Have you ever found yourself unnaturally productive at an ungodly hour in the middle of night? Suddenly you have the energy to refocus your life, clean your entire room, write an entire song, plan a trip, write a manuscript-you get the idea. Well, as latest research suggest there just might be reasons for that! Being neurodivergent comes with its perks afterall. If you are neurodivergent or have ADHD, you may be interested in what these recent studies have to say!
As latest research points out, your extreme late night focus may be due to delayed sleep phase syndrome New research suggests that problems in sleep could be due to delayed sleep phase syndrome - which refers to a circadian rhythm imbalance which leads to later bedtimes and longer wake-up times. So instead of having a typical circadian rhythm with typical sleeping hours from 11pm to 7am people have an irregular pattern of 2 a.m. to about 10 a.m. This could also be the reason why after the sun goes down, ADHD people feel especially energetic and think more clearly. Ultimately, all of this potentially spells trouble for someone with ADHD as over time, lack of sleep can exacerbate ADHD symptoms by leaving little time or energy for errands or socialising the next day or hurting daytime productivity
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18803919/
That certainly does make a lot of sense, we may not realise it at the time but the lack of sleep does add up and only gets worse over time. There aren't any known causes for DSPS however, there are a few associated conditions it may come with. Among the listed associated factors for delayed sleep phase syndrome psychological are neurological disorders like depression, anxiety, ADHD and OCD along with insomia, genetics and even changes that may come with puberty. So it is highly possible that if you have DSPS it may not be something that was caused by your intentional behaviors.
Some consequences for people with ADHD could include;
Vigilance auto-stabilisation behaviour explains the hyperactivity behaviour in ADHD. here, the person compensates for their fatigue, sleepiness with hyperactive behaviour (keeping themselves awake by moving/talking). This auto stabilisation behaviour is an adaptive strategy we all use (keeping yourself awake while driving when feeling drowsy) but it's used in a maladaptive manner in ADHD. https://brainclinics.com/the-relationship-between-sleep-and-adhd/
What can we do about it?
Again, delayed sleep phase syndrome isn't something that may be happening to you intentionally, but there are things you can do to help improve your everyday life and even sleeping habits to an extent. Apart from the obvious like maintaining healthy sleep habits, light therapy, chronotherapy, the person needs to acknowledge that nights are their most productive time of day and utilise it to plan and/or complete tasks that aren't due in the immediate future but those that you'd like to complete within the next few days. If you are going to be awake? Why not take up this time to do something productive or meaningful? Also, finding jobs and professions which allows flexibility could help you immensely as well. If you are the type who is productive during night work having a job that let's you do that could work in your benefit!
Another important thing to you can try is avoiding revenge bedtime procrastination i.e.suspending the bedtimes in order to experience all of the things they didn't get to enjoy during the day which could happen due to perfectionism, and the intention-behaviour gap, which is the "failure to translate intentions into action."
For better or for worse, as studies suggest DSPS is something that affects a lot of neurodivergent people and individuals with anxiety, depression, etc. Along with managing it's symptoms, using it to their advanatge may also be really helpful for the people who have it.
