Ooh boy just you wait til you realize you’re just napping in between having to wake up to piss 3 times in the night.
35 and just moved to the futon, actually 2 futons, because I couldn’t get used to just the 1. I’m hoping I can get used to it, and move back to 1.
I feel like my body wants to stay up for 30 hours followed by 14 hours of sleep.
I need a different planet.I sleep well as long as my wife is there. She can roll us from one side of the bed to the other or off it even and I’ll continue sleep like a rock. The moment she’s sick or has trouble sleeping is when I also have trouble sleeping, which is fine with me.
I do sometimes miss being younger and sleeping any where, any time though.
Is “a fan” here a person who stands next to your sleeping body in the dark and watches you? In that case I don’t want one.
There’s a chair for that actually.
I’m in my 40s and a body pillow is all I need.
40+ here and the only reason why I don’t sometimes sleep well is because I chose to play games until 2am.
I can feel myself dying
That much melatonin will give you weird sweat nightmares. I just mention this because a lot of people think more mg = more sleep but at 10+ mg melatonin does real weird shit to your REM cycle. Most evidence shows that the optimal dose is often less than 1 mg. Just in case you’re curious.
In my 20s and made a sleep pb recently. 16hrs continuous
Best thing for sleep was a CPAP (in my case anyways). I can make a cocoon with blankets and even cover my head since I can breathe via the machine. Best I’ve ever slept.
That’s what the fan is for. I leave a strategic gap between bed and blanket to allow for airflow. Works especially well when turned against wall, then I breathe through the gap between bed and the wall.
I can’t sleep with my head uncovered.
I am at the stage where I either sleep 4 hours or sleep 12 hours
Yea my sleep schedule is destroyed
And the best part is you don’t know which one you’ll get when you go to bed.
Barely standing awake at 10 fighting to keep your eyes open when you finally go to bed? Wide awake at 1 in the morning.
Browsing the internet at midnight because you are clearly not tired? You open your eyes and it’s mid afternoon.
Doesn’t help that I live too far north that it’s just always dark or cloudy
I wake up and it could be any time of the day until I check my clock
I actually pine for that type of environment though I suspect it gets dreary after awhile.
A touch more than dreary if you ask me. We’re just mobile plants, turns out, after months without the sun, your body just like… doesn’t do as well. You get more easily depressed, sleep changes, and even diet problems tend to creep in.
At some point in my 40s I started doing that medieval “first sleep” and “second sleep” thing where my eyes just blast wide awake at 2am. I don’t have to pee, I’m not uncomfortable, I just wake up. I read, take the dog out, brush my teeth again… After awhile I go back to sleep and wake up at the normal time.
I guess it is kind of nice to do a patrol around and make sure everything is cool, and the dog loves it. It’s just kind of weird.
Long ago, when humans lived by daylight, we likely lived this way, with a “hole” in the middle of sleep, where people would wake up, putter around, chat and tell stories, have something to eat, and then go back to sleep. There was a lot less going on back then, people didn’t have access even to books and candles were costly anyway so there was no reason to stay up late. I’ve had the same issue myself although these days, it’s just the 2 times to pee.
Strange to imagine not having much to do.
This literally just began happening to me a couple of weeks ago. Now, I live northern enough that currently there’s only 7½ hour daylight, so most of the day it’s actually dark, and for these nights it doesn’t really make much difference having those first and second sleep, but it is weird.
I turn 43 later this year, but I also started some new anti-anxiety medication around the same time back when it began happening, so maybe it’s just temporary until I figure out dose and when to take the medicine.Same. I’m over 50, and my wake up time is about 3:30am. I will read, or catchup on email, or play an hour or two of a PC game. Then go back to bed tired and get snuggled, and wake up at 8 for work.
I’ve been doing that as well, there is periods where I’m just awake in the middle of the night.
I think a lot of us do that and after awhile I started taking note of the amount of time I was asleep before waking so alert and ready to go. Now I set my alarms to coincide with that. For me it’s about 3.5 hours so I have one alarm that wakes me at 2:30am than another for 7am. Seems to work for me though my wife and friends say I’m crazy for waking myself up in the middle of the night. But for me there’s that calming realization I have nearly 4 more hours of sleep before waking up for good. Makes those last few hours even more precious.
