I am struggling to make it to nine o clock before going to bed. Thought I would check in and say hi, but not much to say. Just really tired.
Tired Old Man
by John Cole| 51 Comments
This post is in: John Cole Presents "Stories from the Road"
Tired Old Man
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Baud
Welcome to the club.
MobiusKlein
Time for another road trip? It seemed good for you.
Ohio Mom
Eh. It was an extremely long week. Sweet dreams.
HeleninEire
Yeah. That happens. At 61 I got tired of feeling tired and not being able to sleep. Really…I’ve been an insomniac for all of my life. And then NY made weed legal. And gummies.
Now I take a gummie and 1 hour later I lay down and blissfully sleep.
Try it.
Chigrl
Dream of the angels………
Raoul Paste
The Buddha was asked “ What is enlightenment?”
He said “When you are hungry, eat. When you are tired, rest. That’s enlightenment“
I always liked that story
TeezySkeezy
To sleep by 9 is the healthiest thought you’ve had all week. It’s good you are keeping yourself rested. Nothing to be ashamed of. (Channelling Paul reiser, but seriously 9-5 is the best sleep time)
TeezySkeezy
@HeleninEire: I wish it worked like that for me but it just doesn’t. The best way to ruin a night of sleep for me is almost any psychoactive substance after 4 pm. Guarantees racing thoughts, especially those nonsensical kind that are like dream logic but you arent asleep enough to be getting good rest. Chamomile…probably doesn’t actually work, but it is a comfort while decompressing and it is all I dare these days before bed.
Geminid
@TeezySkeezy: That’s close to my desired sleep pattern, although I do well with 7 hours so I try to sleep from 10 until 5.
I spent a large part of my life in depression, but I did better once I developed a simple self-care plan: get enough sleep, and stay away from people with negative energy.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I go to bed around then. I also get up at 3:30am to run 6.5 miles.
One follows the other. If you hafta go to bed at 9pm, do that, don’t fight it. I wasn’t a morning person per se until when I was an intel officer at the Pentagon, then it was up at the butt crack of dawn. That job literally made me a morning person and it’s stuck 30+ years later.
And age. Again, don’t fight it and see what your body tells you to do.
Pharniel
I know your feel, bro.
But since there’s just tons of things I can’t get done until Little Owl (Sprog) goes to bed, I’m constantly tired these days.
TeezySkeezy
@Geminid: Whelp you clearly are slacking on the second rule, heh. Seriously, I can thrive on 7 hours too if I am in a good place, similar to what you seem to be saying. I think if I fall asleep soon after my head hits the pillow, 7 is perfect. But in times of angst that’s not happening.
TeezySkeezy
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Having kids did it to me (combined with wanting a few hours of silence and peace where i can think while still fresh, not at the end of the day after struggling to get the kids to bed.). I love 4 am, but only when i truly am asleep by 9 ( as opposed to tossing and turning at 9)
Ruckus
I rarely do not get enough sleep but I go to sleep when I’m sleepy and get up when I actually wake up. My clock is across the room so I can’t see it at night and the only time I have to get up before I normally wake up is when I have an early healthcare appointment. And I try really hard to never have one of those. When I was a youngster mom made me go to bed early but I’d lay there, wait till the parents went to bed and get up and watch movies on the B&W tv that my granddad gave me because he bought a better one, early color I believe. Fabulous 52 movies! Every night at 11pm. Those of you that were born well after color tv don’t know what you were missing. Lucky bastards……
Geminid
@TeezySkeezy: It’s also tougher to get to sleep early during Daylight Saving Time. I have to try hard when it’s still light at 9 pm.
I sometimes use a generic Ibuprophen PM pill, with the small dose of an antihistamine. That helps but I try not to use it regularly.
As for this place, I think it’s basically positive and not negative. I am by nature an argumentative person though, so certain topics get me revved up and sometimes keep me up late.
Ruviana
@Ruckus: I remember The Fabulous 52!
Ruckus
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
And age. Again, don’t fight it and see what your body tells you to do.
Extremely good advice.
Ruckus
@Ruviana:
I wonder if there is anywhere to watch some of those old movies, you know the ones that were old 60-65 yrs ago. All B&W
Lyrebird
The first time I encountered the concept of anxiety disorders was surfing on the web quite a while ago. The pages had text scraped from the DSM IV, festooned with warnings about not applying things to yourself etc etc.
Somewhere on there it said that one of the top symptoms of anxiety was FATIGUE. And the web site author pointed out that it takes energy and resources to worry. The weight that came off my shoulders right then was something!
persistentillusion
@Ruckus: Same. I grew up in the Chicago area. WGN would play movies from the 40s and 50s starting at 10:30pm. Amazed that I graduated from anything, but the sleep debt was good training for the later to come children.
OzarkHillbilly
John? As a fellow sufferer, I feel you. Right now, I just want sleep, which was hard to find today.
CaseyL
I’m a big believer in going to bed when you’re tired. Unfortunately, I rarely act on that belief.
(I seem incapable of sleeping past 6:00 AM, regardless of when I go to bed. I used to be able to go back to sleep if I woke up too early, but that ability seems to be waning.)
Sleep well!
MomSense
I keep a toddler’s bedtime these days.
It seems like you were happier in AZ with Joelle. It’s ok to go where you are happy with the person who makes you feel good.
wenchacha
@Geminid: You could make tons of money if you could tell people how to do that!
Kidding, but good on you for taking self-care seriously.
