How much sleep do you need or have

About 7 hours generally, though I often get up to the loo anywhere between 1 and 3 times. I listen to an audio book with a 30 minute timer and I'm often asleep before the 30 mins is up (and have to run my book back a bit next time.) It's soothing having someone actually read to you, like being a child again . . . I'm sleeping quite well at the moment, but I do have spells of insomnia here and there which sometimes last for weeks. Usually if there's something on my mind.

Those taking melatonin.....I thought you couldn’t buy it in the U.K. Are you elsewhere?

Five hours solid tends to be the norm but I then dip in and out of something which I can only describe as 'more shallow'. Quite happy lying there horizontal and cosy with no urgency to physically surface.

Have never been able to drop off straight away I go to bed at 12ish still awake at 1, lucky I only need 6 hours but it can be broken sleep.

I always read in bed and play one game of scrabble on my phone, turn out the light about midnight, then sleep until about 7,45 ish. So that's pretty good really.
I used to sleep badly until I started taking amitriptyline 10mg.
I sometimes have to get up once in the night, but that's not bad for my age.

Ohhhhhhhh How lovely to hear how some of you manage to sleep well. Since early menopause I've rarely slept for more than five hours. On the very odd occasion I've managed seven hours and have felt absolutely remarkable next day - doc prescribed sleeping pills and when absolutely essential, I take half or quarter, but prefer not to. Love hearing about other people's experiences!

Go to bed about 1 am and get up at 8 am after having to get up for wee couple of times. Then liable to fall asleep during the day watching TV or reading. Being in constant pain is tiring.

I was having very broken sleep and was constantly fatigued until I started taking a magnesium supplement. Now I sleep a good 8 hours.

Chewy I'm exactly the same as you. A good night is when I get up to use the bathroom only 2 or 3 times, but it's normally around 4-5 times. A bad night (probably once a week) has me trotting to the loo 7-8 times ?

Yes, surviving on a series of cat naps sums it up so well.

Go to bed between 10 & 10.30. Read for an hour or so then trip to bathroom. Sleep almost straight away. Wake when my cat comes in cold from checking the street out at 3ish. When she curls up I wriggle by her to the bathroom. Back to sleep if she is still in bed but takes couple of hours sometimes if she is not there. Thats when it is hard to get up in the morning until I need the bathroom again. So lot of broken sleep & tired all day. Lockdowns have made it worse as I sometimes cannot see the point in not going back to bed as it is cold wet miserable & I will see no one or go anywhere. Roll on Spring when I feel much better & not need so much sleep!

I usually go to bed between 10 and 11, and read. Depending on the story and my level of tiredness I can read between 10 minutes and 30 minutes until I am fast asleep, usually until 8 a.m. I used to read normal books and would be awake enough to put the book down, but now I find them too heavy, so read my Kindle, and have on occasion found myself waking with a short, sharp smack in the face when the device drops!

I also take a magnesium supplement but my sleep is terrible, this morning I was awake at 3:30 went to the loo, couldn’t get back to sleep so read for about 45 minutes still found it difficult to drop off. I used to be a sound sleeper but not anymore...... and I’m usually up at least twice during the night to go to the bathroom..?

Went to bed at 8 last night, totally wacked and slept until 8 this morning. Usually go to bed 10 and wake up about 7.30 or 8 but every now and again i just need more sleep and last night was one of them

Very bad sleeper. Never stopped having night sweats post menopause.

I too have sleep envy! I've never been the best sleeper, even as a child I often lay awake most of the night. Nowadays 5-6 hours is a really good night. I also have fibromyalgia & apparently I wake during non REM sleep and therefore don't have enough slow wave sleep.

Henetha I have just started on 10mg Amitriptyline ( sleep and fibromyalgia problems) I do hope it helps.
I am interested if anyone else has tried magnesium that helped sleep and what type/ brand.

I go to bed at about 2 in the morning, read for varying periods of time. I wake up at about 6 for a wee, and again at about 9. I do that for a while and then find I sleep through til about 11. You'd think I'd feel more refreshed on those days but I feel even more wrecked than usual. I'd love to be an early bird at both ends of the day but if I go to bed early, I find I just can't get back to sleep when I wake up at about 4 in the morning until just before the alarm goes off.
My children were really good sleepers as children but my grandaughter is as bad as I am.

