Sleep and Aging...This Sucks

fureverywhere

fureverywhere

beloved friend who will always be with us in spiri
Location
Northern NJ, USA
True until we get the Medicaid thing straight then I get my sleepy meds again. But really, as you get older your sleeping patterns go to heck? I've posted before...when you're a kid you fight going to bed, as a defiant teen you can party all night, a new parent and you don't sleep for the next decade, now the kids are basically grown and you don't want to party all night. It's almost 5am...shoot me now.
 

Ralphy1 said:
Maybe more exercise during the day would work. It has for me...
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That might be a key ingredient, at least for some people. I've been getting lots of exercise lately, and can fall asleep most any time I go to bed. Problem is I don't want to go to bed.:confused: It seems like sleeping is such a waste of time. There are too many more interesting things to do, like surf the net. :)
 

I have found I need less and less sleep as I age. However, I have always been an early riser. Even when I don't have to go to work I am up at 5am.. and to bed around 9 or 9:30.. I remember when I was a teen and I could sleep until noon... that would never happen now.
 
I am on a continuous cycle that runs straight through day or night. I nap for anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple of hours and then I'm up for an hour or two. I often get more things done at night than in the day. I have no idea when I'm going to be struck by ambition or conk off as soon as my head hits the pillow. I know its supposed to be unhealthy, but it seems to be working for me physically. The nights can be excruciatingly long some times. I often have a very small glass of rum or gin and tonic at 3PM or so that helps me off. Its a very small party favor Brandy glass and I only fill it half way, but I don't like the idea that its become a habit.
 
fureverywhere said:
True until we get the Medicaid thing straight then I get my sleepy meds again. But really, as you get older your sleeping patterns go to heck? I've posted before...when you're a kid you fight going to bed, as a defiant teen you can party all night, a new parent and you don't sleep for the next decade, now the kids are basically grown and you don't want to party all night. It's almost 5am...shoot me now.
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I used to take sleepy meds, but can fall asleep O.K., just cant' stay asleep for more than 6 hours(*mostly). Even with the meds I would fall asleep but not stay asleep.
 
I know the feeling also. I wake up so many times during the night. Exercise is not the answer for me. I work outside most everyday and the days I am in I am keeping up with my housework. One of my big problems is that after dinner I clean up the kitchen,take a shower and head for my recliner to watch TV. I never ever watch it during the day. In 15 minutes I am asleep. On and off through the evening until about ten when I go to bed. Then I am wide awake. My hubby says I shouldn't get so comfy in the recliner. But if I sit up straighter and don't nap I am miserable for the evening. I also tried to sleep during the night in the recliner but after the lights go out I am still wide awake. I have Ambiean but hate to take it. It can be habit forming and can have some bad side effects if you don't sleep it off. I take it on special days only. Holidays or when I know I really need to be feeling really rested. Over the counter drugs do nothing. I guess it comes with age for some of us.
 
Ruth,
I took Ambien for over a year, it helped me drop off asleep quick. I eventually stopped taking it, as it made my eyesight blurry for the first couple hours in the morning. Plus, it really didn't keep me asleep....
 
Yeah meds like Ambien scare me...some of them come with the warning you have to be in the bed before you take them and be able to stay in the bed for a set number of hours...I don't wanna sleep THAT deeply. For me Seroquel just turns off the brain buzz so I can snooze at least a solid six hours. I had to chuckle with the exercise suggestion, So far for this week I'm at 20,924 steps on my FitBit. Now for me that's lazy...I have promised Sophie that we'll double our nightly walks.
 
In college and for a few years afterward I used to employ polyphasic sleeping, where you take several one-hour naps throughout the 24-hour cycle. It worked fine back then, but once I got married that schedule went down in flames.

Now I'm lucky to be awake for even half the day. I suspect it's all the prescriptions I take, but also I am nowhere near as physically active as I once was. If I lay down now, boom, I'm asleep.
 
Best buddy is like that but it's because of his job. He's worked there more than thirty years but his morning begins at 4:30am. He takes an hour nap every afternoon but it's not enough. When you fall asleep using the bathroom that's really bad.
 
fureverywhere said:
Yeah meds like Ambien scare me...some of them come with the warning you have to be in the bed before you take them and be able to stay in the bed for a set number of hours...I don't wanna sleep THAT deeply. For me Seroquel just turns off the brain buzz so I can snooze at least a solid six hours. I had to chuckle with the exercise suggestion, So far for this week I'm at 20,924 steps on my FitBit. Now for me that's lazy...I have promised Sophie that we'll double our nightly walks.
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I was on Ambien for a few years and finally stopped taking it over a year ago. On more than one occasion my wife would find me having fallen asleep at my desk if I took it before getting into bed. Plus I'd have no memory of conversations we had before bed. I will say it helped me fall asleep quickly and it didn't bother me in the morning. Now I take a Melatonin (5 MG) before bed and I read for 30 minutes before shutting off the light. I find I sleep much better now. Don't tend to sleep more than 7 hours though. Get up once a night to use the bathroom and usually can fall back to sleep.
 
