To wish that I didn't fall asleep at the wrong time and wasn't awake when I should be asleep

I go through phases of waking in the night, going downstairs, making tea and returning to my Kindle. Then I listen to a sleep tape to help me fall back to sleep.

I have bad days and good days. On a bad day, wide awake and alert until 4 am in the morning. No matter how tired I am, I do not seem to be able to sleep in the afternoon.

Have been looking at my prescription tablets recently and found one depletes my body of zinc, the other one B12 – both essential to produce melatonin.

Been using a B12 spray recently and take zinc on alternate days and hoping to see an improvement on my sleep.

Avoid looking at the computer a few hours before sleep and cut down on coffee.

I often find myself awake and reading or doing puzzles (= wasting time) on my phone for a couple of hours between 2 and 4 am. I have decided to try and use this time to do things that I have not got around to during the day because I'm so tired. Quiet jobs like sewing, ironing, filing or writing letters.

I'll let you know how I get on.

For years , I would sleep from 10.00 pm until 7.00 am unless travelling .
One of my friends had meningitis and never slept again .
How I pitied her .
I never told her that I'd fall fast asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow .
Now I dread going to bed .
I have trouble dozing off and I have vivid dreams often nightmares .
I can't remember the last time I had a normal night .
I tried magnesium pills and they worked for a couple of days .
Now it's back to broken nights .
I'm going to try yoga prior to bedtime .

Have you considered taking magnesium to help with overnight sleep? As I understand it, they work by doing something with the muscles, which then helps you relax and drop off.

www.sleepfoundation.org/magnesium

Terribull i do not find day time naps affect my night time sleeping.

The advice I have seen quite recently says that day time naps should be no more than 20 minutes and that you should snooze in a chair and not go to bedd.

The reason is that if you go to bed and sleep for more than about 20 minutes, you fall into a deep sleep, much as at night and when you awake you feel all groggy and unawake for an hour or two afterwards. This accords with my experience of sometimes having a day time sleep on my bed when I have perhaps had a very late or very short nights sleep.

A short afternoon nap is good as long as it is done by 4

My remedy for nodding off in the evening is to go and get ready for bed, then come downstairs as that wakes me up. I never sit back in my zero gravity chair or I would definitely nod off but I sit bolt upright until 9.30, when I go up and quietly relax in bed, electric blanket on, radio on low with a timer

Doing similar day by day has re-set my body clock.

I also eat a strip of 100% chocolate every day but now have that mid morning as it takes 6-8 hours for theobromine to leave the body. Theobromine is similar to caffeine, increases heart rate and causes sleeplessness

Yes, I think our sleep schedules change as we age, and they do say a nap is good for you.

Try to find something to rest your mind when you wake up in the night, as others have said. A radio, book or kindle. I find I drift back to sleep sooner than if I just lay there and think about nonsense!

Yes, I agree Monica, I don't think it's that unusual, particularly in later years. I've also read about how in the past there were two phases of sleep and people would get up and do something in between, sometimes I have done that, and gone off into another room to read a book. I think I'm just thinking out loud in expressing an annoyance of drifting off when I should be awake and vice-a-versa, but thanks for the responses.

Yes ,it’s a way of life for me. However I did read on another thread that someone changed to decaf coffee and their sleep was better. I am now trying that and have seen some improvement
Time will tell

It is quite normal to wake in the night. In the past sleeping in two spells was quite normal.

Assuming you are merely waking, not worrying or with a yammering mind, I have found the best thing to do is find something to do that will lull you gently back to sleep.

For me, to begin with, it was Classic FM, turned down until I could barely hear it. Now it is my Kindle, with the screen turned down to grey with high warmth, which means it is easy on the eye and then a selection of easy reading books that I have read many times.

It has reached a stage now, where almost as soon as I pull the Kindle out from under my pillow, my eyes start to close.

I don't think I drink too much caffeine Derbyshire Lass, maybe 3 a day maximum and generally a.m. not p.m. I used to go off like a light and sleep until 7 a.m. then the dreaded menopause struck and my quality of sleep has never really recovered to what it used to be like before that.

How much caffeine are you drinking. I used to be just the same as you, turning night into day. I quite caffeine, problem sorted.

I just can’t sleep unless I’m in a bed, so only once, when very jet lagged, have I slept briefly in a chair. I do sleep well at night though, usually 8 hours.
MrJ can have a ten minute nap and wake up refreshed, I wish I could.