..anyone else awake??

Hello cornergran. I've been awake since 5ish, then snoozing on and off until it got light. Gave up and came downstairs for a cuppa and a chat. Think it was really windy through the night and that disturbed me! Hope you manage a nap later

Morning Mapleleaf. Frustrating, isn't it? Even more annoying when Mr C is sleeping soundly. Fortunately he isn't woken by me using the iPad so I can stay in bed and read, catch up with to via iPlayer or access GN. I foresee a grumpy day ahead though .

Me too. Broken sleep last night, and awake far too early.
I'm starting to resemble Keith Richards. https://youtu.be/V2r4l4gQCfM

I wake up every morning at about 5.am. since my dh died. My mind races, can I cope for the next x number of years without him etc., It is exhausting and I look forward to the clocks going forward. At least I will wake up at 6am. which seems more normal.

falconbird, sorry for your situation,

Falconbird, my acupuncturist tells me that in traditional Chinese medicine the hours between 3 and 6 a.m. are seen as the grieving hours. I used to wake a few minutes either side of 5 a.m. I didn't even have to look at the clock. Acupuncture helped me, but I know it's not for everyone. She used points to push waking time to nearer 6 a.m.

I found the best thing was to get up, make a cup of tea and start my day, telling myself that I could always sleep later if I needed to. It's your body's way of coping. I hope you have family and friends close by to support you. Lean on them and lean on us here.

Falconbird ... ❤️

I find that I never get enough unbroken sleep. Getting older to me means that I wake up for a pee twice during the night, where before I had a bladder like a camel. Im also a bit of a dry "husk" and now have some sort of eczema in my ears and they start just when I want to sleep. It also takes me about an hour and half and three cups of coffee and three fags to actually get going. Its sucks getting older.

falconbird

I'm so pleased this thread's still going (which isn't good news for the folks that contribute to it!). I'm still waking at least three times every night, sometimes for a wee, but other times? who knows why? Usually I'm laying in bed reading a book at 3.00am, or working out tomorrow (no, today's) itinerary, which never seems to go to plan anyway....

falconbird All my best wishes to you.

weird getting older huh boheminan. i used to sleep like a nocturnal beast, for at least 12 hours uninterupted, now i can't believe Ive done 6!

When I was a child I was sent to bed early and lay awake for hours. At 16 years old I had to go before 8pm and lay imagining all sorts of stories (at that age usually relating to my 'crushes', TV and pop stars!) I would hear my parents come to bed and I was still awake.

As I got older I still found it difficult to sleep before midnight even if I had to get up early in the morning for work. For years I managed on 4 or 5 hours of sleep and it was bliss when I retired, to go to bed when I wanted, usually after 2am. If I don't have to get up it will, as a rule, be about 10am when I wake, hence 8 hours sleep - twice what I have had most of my adult life!

If I do have to get up early eg for a school run I still can't go to bed early but can get up at the appropriate time.

Maybe it is true that some of us are 'owls' and some of us are 'larks'. After 10pm I seem to come alive as many flagging party goers will testify!! The only time I enjoy the dawn is when I haven't been to bed at all!

stillaliveandkicking yes I do have to get up sometimes for a wee but keep my eyes closed and go straight back to sleep!

Woke up at something past 2, can't get back to sleep. Have read a bit, but no luck.

Sitting up in bed having just made myself a cup of tea. Slept from around midnight (I usually fall asleep sooner) until 3am . My three DGC are asleep in the next room and I will have to be up just after 6 to get ready and to get them breakfasted and off to school and then I will go on to work. By lunchtime I will be like a zombie. This is the way it always is. I sleep for a few hours then wake up,around 3-4 unable to fall back asleep due to my mind racing. It makes no difference whether the children are here or not.

I've been up since 4ish too. I don't know why it happens and I wish I knew a cure. I'm generally exhausted by around 5 in the afternoon. Is there an answer or is it just part of an anxious personality or getting older. I sometimes think mine started when my children were teenagers and they weren't safety tucked in bed by a reasonable time.