SifuPhil said:
Falling asleep while using the bathroom IS bad, but I've found that falling asleep during sex can be quite painful as well ...
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I just looked at the Kamasutra chart and none of the positions looked to be painful if one were to fall asleep while having a romantic interlude.

I gotta know dude........did you doze off while making whoopie up in a tree and fall out or what ?
 
I love to read in bed and do so every night. I have a Kindle that I use. The Kindle has a setting to get rid of the blue light which supposedly can keep a person from sleeping. Do any of you use a setting like that or even believe that the blue glow of the screen right before bed causes sleep problems? We have a doctor in the family that insists it is so. I'm still not convinced. Also, about the use of Ambien. I always lose the last chapter that I have read the night before.I guess the Ambien kicks in and I can't remember it. Kind of funny. Takes me forever to get through the book if I read at night.
 
Bobw235 said:
I was on Ambien for a few years and finally stopped taking it over a year ago. On more than one occasion my wife would find me having fallen asleep at my desk if I took it before getting into bed. Plus I'd have no memory of conversations we had before bed. I will say it helped me fall asleep quickly and it didn't bother me in the morning. Now I take a Melatonin (5 MG) before bed and I read for 30 minutes before shutting off the light. I find I sleep much better now. Don't tend to sleep more than 7 hours though. Get up once a night to use the bathroom and usually can fall back to sleep.
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I took Ambien a few times and it gave me the most vivid, godawful dreams -- being chased by Nazis and such. One such dream caused me to wake up in a cold sweat, heart pounding, absolutely terrified. I decided Nazis were worse than insomnia and never used it again.
 
I've had sleeping problems for a long time. I had a concussion from a car accident and the neurologist told me that is why I couldn't sleep any more. So I've been taking medicine for sleep ever since. It takes a lot of crap to put me to sleep most nights. I take melatonin, and doxepin for sleep. Many nights I still wake up several times a night and look at the clock. I noticed if I drink coffee during the day sometimes I wake up more often.
 
Butterfly said:
I took Ambien a few times and it gave me the most vivid, godawful dreams -- being chased by Nazis and such. One such dream caused me to wake up in a cold sweat, heart pounding, absolutely terrified. I decided Nazis were worse than insomnia and never used it again.
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I too can recall vivid dreams while on Ambien, but not like you have described. My mom was on Ambien for a year or two after her husband passed away. She told me a story that one time after she'd taken the pill, she saw flashing lights on her street and went outside to check them out. An ambulance had come for one of the neighbors a few houses down. The next thing she knew was waking up in her bathrobe, but in her bed. A neighbor found her wandering around that way and was kind enough to get her back to bed. Told her that she was out of it and thought she was drunk (my mom never drinks alcohol).
 
I took Ambien a few times and it gave me the most vivid, godawful dreams -- being chased by Nazis and such. One such dream caused me to wake up in a cold sweat, heart pounding, absolutely terrified. I decided Nazis were worse than insomnia and never used it again.

Okay kids, no Seroquel and back in childhood room. The house next store explodes in flames...crap
 
I have Sleep Apnea, and haven't gotten the proper treatment for a few years. It's mostly my fault. I have a BiPap machine and am also supposed to have an oxygen concentrator connected to give me extra oxygen when I sleep. I moved from Maine to Minnesota a few years ago, and need to go through the referrals to see a new sleep doctor etc. I haven't done so because I have anxiety attacks.

I feel sleepy most of the time. I try to take naps sometimes, but can't sleep. So I mostly wander around feeling half-asleep. I have to be careful. I've actually started to fall asleep while grocery shopping. And I have high blood pressure problems that I haven't addressed, again because of anxiety attacks. I just can't get my ass out of the apartment to take care of things.
 
I don't remember the last time I've slept straight through a nigh or even got more than 4 hours any given night. But, I have to share, last night, I was having a nice dream; I had watched an episode of Tiny House Nation where they loaded one of the homes on to a ship, well I had a dream, just last night that I was with them loading one of their new builds on to a ship and as we were ready to board, the ship pulled away and we didn't make it on to the the ship's platform, we plunged right off the pier heading into the water. I woke up instantly before we hit the water any all night. I hate those kinds of dreams. Well at least I did get some sleep though not much and the fright only lasted a couple of secs. :)

Anyway, most nights if I find I'm having a difficult time falling to sleep as I've mention in past discussions, I spritz my pillow with lavender oil, if that's not gonna work for whatever reason, I read a book and as a last result when I know, I'm just not going to go to sleep no matter what, I get up out of bed and find something to busy myself with till I faint. I've had 24 hour days ever so often, those are the worst, but those are cause by either extra stress or excitement good or bad anticipation of something.

But worse is when I have days I can't stay awake due to some vitamin/mineral deficiency.
 

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