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You Are Describing My 13 Year Old Son!!

by V.E. Stillman
(Central PA)

Jack was diagnosed at Penn with early childhood onset OCD. He's obsessed with fear of being pierced by sharp objects and hoards to prevent it. My reading suggested that the OCD was behind his failure to sleep at night, but I read this blog and the author described DSPS, so I looked it up.


Since he was 3 Jack's normal body clock puts him to sleep about 10 am and wakes him up at 6 or 7 pm. All summer long we call him "the vampire" because he comes out only at night!!

For years I've said that Jack will have to work for himself or work at night. Of course, since they don't have 3rd shift Junior High, you can imagine the problems we're having. Bedtime is ten, but he says he "can't sleep" and waits for everyone else to fall asleep and gets up. I've been considering cutting off TV and internet to the whole house because I thought it was the subsequent distractions that were keeping him up. At least now I have something to try. Heading now to Amazon!!

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Welcome! This site is continuously being created by students of Dr. William C. Dement's Sleep And Dreams course at Stanford University.

We made this site as a call to action for people all over the world to live healthier, happier, safer, and more productive lives by learning about their own sleep. We have faith that reading the information provided on this site will motivate you to be smart about your sleep deprivation and strategic about your alertness in order to live life to your fullest, most energetic potential.

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