Living with Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

I’ve had sleeping issues for most of my life (I’m 21) but it’s never been an actual PROBLEM until now.

I’ve never been able to fall asleep and wake up at “normal” times but never thought anything of it because I didn’t have any REAL responsibilities until I quit college and had to start supporting myself.

I started my current job over a year ago working full time, 6AM to 4:30pm four days a week, on a production line. I’ve never been able to fall asleep before 2 or 3am so having a work schedule like mine I tried EVERYTHING for over a year to turn it around. To fall asleep by 10pm at the latest and be awake for 5AM at the latest and nothing has worked. No matter how tired I am I CANT fall asleep until it’s almost time for me to start getting ready for work and if I do let myself fall asleep then I CANT wake up. I set four alarms for different times every day and I do not wake up which causes me to be late to work all the time or be too embarrassed to go to work at all because how do you explain to your boss without getting fired that living a “normal schedule” is next to impossible?

It’s to the point now where I’m literally afraid to let myself sleep during the week because I know I won’t be able to wake up on time for work. My boss has been very forgiving but it’s over a year later and I still haven’t been able to change this so it’s only a matter of time before my employer loses all patience with me and I get booted with no hope of finding another job (because there aren’t any), let alone finding a job where I’d make the money I make now.

If anyone has any advice on what I can do to at least make this more tolerable or tips on trying to explain this situation to my boss would be greatly appreciated.