Zzz ... ?

Well if over 9 hours us bad for you.....since my youngest son's suicide in October I get up any time between 12pm and 3pm. I am constantly tired until about 11pm, then i am wide awake and after watching real crime programmes on tv hit the sack any time between 2am and 5am. I know I should adjust my body clock but have no motivation to change anything.

Insomnia has been a problem for years. Recently I watched a programme about insomnia and the Circadian cycle and although I thought the programme could have been better it made me think about changing my going-to-bed routine. But I'm sleeping no better. Now I try to be in bed by 10pm - used to be about 11pm or later - light out by 10.20. Set the alarm for 6am so 7 hours sleep is a possibility. Last night I woke at 1.30am then 4am and didn't get back to sleep. Got out of bed at 6.30am. I always wake at around 4am so for years I've survived on little more than 4 or 5 hours sleep. 4am is the time of lowest body temperature on the Circadian cycle. Would love a straight 6 or 7 hours sleep.

DH and DS both owls - I'm a lark at heart. But do have a nasty habit of spending time with them till getting on for midnight, when go up and read till they come up.DH has chronic health issues and we know we won't have too much longer together, so I doze off around 3, wake about 7.30 and then he gets up about 3.30 to watch TV, maybe play World of Warcraft as a family.

When he was at sea Lord Nelson's bunk was only 21 inches wide. When he turned over in his sleep and fell out he got up, as he thought it meant he had had enough sleep.
Mrs Thatcher famously thought that 4 hours was enough for anyone. She worked on parliamentary papers in the middle of the night.
I usually get about 4 or 5 hours and I agree with her. I never go to bed until after 12 and have bouts of sleeping and waking. 5 hours is plenty, but we are all different.

My god!! Nine hours. If only. What a luxury that would be.
Lucky if I get four or five.

If I’m awake around 4.30am I listen to Steve Allen on LBC radio. I highly recommend him for the early hours of insomnia.

Trouble is, I know then that the day ahead will be long and tiring. Very rarely manage to get back to sleep.
And I don’t even need toilet trips either.

Hours of Sleep:
Nature requires 5
Custom 7
Laziness 9
Wickedness 11
I was brought up on this maxim.
For my own part I get to bed before midnight, wake at least once for the loo and sometimes stay awake listening to the world service, for hours if it's riveting.
Breakfast at 8. Always. DH is a creature of habit and he makes the porridge..

if it's a Saturday Strictly evening when I will prepare a butler's tray with a snack, cold drink, crisps and chocolate coated Brazil's and watch tv from bed

I’m intrigued. What’s the difference between a butler’s tray and an ordinary one?

Silly as it sounds, it made me feel better to read about so many people, like myself, who have real problems getting a decent nights sleep. I’ve reached the point now where I just accept that I can manage on 4 or 5 hours a night (if I’m lucky). If only I could nap,during the day, but that seems to elude me also.

I usually go to bed about 10pm and watch catch up tv on the tablet. Sometimes I can stay awake to watch 2 episodes of Midsomer Murders and sometimes I am asleep within 30 mins. I sometimes wake about 5am needing a wee but as our bathroom is downsatairs I know I would be wide awake if I got up then so I usually drift off again and manage to wait until about 7. Once I go downstairs I'm up for the day.

9 hours or more? Fat chance! I usually go upstairs about 10.30 pm. By the time I have cleaned my teeth, etc ...... and climbed into my lovely warm electric blanket heated bed ...... ah bliss ...... it is after 11pm. Although I shouldn’t look at the iPad at this time .... I often do a couple of clues of Words with Friends ..... then sleep ..... no need to get up to go to the bathroom til morning. Sadly my old dog does need to go sometimes twice ..... oh joy! When he is I. The garden at 3am, he often spot a hedgehog or a cat ... all hell breaks loose! Eventually, I go back to bed ...... so broken nights are the norm for me. I like to get up at 7am, but if it has been a very disturbed night , it could be 9am!

I never go think of going to bed before 11pm. And it is usually midnight before I am actually in bed. I then do a couple of Codewords to wind down. I usually fall asleep easily, but DH wakes me up to tell me I am snoring. I try not to get up for the loo as if I do, I can’t get back to sleep. This morning I went at 6.40, so although I was still tired, my brain told me to wake up.dH brings me a cup of tea, often around 7.20 but it varies. Then I do a couple lore codewords and get up around 8.10 unless it is a day when I need to be out early.
I find if I have things to do I am best doing them in the morning, whereas DH is a night owl, or rather a total owl, as he naps frequently throughout the day, even when watching a favourite programme, which really frustrates me. I almost never sleep in the day, no matter how tired I am. But then I am always on my iPad to keep awake.

