Tiredness and ageing

I've given up full-time teaching and now work as an online tutor. I do have a lot more energy. I also have only had two migraines this year (at their peak, they were monthly) and have no problems sleeping anymore. I've been a life-long insomniac, so this is huge for me.

I AM still bl**dy exhausted, but I look after my 4 year old DGS as well as working, which is why.

I agree with others on here. We're not meant to slave at 60. In China, a lot of people retire at 50. I do think that is a bit young, but about 55 sounds right to me. Or at the very least, to be able to cut down to 50%. Unfortunately, for most of us who are under 60, we will be 67 before we can retire.

My OH was a college lecturer - worn out by the relentlessness of the job and the demands of both departmental staff and students. (He once got an email at 2 am asking for advice on what to revise for exam which started at 9 am that morning!) He retired with great joy.

I carried on for a bit longer but finally realised that I just didn't have enough energy to keep up with my class of 5/6 year olds any more. I retired at 62 and now have plenty of energy to do the things I enjoy.

Like you we had no health problems and just seemed to be locked into a sleep - work - sleep cycle.
Hope you manage to get a decent battery recharge over the Summer.

You aren't alone. Work definitely becomes harder and more exhausting as you get older. I did a manual job and had to stop before I was 60, I just couldn't keep up the necessary pace physically.

Something I find gives me more energy is to keep well hydrated. When I don't drink plenty of water I really flag.

Are you, perhaps, not getting the right kind of sleep? Sometimes I wake up and realise straight away that I haven’t had enough sleep. And if I haven’t I end up achieving absolutely nothing and eat lots of sugary food. So if I can I go back to bed, put on my Paul McKenna sleep tape on, go to sleep almost straight away then wake up an hour or so later feeling totally refreshed and ready to face the day. Last night I stupidly drank a cup of tea that wasn’t decaf and spent two hours trying to get to sleep; result was I was shattered when I woke up.

Thank you for your comments, advice and solidarity!

I am the only wage earner with another 5 years or so to pay off the mortgage. I think when there’s two people earnings available it allows some flexibility to go part time or to be able to make different choices and make them earlier

Though I’m by no means miserable about it all - just finding it a little tiring

Sounds like you have a very high pressure job OP and work hard. No wonder you are tired, both physically and mentally. I retired at 60 in Sept but to be honest I missed work and have now gone back on the bank, where I work a few shifts a month. I love being back and I actually find that it keeps me more energised than filling my time with other things (however nice they are) The stress of day to day working has gone and I can now enjoy it more. I couldn’t afford to do this without my husband’s support though. If you could do this you’d get the best of both worlds. Good luck!

damek1ndness

I’ve just hit 60 and working full time ( and will need to be until state pension kicks in ) my job as a lecturer is quite flexible and I WFH three days a week and around two days a week I’m on my feet teaching I like my job.

I’m absolutely exhausted most of the time - no health issues/long covid - I sleep like a baby most nights and in bed by 9pm AIBU to just accept that working full time in your 60’s is just exhausting? I feel like my life consists of working, recovering from working and sleeping!

I found your post interesting as I am a male, 73 years, and been retired 9 years (retired at 64).

21 years ago I suffered heart failure and was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy at the time. I have also been living with atrial fibrilation for many years.

I only mention the above as, generally, in all that time, I had mostly lived a near normal life (supported by a cocktail of pills, including warfarin!). Not over tired and able to walk quite a few miles at a time, even when working full-time.

It is really only in the past 2 years that I have begun to notice a difference. I have become more inclined to become tired easily. Being a keen gardener, I could once spend all day in the garden, now it is no more than an hour or two and I feel physically tired. I recently had a blood test and a chest xray as a result of seeing my doctor about it and both were 100% clear. Like you. I sleep like a log most nights and, on average, am in bed by 10-10.30 and up by 7.30am latest. My other problem is feeling very cold when the air temperature is not that low.

I do think we are all different and react to aging in different ways. I would suggest that, if you don't have any underlying health issues, you are probably correct in suggesting that working full-time in your 60's IS exhausting. Having said that, my other half still works full time (she has just turned 64), rarely gets to bed before 11.00 - midnight, and sleeps around 6 hours each night (she has to be at work at 7am) and always seems to have loads more energy than me, which rather proves my point that people vary greatly!

Hope you can retire soon and feel better then. :-)

I was a teacher and permanently exhausted. Ate well and slept well, but felt really old. Doctors couldn’t help. I read a book about the paleo diet and as I had nothing to lose I gave it a go. After about 3 weeks I felt so much better! So I started reintroducing various foods and discovered that I am gluten intolerant. It might be worth giving it a try.

? damek1ndness
Keep checking your pension. Put in for a promotion and get someone who "bigs themself up" to look over/rewrite it before you do. Each notch will make early retirement more do-able.
Do what the greasy-pole-climbers do for the next 12 months and I bet it yields an earlier retirement.

My husband took voluntary severance and after a period of just recovering is now generally as happy as the day is long.
Count the days!

