Bored! Bored! Leisure activities???

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kahill1918

New Member
My husband is 82 and is in good health, but due to hip and knee issues, he is not able to golf or particpate in any physical activities. He is active in AA but they don't have enough action to keep him full occupied. He reads a lot but always falls asleep and ends up napping for several hours which deprives him of sleep at night. His doctor refuses to prescribe sleeping medications and insists on his going to sleep disorder clinic instead even though it is not due to a physical reason. We live up north so we are not able to do any outdoor activity in the winter. To sum it up, he is very bored and goes to sleep (nap) instead. Any suggestions from you would be much appreciated.
 

kahill1918 said:
My husband is 82 and is in good health, but due to hip and knee issues, he is not able to golf or particpate in any physical activities. He is active in AA but they don't have enough action to keep him full occupied. He reads a lot but always falls asleep and ends up napping for several hours which deprives him of sleep at night. His doctor refuses to prescribe sleeping medications and insists on his going to sleep disorder clinic instead even though it is not due to a physical reason. We live up north so we are not able to do any outdoor activity in the winter. To sum it up, he is very bored and goes to sleep (nap) instead. Any suggestions from you would be much appreciated.
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My mum likes books of crosswords and word search puzzles and I also got her some adult colouring books with coloured pencils which she seems to like. Not sure if he would find any of those interesting enough though?
 
He needs a hobby like building something, wooden
toys or a footstool, or model aircraft, anything other
than napping.

I was in a similar situation, I am 81 years old, so to get
out of the habit I am building a solar system, different
from the ones that are on the roofs of buildings, mine
is portable, I hope to switch it on this week, it has taken
me a while to design and build it.

Get him interested in something other than books.

Mike.
 

I'm bored a lot too. There is so little to do in my town -- at least of the kind of thing I'd enjoy. And of course some things are shut down because of Covid. I tried initiating a couple of things, but there wasn't enough interest.

I already speak some Spanish, and I found an online language exchange app. I have one language partner in another country. We speak Spanish for 10 minutes and English for 10 minutes, 5 times a week. Your husband might enjoy having a long-distance buddy with a shared interest. Apps like Telegram are free.

English is very much in demand on the language exchange app. I can't help everyone personally, so I host a trivia game twice a week. It takes me several hours a week to look up new questions. I'm a trivia fan, and doing it for others adds a whole new dimension. Plus, people appreciate it, which feels good.

I like @Mike 's suggestion of building a solar system too. Not that your husband would necessarily be interested in Spanish or trivia or astronomy. But is there something that he's already interested in, that he could parlay into a structured activity, something with a goal? Instead of reading, would he be interested in writing something? For an AA publication perhaps?

It could take some stumbling around at first. If you depend on others, or try to do something for others, they can let you down or not show up, etc.

Personally, I don't like most crafts, and when someone urged me to try coloring books, that hurt my wrist.

Years ago I made piñatas to order, including cartoon characters, Santa Claus, and traditional designs. It was fun.

Selling them was fun too, although not very lucrative. If your husband likes making anything at all (even cupcakes!), he might enjoy selling them at a farmer's market or elsewhere.

I have a friend who goes all out decorating her house for every holiday. She collects decorations, enters house decorating contests, etc. Not my thing, but she gets a lot of satisfaction out of it.
 
You could play board games with him like Scrabble. Or he could go online on the AARP site which has a lot of free games.
Another thought is have him talk about his past/history and record it. Maybe have him start writing his own story.
Or, gather together the photos you have of the family and make it a project to share them with him and decide what to do with them (one other member had put photos up on the wall which looked great!).
Finally, you might want to see if there's a senior center around that he could visit and meet people.
 
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NorthernLight said:
I'm bored a lot too. There is so little to do in my town -- at least of the kind of thing I'd enjoy. And of course some things are shut down because of Covid. I tried initiating a couple of things, but there wasn't enough interest.

I already speak some Spanish, and I found an online language exchange app. I have one language partner in another country. We speak Spanish for 10 minutes and English for 10 minutes, 5 times a week. Your husband might enjoy having a long-distance buddy with a shared interest. Apps like Telegram are free.

English is very much in demand on the language exchange app. I can't help everyone personally, so I host a trivia game twice a week. It takes me several hours a week to look up new questions. I'm a trivia fan, and doing it for others adds a whole new dimension. Plus, people appreciate it, which feels good.

