Sleep

[Captain Phil]

I'm 77 and consider myself healthy for my age. Good sleep is one of the most important factors in your health, especially when you get older.  I head for the bedroom around 9 PM every night and get up anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30 AM.  I also take a short nap in the afternoon after lunch.   Getting up to go to the bathroom is a constant problem.  I started taking Flomax last year and it definitely helps.  After my back operation three years ago, I started using a pee bottle.  I don't use it anymore, but I can see why someone like me would want to.  Your body needs time to rest and rebuild itself.  Your brain reorganizes itself when you dream.  Six hours a night or less is not enough.  You may get away with this for a time, but it will take it's toll down the road. 

[Bird]

12 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

I’m lucky that I’m a good sleeper. I can fall asleep on a concrete slab at a Metallica concert. When I lay down I am asleep within seconds. I can function on 4 hours, but I try for at least 7. If I have 8+ hours of sleep there is nothing I can’t do lol 

Metallica concert got me.

My wife has been saying for years that she's never seen anything like it...... I'm asleep inside of 10 seconds, motels, RVs while she's watching TV, doesn't matter.

[volzfan59]

I am very fortunate, I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, my beautiful wife isn't so lucky. She has sleep issues. Anyway, I go to bed around 2200 (10:PM), get up at 0630 through the week, might sleep in on the weekends until 0800. That's all depending on if I'm going fishing, then I get up earlier.

@clayton86, congratulations on cutting back on the energy drinks. For anyone else that drinks several energy drinks daily, please be careful with them. One of my former Deputies on my watch drank three to four of them daily. Had a heart attack at 33. He was the picture of health, Marine, worked out every day, ate right, etc. His MD warned him to stop drinking them, heck we all stayed after him about it. Dave didn't listen, had another heart attack 34, didn't make it. We're all adults and as always to each his own. Just please be careful. Personally I won't touch them.

[Skunkmaster-k]

10 pm - 6:30 am , usually . Time change throws me off for a while, but then I get back into my rut. 

[throttleplate]

5 hours ago, gimruis said:

Come on.  The men's room can't be more than 15 feet from your bed and you're peeing in a bedside bottle?  I don't buy that.

 

I'd hate to get thirsty during the night and take a swig of the wrong bottle...

 

I know you know that i have accidently drank my own pee from my pee bottle which is the same as my regular drinking bottles that are used gatorade bottles i have lined up on the nightstand.

My bathroom is 15 feet or so from my bed, i pee into bottle at times because if i walk to the toilet and pee my aim is off and my squirt hits the rim like a missed 3 pointer and if i sit down sometimes i actually fall asleep and catch myself from falling off toilet, no turning on light when using bottle.

I have had many surgeries which limited my mobility at that time so the bottle came into play, just like laying in a hospitol bed they dont want you to get up so they give you the plastic pee container.

Also during my military days during training and having to sleep in our foxhole, camping days instead of getting out of my pickup topper where i had my air mattress and was all cozy or if i was sleeping in my tent the bottle or milk carton came in handy.

[TnRiver46]

Fall asleep on a toilet but not while peeing into a bottle in the dark. 🤔 

 

you ever think about making some kind of silent B film ? Maybe like MASH but worse ? 

[throttleplate]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Fall asleep on a toilet but not while peeing into a bottle in the dark. 🤔 

 

you ever think about making some kind of silent B film ? Maybe like MASH but worse ? 

 

Some of them bottles have sharp inside edges. Not a movie but I did years ago ask my wife while we were living in the philippines if we should sign up for the "90 Day Fiance" reality tv show.

We wernt married yet just dating and i am sure I could have put some great footage on screen as the weird american in a foreign country. Like the time I asked her father for his permission to marry his daughter, no one around understood english.

[A-Jay]

17 hours ago, throttleplate said:

 sometimes just pee in an empty water bottle 

 

3 hours ago, throttleplate said:

 

i have accidently drank my own pee

 

56 minutes ago, throttleplate said:

Some of them bottles have sharp inside edges.

