How did your sleep habits change as you aged?

I need less sleep now, but the biggest drastic change in my sleep happened when my thyroid went whackado about ten years ago. My sleep is still influenced by my thyroid a lot, but I don’t believ it is the entire reason for sleep changes.

When I was younger (childhood through my early thirties) 9 hours was my magic number. If I only got 6 one night, I could easily take a 3 hour nap to make up for it. If left to my own devices I easily would sleep the straight 9 hours. School and work disrupted that for me, because I tend to be more of a night owl.

Now, it isn’t unusual for me to only sleep 6 hours a night and then somewhere during the week I take a nap or two that makes up for some sleep deficit. I don’t feel the 6 is enough or truly restorative and it is frustrating. Partly thyroid like I said, and also some stress added in, and probably some other hormones.

< Age 60 here. My sleep is fine, except that my husband has always had restless legs. Since I married, sleep has become an adventure. One night I woke up and he looked like he was in a bicycle race. I got up and stood at the foot of the bed to flag him down at the finish line, but he flew right past me and went on to win a second race! And all of this was while he was sleeping!

Now I work at night, so we often sleep in different bedrooms now.

When I was younger I didn’t sleep much. I could stay up late and sleep for very short time. I remember sleeping for only 5 hours one night. But as I grow up, I find myself wanting more and more sleep. I need at least 7 hours of night sleep. I also need an “afternoon nap” for at least 1 hour. If I don’t sleep enough, my body will react violently, with a headache + nausea being the most common.

I don’t know when sleeping became one of my favorite hobbies :)

As I aged, my metabolism slowed and I began to gain weight—the classic male belly—the the weight gain brought on a sluggishness and lower activity levels, and lower activity required less rest. Therefore, at about 45, I found that I required less sleep. But it wasn’t really quality sleep. It may have been the weight gain which caused some sleep apnea, but it was a restless sleep. So, I was tired all the time and my day suffered because of that.

So, I went into the gym. I didn’t lose weight, but I replaced a lot of fat with muscle, which changed the shape of my body, and I became a more efficient calorie burner. I was more energetic, much more active, and I slept like a baby at night because I had actually burned off energy instead of merely depleting my supply. Changed my life, and I’m sure extended it, and raised the quality of it enormously. No apnea, more REM sleep (my wife reported the eye movements), and I still only required 6 hours of sleep instead of the 8 (minimum) of my youth.

I began to go on cycling tours, kayaking and camping, I went sailing again, scuba diving. I wrenched my life back from one that consisted of working, then going home and sitting in front of the TV until bedtime. Fuck that. I tossed the TV out. I added yoga and meditation to the mix andd things improved even more so. I now had a muscular, efficient body that was also limber, pliable, and supple. Meditation resulted in a sense of well-being and put the daily problems of my life at a manageable arms length. I no longer felt overwhelmed.

Best things I ever did. These things have not only extended my life, but immensely improved the quality of my experience. I use my head more and I don’t worry about shit I can’t do anything about. I get on with living and I can bulldoze my way through walls of negativity like they are butter in order to do so.

I required less and less sleep but had to get up more often during the night.

I usually have no trouble falling asleep, but as I’ve gotten older I find it almost impossible to sleep through the night. Currently I wake up almost every night around 3 a.m., fall back to sleep after 15 minutes or so, and then wake when the cat starts screeching for breakfast around 5:45 or 6.

I am almost 55 and I still need a 9 hour night to feel optimal. I sleep well and am also extremely active, not to mention mentally active. haha
Right now I can sleep 10 hours because I am doing a lot of physical work and moonlighting several evenings a week. I am feeding, riding and cleaning stalls for 2 show horses, including toting around bales of stall shavings, raking and shoveling stalls every evening, caring for 2 horses, 5 ducks and geese, 2 donkeys, 9 chickens, a dog and 2 cats and a garden and an orchard and a huge house I share with friends here at the ranch.

Come on out to Colomas place and I’ll put you to work, you’ll sleep like a baby. lol

I usually operate on around six hours sleep a night and have done for most of my adult life. What has changed is that now I find myself waking up more often during the night, falling asleep in the early evenings occasionally and having to have a couple of recharge nights a month, usually on the weekend but not always, where I need to sleep for about 9 hours straight. On these nights I don’t seem to wake up as frequently but feel sluggish in the mornings.

I could sleep for EVER! Always have. When I was younger, though, I could handle going to bed LATE and getting up EARLY, like after only 4 hours, better than I can now.

If I don’t have to get up in the morning, and if I don’t even bother to check the time when I go to bed, I’ll know what time I went to bed the night before, by the time I got up the next morning. If I don’t get up until 10, then I know I stayed up until 2.

I’m in my late 40s and I function best on 7 hours a night though I often stay up late and midweek its usually more like 6, but I function just fine on that with no problems. On days I’m not working I still sleep for 7 hours (because my bladder demands that I get up to pee). I will sometimes go back to bed for another hour but I rarely sleep during that time (and if I do doze off again I get some really crazy-ass dreams). When I was younger I needed a lot more sleep.

Curiously, when I started transition and began the testosterone treatment I suddenly felt like I needed 10 hours sleep again. It was like being a teenager all over again. Thankfully that didn’t last long this time round.

I get crazy ass dreams if I wake up in the morning, get up for a minute, then go back to bed.