I think my neighbours are like this
I recently learned (while staying up late trying to shoot a rat in my backyard) that they go to bed around 8-10 pm, then are up for an hour or so sometime around 1-2am, and it is fairly consistent
I don’t have to pee,
I don’t need water.
that vodka will turn to urine eventually
I started taking a tiny dose of trazodone at bedtime to help me with that. It’s not nearly as habit forming as all the “real” sleep drugs.
Amateur! Wait till you hit 65. I’m slowly becoming Darth Vader. Machines to make me breathe, eyes that can’t see, ears that can’t hear and teeth that shatter on the softest food. Luckily they haven’t started replacing any of the inside bits… yet.
PS: this is just the short list of stuff.
Cpap? Among other things?
I describe adulthood as an ever-increasing amount of rituals to maintain normal.
Oh god yes!!! it takes an hour of smearing gels and snorting powders just to go to bed. Then I have to do it again next morning.
i think someone snorting white powder would have trouble sleeping for days.
Getting old ain’t for wussies!
After 40? Lmfao. People, just take the time to care for yourself. Eat balanced meals, don’t over eat, stop watching TV all the time and go for a walk.
Take it from someone nearing 50 who took gluttony to the max by 35. I feel better today, than I ever did in my younger adult years because I stopped being a typical american.
Yeah well,
I exercise, eat healthy and am not American.
My sleep is still fuck.
Take your high horse and ride it into the sunset.
Same. I’m more healthy than everyone I know my age, and at 40 something my sleep is getting increasingly horrible. While people a lot less healthy sleep 8h every day. I’m so jealous…
I think it’s because they are happy. I hate happy people.
I’m sixty, and I agree. The best time to start taking better care of yourself is when you hit 18. The second-best time is right now.
For the past 16 years, I’ve steadily improved my diet and exercise habits. I feel pretty good, compared to what I hear others complain about. I sleep about seven solid hours per night, typically waking up once around 3AM. I’d like to get more, but I’ve accepted that ~seven is all I need, because I can’t sleep longer.
I think when you hit 45, you need to make a choice. You can choose to put in the effort or not. No one can do it for you, and no one else really cares whether you do. In fact, some people will actively discourage you, sadly enough.
1000% agree.
If you’re in your 20s, start building good habits now. Your future self will thank you.
Preach
The reason this post connects with people is that it validates a very well understood connection between aging and difficulty sleeping
Turning around and invalidating people in response and telling people its their own fault is frankly silly. Just because you resolved your sleep/health issues by taking better care of yourself doesn’t mean everyone else struggling with sleep is just an unhealthy bum who should do better
Aging tends to bring with it sleep problems that aren’t caused by lifestyle factors associated with poorer health, and even in cases where someones health issues are because theyre not taking good enough care of themselves, telling those people its their own fault generally overlooks socioeconomic factors- it usually amounts to blaming people for being poor, or mentally unwell
Source: I have a severe sleep disorder and at 27, I’ve seen a multitude of sleep doctors (and am still searching for a Dr who is knowlegable enough about my condition to try and help me beyond what I’m already doing) and spent a fair chunk of my life at this point sitting across from one discussing sleep issues
Above 40 and get roughly 3-4 hours after being in bed 9. Exercise daily (and have been since age 20), am at a healthy weight, eat (relatively) right. Been seeing specialists and trying a dizzying array of things for 9 years, but I’m pretty sure this is just me now. Sometimes you just get dealt a bad hand.
🫂
Sleep issues suck ass, I’m sorry my friend. Sleep maintenance insomnia seems so much more challenging to treat than sleep onset insomnia
Thank you, sorry for you as well. I have no trouble getting to sleep, it’s staying asleep that’s the issue. Seems to ultimately stump everyone.
What wakes you?
My partner has an issue, where she is tired and falls asleep. But because something is worrying her, she wakes with thoughts ruminanting in her mind. This will go on night after night until she deals with the thing she is worrying about.
If this is happening to you, see what you can do to deal with the worrying situation.
I had severe insomnia (10-15hrs/week) in my teens and early 20’s, I couldn’t get to sleep, so maybe not applicable. But what finally cracked it for me was rock climbing, I’d go after work and climb until physical exhaustion, climbing is good because it forces you to think about the climb as well as exercise. I’d go home after and have a cool shower and a very light meal. I ate my big meals early in the day.
I am still a short sleeper, I only get 4-6hours (average 5:15) per night.
Which time do you exercise? I feel being tired really helps, so exercising in evening might help.
Morning for me, because actually exercise for me compensates for the lack of sleep, “wakes” me up. But thanks, I’ll try anything at this point.
