Nocturnal habits

My Nocturnal Habits

The retirement Blues
Perhaps people my age, and retired, have the same struggles every night 1) to get to sleep and 2) to remain asleep without the aid of sleeping pills. After all, we don’t have to front up to work the following day, and perhaps our partner also sleeps badly and sets back the Arcadian cycles in our lives. Are the retirement blues a nightly challenge? 

Can catnapping restore energy to the day?

From a historical perspective, and I’ve read this in multiple articles, in times past, particularly medieval times, serfs and others, or most people labored hard in the day and after an evening meal and tired would have their first sleep of the evening. Three or 4 hours later they would wake and be active for a while before resuming sleep, that is have their 2^nd stage of sleep. Sounds credible to me.

“Sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep”. Are you like MacBeth?

Of course, insomnia is widespread these days with many many people experiencing sleep problems for a number of reasons. There has been a rise in sleep disorder clinics to deal with this problem that is infecting all ages across all social classes. Fit Bits and other health bands and watches have sleep features to monitor one’s sleep patterns.

Then you have shift workers, travelers and flight staff battling with jet lag, etc and sometimes the weekend and days off are merely a time to catch up on sleep. Like our son Thomas who often has to wake up early to organize the days’ news bulletins.

A big question is how much sleep do we need and does it vary with age? And not all sleep is equal so is deep sleep worth more than shallow sleep?

Some nocturnal problems are when we stress out worrying or problem-solving as we toss and turn in the early hours when we should turn off our brains. Apart from counting sheep, ha! , YouTube has a number of strategies to get us back to sleep. Along with products for snoring, there are other things available to help manage your bedtime blues. 

Or can we blame an uncomfortable bed or midnight munchies? Our cat cries for more food, damn it, and wakes one of us to service her needs. Then there are barking dogs in the night. Weak bladder movements are another bane in my life. Nightmares and accompanying anxieties wake us up whilst good dreams tend to make us want to resume sleep and the nice dream. Like sex, it all gets very complicated.

Let’s not forget sleep apnea suffered by amongst others my mother-in-law. Dealing with sleep disorders is indeed a new and growing field.

Personally, I have to get up and have a pee in my first 3 hours of "sleep", which may result in my becoming fully awake. In the latter part of the night, this becomes less so. For years I've had a weak bladder problem and finally have an appointment with a specialist to see what can be done about it. My GP says there may be drugs. If this problem can be solved my sleep will be greatly improved as it's not a case of getting to sleep, easy, but remaining asleep. 

As we age we tend to accept that nocturnal problems including peeing are old age kicking in and to live with it. Hope that's not true.

May the best sleeper win the day.