I have always found it difficult to get to sleep. Even as a child, when all I had in my bedroom were books — no TV or other electronic devices back then, not even a radio. My parents always made me go to bed at a regular time, which got progressively later as I got older. However, I would lie awake reading, and they would sometimes catch me reading well into the late evening when they retired for the night.
These days, I still don’t like having a TV in the bedroom; I intensely dislike it when on vacation in a hotel and my wife wants to watch it, and I simply cannot go to sleep, as the noise keeps me awake.
However, I still read, although these days it will more likely be a kindle book on my iPad or iPhone. yes, I’ve read all the stuff about blue light being bad at bedtime and messing with melatonin levels.
What’s strange though is that I’ve largely switched from being a night owl to a moring person in the last few years. I tend to go to bed earlier these days and I wake up earlier.
I used to eat late, and at one time we would go out to a late night cafe in the early hours just becuase we got a wide urge to, not because we were really hungry. I’d bring back a large to-go coffee and lie in bed and drink it at 2am. Yes I know what you’re thinking but I’ve never noticed much difference in my sleeping patterns or abilities to get to sleep whether I’ve drunk coffee (or tea) or not. I don’t drink Coke or any other sweet carbonated caffine-containing drinks either.
I do enjoy my morning coffee though and on a day off I’ll be awake around 5.30am and go to the kitchen and make a pot of coffee and bring mug back to bed to drink and one for my wife too. She will inevitably stay asleep and drink it lukewarm later. I’ll sip mine while I read the morning news on my phone.
Now for the envy part. Although my wife can, and often does, stay up quite late watching movies in the living room, when she comes to bed she’s usually asleep within five minutes. If she wakes up early, she casts one sleepy eye on the clock and rolls over to sleep some more. Once I’m awake I’m almost always done for the night, even if it is my day off and it’s only 5am. It’s very rare I ever wake up and feel refreshed. I usually feel quite groggy in the mornings, irrespective of how much alcohol I’ve consumed (if any) the night before.