I go to bed around 11 pm and probably go to the loo twice. I seem to lie awake a lot at the moment because of discomfort due to dental surgery.
I get up around 8 or 8.30 am depending on what time I wake up really. These wet mornings are so dark that I don't feel inclined to emerge any earlier. I'm sure it'll be a different pattern in the summer.

Go to bed at 10.00pm up at 4.45 am to get ready to go to newsagents to start paper round. Have a doze after lunch for about an hour.

I always vowed that when I retired I would not get up early- having spent so many years getting up at crack of dawn & sometimes before to walk dogs before work.
I am usually in bed by 11 unless we have friends round or something good on TV. I read before I sleep. I very rarely get up before 8am- I do lie in bed listening to radio 4 news in the morning. It is not unusual for me to be getting up about 9am though.
DH gets up for work earlier but is very rarely in bed before 12- he often goes to sleep in his study & I wake up about 3am & go down & turn the lights off- I leave him to it as he gets very grumpy if woken up. He's always in bed in the morning.
It works for me but I find now if I have to be somewhere early I resent getting up early!

I usually aim for bed by midnight, this often doesn't work out, last night in bed by 11.45, other nights it can be 2am.I sometimes have to get up during the night but just recently I've managed to sleep through until around 7ish when I will get up.

I always read when I go to bed, sometimes for about 1/2 hour other times I can read for an hour or three
If I'm flagging during the day I sit on the settee with the television on, I can quite happily have 30/60 mins depending how tired I am & it's not every day

I sleep a lot. Usually in bed by 11 or much much earlier if it's a Saturday Strictly evening when I will prepare a butler's tray with a snack, cold drink, crisps and chocolate coated Brazil's and watch tv from bed.
In summer, I will nap on my bed for a few hours in the afternoon, windows open and country sounds lulling me into dreamland. The sun is so intense in the afternoon that I've woken up with a red arm, cheek and leg on numerous occasions.
I've ordered some lengths of white voile/linen to filter the sun this coming spring/summer.
I've always liked sleeping but nowadays I naturally wake about 05.30-6 ish, drink hot water with lemon then go for a run or bike ride before breakfast, depending on weather...no snow or fog.
Everyone's sleep pattern is different and IMO, there is no right or wrong, too little or too much.

I usually go to bed after 10pm news headlines then read for half an hour or so. After 3 or 4 toilet visits during the night I tend to drag myself out of bed about 8/8:15 but this does depend on health issues/medication. I didn't get up until nearly 9:30 this morning, so was rather annoyed with myself - until I read that we need extra sleep in the winter! As bedtime after midnight and getting-up time 5:30 was quite normal 20 years ago, I tell myself that now is just payback time!

I manage to get to sleep by about 10.30ish an wake every hour and half ...then take half hour to get back to sleep....that goes on til 4.45 then I’m wide awake. 4:45 is the time I used to get up when working...I’ve been retired 4 years and my sleep is still as poor as it ever was!! 3-4 hours seems to be my allotment. I seem to manage , I walk at least 3 miles per day and cycle about 5 on other days. I swim 3 times a week. It seems to me the less sleep I get the more awake I am ...odd!!!

Sleep envy!!!
Years of night duty = about 4 hours continuous sleep. Hated going to bed ‘early’ eg 11 pm as then awake by 3 am.
Past few years bed at 2 am and awake by 5.30/6am so trying sleep hygiene tactics - gradually moving bed time back etc and currrntly can do 5 1/2 hours sleep.
Maybe, if oversleeping a potential problem try the going to bed sl later or setting alarm to rise sl earlier?

It was late DH illness where I could never get to bed before midnight if I was lucky , what with medications and making sure he was comfortable, and he did tend to sleep more am, that changed my pattern of sleep Consequently I became an owl not a lark.
I come to life!!!! when I should be thinking of going to bed. I have no one to disturb should I decide to get the vacuum out, fill the washing machine maybe do some ironing when most are thinking of going to bed Then the TV to watch a film with a cuppa or two and biscuits.

I go to bed at 10 and read for an hour. I then wake up at 4am. Usually I start reading again, trying to make myself sleepy. I long for the days when I slept all night.

Normally a good sleeper 7/8 hours but lately it's been a bit erratic where I've been so wide awake I feel as though I could do a days housework through the night. Then not a bit tired next day. I'm quite hyper---need calming down.

It was just the same for me, Allgoodnames, when I was teaching. I've been retired for 14 years now and still don't sleep well. I go out like a light, but wake up a lot and often can't drop off again. Not really helped by DH who rarely comes to bed before 2 , often later, and sometimes snores! I hope it will be better for you.

6hours would be a bonus for me. No danger of over-sleeping!

Bed at seven (I like my own company), sleep between nine and ten, up once usually about half two, get up between six and half past, dressed and away to the day by half past.

For many years I had to be up at four for work so for me six is a lie in, now I am retired.