The DSPS section is a spot-on characterization of my sleeping patterns:<p>&quot;&quot;<p>People who suffer from DSPS often resort to their own implausible solutions that include:<p>-(poorly managed) free running sleep with an inevitable phase delays that ultimately result in sleeping through the day
-skipping a night of sleep at a point when the bedtime reaches an outrageously late hour (i.e. usually after the dawn)
-stabilization of the sleep pattern with medication (incl. melatonin) and artificial zeitgebers such as an alarm clock or a mom who pulls a sleepy student out from his or her bed for school&quot;<p>Emergency: Melatonin: If your &quot;protected zone&quot; is stretched to the limit. You may consider an occasional pill of melatonin (e.g. 2 hours before your optimum bedtime). Remember that melatonin will affect your creativity and alertness, and should not be used on a regular basis.<p>&quot;&quot;<p>I read this as I was preparing to sleep at 10 AM by taking a melatonin pill... I&#x27;ll give his basic algorithm for fixing DSPS a shot over the holidays.<p>However, I don&#x27;t think his characterization of melatonin is warranted. I take melatonin around 15 minutes before I sleep, similar to what gwern does in his article (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gwern.net&#x2F;Melatonin" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gwern.net&#x2F;Melatonin</a>). This article suggests taking it 2 hours beforehand. It&#x27;s been working fine for me for a year now, but it&#x27;s interesting to see that in the natural melatonin production graph further down in the article, it peaks several hours before sleep.