I like @Mike 's suggestion of building a solar system too. Not that your husband would necessarily be interested in Spanish or trivia or astronomy. But is there something that he's already interested in, that he could parlay into a structured activity, something with a goal? Instead of reading, would he be interested in writing something? For an AA publication perhaps?

It could take some stumbling around at first. If you depend on others, or try to do something for others, they can let you down or not show up, etc.

Personally, I don't like most crafts, and when someone urged me to try coloring books, that hurt my wrist.

Years ago I made piñatas to order, including cartoon characters, Santa Claus, and traditional designs. It was fun.

Selling them was fun too, although not very lucrative. If your husband likes making anything at all (even cupcakes!), he might enjoy selling them at a farmer's market or elsewhere.

I have a friend who goes all out decorating her house for every holiday. She collects decorations, enters house decorating contests, etc. Not my thing, but she gets a lot of satisfaction out of it.
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You have some great ideas!
 
palides2021 said:
You could play board games with him like Scrabble. Or he could go online on the AARP site which has a lot of free games.
Another thought is have him talk about his past/history and record it. Maybe have him start writing his own story.
Or, gather together the photos you have of he family and make it a project to share them with him and decide what to do with them (one other member had put photos up on the wall which looked great!).
Finally, you might want to see if there's a senior center around that he could visit and meet people.
Click to expand...
More great ideas!
 
I am 71 retired and often take a nap in the afternoon but to me it is no big deal. I still go to bed around 8 to 10 PM but I will get up from about 2 to 4 AM and do things around the house, on the computer, or watch TV. Sometimes I feel like I am in the army or navy again and am on guard duty or night watch. Then I go back to bed again. There is something that causes me to feel so sleepy in the afternoon that I want to take a nap and that is the pain medication that I take. Also, I try to not eat a big meal during the day because that will cause me to take a nap.
 
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Lawrence said:
I am 71 retired and often take a nap in the afternoon but to me it is no big deal. I still go to bed around 8 to 10 PM but I will get up from about 2 to 4 AM and do things around the house, on the computer, or watch TV. Sometimes I feel like I am in the army or navy again and am on guard duty or night watch. Then I go back to bed again. There is something that causes me to feel so sleepy in the afternoon that I want to take a nap and that is the pain medication that I take. Also, I try to not eat a big meal during the day because that will cause me to take a nap.
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PS: sugar can easily cause sleepiness. There is an initial rise in blood sugar levels which is followed by a crash and sleepiness.
suggestion: start giving him low cal drinks. But never hot milk except at bedtime.
 
There are two excellent free movie sites. Gomovies.com and 123movies.tw. Just select his favorite types and scan through the thousands upon thousands of films on those two sites.
Suggestion: screen "Crossfire Trail" and "Open Range" Two excellent western action films with a positive moral tale.
 
Stay active. Try reading at a public location like a library or community center.

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2019/06/414711/excessive-napping-linked-cognitive-decline-older-men

Excessive napping may be an early warning sign of age-related cognitive decline in older men, according to a 12-year study by UC San Francisco scientists. The researchers used wrist-mounted sensors to track sleep–wake habits over five days in nearly 3,000 men over the age of 65 living in community housing situations, then followed-up with cognitive assessments over the subsequent years.
older man napping on couch. The authors previously reported that men who napped for more than an hour a day at the beginning of the study were two to three times more likely to develop Parkinson's disease within 11 years. Now, a study published June 18, 2019 in Alzheimer's & Dementia extends those results to suggest that napping may also precede the risk of dementia and cognitive decline more broadly.

The study found that men who had napped for an average of two hours or more per day at the beginning of the study were 66 percent more likely to develop clinically significant cognitive impairment than men who had only napped for 30 minutes or less a day. Excessive napping was most strongly linked to later cognitive impairment in men who slept well at night, suggesting that night-time sleep disruption was unlikely to directly explain the relationship, though more subtle interactions could not be ruled out.
 
senior chef said:
PS: sugar can easily cause sleepiness. There is an initial rise in blood sugar levels which is followed by a crash and sleepiness.
suggestion: start giving him low cal drinks. But never hot milk except at bedtime.
Click to expand...
I can attest to that. If I have something that contains a lot of sugar for desert after dinner like fudge ice cream or brownies, I usually zonk out about an hour later on the couch from the sugar crash. I usually wake up right at the end of the movie or game I was trying to watch.
 
Maybe get him interested in art such as painting pictures or other art. Many artists started drawing and painting after they got older. One man I used to know made small rocking chair pin cushions out of wood. There are kits for crafts like that now.
 

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