Wisdom has been chasing you your whole life,

but you have always been faster.

A-Jay

[throttleplate]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Wisdom has been chasing you your whole life,

but you have always been faster.

 

Excellant quote, best quote of 2024 on these forums, you deserve this sir,

 

 

 

 

[cheezyridr]

when i was in my 20's i had a period of extreme stress.  i was narcoleptic for a while.  you can't imagine how weird it is to be in the middle of talking to someone, while standing up,  and know that any second now, you were going to just...shut off, and you can't stop it. 

i'll be 59 next week,  and i rarely get more than 5 hrs in a row. in bed by 11, up at 4:50.  on the weekends, i don't really know. i usually pass out in the easy chair somewhere between 10 and midnite, then i'm up in time to go in the bedroom and shut off my alarm clock.  

when i was married, the wife  HATED  that i could sleep immediately after laying down.  apparently, she had a hard time getting to sleep, and did not find my snoring to be an endearing quality.  some women are temperamental i guess.  

21 hours ago, throttleplate said:

why are so many of us gettin up to pee? i also have to get up to pee and sometimes just pee in an empty water bottle saving the walk.

 

[TnRiver46]

@cheezyridr, my wife is the same way, she lays down to go to bed and gets the zoomies, I’m totally dead to the world, and She texts me the weird things I say in my sleep so she doesn’t forget by morning 😂 . One time I kept telling her not to put the boat into reverse because my buddy Cheatham was underneath it. She asked me how I knew he was underneath the boat and my sleep reply was “I can smell him!”

as for the snoring , normally if someone rolls me over I stop (from what I’m told). If not the guest bedroom is always available, it can be a wife’s best friend once you’ve been together several years haha

 

[throttleplate]

when i cannot fall asleep i dont hesitate, i get out of bed go upstairs and eat a big bowl of cereal and then go back to bed and fall to sleep.

[TOXIC]

First, I am a night owl.  Always have been.  I attribute it to my lifestyle early on where one of my hobbies had me in bars and clubs most every night.  I wouldn’t get to bed before 2am and normally up at 6 or 7.  Then I had a job where I worked 3:30 to midnight.  That further messed up my sleeping habits.  I can sleep on command but I have still not lost my night owl circadian rhythm and it’s very easy for me to stay up as long as I want.  Except fishing.  When on our week long combat fishing trips, it’s not unusual for me to hit the hay at 7:30-8pm and be up at 6am.  When I worked in Washington, D.C. and commuted, I was up until 12:30-1am and then up at 4am due to the commute.  Now that I’m retired, the first part is still true but I don’t have to get up until I’m ready.  That’s nice.  

[LrgmouthShad]

The National Sleep Foundation does not approve of my habits. I will try to make up for sleep that I miss, but it does not always happen. 
 

That being said I slept for 10.5 hours last night and almost feel like a million bucks 

[cheezyridr]

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

@cheezyridr, my wife is the same way, she lays down to go to bed and gets the zoomies, I’m totally dead to the world, and She texts me the weird things I say in my sleep so she doesn’t forget by morning 😂 . One time I kept telling her not to put the boat into reverse because my buddy Cheatham was underneath it. She asked me how I knew he was underneath the boat and my sleep reply was “I can smell him!”

 

 

man, i got such a good laugh from that!  reminded me of an old girlfriend way back in the day.  she said i sat up in bed one night and explained how love is like the valvetrain on a v8. 

😆

[clayton86]

I seem to feel worse when I get more sleep. Sunday and Monday nights I can actually get to bed at a decent time since fiancé doesn’t work those night and I don’t hunt since I work in the morning. Nights I get to bed and get around 7-8hrs of sleep or more I struggle to get up and fight sleep all day. Night I only get 3-4 alarm goes off and I’m up no snoozing alarm and struggling through day being tired. More sleep = feeling exhausted all day, less sleep = feeling great. 

