My world is changing. It hasn't changed completely yet but I see things coming and it's a lot and I am pre-emptively sad. I get through the waking hours ok but I've been waking at 3am every night with an overwhelming sense of, well overwhelm and sadness.
Did you know that 3am wake-ups come from stress? Our cortisol (stress hormone) starts rising around 3 and keeps rising so that it wakes us up in the morning but if cortisol levels are already high, we reach waking up levels at 3. I've only heard this recently but it seems to me to be regular as clockwork. From a health and science viewpoint it's fascinating. From a body inhabitors viewpoint it's just annoying.
I have noticed that my best chance of settling back to sleep is by listening to a mans voice, i figured it out because I woudl try to listen to audio books and wouldn't manage to last long. It was great for falling asleep but not good for book listening :)
Lying awake this morning I remembered the radio program which captured a huge 30% of Sydney listeners back in the day. I'm not sure how long the Midnight Matchmaker show ran for, the final episode aired in 2015 and the host worked in radio for 47 years.
Midnight matchmaker started at 11pm and lonely hearts would call to talk to the host with the soothing voice. I have some vague memories of hearing the show at times although I don't know why I would have been listening. Maybe I was out in the car late at night. I don't listen to radio in the house.
Midnight matchmaker actually succeeded in making a number of matches and I think it probably soothed a lot of people to sleep. Or back to sleep. I wonder if there's some show which has taken it's place in the darkened bedrooms and kitchens of this city?
What do you use to help you sleep?
I am so sorry to read this. Is there anything you can do to ward off the changes?
ReplyDeleteI often wake at three. And have done for years. If I cannot get back to sleep I simply get up. I have been known to start the ironing (a job I really don't like) if I cannot sleep. I often get tired and go back to bed and if I don't I have a job I don't like done and dusted.
It's just life: an old dog, children moving out, frail parents. Not all bad things but sad in their way.
DeleteI can't tell you the last time I ironed and I actually don't hate it once I've started. It would be a good thing to get out of the way
It is interesting that we never say 'its just life' when things go right isn't it? And yes, those are all sad and difficult things. I like some things ironed - pillow cases for example and linen clothing so ironing is a job I foist on myself.
DeleteCrisp linen is a thing of beauty 😍
DeleteThe sad transitions come to us all , I just didn't expect to stare down the barrel of so many at once.
It's possible the timing will work out better than I imagine
I don't use anything to sleep but of late of been waking half an hour before the alarm sounds, and sometimes I go back to sleep but mostly I just get up.
ReplyDeleteI remember some kind of radio matchmaker show but it would have been local and it had a different name.
Radio matchmaking was probably a tried and true concept in a lot of places. I didn't take enough notice and now I'm curious
DeleteI need lots of help. I need total darkness, so I take a pair of panties and drape over my eyes even at night. I listen to Rod Stewart's American Songbook I. Number II has too many horns. Sitting in my lift chair with feet up and trying to listen to an interesting program on TV puts me to sleep too often!
ReplyDeleteRecently my cd player broke but I managed to go to sleep anyway! One night I could not find the panties I keep in the bed for my eyes. I slept anyway.
Menopause really affected my ability to sleep. I took estrogen for 25 years, but when I had uterine cancer, the doctor refused to give me estrogen prescription.
Yes, the worrisome things in life keep me from sleeping. I have to tell myself NO when I start thinking about these events.
I really don't know what the answer is for you or me. But, some things work for a while.
Linda,
DeleteAfter reading your blog all this time I know your sleep is very fractured.
I was a great sleeper up to my early 40s and I had a number of bad years.
These days I mostly do ok
Do you use earplugs? My heath obsessed daughters use eye mask, mouth tape and earplugs as well as having a strict bedtime routine
LOL, of course you know I have problems sleeping. No ear plugs. I could not stand them. No strict bedtime routine for me. Eye mask--too tight. I probably won't tape my mouth. I hope all this helps her.
DeleteI’m lucky in that I can drop off fairly quickly and 90% of the time my sleep pattern is fine but there are times when I wake ( not necessarily for a loo break or because I’m in pain) just wake and find it oh so difficult to drop off again. I just had a patch of that recently and oh you would laugh at some of the things that came to mind as I lay there. So strange I’m even contemplating a blog post about them.
ReplyDeleteThere’s no point in me putting the radio on as someone who shares the room with me would be up in arms…..if I get up and try to read he’s up and wanting to know what’s what.
The spare bed has called to me on occasion and sometimes that works but more often than not I’ve been known to take a couple of paracetamol because they seem to do the trick. Could be mind over matter - getting out, going to bathroom to fish around for them, having a quick drink while taking them, pottering back, getting comfortable - whatever, I’m off not long after taking them.
I do hope you are able to rest easy again soon Kylie. That fatigue that hangs around when you’re tired is worse than actually being tired at bedtime.
The wakefulness you describe, when it seems to have no cause, is frustrating and I always add a blanket when it happens. I might eventually get hot but it usually does the trick.
DeleteThe early hours bring every fear and strange thought to the surface, don't they?
I hear you. I never get an unbroken night's sleep as I am up for so many bathroom breaks due to kidney disease and massive intake of water. That 3.00 a.m. run though often sees me unable to go back to sleep and I never know what to do, get up, read my phone updates, read a book. listen to something. I love the idea of Midnight Matches. There should be a book written about it.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
I always lie quietly and hope that I'm catching some micro naps. I do usually drift back to sleep about 5.
DeleteI think midnight matchmaker had quite a few newspaper features in its day. It's so innocent compared to Tinder. Isn't it?
I'm sorry to hear of your stress-related premature wake-ups. I don't have any suggestions except for visualising something that sends you to sleep. That works for me when I wake at 4.30 or 5. Interesting what you say about high cortisol levels.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is, I don't feel stressed. It's not that wired high alert feeling, it's quietly sad which usually primotesx sleep.
DeleteWhat do you visualise? My brain seems almost incapable of visualising things
All sorts of odd images - a long beach, a deserted street, a jetty, a viaduct. Images bubble up from my unconscious.
DeleteI just tough it out and get a poor sleep and live with it. As you age sleeping gets to be a bigger problem.
ReplyDeleteAging is just cruel, Red.
DeleteThe thing to avoid is any dozing or sleeping during the evening before going to bed. To me that is fatal. If I wake too early in the morning and Shirley is already up, I press the button on our bedside radio alarm clock and somehow that usually sends me back to sleep. It's as if I am distracted from my own thoughts and concerns. News about wars can be very soporific I find.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the alarm or pending alarm will send me off to sleep.
DeleteI no longer listen to news, it upsets me too much