Remembering Insomnia prior to retirement

[MichiganGreg]

Sounds like we are all in the same boat. I have a really hard time sleeping, and now, changing to a different sleep schedule from work. For the last seven years, I was up at 5:00am to get ready to go to work, and arrived home between 6-7pm. I hated that schedule; I am not a morning person, never was until recently. Now I have a hard time sleeping past 4am.

When I was a musician before college, my work schedule was all nights. For years, I worked three shows a night: 9pm, 11pm, 1am. Then the band was off to rehearsal until 5am, breakfast and bed. When I finally dropped that routine and went to college, I easily worked graveyard (10pm to 6am) for another 4 1/2 years so I could go to school and work. After college, It took years to get to a 'normal' sleep cycle (whatever that is). Now I am stuck in limbo between the two worlds. Get tired at 8:30pm, can't sleep past 4am. This is the worst cycle of all.

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

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I've been taking this "relax and sleep" formula I got at Walmart over the past few weeks and it's been able to keep me in a more restful sleep without constant waking up.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Spring-Va...0-Ct/469535750

Thanks for the tip; Melatonin doesn't work for me, I will try that.

[bigbuglf]

Great topic meo! This is something I am really looking forward to when I retire (3 more weeks!!). Sleep! I get up at 4:30 because I have a long commute. Sometimes I wake up at 3 and then can't go back to sleep because I know that #@$%! alarm is going to go off soon.

I have to go to bed so early that falling asleep can be difficult too, especially on Sunday nights. I've found the 4-7-8 breathing exercise actually helps sometimes. https://www.drweil.com/videos-featur...demonstration/

[brava4]

Not retired yet but look forward to not having to get up for a 12hr shift after a sleepless night. Ugh!!


My sleep issues started with the joyous menopause and just went downhill after that. It's very frustrating and hopefully after I retire it get easier. I don't mind trying to function after a sleepless night when I don't have to be at work.

[LivingDeadGirl]

I have a weird sleep disorder and LOVE the night. All thru my life, I only slept every few nights or so. As a baby child, in my crib, I can remember being bored and screaming and calling out, just to get someone to come to me, to relieve my boredom. What an evil child I was! This weird sleep thing served me well in other ways: as a cop, I loved and volunteered for graveyard shifts. I also could work multiple jobs, staying awake easily over 36 hours. And then, as a stripper, same sort of thing. Now that I am totally retired and not working.... it is the same sort of thing.

Some folks are just wired to stay awake, or not need much in the way of sleep. I have a form of catelepsy, also, the weird, can't go into REM for hours and hours, and I move like 40+ times an hour. Not really a problem - I just deal with it.