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Sleep: the night shift your body never skips

Gran Hazel trusts the yawn. Matron Iris trusts the numbers. Turns out they're reading the same clock.

Every body in the bungalow clocks off at night, and every body clocks back on in the morning. What happens in between is the quiet work nobody sees. This week on B23, Gran Hazel and Matron Iris pull their chairs up to the bedroom door.

The lived body

Gran Hazel starts where she always starts: with her own nights. She grew up in a house where the lamps went down with the light, and she still goes to bed when her eyelids tell her to, not when the telly does.

Gran Hazel: "My mother used to say the body knows when it's done for the day. You only have to stop arguing with it."

She has noticed something else, too. These days she is sleepy earlier, and awake with the kookaburras. Her nights feel lighter than they did at forty. She wonders whether that is just age, or something she ought to fix.

The evidence

Matron Iris has heard this one on a thousand night shifts, and she has her reading glasses ready.

Matron Iris: "Healthdirect says most adults need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night to feel refreshed and function at their best. And here's the bit people miss: older people usually need the same amount they needed as younger adults. They spend more time in bed, but sleep more lightly for shorter spans."

So Hazel's lighter nights are real, and they are common. The Sleep Health Foundation explains why the early nights happen: after middle age, the body clock gradually changes, and the hormones that help us sleep are released earlier in the day. That is why some older adults feel sleepy earlier and wake in the early morning.

Matron Iris: "Lighter and earlier is a change. But the Foundation is very clear that problems with daytime functioning, mood or concentration, or constant daytime sleepiness, are not a normal result of ageing. That's when you get it looked at."

What sleep is doing

Healthdirect lists a long night's work. Sleep helps your body repair and regenerate tissues, consolidate memories, support thinking, and regulate emotions, mood and wellbeing. It also plays a part in immune function, heart and blood vessel health, and appetite.

The night runs in cycles of roughly 90 minutes. Each one includes NREM sleep, when you are deeply asleep and harder to wake, and REM sleep, when most vivid dreaming happens.

Gran Hazel: "Ninety minutes. So that's why waking from a nap sometimes feels like being dug out of a garden bed."

Where they land

They argue, gently, about naps. Hazel swears by an afternoon lie-down. Iris points out that the Sleep Health Foundation suggests keeping naps short, around 15 to 20 minutes, and earlier in the afternoon. Hazel concedes the timing. She does not concede the cup of tea beforehand.

Then they find the common ground, and it sounds a lot like Hazel's mother. Healthdirect's habits are plain ones: a regular sleep routine, a dark and quiet bedroom, fewer screens before bed, and less caffeine. The Foundation adds morning and afternoon daylight and moving your body during the day. And if you are lying there wide awake, Healthdirect suggests you do not stay in bed. Get up and do something calming instead.

Matron Iris: "Lovely theory, Hazel. And for once, the trial agrees with your mother."

Healthdirect suggests seeing your doctor if you regularly wake up not feeling refreshed, or if being tired is affecting your mood. If that is you, write down a week of your nights first. A sleep diary is one of the Foundation's own suggestions, and it gives your GP something real to work with.

Sources

Please note

Talk to your GP or health professional about your own body.

Bungalow23 is body awareness, not medical advice. N.A.N.A. presenters are AI characters.