Does anyone have a hard to getting and staying to sleep? I know what is said about our age group and drinking water to late in the evening. IOW, waking and visiting the bathroom a few times during the night. I also know that stress can contribute to sleeplessness. Don't know what it is, but lately, my wife, more than myself, has been having a hard time getting and staying asleep. Even if I have a hard time sleeping at night, come 7AM or so, I'm up..........period! Former farmer, Navy and having jobs where I started at 7AM, don't allow me to sleep after that. Since my wife has been out of work, she does sleep in, unlike she did when she was employed and got up at 6:45AM and was at work at 8:30AM. It's not the noise so much anymore, since we talked to both our neighbor who's kitchen/laundry is next to our bedroom and our complex manager. However, last night, a young guy had his truck running and we could hear it in our bedroom that is by the parking lot. I took my high-beam flashlight out to our garage, next to where he was parked, opened our garage door and then pointed the flashlight at his open truck door and told him that we could hear his truck running in our bedroom. He said "sorry" and turned off the engine. By that time, we were both back awake again and couldn't get to sleep. Not a good night of sleep at all. Due to lack of sleep, couldn't take our boat out on the water (again). Anyone have a "sleeplessness" problem and how do you handle it?
You're not alone if that comforts you. I've always had a good night's sleep when I was healthy. Since I've been sick I can't sleep through the night without my pills. And even when I take them I usually have to go to the bathroom once but that's also because I keep drinking water the whole evening. As a retiree I can balance that out by having a nap after lunch. I'm glad that that's possible. Cody, you seem to be or have become a lark whereas your wife seems to be the typical owl chronobiologically that is. I tend to be a lark as well but partially blame it on the merciless work routine of having to get up early for decades. So there are many different reasons why people can't sleep at night like they used to. Knowing the reasons for this is helpful.
Thomas--I'm sorry to hear that you've been ill; I hope all is well with you. I'll have to be the nay-sayer about being conditioned to wake early; I had to be up early all my life getting children off to school and going to work myself for nearly 30 years. As soon as I retired I reverted to my natural sleep cycle (which as many of you know is being awake until the wee hours. ) @Cody Fousnaugh -- I think most older people have some sort of sleep disorder. I have a heck of a time going to sleep but once I finally drift off I'm out I'm down for the count. I envy my husband's ability to lie down and be out like a light in 5 minutes.
@Thomas Stearn , I hope your illness is something you can get over rather quickly. I'm hoping you are well soon. @Cody Fousnaugh, like others have said, not sleeping well can have many causes. Hope you both solve your sleep problems and you can get a good night's rest, night after night. As for myself, I sleep like a log, as the saying goes.
Well, we have to decided to take the leap into a couple of drops of Full Spectrum CBD Oil we have. I research this oil online and found out that it really works for sleep. Take about an hour before bedtime and only two drops in a spoon or on the tongue. Will let the forum know how, or if, it works.
@Cody Fousnaugh ..yes every single older person I know has all the same issues. I have no problem going too sleep....but up all hours in the bathroom...but drift back off each time...until about 2-3 am. If I go to recliner to sleep..no bathroom issues and often will sleep 3-4 hours straight. Why I do not know. Medicines for me ...I think are part of the problem. Plus by the time I get myself all scheduled well sleep wise..the time changes and messes me all up again
I drink coffee from the time I get up in the morning until the time I'm ready to go to bed. I also drink a lot of water...I always have. There are a handful of times I'm making 2-4 bathroom trips in the night, but for the most part I wake up about an hour after falling asleep to make one trip, and then I'm good until morning. If I pass on my 2-3 hour afternoon "naps," I can fall asleep immediately and sleep through the night. I've thought of moving to a more urban area for access to restaurants and other activities, but I've adapted to the isolation. If I moved any closer to human activity, I'd have to sleep with ear plugs in and an eye mask on every night. Traveling back to the DC area for work and staying overnight was pure torture after I relocated to the country. I screwed up my sleep habits for 20 years or so before retiring...get up at 4:30 AM, putz around until going to work at 6AM, go to bed immediately after getting home, waking up at 10PM or 11PM (a good 5-7 hours of sleep), going out for dinner (sometimes at IHOP or other all night place at 1AM for my evening meal), back home to bed for a couple of hours, get up at 4:30AM and start all over again. As it is now, with no access to those all night places and cooking at home, I still rarely eat before 10PM or get to bed before 1:30AM or so. Sometimes I'm up at 8AM, other times as late as 9:30AM. Oddly, I only sleep in on Wednesdays, Thursdays and sometimes Fridays. I have no idea why. Exercise would likely normalize lots of aspects of my life.
