Nocturnal murmurings

“Sleep no more. Macbeth has murdered sleep.”

I don’t have the murderous ambitions of a Macbeth but I do, like many, have issues with sleep. I could certainly do with more of it. Even before retirement, I had a night or two every weeknight where insomnia took hold and the work day that followed was tiring. Time to look at murdered sleep.

My nocturnal habits are becoming a challenge as I wrestle to get my six hours worth of sleep. Forget about preparing for bed routines. I have absolutely no problem getting to sleep, it's remaining and getting back to sleep that's the issue. Maybe it's my aging bladder that stirs after about 3 hours of sleep and requires a trip to the loo, after which I struggle to resume sleeping. Certainly, as we get older we need to deal with weaker bladders but, according to my GP, we need less sleep. With no work to attend to, we can always doze or catnap to recover later. Not true when we have meetings and chores in the waking hours. 

So it's a matter of getting back to sleep, deep sleep, of turning off the brain and snoring.  Nocturnal problem solving doesn't help and nor does creative thinking. After an hour or so awake I have developed the habit of getting up and exercising, or jogging on the spot for about 35 minutes, my reasoning being that I can then wake up later. My wife doesn't agree with this reasoning at all. One thing is certain: I don't need an alarm clock to wake up. I've usually been awake for hours. My wife says I should go to bed later.

I've read and heard experts talking about sleep patterns in history where people woke up in the middle of the night, carried on a bit and I don't mean just sexual frolicking, and then had part 2 of their sleep. This is understandable when you consider that, say in the Middle Ages, a large part of the human population worked in the fields, returning to their hovels after a hard days labour tired and hungry. After an evening meal, if they were so lucky, there were no "lights out" but they'd lay down and crash! Like me, they would wake up about three hours later and have a midnight siesta. Now I'm not sure how their kids dealt with all this but you have to remember that childhood wasn't what it is today. Children also toiled and laboured to help the family pull through. And as for workdays maybe on Sundays there was some time off, ditto on certain holidays, but otherwise, it was a neverending cycle of tend the crops and mind the animals. Must get those tithes and taxes in order. Farming has its own timetables and usually starts before daybreak unless storms are blowing.

Back to the present and how to deal with sleep deprivation, the worst torture known to humankind? 

"I love sleep. My life has a tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know."  Ernest Hemingway 

I love sleep too Ernest, but it doesn't always love me. A good night's sleep is cause for a celebration.

So, are there safe and reliable medical solutions, or remedies, be they new age or traditional? I'm averse to taking pills but have some if the following day involves the need to be alert and with it. I might take only a single pill when the recommended dosage is 1-2 pills.  Although the pill may eventually work I wake up feeling worse than if I remained awake. I've also tried warm milk and hot showers that help a little.

I haven't tried the nightcap or three solution as a few drinks would have me up pissing in no time, then back to square one. Many have gone down the alcoholic road to stupor or sleep, imbibing according to taste or budget. A tricky road.

Dissension rules the roost. "No, we're not getting a futon, these pillows suit me fine and can you let the cat out or back in. Just when I'm on the edge of sleep our cat, Lulu, a master of sleep herself, decides to wake up the household with her whining and scratching. Fortunately, we don't have barking dogs to contend with.

So what about breathing exercises? Like counting sheep they can work for some, anyway. Yoga may be the answer and there must be classes somewhere to help the insomniacs. What about apps, or new age music, and what about power naps to stifle the yawns? A short deep sleep is certainly better than hours of tossing and turning. A bad night in bed can be physically like hours in the gym: utterly exhausting. After a bad night's sleep I cautioned myself to be wary of quick judgements as doom and gloom was at the fore.

Raucous sleep or the lack of it is a major field of study, an industry as so many people suffer from sleep disorders. There may be deep psychological issues and daily stresses that need to be explored. Then there are dreams, nightmares in particular. The amazing thing about dreams is that they encompass an entire reality in seconds before the wakefulness stirs. Dreams are the underlying mystery of our lives. Yawn.

There are reams of studies on dreams and almost every famous writer, scientist, and philosopher can be quoted on the subject, and often humorously:

"Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone." Anthony Burgess.

Or snore deeply and you may have sleep apnoea requiring the wearing of a mask and breathing apparatus. You may have to sleep alone or return to a single celebrate life. I take comfort that I haven't got to that point, yet.

Days start with "Good morning, did you sleep well?" They end with "Goodnight. Sweet dreams." We spend most of our lives awake but are circumscribed, for better or worse, by sleep, deep or shallow. Sleep dominates our lives.

One final quote:

"Dear sleep, I know we had problems when I was younger but I love you now."

No truer words have been spok.... ZZZZZZZ