How much sleep do you get

I've got what my mother called a busy brain. I go to bed at about 10:30 but never go to sleep much before 00:30 or 1:00. I read or play Scrabble to try and wind down but these strategies often fail. DH and I have separate bedrooms which is good, as he goes to bed at 9:00 and gets up to do his first job at 3:30. Some nights I hear him getting up having never slept. Fortunately I'm not a particularly early riser, it's usually after 8:30 when I rise. Most nights I have 6-7 hours sleep. I too need to get up a couple of times to visit the loo.

DH has been away quite a lot and this has reduced my quality of sleep considerably. We live in a big house and I awake to every little noise and rustle. Usually I sleep for 6-7 hours and feel fine though I might have the odd little zizz in the afternoon if I'm not working

DH drops off instantly, what a talent to have!

I need 8 hours but rarely get that, can’t manage with less than 6 hours though.
Sometimes a Nytol helps, also Boots do their own version which is cheaper and better IMO.
Can’t stay in bed later than about 7.30 a.m. so can’t sleep in.

Dh sleeps much better than I do - drops off v quickly, and rarely has long wakeful periods.
I will often be awake in the small hours for 2 or 3 hours. I will go downstairs, make a cup of (decaf) tea, and usually take myself to the spare room, where I can put the bedside light on and read, or have the radio on - usually BBC World service in small hours.
However if I've got something on the go on my Kindle I can read that without disturbing Dh.
Wakefulness is one reason I hate being cooped up in hotel rooms nowadays - nowhere to escape to if I can't sleep!

Though one thing I never do when I can't sleep is housework of any description!

Maybelle MawBroon

I have got used to 5 or 6 hours a night sleep possibly because my last 10 years of working before ill health stopped me working involved meetings 3-4 evenings a week until 10 pm, with decompressing afterwards, 1am became my bed time.

Before that I thought I had sleep problems but it was the ex snoring very loudly that got in the way of my sleep.

At the moment the old ER is on every weekday night on CBS Drama, it so reminds me of my early 30s, I watch it all through the week! So my bedtime is now after 2am.

But I am up by 8 am, is this bad?

I sleep more easily with meds but hate taking them as I am concerned about becoming reliant on them. They only work for a set period of course and then the pain wakes me up again and whilst I have resorted to taking more when it is unbearable I do feel that I am looking down the slippery slope.

Maybelle
Been there, done that, keep smiling

Day6 I hadn't considered a fry pan!

I hadn't realised there were so many of us! I rarely go to sleep before 12, then wake at 2 am, 4am and 6 am, almost to the minute. Thank goodness for retirement, as I usually get up about 9. I probably do get just enough sleep but it is always fragmented. The only time I sleep through the night is if I am ill.

I have periods of not sleeping, usually when anxious about something but since leaving work I generally sleep better. I think I was always in a constant state of alertness when working. Nowadays I put radio on world service if I can't sleep and often fall asleep listening to it, and OH will ask me to put it on if he is awake, which I can do in my sleep with no disruption. Apparently it is common for older folk to sleep less at night, more in the day. I find if I start counting how many hours I've had, whilst awake during the night, particularly if I have a busy forthcoming day I will never go back to sleep. Funny how the brain works.

Never seem to get enough sleep, drop off easily, but Dh finds it very difficult to sleep due to pain so will usually lay there for an hour or so then wakes me up so he can sit in a chair and wait until he can have more meds. Then he wakes at around 6.30 to 7 ish. seem to get 5 hours most nights.
He needs full time support as disabled and falls. Not always able to self transfer from chair to wheelchair etc.
I tend to nap in the day time when he has taken pain relief that usually sends him to sleep.
Sorry not always positive about this but know / you will understand that life is not always a bowl of cherries. Try to look on the bright side mainly x

I have a blackout blind too, Martha, which DH cheerfully calls my shroud. He doesn’t need any sleep aids. I’ve known him fall asleep standing up and on aeroplanes when others are still boarding around him. Fortunately he’s not a snorer.

