Older Seniors Sleep Problems

Discussion in 'Health & Wellness' started by Craig Wilson, Sep 24, 2019.

  1. Craig Wilson

    Craig Wilson Veteran Member
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    I feel I have already opened a thead on this subject. Anyway I have suffered this curse for much of my life. I am suffering it now.. it is just after 6am in Sydney and I have been awake since 5.10. I have suffered from sleep deprivation for a long as I can remember. It was not uncommon for me to be still awake at daybreak. Now in my senior years it strikes me in the early hours. Who else is cursed by insomnia?
     
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    Last edited: Sep 24, 2019
  2. Lulu Moppet

    Lulu Moppet Veteran Member
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    I fall asleep very easily and stay that way for 2-3 hours, then I'm up. Won't let myself get out of bed till at least 6am, but am awake for several hours prior. This started pretty recently, almost a year. Luckily, my 2 cats sense me awake and jump on the bed to comfort me and have themselves scratched & petted. I'm grateful for them.
     
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  3. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
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    I thank my lucky stars I am not plagued with this scourge....At 81 I went thru some sleep changes after menopause and worked long and hard with a sleep combo to get the sleep my body needs. I got it pretty worked out and then enters the HGH homeopathic gel I'm using now into 8 months and my sleep is even deeper and longer. I force myself to stay up until close to 11:30PM with my aids and get probably a DEEP 10 hrs until 8AM or so the next day. HGH is essentially reversing damage and aging we go thru in life.

    What sleep deprivation does:

    https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/...ur-hormones-your-immune-system-and-your-brain

    I would be happy to post what I start taking about 9:30PM each night and MAYBE some of you could try all or some of what I do. Maybe not. Insomnia baffles me. Sleep is so vital.
     
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  4. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
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    Once you wake up, this is where tryptophan and B6 comes into play, before I found this cure, I could lay awake for a couple hrs after a bathroom run. I take the 2 about 30 minutes before I hit the pillow. Which for me is about 10:45PM or so.
     
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  5. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
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    What you TRIED all your life to get Sleep?
     
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  6. Bess Barber

    Bess Barber Veteran Member
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    I think once it's determined a person has a chronic sleeping problem, they should probably speak to their doctor. There can be medical, psychological or even dietary reasons for not sleeping well. Even though people want to avoid getting into a sleeping pill habit, sometimes you have to or the lack of restful sleep can really have a big effect on your health.
     
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  7. Craig Wilson

    Craig Wilson Veteran Member
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    Willpower to be brutally honest for many years. That worked sporadically. I was not aware of any sleep aids such as are on the market today. When I was about 45 I had a sleep disorder test and was told I had sleep apnea caused, for those not in the know, by a blockage of the airway by enlarged throat muscle tissue. I was told to use a Resmed breathing device which I hated as it was so uncomfortable and the noise actually disturbed my sleep further. Then the doc told me the solution was a UPPP, which put simply is laser throat surgery to relieve the obstruction. I was in agony for four days after the op. But it did the trick cutting the severity of my apnea from acute to mild. Insomnia is now an occasional curse these days. When it becomes too much I take the lab drug Alepam/ Temazepam. When not so bad I take valerian or melatonin herbal supplements. @Joy Martin what is Tryptophan?
     
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  8. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
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    The other group I'm a member of has SO MANY members struggling with insomnia issues and they've all been the doctor route and some have tried the pharma drug sleep pills and has gotten off them due to side effects. It's almost like something is missing in one's body that they can't get that sleep. Doctors spend just so much time and then slap the drugs to patients.

    Maybe a naturopath MD could know more about this syndome. Or get with a qualified homeopathic doctor.

    Just thought of this one:

    https://www.lybrate.com/topic/top-1...ep-disorders/130320de4de98f03d6360be71fcb6b28
     
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  9. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
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    Tryptophan

    https://www.sleep.org/articles/what-is-tryptophan/

    It's said the reason so many are tired after turkey dinner is due to the high turkey consumption and could be due to consuming like 18K calories from start to finish or both...

    I buy 500mg capsules of Tryptophan and I believe one can buy powder form and mix in water and take little or more as needed if and when a person find the "sweet spot"...
     
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  10. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
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    So many are so against alternative supplements that do HELP and a member on another group said, she gets up at night and makes a turkey sandwich and gets back to sleep. Forget that, I have no interest in making and eating foods middle of night, so the Tryptophan capsule FOR ME before hitting the pillow is my "turkey".
     
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  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Given that I almost never need to be up at any particular time the following day, insomnia would be pretty hard for me to diagnose. Usually, I can go to bed at midnight and fall asleep with no problem at all. More often, I stay up until sometimes between 1 and 3 am, but if I am working on something that I want to finish, I might stay up longer. I like to get to bed before the sun comes up but I can get to sleep in the daytime if I need to. If I find that I am lying in bed for an hour or so and can't get to sleep, I get up and do something productive until I'm tired enough to sleep. I don't consider any of that to be a problem. I can recall times, in my past, when I had jobs that began early in the morning, feeling desperate because I couldn't get to sleep at night, knowing I'd be very tired at work, but that had more to do with my having a job that required me to get up at an unreasonable hour than a medical problem.

    Mostly, though, I can get up whatever time I need to without an alarm clock. I absolutely hate alarm clocks. This has led to one of our more frequent quarrels since I've been married. The sound of an alarm annoys me and starts the day off all wrong. Yet my wife sets alarms off for everything. One of the reasons my office is on another floor of the house is that she has alarms going off all day, for one thing, or another, and it really puts me on edge.

    If she has something she has to do in the morning, she doesn't trust me to get her up, although I've never failed. Worse, she will set the alarm and then hit snooze so that it's going off every five minutes for a half-hour. I'm thinking that if she didn't need to get up until a half-hour after the time that she set the alarm for, why wouldn't she just set the alarm for the time she actually needed to get up, and then get up? It makes no sense to me.
     
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  12. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
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    It's all OK that way you choose to sleep, but as a general rule of it all, we get our best replenishment of our hormones when it's dark -- humans, animals we all head for sleep when it is dark. Unless, one has to work 3rd shift and that's a whole adjustment world.
     
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  13. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Buy her an Apple Watch, Ken ! They vibrate on your wrist and would wake her up or remind her of whatever she needed the alarm for in the daytime.
    Bobby sets an alarm on his watch when he makes a cup of coffee, so he doesn’t forget to go and get it and it gets cold.
    I have my phone “ringer” turned off, because when I get a call, the Apple Watch vibrates on my wrist, and my phone can just stay put away unless I need it for something, because the watch replaces it for most everything.
    And NO noise !

    I have personally found that it makes a difference about eating before bedtime. When i used to eat a late supper, it seemed to keep me awake. I don’t like going to bed really hungry either, because then my growling tummy keeps me awake, but a light meal in late afternoon seems to be perfect.
    I also take melatonin before bed, because (among its other anti-aging properties) it can help a person to sleep, you. Just have to find the amount that works for you, because different people do better with different amounts, probably has something to do with how much light we have before bedtime , or if a person is watching television.
     
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  14. Craig Wilson

    Craig Wilson Veteran Member
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    Is it prescription or over the counter@Joy Martin
     
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  15. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I prefer to get my Tryptophan over the meat counter.
     
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