Sleep, glorious sleep

[Slothead56]

Since I started working almost 40 years ago I got in a routine of not needing a lot of sleep and waking up on my own at around 6 AM everyday with no alarm. It didn't matter if I went to bed at 10:00 (rare) or midnight. Always up at 6:00ish. "Sleeping in" was not a thing for me. Also had my last child at 40, so that stretched the earlier wake up a bit.

Now I find that I'm sleeping more, sleeping better and actually have to set an alarm to get up most mornings. I've recently been sleeping 8-9 hours regardless of when I go to bed.

I use to feel like I was missing something if I didn't get up early. Now I'm grateful for more sleep and feeling refreshed and energetic in the morning.

The funny thing is I always thought most people slept less, not more, as they got older.

[MrDB]

I don't sleep well in my old age, so if you are waking up refreshed each morning you have my admiration.

[HOF dad]

Like you, I had to get up at 5:30am every morning to prepare for a 6:00am work conference call. On top of that I was on call 24/7 and my phone would ring at night and sometimes have to go out to handle....whatever.
I retired almost 2 years ago and still am thrilled to drift off to sleep without any of that stuff in my head. I usually get 9 hours as well.
It's delightful!

[fazool]

Sleep is an interesting topic to me. Ever since I sat in my friend's Psycho-101 class decades ago.

I generally live in a perpetual state of minimal sleep.

I know folks argue about health benefits which I actually understand but dispute. For about five years, I was playing online games very hardcore and this included many all-nighters and I usually slept about 4 hours a night for five solid years. Following that time, I was the most healthy I've ever been with my best running etc. So I'm not convinced of the health dangers of minimal sleep.

What did happen to me was a very hyper efficient sleep structure. I (literally and without exaggeration) would go to bed and could be in full REM dream sleep within about 60 seconds of laying down. It drove my wife bonkers. We would get in bed and she would settle down for a long time before drifting off to sleep. Meanwhile I would be chainsaw-snoring, talking in my sleep and full-on dreaming (truly) in one minute.

And that hyper-active part of sleep was a benefit too.

[rokdog49]

At 68, my sleeping patterns are hit or miss...a lot of miss.
A lot has to do with aches and pains so if I have gone a few nights with restlessness, I pop three 200 mg. of Ibuprofen at bedtime and that does the trick.
It's not something I want to do unless I have to.

[Kerbie]

Sleep has progressively gotten harder for me as I get older. Now I think I've just had too many years of getting up at 3 am to go to work... it's a good morning when I can sleep past 04:00.

[frances50]

I'm looking forward to retirement in a few years and being able to get get my 9 hours of sleep that I've always craved. I get about 7 now and sleeping extra on the weekends is a luxury.

[AxeDude]

I'm on the A train. Ambien. I've been dependent for several years. Plus when I play a gig I can't get to sleep until around 2 am. Adrenaline. Sounds like most of you are very lucky. Tonight my bass player and I have a gig. 10mg of Ambien, 600mg of Advil, and 5mg of melatonin and I should nod off sometime early tomorrow morning.

[Pitar]

Sleeping and eating are things I always looked at as necessary evils. They're interruptions, breaking the continuity of conscious endeavors, and otherwise distracting for whole societies; especially eating which has taken on entertainment industry proportions as visually evidenced in the expanding belt lines of the so-called western cultures: The Spandex world.

I'm up at 0500 and down as late as 2300. I've been averaging 4-5 hours of sleep all my life, and grumpy if I'm down for 6. That's pretty bad if you're already a stoic.

[Cabarone]

I work midnight shift (0000-0800) so having a "normal" sleep pattern is kinda off the table for me. I'll turn 61 in a couple months, and I find I sleep more now than ever. 8-10 hours some evenings, and never restful...the last stage of my life I slept soundly was in my drunken years (not going back to that!)...I pretty much keep my work hours on my weekends, just to make the Monday transition easier...

[marty bradbury]

At 61, still working, average 6-7 hours sleep a night during the week and about 8-9 on the weekends. I feel a great difference with those couple extra hours. I have several dreams a night and occasion nightmare...a good night sleep to me is very important

[Silly Moustache]

Hi, I'm 70 and never been a good sleeper. I think I was conditioned because as a small kid I always felt it necessary to be "ready" to interpose when My parents argued late at night.

I sleep for about 30-50 minutes at a time. but can doze off again pretty easily.

I rarely go to bed before 1.a.m. and rise about 8-9 whereas m wife is asleep by 10 and is up and about at 6-7. I'm the owl, she's the lark.

Times have changed since we stopped working (ten years ago) but still the pattern goes on.

[Jim Owen]

Sleep and I have had a rough relationship, but I admit that my younger days of gigging late and rising to get to class destroyed my clock.

I tend to fall asleep okay, but wake between 3 and 4. On good nights, I go back to sleep for a couple of hours.

I’ve done all the usual “tricks”—cut out alcohol, no bright lights after 10, no caffeine after noon, etc.

But I can’t get enough sleep.

[Mr. Jelly]

My professional hours were 24/7 365. Very dynamic and stressful (exciting) most of the time. When I retired from my profession I was hoping to get restful sleep at night. That didn't happen. I started to go to bed early trying to get restful sleep. It took five years to get strait. I changed my diet so I was not eating so many grains and started staying up later at night. I had to make myself stay up. I still do at times. I still only sleep 6.5 to 7 hours a night but I am getting restful sleep now as I am waking up around five and not three thirty in the morning. I think it has to do with the fact my body/mind only needs 6-7 hours of sleep yet the body daytime nighttime temperature rhythms are still in play.

[flaggerphil]

I'm retired and I'll sleep around 9 hours if no one bothers me. I generally go to bed between midnight and 2am and get up between 830 and 1030.

When I worked i was usually on call 24/7, worked rotating shifts, and got around five to six hours a night/day.

The only time these days I get less than 9 hours is when I'm racing (usually have to get up at 6am) or when pain from various old injuries wakes me up.