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I’ve always had trouble sleeping. It started in high school. I lived in Manhattan and I attended private school in the Bronx. It took over an hour each way to get to school. Which meant I had to be up at 5am. For a teenager who enjoyed staying up til almost midnight, this wreaked havoc on my circadian rhythm. Needless to say, my college habits didn’t help much either. I started to take “Actifed” which worked like Benadryl just to help me get to sleep. Fast forward to marriage and children–who really mess with your sleep schedule–now a divorced mom, I still cannot get it together. My average sleep in one night is about 5.5 hours. I’m not sure if I’ve created a new normal for myself or if I’ve adapted to living like a zombie. I keep googling how much sleep is actually required because I want to stop feeling bad for myself that I’m not treating my body correctly. But no matter how many searches I do, no site says that I’m getting enough sleep. I’m 40 years old. I don’t want to keep damaging my body. Please help!
Welcome to the forum, Lucichic. It’s quite upsetting how difficult we make it for our school-aged children to sleep. Fortunately, there is a campaign to delay school start times and it’s slowly gathering momentum. As you recognized, forcing children to wake early in the day not only leads to less sleep, it can set our children up for sleep issues well into adulthood.
Although five-and-a-half hours of sleep at night isn’t ideal, it’s generally thought that a minimum of around five-and-a-half hours of sleep provides us with the absolute minimum ‘core sleep’ that we need. Of course, it’s usually good to get more sleep than that — but since we can’t control how long we sleep for, it can be comforting and reassuring to simply recognize that five-and-a-half hours can often be enough.
Can you tell us a bit more about your sleep? When do you normally go to bed and when do you normally get out of bed? Do you tend to find it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, or both? What do you think is keeping you awake at night?
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Clarity program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
On weekdays, I try to get to bed between 10-11. I wake up at 5:30am. On Friday/Saturday nights or any day I will be off the next day, (I’m a teacher so that happens often), I go to bed between 12-1:30am and wake up between 7:30-9. Usually it’s because I’m out having a few drinks. I’m also in a band so gigs end around 11:30-1am. (Which happens about once a month). If I have rehearsal, I’m not in bed til midnight on a school night and I’m up at 5:45 (I try to squeeze in 15 more minutes.)
When I wake up, it’s usually around 5:15-5:30 am even on the weekends and it’s very difficult for me to fall back asleep. I start hearing music in my head, very loudly; I also start thinking about my kids, bills, work, responsibilities, my health-and the fact that I’m NOT sleeping or just any pressing issue at the moment. This happens daily.
I take melatonin or CBD oils at night so that I can sleep deeper and fall asleep faster and try to stay asleep. So yes, my issue is both falling asleep and staying asleep.
I do find that when I work out i sleep better but i don’t always have time for the gym.
I know what my issues are: alcohol, lack of routine, lack of consistent physical exercise. Right?
Those issues definitely sound as though they’d be a good starting point — what is stopping you from tackling them?
—If you are ready to stop struggling with insomnia you can enroll in the online insomnia coaching course right now! If you would prefer ongoing phone or video coaching calls as part of a powerful three month program that will help you reclaim your life from insomnia, consider applying for the Insomnia Clarity program.
The content of this post is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied.
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