Sleeping, mornings, tiredness and wakefulness

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First off, if I have posted this in the wrong place, my apologies. I couldn't figure out exactly where this should go, but I have a suspicion that this must be at least partially related to Asperger's in some way and guess that this is the best place.

At the moment, I am living a fairly relaxed life. I am on holiday from university (since it is summer here in South Africa) and am busy doing tasks to sort my life out (not that it's a mess, but I understand the value of organisation in my life, and actually could use some help planning, but that's another topic). I am doing this in the name of living efficiently with my time, since I consider each day to be a gift of sorts, and therefore try to make the most possible out of this. It occasionally causes me stress or guilt when I cannot do this, but those two problems are less of an issue when I seriously consider them, than the issue below:

I have never been the world's best sleeper. My mother describes me as having slept six hours a day even as an extremely young child, much to my parents' horror. I just simply had too much to be awake and think about and too much to explore. When I consciously thought about it (perhaps from the age of five or so) the act of sleeping quite honestly bored me, and I would have fights with my parents every night about going to bed earlier. My dad, however, is a well-organised man and throughout my primary school years he always demanded I went to bed before 9pm, and then I would wake up at 6.30am and feel just fine every morning. I certainly didnt WANT to go to school as I absolutely hated every second of school (another whole story) but I certainly wasn't averse to the act of getting out of bed. So from the ages of perhaps six to thirteen, I slept well, even though I would certainly have LIKED to go to bed later than 9pm.

However, about the time I turned fourteen or so, I started rebelling against the bedtime that my parents wanted me to stick to, and I had a very legitimate reason to as well - I began to suffer insomnia, and I would often lie in bed until about 12am or 1am before falling asleep. I gave up any idea of sleeping early, and instead started going to bed at first 11pm (fourteen years old) and 1am (fifteen years old). I was able to regulate the cycle myself. It started getting harder to wake up in the mornings, but even when I pushed through doing it and had the most active of days, simply nothing I did would make me tired until 1am. My parents refused to buy me sleeping pills as they said they were addictive, and I drank one cup of coffee per day in the afternoon. I also sometimes slept in the afternoon but I found this didn't affect what time I would be tired. This got later and later, eventually became 2am.

About the time I turned sixteen, it got even worse. I would get into bed at 2-2.30am and just not feel tired. It was terrible as I actualy could tell that I both wanted to and needed to sleep, but could not fall asleep. This happened at least threee to four times a week. I would fall asleep in class, get yelled at by teachers, come home, sleep 2-3 hours, wake up, groggily do my homework and then not fall asleep until 4am, and would still have to get up at 6.30 if I was to get to school on time.

This continued for four years, well into university. When I was 19 I was diagnosed as an aspie and at 20 with ADHD as well. I told two different psychiatrists about the problem I was now suffering: I had no more issues falling asleep once my depression had been resolved (which I realise I had been suffering from about ages 14-19 and which had likely caused my insomnia) but now I couldn't wake up at all. When I was in the height of insomnia at 19, I was sleeping 2-3 hours a night and 3 hours an afternoon and still in class, I could actually get up in the mornings. I found a trend that if I slept 5 and a half hours or fewer, I would be able to get up okay, but if I pushed it past six hours or so (which happened ocasionally) I would NOT be able to get up and would often go back to sleep and sleep through the alarm, usually pushing eleven to twelve hours. This just simply didnt work for a full-time university student. However, taking first molipaxin and later melatonin to help me sleep made it easier, and by 20 I could say I have no real problem falling asleep, I just make myself tired by being busy and would quite reliably be asleep by 1am. This, however, seemed to exacerbate the problem of getting up. Determined to get my 7-8 hours of recommended sleep, I tried sleeping 1am-9am but eight times out of ten I could just simply not get up. This year I have become more disciplined about forcing myself to wake up and get up (by sleeping just six hours, then I am able to wake up within forty-five minutes of the first alarm going off, instead of going back to sleep). However, I still have the problem of feeling like absolute s**t for the first hour of getting up. No matter how much I sleep, too much or too little, I ALWAYS feel s**t in the mornings. This wastes a good hour of every morning, because I am too dysfunctional to string two words together. I had to let my girlfriend out of the house just after being woken up about two days ago in a state like this (at 10am) and I ended up letting my dog escape (luckily I caught her) but I know full well that I would never have let this happen if I were properly awake. My parents yell at me for taking 30-minute showers, but the truth is that water makes me feel great and as I am in this state I have no idea how to perceive time.

