Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Syndrome
As you have probably read on my about me page, I have Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Syndrome, which is a rare sleep disorder that affects fewer than 1 in 2000 people and cannot be cured. I decided to make a small page about this syndrome since hardly any people know what I'm talking about when I say I have Non-24. Basically in people with this disorder, the body essentially insists that the day is longer than 24 hours and refuses to adjust to the external light/dark cycle. Non-24 causes a person's sleep-wake cycle to change every day, the degree determined by how much over 24 hours the cycle lasts. The cycle may go around the clock, eventually returning to “normal” for one or two days before going “off” again. This makes it impossible to sleep at normal times. Most, if not all, people with Non-24 are partially or totally unable to function in scheduled social activities on a daily basis, and most are unable to work at conventional jobs. To sum it all up Non-24 has basically taken over most of my (social) life and stops me from planning anything in advance, which sucks big time, but I suppose there are worse things out there in the world.