Dear LPG, 

I don’t know about all the other pensioners out there, but I am sure that my younger friends and family members think that I have absolutely nothing to do with my time. As we get older, I think that the younger people in my world believe that we all get to the stage where we do nothing but sleep our days away. Perhaps it is a fact that you have to be one to know that there is more to being a pensioner than that. 

Although we indeed tend to get slower, which leaves us appearing to achieve less from day to day, the younger people in my life seem to think I don’t do very much at all. 

I have to admit to having to take a lot more rest breaks than I used to, although I seem not to get as much sleep at night, and that observation is not one that I am alone in having. 

It is something that a few of my friends who have clocked up the best part of 8 decades tell me applies to their lives too, and having a chat with a couple of my friends recently got us all asking a few questions. 

Have you ever asked yourself why it is so much harder for us older people to get all the sleep we need at night? 

Of course, there are the interruptions that most people nearing the milestone of their 80th birthday have to contend with. One of us noted the increased aching and pain that our bodies go through, and I am sure that I don’t have to tell anyone that the habit of specific organs forgetting we are sleeping can become annoying. I think that our bladders are the main culprits of the subconscious compulsion to drag ourselves out of bed at least a couple of times a night.  It is also true that if there is a bit of your body that constantly aches, it is easier to forget it when you are busy or preoccupied. This can happen when you are trying to get back to sleep, leaving you with only that pain to concentrate on. 

The irony is that during the day, I sometimes find myself tired, and there is nothing more annoying than waking up having realised that you have missed half an hour or so because you nodded off during the day, especially if you are not alone when the need to do so compels the habit to kick in. 

The internet tells me that I am not the only one to conclude that those daytime naps also impact our ability to sleep properly at night, because all those daytime naps leave you feeling more awake when you should feel sleepy. 

There must be other people who have written their thoughts on this subject before, and the internet has its ideas to offer. From what I can see, it sees daily routine as the best way to overcome the daytime nap thing, and the advice about not watching too much television or checking in with other electronic devices (computers, tablets and mobile phones) too close to bedtime is also supposed to help. Then there is the lighting and eating advice to be considered. 

Keeping busy during the day is also really important. We pensioners have the advantage that while there are many things we need to do, we have a lot more choice about what we want to do and when we want to do it.  This used to leave me yielding to the temptation to overdo rests between tasks; after all, you no longer have a boss checking up on you anymore. 

It is accepted that as you get older, multitasking gets more difficult. Still, if you can find a couple of activities that you can do at the same time each day, it can be a way of keeping your mind busy and your day more interesting even when you are not with others. I have become an expert at having a cuppa while listening to music, watching telly, or chatting on the phone, and listening to an audiobook while doing the hoovering is something else I have mastered. 

While I am under no illusions and I know that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution for any problem, I think that apart from all the other advice I found on-line, the secret to a good night’s sleep has to be keeping busy during the day so that you need more sleep when you do hit the sack…

WD, Southwark. 

LPG found a couple of internet suggestions that might help…

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