Lou

Hello!

I don't sleep all that well, either, mostly (I think) because I sleep so lightly. Daylight streaming through the opaque curtains wakes me up. My wife coughing in bed wakes me up. The furnace kicking on for the morning wakes me up. Not much to be done about most of those things. Having to pee overnight (I'm old-ish) wakes me up. I typically wake up pretty awake in the middle of the night. I've done the melatonin and valerian thing, the no-screens-at-night thing, and some others. I've had sleep studies that conclude I do not have sleep apnea but I do have insomnia.

Here's what works for me:

• My nighttime meds include magnesium glycinate (I do sleep better since I started taking it)
• Getting to bed at roughly the same time each night after a routine (get coffee ready for the next morning, check that the house doors are locked, brush teeth, apply Breathe-Right strip)
• When I wake up, if I have to get out of bed I make sure the stuff I usually want (cough drop, bathrobe, etc.) is nearby. If I have to hunt for anything while in that state I really wake up.
• I typically stay in bed and noodle around on my phone (I know, but it's more mindless to me than reading). But that can make the time disappear quickly so I try not to do anything really interesting and I time myself; no more than an hour awake and then I have to try to get back to sleep
• I've played around with pillows and bedding to get stuff that feels comfortable. A really good mattress helps, too.
• Retirement (my wife's retirement, actually). When my wife was working I typically got up when she did (because I could not sleep through her getting out of bed and prepping for the day). Now, though, if I wake up after four hours of sleep, I just note that I need another three hours or so and I can "sleep in" so whenever I tire of looking at the phone, I mentally set a desired wakeup time for myself. My wife almost always sleeps longer than I do so that's not much of an issue any more.

It's taken a lot of experimentation to figure out what works best and, from some points of view, maybe I still don't sleep all that well. But it's consistent and it's enough and I guess that's all I can ask for. I hope my routine gave you some ideas you can try.