Hypothalamus regulates your circadian rhythm
there are nerves going from the eyes to the occipital lobe and also to the hypothalamus
the former gives you vision
the latter calibrates the circadian rhythm
as long as enough light makes it into the eye to fire pulses at the hypothalamus you won't get non-24
the problem is the hypothalamus may not be functioning correctly, or the path to the hypothalamus may be broken or not exist
@awg @Pasty @Elizafox from another person with non-24: hoo boy trying to go through college was immensely fun when I could not fall asleep until 5~6am and couldn't wake up for my classes
and to make things better, sleeping aids don't work for me at all; I had some ambien and it made me incredibly jittery and made it *more difficult* to sleep
there's a reason I dropped off the map there