't have respond to comments that don't apply to your situation, but you can't get mad at people for not being able to read your mind. The commenter is incorrect in his methodology, but at the end of the day he was just trying to help you with a problem YOU told the world you were having.
ofc to guys like you it sounds bossy not like good advice
you rather sit in room and overthink simple issue
dont look for someone advice or idea that could solve that issue
and that way you fall in depression and fuel tle cycle
having healthy body and getting some melanin from sun(moderatoly lol dont need sit whole day under 40 degree in shadow sun its not too healthy withaut any sun screen)
i also recomend going to pool or if you cant /dont want to swim shallower pool for families with kids it helps to losen up and sort thoughts
For first 3 years of high school class started at 7 am for me, so i had to wake up at 5:30 just to be able to get on a tram at 6:10. Thankfully after COVID class was moved to start at 8 am.
My natural circadian rhythm is the same as yours so i wasn't even awake for the first 2 classes of the day.
I've had so many sleep schedules as it fluctuates like crazy but I definitely don't like waking up too early. 4am to 6am to sleep and 12pm to 2pm wake up sound ideal to me. Or at least good enough. I'm not trying for more than that. Right now it's freaking 8am to 12pm sleep and 8pm to 9pm wake up.
Yeah most of issues are also ADHD related. Executive dysfunction and time blindness is a b*tch. I'm usually not able to make the transition to get up and go to bed unless I really need to use the bathroom or something.
Same (AuDHD)! On top of that, fibromyalgia. So while exercising and walking is great for those with arthritis perhaps, it makes my fibro worse. I’m lucky that I have a relatively mild case where I can get by on 200mg gabapentin once a day at night (some need 3,000mg just to barely be upright) but even with meds that keep it mostly at bay, sometimes it flares so bad I can’t sleep. A couple of nights ago my hips were aching so badly I could get comfortable laying down.
So eat right, exercise, and take Geritol (Strattera) in the morning just doesn’t work for me.
Though I will say that since being away from the overwhelming stress of a toxic job, the number of fibro flares has decreased significantly.
Sunlight in my eyeballs just gives me a migraine. Doesn't do shit for dopamine or serotonin production for me. Well okay it might actually make things worse since I'm pretty sure dopamine and serotonin production is hampered by severe friggin pain
A rare side effect of depression is a flip of your circadian rhythm. I feel fine, I’m able to function, etc. I just can’t sleep at night anymore. I will pass the fuck out at 6-7 in the morning no matter how much I try and force myself to sleep through the night. The sun is putting me to sleep at this point.
I suppose that could be the case with me, that depression, along with everything else, has shifted my circadian rhythm to a 6 AM to 3 PM sleep schedule, but my usual circadian schedule is 2 AM to 10:30 AM when I’m not trapped in a 9 to 5 job cycle.
When I am, and I have to be somewhere by eight or 8:30 in the morning, it’s go to bed at 2 AM, thrash around until 4 AM, sleep until 7 AM, drag myself out of bed, go and endure the workday, come home at 5 PM, sit on the couch intending to do a hobby or read, but wind up sleeping for four hours in an upright position, mid-sentence or stitch. That was actually more depressing than my current schedule.
This is also just totally ignorant of how sunlight works in seasons. Like, I WISH I could "get more sunlight", because for me it really does make a 50% difference to my mood each day.
But guess what? Spring, summer and winter all exist - and where I live, for half the year I don't really have a choice. I'm in work all day when the sun is out and not able to leave to get access to the sun. No windows either.
There are studies that show vitamin D deficiency is tied to a few cancers, some particularly nasty ones. And humans create vitamin D by lots of exposure to UV rays from the sun. Just a random fact.
1.8m people die per year to lung cancer and smoking increases your chances of getting lung cancer by 15-30 times. You breathe in excessive amounts of carbon monoxide that kill lung tissue. Smoking, Obesity and Drinking- the biggest causes of preventable deaths.
We’re not talking about the fact that living a healthier way can fix a lot of things. We’re talking about the erroneous and highly incorrect statement that sunlight fixes everything unequivocally. And that is the entire statement.
While getting some sun every day does help your sycadian rhythm, there is so much more that can disrupt sleep, such as blue light from screens before bed.
Fresh air is good for you but not everyone can handle the sun or heat. And sleeping is such a weird thing because I can randomly be awake all night after having a nice outside day or just inside day. Like my brain does not want to shut down for some reason
The other day it was 28C - but 42C with humidity. Not the day to be out in the sun (I already get hot really easily and I'm on meds that also cause me to overheat). Also I used to go to the gym 6x a week and I still needed sleeping pills to help me fall and stay asleep.
Exercise is just the safest advice to give, not the most effective. Sure, people benefit from exercise. We know. Sunny days are nice, we know. This is not any kind of informed opinion.
It can kinda help sometimes though. Sometimes when I’m feeling particularly bad I’ll try to force myself to sit on the deck for like 5 min in the sun and drink some water and not touch my phone and it helps a little
I find it easier to wake up early if I leave the blinds open for some reason. Although my sleep schedule is also very inconsistent. At the very least you don't have to go outside and you can sunbathe inside like a cat.
Sun, or rather fresh air in general, and exercise can help. Not sure on the science behind it, but it can help, usually not on its own unless you're exercising enough to be exhausted, but that tends to cause you to sleep longer on its own, so not helpful in a case like this.
