Getting to sleep

I often don't sleep well. Often go downstairs and make a cup of cocoa or decaf tea, go in the spare room and put the radio on - I enjoy the World Service at night. Doesn't bother me since don't have to get up for work. Will often enjoy a lovely zizz on the sofa in the afternoon if I've had a bad night.
Always read before going to sleep and often in the night too. Kindle is handy for not disturbing dh, but if I want the radio it's got to be the spare room. Often go to sleep eventually with radio still on.
There's a lot of interesting stuff on the World Service in the small hours!

I read for quite a while. My only problem is having to get up for a wee two or three times a night,guess it is an age thing. I try not to think of any worries and also find trying to keep my eyes open makes them close lol. Sweet dreams everyone. xxx

Needing to go to the loo wakes me.Then takes awhile to drop off.I drink around four cups of tea and the same amount in glasses of water throughout the day as I think it important we have plenty of fluids.However around 10 pm I just have to have a milky drink and couple of biscuits in bed with my book. Can't hold it like when we were young

I read for half an hour at night. Turn off the lights and usually I am asleep within ten minutes or so. The problem with me is I wake at about 3am and cannot get off again, finally I do drop off, but I am awake at 6am again. Sometimes I can drop off again but mostly I lay there and eventually give up and get up.

They say that blinking hard for about ten times and flexing your fingers ten times will help you to sleep.

Thank you everyone for your answers!!
Lovely to see I'm not alone.
We have seperate bedrooms, have done for years so it's easy to keep waking up and reading with no one to disturb. I'd recommend it to anyone, much better for nocturnal activities.....I mean reading/drinking tea etc. not what you're all thinking ???

Same problem as most, when my DH was away for a week I read in bed every night, and fell asleep right away ( a most unusual event)when he came back it was the usual routine, cant have the light on as it would disturb hubby,so I get up and read in another room, but if hubby gets up and sees me he says" go to sleep", easier said than done.
Tonight I wont sleep at all, as I have to catch a plane at 7am and have to leave the house about 5am, even if I go to bed early I know what it will be like, useless, I can always sleep on the plane (to the UK two hours) I say, but it never happens, so I will think of all my sleepless grans tonight, and hope someone out there gets some sleep.Pleasant dreams!

Separate bedrooms gives you so much more freedom.

I take a couple of prescribed meds then lie in bed listening to my audio book on my phone.
I fall asleep with it still going merry through the chapters....often to the end. So then I have to try to remember which chapter I was on !!
I've often gone back to the beginning and started again.

I LOVE being read to and can recommend it to anyone who has eye trouble which prevents you from reading at night.
They often have different narraters for different characters or one narrater can change voice to become a different character.
As I love radio plays it's very similar.

Five nights out of seven I can fall asleep by about 10.30, but if I stay up later because I'm out or babysitting my brain is too active and nothing helps. I've tried warm milky drinks, occasionally a small bowl of cereal, watching iplayer, but I drop asleep only to wake up every couple of hours. And then I'm totally useless the following day.

I go to sleep ok, just wake up at about 2 for the loo, then when I go back to bed I cant sleep my h and I are retired but our GD .lives with us so have to get up early to get her off to school. We have a sleep about early afternoon.

I've got a cold at the moment and the upside is that I fall asleep relatively early and don't wake up until 6 or 7 in the morning. I still take an antihistamine to help but that doesn't always help.
I'm not sure that a cold is really the answer you are looking for though. I've had to do an internet grocery shop because I don't have the energy to go out except to local shops.

Lucky you, Buddly, not only do i wake up very soon after falling asleep at 1030ish, but I seem to nap all night - rarely getting a block of more than 2 hours at any one time. I am regularly woken up by DH getting up for a wee, and frequently don't go back to sleep. I am frequently up and doing stuff at 5 am, cold this time of year! Brrr
I do manage to have a nap in the afternoon, but it depends on what I am doing whether I can factor one in or not

I like to read before dropping off too, but if I wake later there's no way I could read as it would wake DH and he's a very light sleeper and grumpy if he doesn't get his 8 hours so try not to disturb him. I'm always amazed when married friends talk about reading/going downstairs to get a cup of tea etc without waking their othr halves. I have to play mental games to entertain myself like roses : remembering in detail holidays, all the houses Ive lived in (a lot), or thinking of things in a category (like authors, painters, flowers, capital cities etc) through the alphabet. Though th latter tends to keep me awake sometimes!

