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| me and Gigi napping (years ago) You'll have to excuse the 'old' pic, but I don't have any recent ones of me sleeping. This was taken years ago when Gigi and I would nap together on the sofa. Anyway, last night I was thinking about how many of my family and friends have trouble sleeping. I wonder if this is just an age-related problem or does it have to do with the stress of the times or has it always been this way? I actually sleep fairly well myself. Go to bed around 10 pm, read for an hour or so, and then sleep until around 7 or 7:30 in the morning (with 2-3 bathroom breaks during the night of course). DH pretty much does the same (except that he doesn't read - just falls asleep pretty quickly). He gets up around 7:30 am 2 days to get the garbage out before the garbage man comes at 8 (comes at 8 'sometimes' - but if you don't get it out, he's sure to come early - so we call it his 'beat the garbage man mornings'). I usually stay in bed dozing or thinking about things until 8. Then up for coffee/tea... (or sometimes DH brings me coffee/tea in bed!) I also have an Amazfit Band 7 watch that is connected to my phone that keeps tract of sleep. It tells me how long I slept, times I was awake, how much was deep sleep, my heart rate during sleep, and hypopnea times/hour. Then it tells me my steps during the night and gives me a score. I usually score in the 80's and 90's - a few in the 70's occasionally. And of course there are some nights (not many, but some - I call these my 'dark nights of the soul') when my mind is too busy to shut down and I wake up in the wee hours. Generally I make myself a cup of tea and either play with my Animal Crossing game or write lists of things to do the next day. Then return to bed and usually sleep until 8. Two of my friends have trouble sleeping. Both are my age or close. One has had trouble for years and years. She hardly ever slept. Don't know how she did it. But now her doctor has found something that works for her... thank goodness, she now can sleep. The other has pain problems as well as restless leg syndrome. She is up and down a lot during the night. Younger people I know have trouble also. One only sleeps maybe 4 hours a night and has to have a couple of beers before bedtime. Another goes to sleep quickly, but wakes up within a few hours and can't go back. Both of these people have a lot of stress in their lives, jobwise or personal. That leads me to believe that STRESS is one of the main causes of trouble sleeping - maybe for everyone. What do you think? Do you sleep well at night? I've always believed that good sleep was very important as that is the time our body rests and recoups, does repairs, and boosts our immune system.  Also, do you dream? I used to dream long lucid dreams that I remembered in the morning and enjoyed. Nowadays I hardly remember what I dreamt... and when I do, they're short, confusing, often confrontational... things I would never do or say when awake. Just curious, but do you have trouble sleeping? And do you dream? If so, do you remember your dream? Just sharing my thoughts here. Would love to know yours... Hugs (virtual), Rian (question: is this type size too small? This is medium. But I've been using large lately and looking back, it may be too big?) |
This blog is meant to be a documentation of our journey into the world of retirement. I know the title should be "Older, but wiser". However, I really didn't know if that would be accurate. The "Older, but better...?" title could also be misleading. The 5 cats in the above pics are: Molly, Rose, Tux, Julie, and Ghost. (I have tried to make this collage smaller, but with no luck...)
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Old age and sleeping/dreaming...
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My sleep is patchy. I go to sleep reasonably easily but wake often. If it gets really bad I get up and play patience.
ReplyDeleteI dream in conversations, rarely images. And sometimes have difficulty in remembering which are real.
Dreaming in conversations, that's interesting. My dreams are both words and images...
DeleteI'm lucky as I rarely have sleepless nights. Like you, I'm up a couple of times a night to use the facilities, but am able to fall back asleep within minutes when I get back into bed. On a rare occasion, I'll have one of "those" nights when the brain just doesn't shut up! What works for me is taking an Advil or Tylenol (not a sleep aid), as these help me relax enough to go to sleep.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, my daughter struggles to sleep. She is often in bed early, between 7-8 p.m. and easily falls asleep (if no one disturbs her) for two or three hours. Then she is up, often until 4 a.m. before she can finally get another hour or two of sleep. Since her son is in grade school, she'll often nap after dropping him off at school, and waking in time to pick him up at noon. During the summer, I would keep an eye on him so she could nap.
Now stress may be part of it, but I blame her constant use of her devices for the intermittent sleep. She falls asleep to a video playing on her tablet and when she wakes a couple of hours later, she spends her time scrolling through her phone, watching videos and commenting on various posts. I've made that mistake a few times too and I know how much time passes without one truly noticing. But I've not been able to convince her to put them away - leave them in a charger across the room.
Mae, Tylenol will put me to sleep also, but rarely use it unless I have a headache... which I can wake up with during the night or in the early morning. And I do think that watching too much TV or using iPads and phones (gaming) if exciting may get brains too active to relax. But... I find my game (Animal Crossing) which isn't survival or action-packed to be relaxing. Love to walk on the beach in the early morning or evening in the game.
DeleteI can't blame my sleep on anything but my bad habits. I stay up way too late at night watching talk shows. And I have to get up way too early to fix breakfast for dropped off grandchildren and put them on buses. About once every two weeks I fall asleep in my chair in the morning and sleep straight through for about 4 hours.
ReplyDeleteI kind of like the large size print. But I have bad eyes in addition to bad sleep habits.
Miss Merry, you should sleep well with all that you do. And thank you for the comment on the large print. I will go back to that. In fact, it's easier now with this one eye of mine.
DeleteRian this was such a nice read and I very much like that photo of yourself at the top--you looked so peaceful! Anyway, good topic. I hate to say this, but when I'm depressed (like now, because of this plantar fascistis) I sleep like a log, 7-7 1/2 hours with 2 bathroom trips. Normally I sleep 6 hours, then take a nap in the afternoon. I do prefer the sleeping longer at night. Anyway, I hope your eye is continuing to heal. PS I seem to dream a lot, but they're almost always nice ones :^)
ReplyDeleteI like that photo too, Dug. Gigi was such a little sweetheart. But I think when we're feeling down... we'd just as soon sleep it away. I'd like to sleep the next few weeks away... and this whole eye thing will be over (maybe). I'm sure you feel the same with that plantar fasciitis. I will say that some of my dreams are recurring... and occasionally I get 'visits' from family members that are no longer here. I do love those.
DeleteI feel almost guilty that I usually get eight hours of sleep every night. I take melatonin to help, and I also use a tincture sleep aid, with THC in it. I don't drink any alcohol or eat close to bedtime, because that will always keep me up. I also love that picture.
ReplyDeleteDJan, so glad to hear that you sleep well. I always have either a cup of English or Irish Breakfast tea (with cream, no sugar) or a glass of Ovaltine before bed, then read for a while. Reading a sample now of Dan Brown's "Secret of Secrets".
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