Addicted to sleeping in

I know it sounds funny - gee, aren't we all addicted to sleeping in? - but I'm actually really serious.  I'm not addicted in the sense that I love it like some people say when talking about chocolate or whatever.  But in the sense that I have a problem.

Ever since I was a teen I've had a very hard time getting myself out of bed in the morning (my younger brother is the same).  I talked to my doctor about it, and of course he tries to jump to the obvious solutions (he's only got 5 minutes to diagnose me, after all) - it's the caffeine I'm drinking.  I'm going to bed too late, etc.  Tell you what, doc, I've had this problem for 2 decades, during which time I have gone years without caffeine (heck - I didn't even start drinking coffee until last year!), months with early bed-times, etc.  I can tell you that's not the source of the problem, and it's not the solution either. 


Let me describe it to you.  The alarm clock goes off.  I hit snooze.  Repeat for 2 or 3 hours.  If I get out of bed I may feel OK for a couple of minutes.  But then I get a woozy feeling and have to lie down.  Crawling back into bed at that point is somehow the most comfortable experience I can think of.  The bed, the dreams that easily spring up as consciousness slips away easily and the warm fuzzy feeling I get are really like a drug (I'm guessing, having never actually tried any illicit drugs myself).  If I force myself to try and stay out of bed in the morning, I'm distracted and sleepy, imagining that fix of climbing into bed.

For years I managed it - barely - often coming to school or work a little late, but not too bad.  I had to drop some university classes that started at 8:30 because I could never make it on time.  I would often spend mornings at work in a kind of stupor, unable to fully wake up until mid-afternoon.  Now that I work from home and my hours are flexible, it's even harder to drag myself out of bed.

This addiction is not physically or mentally harmful.  It's just disruptive because it puts me out of sync with the rest of the world and with my work. 
I've tried a lot of different things - multiple alarm clocks across the room, subliminal recordings, sun-light, caffeine, melatonin, etc.  Nothing works.

The only time that I was able to spontaneously wake early when when we spent an entire summer camping and had no electricity.  I ended up going to sleep at 9 shortly after it got dark an waking at 5 or 6 with the dawn.  That's not exactly a good permanent solution.  Especially since at this latitude in Winter I'd be going to bed at 5 PM when i gets dark and waking at 9 AM!

I'm being tested for sleep apnea.  That may be a contributing factor.  But I think I actually have what's called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.  It's one of those disorders that most doctors aren't aware of, so it's rarely diagnosed.  Basically, you have a sleep pattern that's delayed, but otherwise normal.  No cure.  Therapies involve strict sleep hygiene etc.  I'm just not the kind of guy that's able to maintain a strict schedule, so I'm pretty much screwed.  Guess I'll have to learn to live with it.