[zzcanasta]

Hi
I’ve never had problems sleeping, but in the past 2-3 years my quality of sleep has been deteriorating. Sometimes I have trouble getting to sleep; sometimes I drift off easily, but wake up several times during the night. Probably average 4-5 hrs per night atm.
I’m a UK male in my mid-60s and in excellent health (no underlying conditions and not on meds). I’m a healthy weight, eat a good diet, exercise daily (various forms, and usually manage a 4-5 mile walk – or longer – each day as well). I don’t have money problems, have been married for 23 years and have two happy, healthy and well-adjusted grown-up children (one just finished university, one about to start). I don’t drink alcohol at all, don’t drink much coffee, don’t use a smartphone other than for calls and texts. I’ve meditated regularly for the past 15 years (and have taught mindfulness courses in the past), and am generally fairly philosophical about life, death and the universe.
I’ve followed advice about room temperature, exposure to blue light, creating a sleep routine, etc, but nothing seems to work for me.
Does anybody here have any ideas about what might be going on? And if so, what I might try as a response?
Thanks

[Chee2308]

Greetings!
Are you anxious or worried because you can’t sleep? If you are, then that’s quite possibly the reason, it’s that worry over poor sleep that keeps you up!

Or, if you aren’t, then your body just doesn’t need that much sleep anymore. Think about it for a moment. Sleep is when our bodies repair itself and also when we make ourselves most vulnerable to any attack. So ideally, the body will only make anyone sleep just enough. Or in other words, sleeping time is down time and it’s maintenance time only. If you sleep less than you used to, it simply means your body just doesn’t need that much anymore. It may be because you have taken so well of yourself, by eating well, keeping a healthy weight and cultivating healthy habits.

Try to pay less attention to your sleep and go by how you feel about yourself and during the day. People usually sleep their best when they don’t think much about it and therefore not chasing it. When it comes to sleep, it’s often thinking that there’s a problem that becomes the problem! Good luck and best wishes.

[zzcanasta]

Hi, Chee2308. Thanks for your comments. I’m not particularly anxious or worried about not sleeping so well, but was curious to know if this is something that is common and – if so – what might be causing it. The lack of sleep does affect me in a couple of ways – eg I sometimes feel lethargic and sleepy all day (even not long after getting up), and occasionally have felt so overwhelmingly tired that I’ve dozed off while doing something else, which is not like me at all.
I’m not sure that I need less sleep than I did before, as I feel at my best after 7-8 hrs sleep, when my energy lasts me right through the day.

[Chee2308]

Greetings to you.
Unfortunately sleep is not something that anyone has any control over. Your current sleep pattern may have something to do with aging as people do sleep less as they get older. What you could do is try to strengthen your sleep-awake cycle by going and getting out of bed at a consistent times. Resist the urge to nap at other times. Try this for a few weeks and see if your body responds favorably. If it doesn’t, then allow less time for nocturnal sleep at night plus take a midday nap to get you through the rest of the day. A greater frequency of older people do tend to take naps too so like I said, this may be due to aging which unfortunately you can’t do anything about. Whatever the outcome, I wish you the best and thank you for participating in this forum.

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