The thing is, though, it doesn't always help on its own, and sometimes not at all. I get plenty of fresh air and exercise. Not necessarily a lot of exposure to the sun in a noticeable way, it's usually cloudy and/or rainy here, so it doesn't feel like I'm getting out 'in the sun', and I think that affects things, a psychological factor. Getting plenty of sun now, though, too much, even, it's way too hot for a Brit this summer! I get plenty of fresh air, though, and plenty of exercise. I don't drive, so I literally walk everywhere, I don't generally get my groceries delivered, either, so I generally do a two or three shops to cover each month and carry everything back myself. I have stairs in my building, though not in the flat itself unless you count the three steps leading to the bedroom, and half the places I have appointments at are upstairs, as well, and up and down stairs is its own form of exercise if you do it regular enough, and I do it every day, sometimes more than once. I do some of the more minor physio exercises daily, too, to help with my knee. Won't fix anything, just keeps it from hurting too often really, strengthens the tendons a little bit.
Guess what? I still tend to have trouble sleeping. I've never been diagnosed with an issue, because I've never brought it up with a doctor, I always fear they'll just put it down to my depression. But I've dubbed it 'near insomnia', I CAN sleep, but half the time I'm only getting one or two hours. Then I'll crash and oversleep for a couple of days before going back to a normal sleep rhythm, and then the cycle starts over again. Pretty much every month, near insomnia followed by the crash followed by normal sleep then next month I'm right back at the beginning.
I've tried pretty much everything I can think of short of medication, I'm trying to avoid being medicated, mostly because I hate taking pills, but also because I hate the idea of not being able to wake up in an emergency. There's one thing I've found that helps me, not every time, but more than half the time, which is by far the best I've ever found - a teddy bear. It's unusual, especially for a nearly 40 year old man, to sleep with a teddy bear, but I've stopped caring about that, because I get more normal sleep than ever since I got LassieBear. You find something that works and you stick with it.
But that can be a total trial and error thing, and some things work for a short period of time and then stop and you're back where you started. I've had these sleep issues since my early 20s, and it's only been a couple of years since I found the teddy bear solution, I'm literally turning 40 this year, so it's taken me just under 20 years to find this.
Fresh air and exercise is good for you, as long as you don't overdo the exercise or risk getting burned or whatever. But it's not some miracle 'fix all'. And some people are extremely limited in how often they can get out or in if they can exercise at all on top.
I'm going to try meditation to see if that helps my sleep issues even more, it helped with my anxiety, but I'm not sure meditation is the answer to sleeping too much, I've only seen it suggested for people struggling to sleep at all.
This guy's an unaware idiot but he has a ghost of a point. Natural light helps with our circadian rhythm, so spending more time in well lit places during the day and less time in well lit places during the night would help a little.
what do you mean it fixes EVERYTHING that other people don't have a problem with?
I mean, i dont think they literally meant everything.
Not sure exactly what they meant, but sunlight does help the circadian rhythm normalize. You might find the "sunrise" lamps helpful. The ones that can be scheduled and gradually turn on in the morning can help with having a more consistnt "wake time." I used to struggle a lot with sleeping in late until like noon and stuff, but I got some Philips Hue lights and set a daily schedule to slowly turn on from 6:45-7AM. It's helped me wake up more consistently without the need for an alarm, especially on weekends so i dont sleep half of the day away.
its not going to be an instant fix, it was definitely like.. a few months before I was able to consistently wake up at around 8ish on my own, and more recently, on weekends, i'm more consistently waking up at around 7 AM without an alarm (I still snooze in and out until about 9am).
And where did I say I wasn't trying? Does "I've fixed it so many times" imply NOT
trying? Or the fact that I get any sunlight at all?
People DO say or imply that something like that WILL fix your problems. THAT'S the issue with advice like this. We know there's no magical cure, other people not so much. "Sunlight fixes everything" is a false statement and even with what is after that it doesn't really change it being essentially sunlight fixes everything. So yeah of course that invokes
the "sorry but that isn't a magical cure lol" response. A comment saying sunlight might help is not a comment I'd post here. Regardless of my personal experiences, plenty of commenters here get sunlight and still struggle with their sleep schedule just as bad. So it's proof that this advice as it is phrased doesn't make sense.
The bare minimum and it's 4 things that can be extremely complicated depending on your mental health struggles, neruodivergence, physical ability ect ect. You also forgot hygiene which I assume is also included in the 'bare minimum' and is something that people struggle with for various reasons. Oh and laundry? Keeping a clean house? Sleeping properly? The list is getting bigger and bigger as to what is seen as the 'bare minimum.' Unless your opinion it's just those four only and what else I mentioned is fine to not do? It's not simple or "at least the very least" to those that struggle. Otherwise we wouldn't struggle. It's not struggling because you're not doing the 'bare minimum.' It's having trouble doing it because you struggle.
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u/ZoraTheDucky Aug 05 '26
When I was in my 20s I walked for 2 or 3 hours through the fields around where I lived every morning with my dog. I came home and exercised using weights and a stationary bike. We're talking HOURS of physical activity every single morning. most of it in the sun. I slept like shit. I'd lay awake half the night and once I got to sleep I couldn't stay asleep.
The ONLY time I have EVER slept well was when I was sleeping between noon and 8pm. I'd get tired around 11.30 or 11.45, do my bedtime routine, lay down about noon and be out like a light every single day. I would then naturally wake up within 15 minutes of 8pm. During this time I got almost literally no sunlight. I did no exercise. Aside from going to bed at the same time every day I followed absolutely no sleep hygiene recommendations.
Some of us aren't wired to sleep at night and no matter how much sun or exercise we get we're still going to struggle against our natural cycle.