Had very similar experience myself, even had trouble sleeping as a kid still remember just laying there for hours and hours trying to sleep. Same as you describe, my brains very active in the night and I get great creative output in the early hours. Caused a lot of problems, almost got me fired on occasion and at times I have to do things that seem ridiculous just to fit into others schedules, if there is an important meeting, train or flight I have to catch 8 or 9 am I often just stay up all night just to make sure I get to it then sneak a nap in the afternoon or as soon as I get home. Went through a few weeks of all nighters after a warning at work about turning up late, my output was pretty shocking that week but hey at least I got in on time for the watch checker PM to be happy, that's all that matters right...

Just seemed absolutely effortless for everyone else to be sleep at a sensible time and turn up to work on time and here I am setting 30 (Not exaggerating) full volume alarms on my iPhone and a backup physical alarm elsewhere in the room and still sleeping through it all on occasion.

Really just thought I wasn't trying hard enough or maybe I should just get better at forcing myself to sleep until I came across Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder [1][2] which seems to describe it.

Honestly my only real solution has been finding a job where they're not fussed if you show up between 15-45 minutes late almost every day and my job starts at 10. Think if I were in a normal company it would really just be starting an egg timer until I happen to show up late too many times in a row to raise a red flag.

Advice intended to help normal people wont work if the system you're trying to affect isn't actually normal. That's the most frustrating part of all this and why people just think you're not trying hard enough or you're just a bit of a screw up who hasn't got their stuff together.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_disorder [2] https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/2/27/17058530/sl...