A very familiar story with me too - fast asleep after reading for a little while then pow wake up again 5 mins later with heart pounding... someone told me it's because our subconscious is saying ' got to stay awake to deal with all the problems '... Certainly true that my life is pretty stressy but it's improving so perhaps sleep will too.

Deep breathing works for me, eventually.

Buddly that sounds pretty good to me and I think you are very blessed to get such a good solid block of sleep and as much as 6 hours. I hope that it continues for you or gets even better.
As we get older we tend not to sleep as once we did but then we need less apparently and since most of us don't have so many commitments once we are retired it doesn't really matter. It is when you are still working that it is a different matter or if it is pain issues that keep you awake or awaken you through the night. It is so important to keep to a 'glass half full' sort of attitude as it really does not help to fret about things.

KayR partying all night eh?

Legs I am with you, relax and go with the flow!

Sounds like an agreeable life Legs

I read with radio on low, try not to fall asleep with book in hand!!! that usually wakens me up again when it falls on the floor, have been known to fall asleep with glasses on, book in hand & light on after a few hours

I rarely go to bed before 11.30 often it can be as late as 1.00 but am usually awake at 7.00. No hurry to get up these days as I don't work, just get up & enjoy lazy Breakfast & read paper delivered at about 6.00.

I don't worry if I wake during the night& can't get back to sleep, I just pick my book up again & will go off to sleep when ready

A friend recommended taking Vitamin C before bed. I was a bit dubious at first but I bought Tesco's slow release ones. It works a treat for me, so much so that if I know have to be up early for something next day I take it earlier in the evening to give it time to work off. I looked it up on the internet and it is true! GIve it a try as it doesn't do any harm. hope it works for you all! ????

Try and see how far you can get on any of the politics threads on this forum........
Guaranteed to send you off into a deep sleep.
DH always likes to drift off to any droning voice on the radio, but if I can't sleep I try and remember past holidays, setting myself the task of remembering exact locations and names of hotels.....I never get very far.zzzzzzzzz

Me too. I often fall asleep reading my kindle, then wake with a start when it falls on the floor! I've only been asleep for 5 minutes but then I'm wide awake. I find deep breathing (in for 7, hold for 8, out for 9) helps, but not always. After 2 nights bad sleep I generally get one good one! Apparently you need less sleep as you get older...I'm 65 so by 70 I will be able to party all night again!

I have sleep issues too ?
I can get to sleep no bother but pain & back cramps wake me often during the night.
I'm lucky if I a full night once a month.
If reading gets you off can you go to bed a bit earlier and read for longer? ?

If I go to bed late, i.e. After 11.30 I don't get to sleep so I try to go around 10.30 with r4 for company. I usually go to sleep fairly quickly but then wake around midnight and wake every hour or do during the night. I don't have to get up, I just wake. I wish I could have a nap in the day but try as I might I stay awake.

I think I have said before on this post, with my Kindle fire I read with the blue shade, probably a few minutes and then fall asleep, the backlight shuts down quite quickly if I don't turn a page so no need for a bedside light. I wake up quite often, immediately start to read and am back to sleep in minutes. Works for me. Like others I don't go out to work, and what I do I do in my time so no pressure.

Don't think it's unusual buddly, probably best not to let it wind you up, you do sleep well eventually. Suspect worrying about it will encourage it to happen. Sleep is a major bugbear of mine so not being harsh, it's just how I see it as my experience tells me the more irritated I am at not sleeping the less I sleep. Wishing you restful nights.

I have a shower, get into a warm bed around 10.30pm read for at least an hour, switch off my light, turn over, count to around 3 and by then I am asleep. I do not fret on the odd occasion I cannot sleep because I no longer work. If you are working that is a different ball game.