I wouldn’t exactly call it a median. It trends forward every day, eventually wraps around, but it doesn’t spend much time at all around 2-8 AM, due to sunlight keeping me awake when I’d otherwise go to sleep in late morning or afternoon.
It trends forward every day, eventually wraps around
This sounds a lot like Non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome. The defining symptom for Non-24 is (from Wikipedia) “a chronic steady pattern comprising one- to two-hour daily delays in sleep onset and wake times in an individual living in society”. Your delays seem to be longer than 1-2 hours, but it may be a similar problem. I don’t know how much you’ve looked into this, given the impressive extent of your other searches, but it may be something to look into.
Have you tried light therapy? Wikipedia (and this study) recommend it, perhaps in combination with melatonin, as the most effective treatment of Non-24.
Not sure how valid this is, but it might be worth looking into, if you haven’t already.
For a while I thought I had delayed sleep phase syndrome (which is more easily treated with light therapy), and that it’s just so severe that the morning sunlight late in my day tends to make it go crazy. It’s not quite regular enough for non-24. Or it could be completely irregular.
In any case, light therapy doesn’t seems to help at all. I tried it for about a month or two with this and saw no effects. Also, it’s a /huge/ inconvenience.
By this, do you mean that the time you wake up varies over a full range of 16 hours around its median?
I wouldn’t exactly call it a median. It trends forward every day, eventually wraps around, but it doesn’t spend much time at all around 2-8 AM, due to sunlight keeping me awake when I’d otherwise go to sleep in late morning or afternoon.
You’re Harry Potter!
On a more serious note, how would you deal with a constantly forward-moving wake time even if you could predict it?
This sounds a lot like Non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome. The defining symptom for Non-24 is (from Wikipedia) “a chronic steady pattern comprising one- to two-hour daily delays in sleep onset and wake times in an individual living in society”. Your delays seem to be longer than 1-2 hours, but it may be a similar problem. I don’t know how much you’ve looked into this, given the impressive extent of your other searches, but it may be something to look into.
Have you tried light therapy? Wikipedia (and this study) recommend it, perhaps in combination with melatonin, as the most effective treatment of Non-24.
Not sure how valid this is, but it might be worth looking into, if you haven’t already.
For a while I thought I had delayed sleep phase syndrome (which is more easily treated with light therapy), and that it’s just so severe that the morning sunlight late in my day tends to make it go crazy. It’s not quite regular enough for non-24. Or it could be completely irregular.
In any case, light therapy doesn’t seems to help at all. I tried it for about a month or two with this and saw no effects. Also, it’s a /huge/ inconvenience.