We can, but don't necessarily like to, sleep in our recliners. Our recliners are not separate. The are connected in the middle by storage. I can do "ok" sleeping for an hour, but my wife loves sleeping on her side and that can be hard to do in a recliner. She has got so use to sleeping in until 9AM, have no idea, if she got one, how she could go back to getting up at 6:45AM for a job. All I know is that we need a night of restful sleep in order to get up the next morning to take the boat out and the physical work that it takes to do that.
I've heard of Seniors going to bed at 1, 2 or 3AM, but we could never do it. My one SIL told me that she only needs 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night. We could never exist on that! Funny, but the times we've been in Las Vegas, we've went to our room at 2PM and took a two hour nap, so we could stay up until 11PM or so. Every single time we've went to Las Vegas this has happened. Then, on top of that, we would get up around 7AM, dress and drive to Circus Circus for their morning buffet. At 8AM, there would hardly be anyone in the buffet, but us. The Strip would be darn near empty of traffic!
Occasionally, when I watch an evening TV movie from my bedroom Recliner, I may not see the conclusion, because I'm asleep. Hal
I have heard that seniors tend to sleep less than younger people but through most of my life, I needed only about four hours of sleep. During my first low-paying jobs, I would work two eight-hour jobs and still have time to watch television or do other things. Working for the paper company, where I was paid at a much higher rate, I didn't need a second job but I worked a whole lot of overtime. Working the 11 pm to 7 am shift, I'd go home, eat breakfast, and drive my son to school, then go for a bike ride or watch television. Without using an alarm, I could sleep until it was time to pick my son up from school if I wanted to, and sometimes I did, but usually, I'd wake up in about four hours, and that was all I needed. When I started working EMS, I was still working full-time with Duro Bag Company, and when I began working EMS full-time, I was also the health and building inspector for the city, volunteered with the fire department, taught EMS classes through Texas Southmost College, and worked as an examiner for EMS skills testing with the Texas Department of Health EMS Division, and had plenty of time to write software for the computer and do other things. Now that I am working only 30 hours a week online, I tend to sleep about eight hours a day. Although I frequently stay up until 1, 2, or 3 am, or even later, I sleep in and still get seven or eight hours of sleep.
With the hours I had to work in EMS, for three different companies, was one of the reason I quit EMS totally. Ended up that my ex-wife got discussed with me being away all night. She loved seeing me in my uniform, but that was the only part of the job she liked. I remember, back in the 80's, I met a lady that worked two 8-hour jobs. She had 1-hour in between jobs, to get to the next one. She worked 1st shift and 2nd shift and got only a few hours of sleep during the week. She had the weekends off and used them to catch up on sleep. Due to her work hours during the week and her weekend catch-up sleep hours, our relationship was a very, very short one. And, her only transportation was a motorcycle! This was in So California. From what I understand, there are many retirees that go to bed in the early AM and get up at 7 or 8 AM.
Well the Full Spectrum CBD Oil didn't work. She's tried a couple of different OTC Sleep Aids, but with little success. The yellow clip-on glasses for viewing tv an hour or so before bed, suggested by her doctor, doesn't word as well as thought would. Last night was one of those, "why in the heck can't I get to sleep", then, after getting up to go to the bathroom at 3AM, "why can't I get back to sleep??" for her. Then, when both alarms go off at 6:15AM, to prepare for her 7:30AM job start, we want to throw the clocks at the wall! I didn't have a really nice sleep last night, but she really didn't. Now, we are thinking about getting a new Memory Foam Topper (3"), since ours (two of them) are fairly old. But, if one new 3 inch doesn't help her get to sleep, and stay asleep, what's next??
I doubt that another mattress topper will help. Why not call the doctor and get a prescription sleep aid to try? I'm actually surprised that a doctor suggested those yellow-tinted lenses; most times they say not to watch any "screens" at all at least an hour before bed (no tablets, phones, TVs, etc.)