Your circadian rhythm is your "internal clock," which tells you when it's time to sleep or be awake. If your circadian rhythm is out of sync with your environment, it might impact your daily life and cause daytime tiredness, anxiety, insomnia, and problems with memory.
The types of circadian rhythm disorders are:
- Advanced sleep-wake phase disorder, when you fall asleep in the early evening
- Delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, when you fall asleep very late at night
- Irregular sleep-wake rhythm disorder, where you have several short periods of sleep and being awake
- Non-24-hour sleep-wake rhythm disorder, where your circadian rhythm is not aligned to the 24-hour day
If you have one of these disorders, your doctor will likely recommend a combination of healthy lifestyle changes and good sleep habits, light therapy, and medications such as melatonin.