Most likely, I am not getting "enough" sleep.
Conventional wisdom suggests that adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night. Most of the time, I get between 5 1/2 and 7.
Now, this is not some kind of recent development, but a life-long thing... potentially dating back all the way to my mother finding it virtually impossible to get me to take naps, as an infant.
As a kid, I didn't sleep much, either... and was often up early and "at 'em" even when I didn't need to get up for school.
I never slept much when I was at University, either. Even when I had late nights that would leave my friends dozing till noon the next day, I was typically up and roaming around at 7:30am, hangover notwithstanding.
Ultimately, I suppose the question boils down to whether or not I actually feel rested, on relatively little sleep... and the answer is often "no."
Most of my life, my "excuse" has been that I simply can't afford to sleep that much because there are too many things that needed to get done... and not enough hours.
Which, I suppose, begs the question of why I have persistently made life choices that are so time consuming, particularly in view of the fact that my preference in life is to do as little as possible.
Of course, the world is filled with good and helpful tips on how to improve your sleep, and I have tried many of them... from not eating within three hours of going to bed to avoiding screens for two or more hours before sleep and I can't really claim that anything has helped in a meaningful way.
I wouldn't even be having this discussion with myself if I didn't feel so tired so often. But I can't even be certain that my tiredness is the result of a lack of sleep... or something else.
The whole "neurotransmitter deficiency" issue I have been researching lately may also be part of the picture.
My inner clock — or circadian rhythms — are definitely a bit off, and typically at odds with the greater world. A while back, I mentioned that my natural body clock operates on a cycle of 24 hours and some extra seconds, meaning that I cycle between being a morning person and a night owl every 2-3 years or so.
At the moment, I am heading into the late phase of being a "night" person... to wit, I am writing this at 2:00 in the morning and feel pretty alert, but at 4:00 this afternoon I was really struggling to stay awake.
Makes me feel very grateful to be self-employed and working from home at things that don't revolve around clocks... except for the pervasive feeling of not having enough time.
Is it even worth worrying about sleep patterns, after all these years of just coping as best I could?
I guess I just like to check on myself to make sure I am not dealing with medical conditions that I should be worried about.
And there's also just natural curiosity...
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Created at 2025.11.15 02:10 PST
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The older I get, the more difficult it is to get a good night rest.
Most of the nights waking up 2 or 3 times. Which doesn’t help at all.
Just like you I am more a night person. But that also seems to be shifting.
Stupid thing is is that when I can sleep out, I am awake around 6.30 or 7. And when I do have to get up early to catch my train, it is hard to wake up!
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I haven't slept well for years. For me, it started with my first pregnancy, over 40 years ago. Mothers rarely get enough sleep; babies need to be fed at night, they sometimes cry a lot at night, and then teething interrupts their sleep (and mom's), and illnesses cause more sleep loss, and then another baby comes along, and it just goes on and on. About the time I was beginning to feel more rested, menopause kicked in and messed my sleep up all over.
I've read many articles about achieving and maintaining good health, and nearly all of them instruct one to get plenty of sleep. Right, like I can just order that from Amazon. If everything the "experts" say about poor sleep was true, I'd be dead by now. Instead, I take naps, try to pace myself, and make the best of it.