I hope it works as well for you as it does for me, JanetE
Mine are for sleep, anxiety and depression problems.
I don't know much about magnesium, but good luck with that.
Fibromyalgia is horrible.

I usually go to bed at about 1 am, go to sleep after about half
and hour, wake up for the bathroom at 3 or 4, and sometimes once more. I'm usually awake by about 7 but wont get up
until 8. Last night ( freezing night) my humane mouse trap caught a mouse at 3 am and I took it out by car to a field about a mile away. I let it out into a corner and turned around to get back in the car only to slip on the ice and fall heavily. It was difficult to get up due to the ice and I fell twice more. Finally managed to get up, got back in car, drove home, and discovered that not only was my nightie covered in mud, also my coat and shoes, but my legs and hands were also heavily muddied. I had to get into the shower to clean off and then had to get a clean nightie. During this palaver I discovered that my hand and knee were cut and bleeding, and various parts were bruised. I managed to finally get to bed about an hour later. Woke up at about 8 this morning to feel aches and pains everywhere. Oh well, I survived, and probably the poor mouse froze to death... humane trap my foot!

We go to bed around 12.30 ani i usually read til around 2am then get up around 6.30 ish. Sometimes have a nap after lunch

I am a long term insomniac. I tend to have 6 to 8 weeks of insomnia followed by 4 to 6 weeks of sleeping quite well. I am currently - and blissfully - in a sleep period! I go to bed, read a bit then snuggle down and sleep. I have to get up to go to the loo once, usually, then go back to sleep. I've turned off all and any alarms and can sleep through till 8.30am if I'm lucky. All my working life I got up at 5.30 to 6am so this is luxury!! Insomniac periods will see me going to bed at 11, snuggling down, reading a bit, possibly falling asleep for about half an hour, then getting up again if I can't get back to sleep after half an hour. Those nights are spent reading, watching TV, sometimes doing something useful like cleaning out cupboards, entertaining the cat, surfing the net. I have tried everything over the years including heavy duty sleeping tablets, but nothing worked, and prescription medication made me feel awful all day. So I have given in gracefully. I thoroughly enjoy my sleeping weeks and don't worry any more about the insomniac periods. I can always snooze in the afternoon in front of the TV pretending to watch something silly - so glad I've got Netflix and Prime!!

Like you I need at least 8 hours, I go to sleep as soon as I'm in bed and don't get up but I am a night owl and always have been. Some years ago I was diagnosed with sleep apnoea (my partner at the time said I used to stop breathing and he used to be waiting for me to start again) . Apparently I wasn't bad enough to give any treatment but it sounds like the lack of oxygen can make you feel tired how ever many hours you get. Thinking back I was never good on a morning so think it has always been a problem. There's no one to tell me now if I am still the same but it concerns me sometimes as it says sleep apnoea can sometime impact on other illnesses.
At the end of the day I think you sleep as long as you need to and at least now I'm not working don't have to set the alarm unless I'm going anywhere (which is most days at the moment). I always seem to wake after about 8 hours regardless of what time I go to bed.

I go to bed about 9.00 and watch TV or read until about 10.00. I normally drop off quickly and until recently slept until 7.00 - 8.00.

More recently I have some worries about one of my children and although I drop off at the same time, I’m waking between 3.00-4.00am for quite a while. My head is busy turning things over and getting back to sleep for any length of time is rather challenging although I do usually manage another couple of hours.

I’m hoping that the issues could be resolved to some degree but I may have to just live with it. Getting back to a regular sleep pattern would help as well.

I'm more use after 7 hrs which I was getting until a health issue crept up on me. Saturday night I had 2 hours - that was getting to sleep after 6 am!! Often it will be 3 am. I can't get up or the dog decided she wants a wee outside whatever the weather.
Trying hard to get back to my 7 hours!!

Calandergirl,how pleased I was to read your answer today,I have very vivid dreams not nighmares, but when I waken I dont know if they are real or not, this is very disturbing, but you say Statins can cause this, I am on them, if only it was so simple, thank you, I shall talk to my Doctor and hope at last I will be able to have a nights sleep without these vivid dreams. Thank you.