Sleep and health in old age (over 65)

CI ------- if i'm really in the mood, i can do 12 hours strait off and snore as well

c.i.- It is hard for me to say. I will sometimes fall asleep in front of the TV at 8pm- Other nights I am up until 11 or twelve. The one constant, is that I am usually up in the morning between 5:30 & 6:30 AM. So I probably get between 6-10 hours of sleep a night......on average about 7 hours.

oak, You're sleeping half your life away. LOL

I'm like Phoenix, it varies. It is still a glorious luxury to me to not have to get up early to go to work. I do often get up early and I do go to work, but not until late morning.

Ci ------- maybe from time to time i am sleeping half my life away, but what am i dreaming about and what have i been doing. I can never remember. it's always like that. vague memories of dreams but no detail

when i was working i would often fall asleep in front of the TV, tiredness or crap progs, i wonder

c.i. : i have heard some "expert" opinions on this subject during the past year or so. i have read/listened to several scientific/medical studies and ... they all go off in different directions ! one study said seniors must get eight hours of sleep if they do not want to imperil their health; another study said six to seven hours are just about right, but less than four hours or more than eight are not good for you. the opinion i liked best came from a SENIOR(he was a senior himself) british sleep-researcher; he said that he had found that - assuming you are not suffering from some illness - your body will take the amount of sleep it needs - sometimes more, sometimes less. i also listened to a radio interview with a former german soldier(now living in canada), who never sleeps more than 15 - 20 minutes at a time. he said that this sleep patttern started when he was a soldier in the trenches and could not afford to sleep for any great length of time. his physician said that this fellow was in good health . my brother - who served in the germen army - needed a lot more sleep than this fellow; but one thing about him, he could sleep anyplace and anytime. he loved nothing more than working working from 11 pm to 7 am (at the water-purification plant, no physical labour involved), going home and sleeping for a few hours, having lunch, sleeping some more and going back to work - of course, it just about drove his wife crazy to try and adjust to his schedule ! as for myself ... i'm sleeping better as i get older, but ... it has to be quiet !!! , the blinds have to be drawn !!! (can't sleep on an airplane, train ...). time to go to bed ! (hah, hah !). hbg

hbg, I think that guy has good advise for all of us; we'll sleep the number of hours our body needs. When I was going to college, I had weird hours, because I usually worked full time and attended school full time. For a couple of years, I worked for trucking companies as a teletype biller (as a member in the Teamsters Union), so I worked from about 5PM to 3AM, then went to school from about 9AM to about 3PM. Once I was able to attend college full time without working, my grades improved. My schedule has been pretty regular since then - working days and sleeping nights.

c.i. : isn't retirement great ? as long as the money doesn't run out before the clock stops ticking ! (well, got to rewind it a little more often). hbg

This retirement thing is everything it's cracked up to be and more. Many people make the mistake of stopping all activity when they retire, and die a year or two after retirement. Stay active is the key to a long and healthy life.