The New York Times ran an article – or perhaps it was an ad in disguise – about staying asleep once you manage to get to that stage. For us seniors, sleep is a whole discussion subject on its own and is divided into 2 main categories:
- Daytime sleep
- Nighttime sleep
Daytime sleep is further sub-divided into 2 main categories:
- Planned sleep
- Unplanned sleep
Nighttime sleep is also subdivided into 3 sections:
- Falling asleep
- Staying asleep
- Waking up
All seniors will agree that the best of all sleeps is the Unplanned Daytime Sleep, the one that gets you in the coffee lounge, in the armchair at the club, on the couch straight after breakfast, in front of the television set (highly recommended), in fact anywhere unexpected and at any old time, when you are least expecting it. It comes sneaking around the corner, invisible and silently and carries you off in its soft, gentle arms. It is known by many other names: nap, snooze, doze, siesta and forty-winks.
Nighttime sleep is another story. It involves other matters such as falling asleep. One gets into bed after a long day, looking forward to a good night’s sleep – and nothing happens. 2 hours later you pad into the den, switch on the TV and that’s goodbye to any kind of sleep. If you do manage to fall asleep there are elements inside your body waiting to sabotage you and issue wake-up calls to get you to the bathroom. When wake up time arrives do you spring out of bed feeling great and refreshed or do you stagger into the kitchen for a cup of coffee to get your blood corpuscles back onto their feet?
And then there are pills to help you. Tried them, loved the sleep, hated them, stopped them and went back to no-sleep mode. Much better.