The two psychiatrists that i mentioned earlier both had suggestions to fix this: Both said become more disciplined about sleep (yeah right) and both suggested a drug. The first one, Wellbutrin, and the second one, Concerta. Both helped a little bit, bringing my dysfunctional period down from an hour to about 40 minutes, even if I took them right after getting up (which I would almost always f**k up because I would forget, as I said, I feel completely overwhelmed by tiredness and cannot remember anything much in this period). However, both had a few side effects and also, I try not to rely on drugs.

Pretty much the ONLY drug that makes me feel better in the mornings is pot. And I am afraid to use that every morning for that purpose for fear of becoming overly dependent (which I already might be).

Sorry about the extremely long rant, I just figured I'd provide some context. My question is this: Does anyone have a solution, first to the problem of getting the right amount of sleep causing me not to be able to wake up, and secondly, the one hour of downtime that makes me really hate my life after getting up?

About the first sh***y hour, my solution is to use several alarm clocks and a thermos with strong coffee. After the first alarm i manage to sit up so far that i can pour the coffee and sip some of it with a straw, about half a cup. Then i lay down again, turn on the radio and bedside lamp and doze until the next alarm would set on one hour later. At that point i am able to get up and across the room to turn it off. Meanwhile the caffeine has done its job and i feel gradually better.

For me, the problem is partially caused by low blood pressure. The longer i sleep, the more it drops, and as a result it's getting harder to wake up.

However, an alarm clock i can turn off from the bed without the need to get up would never work for me.

Worst time was when i worked rotation shift. More than once i found myself sleeping on the floor because i had hidden my alarm clock under the bed in an attempt to force myself to getting up.

If caffeine works for you, give it a try. The next hour is still a problem, but not half as bad as without the coffee.

Interesting...do you know what causes your low blood pressure? Mine is chronically low. I never thought of that affecting my ability to get up in the mornings.

As a little girl I slept normally, but when I was 8-9 I suddenly developed sleeping problems. I showed up to school with dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep-- my teachers were very worried about me, but I hardly remember any of it as the problems went away fast. Then came high school; I slept too little during the week but usually didn't have too much trouble getting up, I'd catch up on sleep on weekends. But having started university at 17 this september suddenly changed my need for sleep. From being able to go the whole day (and feeling good) with 5 or 6 hours of sleep I suddenly find myself unable to function with less than 7 hours of sleep. I have no idea how this happened, maybe it's the stress? Anyway, I sleep through alarms, something that never happened to me in high school, or the alarm does wake me up but I just CANNOT get up for the life of me. I'll just lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling apathetically until I drift off to sleep again, inevitably being late for class or missing it altogether.
I'm definitely a night owl and can stay up past 2 no problem-- my energy usually gets a boost between 11 at night and 1 in the morning, which is when I do a lot of my homework.

The only thing that really works for me is daylight. I need at least half and hour-45 minutes of daylight before I'm fully functional and on weekends/holidays I like to be woken up by daylight by leaving my curtains open.

I'm guessing the words ''is this an Aspie thing?'' is written somewhere here, and the answer is no because it is common in a lot of people - try googling it and find out how common it is in any people, although it can especially affect those with ADHD and Autism I suppose, but it's not a unique trait, so I don't entirely blame it on being an Aspie.

I sleep pretty well, but I'm confused about something. How come it's so easy to get into the rut of feeling sleepy in the day and falling asleep all afternoon and being wakeful at night, but it's not so easy to just keep to 6-9 hours a night and be nice and alert all day? Is it a psychological thing? Is it boredom? But then you get bored lying awake all night, so I would have thought you'd drop off easily at night too, since it's all dark and nothing to see or do unless you turn the light on and start doing something in the depths of the night, which then doesn't feel right.....

Disposition. I've always had it. GP figured it out at age 9 or so. I've tried medis but find i get along with coffee and cold showers. Walking and cycling is helpful, too.

Thanks for the responses so far. I had a talk with a friend today, who had an interesting suggestion: Perhaps my sleep stages (i.e. 1 through 5) are dysfunctional, and that below six hours I am in an easier-to-wake sleep stage for some reason, an opportunity that only comes again after about ten hours have passed?

I don't really know what this condition is called. If I had to name it I might call it 'wakelessness' - being consciously awake and out of bed, but not 'fully awake'? It feels partially dreamlike, except in a rather horrible way.

Coffee does help, but it only starts to work around the 40 minute mark after actually taking it... Maybe the idea of having it in a thermos is a good one, I should try that.