I have to say I love my bed. I'm usually tired enough to turn in around 10.30-11 but OH likes to stay up longer and likes us to go up at the same time. I rarely take a daytime nap. OH always has about halh an hour in the evening. I'm out with the light and need the bathroom only once during the night. Quite often I'll wake at 4.20am (I don't understand why it's always 4,20) and stay wide awake with mindless thoughts for a couple of hours then fall into a really deep sleep, I then sleep right through the alarm which goes on for about 15mins! I have to have blackout blinds and eye mask at this time of year as the slightest chink of light disturbs me and hurts my eyes. I never disturb in the winter and always wake up late.

DH up and down to the loo all night which is disturbing for us both. Read that a handful of raisins eaten at bedtime can help sleep, sounds like snake oil I know but apparently they contain natural melatonin. It has certainly improved his disturbed sleep and he wakes once or sometimes not at all. Hurrah for raisins!

OldMeg that could almost have been my post! Except that for me it would read "He snores and I keep getting up for the loo". Some nights I'm up just a couple of times, but more usually I'm up almost hourly - around 6 loo trips on an average night. Like M0nica, though, I always creep around in the dark and don't flush the loo in the night, so generally I can stay in 'sleep' mode and nod off again very quickly.
I yearn for a full night's sleep, 8 hours of oblivion without waking. I've forgotten what that feels like

I go to bed at around 10 o'clock and read for a while, usually go to sleep pretty quickly once light is off. Most nights one bathroom trip needed but straight back to sleep after. Then I wake between 5/6 and get up about 6.30.
I have slept much better since having separate rooms from OH. He drops off anytime he sits down, watching telly etc lol. Snores like a train when led in bed.

My sleep has very little pattern these days, other than I make a 2 hourly trip to the loo throughout!!
Yes,every 2 hours......... a darn nuisance but one of the "crosses" my health has brought.
If I have had a fairly busy day which may only mean meeting and chatting with new people,or going and doing something different either that day or the one to come......I can easily spend the whole night tossing and turning with non or very little sleep.
Dropping off is sometimes the nuisance and I have been known to revert to a book of crosswords to get me even more tired.....I have even sat and had the P.C on to browse through.............other times I drop off and do well for the first 2 hours and thereafter its more a case of "Will I or won`t I"
Needless to add I come to in the morning looking and feeling like something the cat has dragged in!!
Always feeling so very tired.........in fact totally drained.......and with deep black bags under my eyes showing the world my lack of sleep.

My DH on the other hand drops off within minutes and will sleep the whole night through be it 6,7. or 8 hours..........longer if he was that fortunate!!

One of my greatest wishes would be a good eight hours of soothing sleep per night and no more than one or two loo visits!! That would be a taste of heaven!!

Yet strangely enough if watching a favourite programme I can so easily nod off.............ah! well I giess that is called life!!

We now have separate rooms. He snores and I wriggle about.

It works for both of us and we both sleep better.

I do have trouble with dropping off (yet 10 minutes into most TV programmes after about 3pm sees me nodding off) and sleeping through. Years of listening out and getting up for Paw and/or Gracie must have become a habit.
After he died the Dr gave me Zopiclone(?) which I called Dopiclone for a few weeks but I find herbal Nytol works just as well and doesn’t leave me zonked the next day.
I think I usually sleep from around midnight till 5.30 and can usually go off again until about 7. My idea of luxury is to sleep through until I wake up naturally.

i am usually in bed around 11-11.30pm i read for about 15mins then have no bother dropping off to sleep but i wake around 5.30- 6am but if i am lucky i can turn over and catch another hour till around 7am. The light mornings dont help plus i always sleep with the window open and the birds singing doesnt help. If i am lucky i can catch 20mins later in the day.

I go to bed at 10.30 latest usually drop off but wake every hour or so through the night. Not for the bathroom, I just wake up. I can’t sleep during the day so manage on very little. The only thing which works is medication, and my doctor limits these so I ‘save’ them for when things get too too bad. It surprises me how one can carry on for so long like this.

I'm like the OPs husband - I say goodnight and go to sleep for 7 or 8 hours, been like that for most of my adult life. When I first got married, my OH couldn't believe how quickly I'd be "gone" and I'd be equally as surprised that he couldn't do it, and I'd say "But why say good night and then not go off to sleep?"

Nowadays I do (some nights) get up once or maybe twice for the loo, but I barely wake up in doing so ...

Correction...is it wrong to think about bashing him over the head with a frying pan?

It's a good job I don't have one handy here in the boudoir.