So what's up with me now that I can't sleep. I retired yesterday. So all my stress should have melted away. Perhaps it's the emotion of the day that's keeping me awake? Talk about a looooong goodbye. A lunch on Wednesday with goodbyes. Another goodbye get together yesterday a night out this evening for another goodbye. It's lovely of everybody but it's emotional. I cry and wish I wouldn't. It's so embarrassing. Shall I have tea or will that keep me awake.? I could have gin. I've got gallons that's what most of my goodbye presents are. The girls must think I'm a real alcoholic. Best not, youngest grandchild is asleep upstairs and I have a school run. Oh dear I think I'm destined to be an insomniac.

morethan2 Take time to adjust. When you are retired other things take up your time. If it is DGC as in my case and apparently yours, get up for the school run and have a nap in the day. Never mind what the scientists/experts say. I add up the hours I have slept (day and night) and if they add up to anything between 6 and 8 I stop feeling tired. It may be all in the mind (psychological) but it works for me.

Happy retirement!

Happy retirement morethan. Are you tucked up in bed tonight? It does take some time to adjust as Grandma says, I'm only just getting sorted now after six months of my son leaving for uni. He's back soon though for Easter, so it'll all be up in the air again probably.

I have a sleep usually in the afternoon, I only managed four hours today out of bed until I crawled back in feeling very rough indeed. I had a couple of hours and felt better when I got up, enough to go and sit on the swing in the garden for a little while with my doggie.

I'm going to take my tablets now and then head for bed soonish. I'm looking for something to cover fence panels outside which can be made waterproof but give a nice picture instead of me standing painting them, I can just staple these on and I'm not then looking at boring wood all the time. I thought of plastic tablecloths but mostly the cheap ones are for childrens parties, so maybe fabric that I can waterproof with a spray? I wonder why I don't get to sleep?

One of the joys of retirement, Morethan is that if you have had a bad night and there are no urgent demands next day, you can have a nap and catch up. My dog now practically forces me onto the sofa after lunch every day for what my mum used to call "forty winks"! It would be mean to her not to ?

I feel a wobbly night coming on now!

I am wide awake, and writing on Gransnet. OH is snoring away next to me. I have low night light on my tablet and play Sudoku or catch up with reading when sleep just won't come.

I liked to think I was invincible, one of those people who thrives on just four hours sleep, but the older I get the more I realise just how lack of sleep slows me down.
I don't have caffeine after 4pm, and get ready for bed and turn in at the same time as OH. His head hits the pillow and he is asleep. I envy him that ability. He can snooze on the sofa all night and still fall straight asleep at night.

I take prescription pills daily, a lot of them and some are supposed to make people feel drowsy. Fat chance! I wish....

Have just realised I was out this evening with family and ended my meal with a liqueur coffee. I forgot to ask for a decaff one.

Mystery solved..Not a yawn yet this evening/ night. I was up at 7.30 this morning, the same as OH.
I'll feel awful tomorrow..very lethagic, I imagine.

Another addictive way of passing the night is Kristanix jigsaw puzzles on the iPad or whatever you use, really good choice of puzzles, look up in App Store. Hours of fun!

Clearly I'm an early bird this morning too. Woke with a pain in my chest and panicked a bit. Got up and made a drink and took some paracetamol and so far I'm more comfortable. DD and GS arrive tonight for Easter and think I'm more or less ready with freezer and fridge stocked. Although a trip to the airport to pick them up at 2 in the morning will be quite a challenge.

I do some games on the Memory Improvement site. There are some for concentration and some word games which I play hoping to keep my brain ticking over.

Not been on this thread for a while. Since DS has left and I have moved bedrooms along with my gorgeous new bed, I have slept like a baby ( I am up every four hours screaming and needing a nappy change! ?)

I do think that I used to be up late due to trying to get some peace at the end of the day once he had gone upstairs.

Now I have wind down time in my massage chair in my bedroom while my little doggie catches up with the neighbourhood on the windowsill, half hour of relaxing and I sleep for about eight hours or more generally now. I love it, my new room, my escape, my sanctuary, my peace of mind.

In bed using my Kindle which is usual for me at this time. I check in here then play solitare until I start to nod off.
Trip to the bathroom about 6.30 am and back to bed for a couple of hours hopefully.
Sweet dreams all.