[TnRiver46]

@clayton86, if that f150 didn’t get ya, I don’t think a little

less shut eye will ! 

[12poundbass]

On 2/12/2024 at 3:24 PM, throttleplate said:

have had many surgeries which limited my mobility at that time so the bottle came into play, just like laying in a hospitol bed they dont want you to get up so they give you the plastic pee container.

When I was going through my cancer treatments I had to stay in the hospital a week at a time and home two weeks. When there I had to pee in the bottle. It took me a few times of waking up, feet hitting the cold tile floor before I decided to try the pee in bed deal. Best thing ever!!!! I was glad to be done with chemo but sad that I had to start going to the bathroom in the middle of the night again. 

14 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

She texts me the weird things I say in my sleep so she doesn’t forget by morning 😂

When my wife is sick she’ll talk in her sleep. I’ll text her what she says so I don’t forget what she says. The things she says is so hilarious and out of this world! 😂

[clayton86]

18 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

@clayton86, if that f150 didn’t get ya, I don’t think a little

less shut eye will ! 

Yeah it’s crazy that was 5 years ago wouldn’t even know it looking at me either hair covers the scars on my head and I’ve always got pants and shirt on so can’t see the other scars. Limps gone speech and memory is back other than the accident but other than that I’ve made full recovery. Heck typing this thinking bout it since going back to the gym for the past month even my hip pain/discomfort is gone for the most part.

[Catt]

On 2/11/2024 at 1:51 PM, A-Jay said:

Is there really a valid excuse for not to getting enough sleep ?

 

Three ruptured disc's,  torn ligaments, arthritis, bursitis, the list goes on.

 

Since 2008 my body refuses to allow me to lay down for more than 3-4 hours. Sitting is 2-2 1/2 hours, standing or walking ain't much better. I'm constantly going from standing to seating to laying down.

 

I have no say so in the matter, I do what my body allows me to do. 

 

Now I will sneak in a nap 😴 

[Koz]

I was getting 5-7 hours of sleep each night and much of that was a restless sleep. One problem is that when I’m up, I’m up. I usually can’t fall back asleep.

 

But three weeks ago I gave up eating sugar. No sweets, no food with sugar except maybe a piece of fruit. If the label says it has sugar or added sugars I put it back. My beverages were already sugar free. So now it’s lean meats, vegetables, and rice. For snacks it’s things like nuts or a few pretzels. 

 

While it’s not an ingrained habit yet, it’s easier than I thought since I don’t eat out and I’m an OK cook.

 

I have noticed that I am sleeping better, getting 7-8 hours of sleep most nights. I also fall asleep quicker, which is nice.

[A-Jay]

2 hours ago, Catt said:

 

Three ruptured disc's,  torn ligaments, arthritis, bursitis, the list goes on.

 

Since 2008 my body refuses to allow me to lay down for more than 3-4 hours. Sitting is 2-2 1/2 hours, standing or walking ain't much better. I'm constantly going from standing to seating to laying down.

 

I have no say so in the matter, I do what my body allows me to do. 

 

Now I will sneak in a nap 😴 

Very sorry to hear that @Catt - pretty sure that's tough sledding.

In my response above I noted that I am usually able to get decent nights sleep.

But that has quite a bit to do with my lot in life Now.

Back in the day, the 'service life style" I lived didn't really place sleep as a top priority.

So bouncing around a sea for weeks on end, long hours of Search & Rescue, Extended Law Enforcement boardings at sea (usually at night) and then the 100 hour work weeks as a DI,

had me in a perpetual state of sleep deprivation for years, literally. 

But seems when we're 'young' it doable - but clearly not ideal.

Now that the circus is over and I am actually able to meet my needs sleep wise,

I can most certainly tell/feel the difference.

It's night & day - get it ?

Stay well my friend.

A-Jay