HeleninEire
@TeezSkeezy: That happened with me when I tried Ambian. Crazy dreams. And I woke up more tired when I went to sleep.
Jackie
@TeezySkeezy: Kids made me an early morning person, too. That two or three uninterrupted hours of quietness… bliss.
Plus, first to the shower (guaranteed hot water that lasted,) sunrises with coffee in one hand, kitty under the other… a few loads of laundry done.
Then REALITY! with the sounds of pitterpattering feet and “I’m HUNGURY!”
wmd
@MobiusKlein: Yeah, I was just thinking that his wife had him going out to see music.
John, have you been making video calls? While depending on another to help with depression has some drawbacks, having inspiration is another way to frame it, and that’s a positive thing.
Your partner inexplicably loves you and wants what’s best for you. Of course you also have a pack of jackals that do the same to some degree.
Ruckus
@TeezySkeezy:
I learned long ago how to relax. It came from I seem to recall some sort of show that a couple of friends and I went to, on how to not fight it, learn to relax and sleep will show up. I learned well. The navy also taught me to sleep whenever possible, because there may be time that you can’t. The problem is now that I’m in my mid 70s and the real world goes by at a seemingly faster pace than my world does now. I suggest you take my way, wave as it passes by and go at the pace you need to, not necessarily the one you’ve done for decades. Because if you are like me some nights sleep is an on and off event, but because I rarely need to get up for any reason, I only do when I feel like it’s time. 7-9 hrs a night is my norm.
Wapiti
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: the butt crack of dawn
My wife used that phrase the other day; also former military.
dnfree
@Ruckus: Turner Classic Movies.
NotMax
If I trundled off to beddy-bye at 9 (and managed to fall asleep) I’d be wide, wide awake by 2.
Ruckus
@persistentillusion:
I don’t have any of those small ones, who wouldn’t be small ones any more anyway. But as of now I’m the oldest of my extended family. All of the parents generation are gone, all of the generation prior to them are long gone, my older siblings are gone, I am the oldest in the extended family of cousins.
wenchacha
John, did you say you had been off your meds? If you restarted recently, that might contribute. I’ve been on several different ones over the years, and finally found a good combo.
TheOtherHank
@Jackie:
When our water heater died and I was shopping for a new one, I almost went for one of the tankless kind. But then it occurred to me that I would like my kids to eventually finish their showers. With a regular water heater, the water eventually gets cold.
dnfree
No night people here? Most of my working life I had to be at my desk at 7:30 am, and the kids had to get to school. Now we go to bed usually 11 pm or later and get up usually 7:30-8:00 am. The Fitbit usually has a pretty good idea of how well I slept, how much deep sleep vs light sleep, how much time dreaming or awake. We’re in the age group that it’s a good night if we only have to use the bathroom once.
raven
The Illini didn’t tip off until 10:15 last night so I had a social media blackout and watched the game a 5am!
Ruckus
@dnfree:
I knew there would be a way…. But then I don’t get broadcast TV, only Netflix and DVDs.
cain
@TheOtherHank:
My kid proudly tells me how long his shower was. Apparently showers at his college dorm aren’t great 😸
NotMax
@Ruckus
Besides TCM, Tubi and also Prime have loads of ’em.
If you have a Roku device, there’s many free channels which specialize in retro movies (not all exactly pristine prints but still viewable).
Ruckus
@dnfree:
Night person here.
Always have been. A bit less of one than I used to be but still I’m often up till midnight or 1am and get up anywhere from 7:30 to 9am. As stated above I get up when I wake up unless one of those doc appointments. And I don’t make those before 11am. And rarely before noon.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Thanks!
TeezySkeezy
@Jackie: when one of ours was 2 or 3 she though “lunch” was a generally term for eating any meal, so we would get “i want luuuuuunch” at all hours.
NotMax
@Ruckus
BTW, Amazon currently has a sale on a barebones Roku (HD but not 4k). 20 clams.
NotMax
@TeezySkeezy
Heh. Reminded me of an ElfQuest parody/homage comic book wherein the village sends out parties to hunt a staple of their diet, the “lunchbeast.”
Jackie
@TeezySkeezy: My youngest grandson “had to have” a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich for lunch daily. If he was given something else for lunch, he’d insist that wasn’t lunch and couldn’t have dinner until he had lunch! It was both endearing and a PITA 😂
Noskilz
These are exhausting times. Sleep well!
Betty
@Ruckus: You can find some on Youtube, but some of the best ones are under lock and key by the Bigs.
pj
@persistentillusion: Another Chicago area upbringing, here. Franklyn MacCormack on WGN radio helped me go to sleep. Twenty minutes or so of his Meister Brau Showcase was usually enough. Still works, listening to him on YouTube these days. I probably slept right through his 1971 on air fatal heart attack.
NotMax
@pj
Ah, radio to drift off by. Had a bedside portable combination radio/alarm clock with a built-in timer to switch the radio off tuned to the late night Barry Gray talk show on WMCA all though junior high and high school (1960s).
Prescott Cactus
@pj:
One more from Chicago.
*WLS and **WCFL were my go to, not so much ***WGN. Loved to fine tune the little AM transistor radio to catch far away baseball games late night in the summer.
*Worlds Largest Store – Sears
** Chicago Federation of Labor
*** Worlds Greatest Newspaper – Tribune (I disagree)
sab
Dog had to pee, so I am wide awake now. And her cat is up and batting his catnip mouse rattle around, so we will all be up for a while. He meows every time he thinks he has killed it.