Sleeping’s for Wimps… and Old Guys Apparently…


I’ve always been a nocturnal living in the world of early risers.

High School – Working nights at the movie theater and graveyard at the radio station started this 25 year habit as I still had to get up and go to school. I’d steal naps anywhere (class, work, the dinner table) to subsidize my standard two hours in an actual bed. If I found sleep before 4 in the morning on a school night, it may have been in the town paper.

Twenties – Still pretty much indestructible. Sayings like “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” and “Sleepin’s for woosies.” often came out of my mouth. More graveyard and night work helped that along, but even when I had a regular morning gig I’d find myself awake at 4 lamenting how I had to get up early. When I married my love I found she was just as nocturnal and that did not help my sleeping habits. I’d say I averaged 3 ½ hours a night.

Thirties – Now we have four kids instead of two. Now our house is chaos all the time. Our pace of life has increased, maybe even doubled. I changed careers. My love went and got a college degree (in a town an hour away.) It was wild, erratic and wonderful. And I didn’t want to miss a minute. Still, again, staying up late was the norm, although I think I probably got it up to four hours on the average.

Now I’m 42… now, in just the last couple of weeks something troubling has happened. Three separate times my alarm has gone off in the morning and I have turned it off and gone back to sleep. That does not happen. No matter how little sleep I get I am always up when that buzzer hits my brain.

Could it be that my body is finally done with so few zzzz’s? More and more I am hitting the hay before midnight (very, very early for this guy) and sleeping a full six hours.

Six hours!? Really? Aren’t older folk supposed to be able to get by with less sleep? In my case I should be taking a 30-minute nap and be up and good to go.

But I’m afraid it’s true. Sleep, and I mean Sleep with a capital ‘S’ is a little pissed that I have ignored her for so long. Time to buck up and pay attention.

Aye Aye Captain Sandman

Cheers,

Casey

Comments

  1. Nancy Barrett29/4/10 23:07

    Sleep is extremely important, Casey. Definitely not for wimps. I used to think the same thing, but I guess it caught up to me earlier than it caught up to you! Sleep is our brain and body's way of rejuvenating and growing. Give in to the sleep and surrender; your mind will become sharper and you'll feel better eventually.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown30/4/10 00:07

    I love to sleep.
    I slept as much as I could when I was younger.
    I still sleep more than 8 hours a day now. Which is 2 hours more than recommended, as you already know.
    Beauty sleep is not a myth.
    I still retain my youth (beauty, lol) now because of SLEEP.
    Sleep Casey, Sleep.
    Go play with the fairies :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Casey Freeland30/4/10 07:10

    You're so right Nancy. Hard habits to let go of, but I know I'd feel better in the long run.

    Shadow, that doesn't surprise me a bit. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. CiCi30/4/10 07:23

    For so many years I worked and raised three kids and slept at least 6 hours each night. Eight if I got lucky. Now that I am older and not working, I sometimes sleep six or seven hours and then sometimes I don't. There is no longer a scheduled sleep. I sit up and read half the night. Or I sleep a couple hours and then get up and blog. If I get tired in the day I take a half hour nap or even a whole hour nap. Life is good. I think that you are noticing a change in what your body wants. It is possible that you will go through more changes as your life progresses. You did mention that you changed jobs a few years back. That may have something to do with a need to change sleep habits too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Casey Freeland30/4/10 14:49

    I love your sleeping habits. Just go with whatever you body asks. That's awesome. Last night I fell asleep in my chair at 9:30, woke up at 12:30, went back to sleep at 3:30 and got up at 6:30. I guess that's six hours. Haha

    ReplyDelete

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