@NotSpaghetti You are absolutely spot on and I could have written that myself! There is likely a psychological component

I think for the sake of my pension I will need to stay where I am and early retirement would mean being very short of money during a cost of living crisis

I am gradually learning to view my career as just a paid job rather than something I might also receive joy and pleasure from. Too many students, too few staff and insufficient resources have stopped all that

If you are working for a university I would hazard a guess that you are under enormous pressure from the "system" which is day by day, eroding the options and trust in the academic staff in favour of "bums on seats". They are pushing staff harder and harder and if you don't have a really protective head-of-school you can have been functioning for years under extremely stressful conditions
This sounds like chronic fatigue which a doctor I know once said was common in high-achieving people in industry and in academia.

Being a lecturer now is not the job you signed up for if you have taught for any length of time. I know several academics who have retired early/left lecturing altogether because of the exhaustion. They are the ones who always gave 100%, to whom students and other staff members would come in crisis and to whom people would turn for extra curricular assistance.

What to do is the issue.
That really is up to you- I would consider a career change if I was in your position.
?

I wonder if you can address your diet? I know that too much sugar and carbohydrates make me lethargic and I have a lot more energy when I’ve cut them down. It’s horrid to be feeling tired all the time and although GPS see a lot of this TATT, after blood tests etc, there’s not much they can do ( this from a GP friend).

Sorry just read about you have had blood tests, when I have my results down I write them down, not saying you haven't, so if he didn't do a liver function test , apologies if he has ask if you can have one

Make an appointment/ telephone appointment to see your doctor, I felt totally fatigued last year, my liver function was extremely high, also could be low in iron, thyroid anything , but blood tests will find things out then can be treated ... all the best

damek1ndness

I’ve been to the GP and bloods all within normal limits and no active health issues. Perhaps I just need to build some more resilience

Even if they are in normal limits , if you are at the lower end of normal you could be suffering...when you say bloods did that include vit D, calcium, magnesium, cholesterol vit B12...these are often not routinely tested....just the usual kidney liver, iron etc.... my vit D was in normal limits but only just...my GPprescribed a supplement and my energy levels have improved

I did 3 days a week till I was 62 as a nurse and childcare on top of that 1 or 2 days. Was pretty tired - aching back, legs. Was on my feet or kneeling and treating patients most of working day. Retired and did a bit more childcare then Covid and lockdowns hit. Childminder stopped so pretty much 4 day a week child care for a baby. Sometimes mummy came home to baby sleeping on top of a sleeping granny, supervised by an amused papa! I do think that your tiredness is a little excessive but you are full time so that probably explains it. Don't worry about it. You need as much sleep as your body dictates. Your GP has excluded health issues so go with the flow.

I’ve always needed more sleep than most people. I was lucky in that I was able to retire at 62 as I felt that, had I continued working I’d just be working and sleeping. Pre pandemic ( when I was @ 67) I was finding that looking after my grandchildren for any length of time exhausted me. My ex husband, who’s two years older than me is planning to cycle from the north to the south coast for the second time. Some people just need more sleep than others.

I'm 68 and no longer work due to disability but I still do as much as I can and you being that tired does not sound normal. If I was you I'd see my GP for a check up and blood tests. It could be something simple but you won't know without tests.

I’m early 60s, and I have found work more physically tiring as I’ve got older in the last two or three years. My ‘full time’ job was about 55 hours a week, and I was utterly exhausted, so I dropped one day a week. I still do about 45 hours a week, but it now counts as part-time. That extra day off makes all the difference - I can sleep in till late, potter around at home or out, and do household chores at my leisure instead of fitting them in around working hours.

Somebody once told me you need less sleep as you grow older. I’m still waiting for that to happen for me.

I worked full time until I was 65 and pension kicked in then I went part time until 74. Wasn't overly tired or exhausted as I recollect. No difficult health issues either. My demands were mental rather than physical which probably helped. Do agree your diet may be worth considering.

I am 69, work three afternoon shifts in a care home which does leave me pretty exhausted but I do enjoy it and as I only have the basic state pension to live on the money comes in very handy….. I will continue doing this as long as I am able

I worked full time in a busy, stressful job in my early 60s and felt absolutely awful. I went to bed before 9pm and ate well but was always exhausted, as well as health issues such as arthritis and migraine. (I also had adult DC at home and DGC at weekends).
I don't think our bodies are designed to do so much when we are older. I felt 20 years younger when I retired.

I’m younger than you and found full time lecturing to be an exhausting experience! Although I’ve always been a tired all the time type of person!

You are still working full time - mentally and physically five days a week. Whether we like it or not, as we get older we do lose some of the resilience we had when we were 30 or 40.

I also think (and don't know if this applies to your role) that many jobs are changing rapidly and new ways of working/protocols etc are being introduced. This can be an added stress. Do you still actually enjoy what you are doing?

I hope you get some time to do things that you find relaxing, hobbies, walking, theatre, coffees etc. Even if we love our jobs, once we get to "nearly retiring" maybe we look forward to it and wish it would be time - making work seem even harder.

You have no health issues, sleep very well, and most importantly like your job - I'm surprised that you're absolutely exhausted most of the time.

I'm 67 - at 60 I was a full-time nurse doing 12.5 hour shifts, three days a week but no more than two days in a row. On work days after being out of the house for 14 hours I was knackered on arriving home with legs that felt like lead pipes, but was ready for action the next day.

Presumably you eat well? As suggested, maybe some sort of outdoor exercise regime, which sounds a bit counter-intuitive I know!