Phase shift disorder occurs when your sleep/wake cycle is out of step with most of the people  around you. They may go to bed at a normal time like 11pm and get up at 7am and you go to bed at 3am and get up at noon.  You miss meeting, meals with the family, find it difficult to find a job that conforms to your hours and you miss morning cartoons.

Sometimes there is a physical reason like it’s just the way you are wired. You don’t feel tired until the early hours and are a zombie if you have to get up at 6am. So forget being an accountant and look into stand up comedy, or another occupation that lets you work your own hours. I always wanted to be a stand up comic but I’m a closet extrovert and I’m in bed before 9pm. Now if comedy clubs would run matinees, then I might give it a try.

Sometimes the reason is psychological. You’re right and the rest of the world is wrong. Stupid world.

A lot of the times a phase shift disorder is caused by lifestyle choices.  You just got into the habit of staying up later and later until you shifted your sleep/wake schedule out of sync with those around you.

I knew a guy who used to get up at 4pm then smoke pot and drink beer for 16 hours then go to bed at 8am. He claimed he couldn’t function during the day. His problem was solved when he knocked up his girlfriend then had to get a J-O-B. Funny how that worked.

You don’t have to make a baby or chew gravel to solve a phase shift disorder. Try to adjust the time you go to bed by ½ hour earlier and get up ½ hour earlier. Keep this schedule to a few days then move it back another ½ hour. Gradually you can get your body back on a more conformal sleep/wake schedule.

You can also try using light therapy, that is, a light box to help reset your internal clock. The full spectrum lights can help signal your brain that it is day time and that it is time to wake up.