Sleep. Fed up of feeling sleepy every evening ...

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

Instead of needing less sleep as I get older, I seem to be needing more.

For decades I would go to bed at midnight or even later and get up at 7.30 to start my day and stay awake until midnight the next night - no problems at all so long as I slept through the night.

Now I go to bed between 9.30pm and 10pm. I usually wake around 5am needing the loo. I go back to bed and can't sleep. I read or look at Mumsnet or Facebook for an hour or two until I feel sleepy again, then nod off and have fitful sleep full of dreams until about 8.30am.

So I'm getting something like 11 hours sleep with 2 hours interruption in the early morning but am still absolutely fighting to stay awake by mid evening.

What can I do? I can't stay asleep all night - I need to get up for the loo - how can I arrange things differently? Any ideas?

Quality of sleep over quantity, you need pure uninterrupted sleep. It sounds like a type of insomnia. It's quite common in older people actually. Not really helpful though. Maybe try getting up at 5am and start your day and just head to bed a little earlier and see if it stays as 5am.