Sleep is such a regenerator, not only for an aging body, but for the mind. When you keep having short nights, waking up uncomfortably hot, or finding yourself wide awake at three in the morning, it's disturbing and annoying to say the least. And you never feel at your best during the day.

Dealing with my sleeplessness is an ongoing challenge. I can listen to a book when I wake to stop me worrying—because everything seems worse in the night—but it still doesn't alter the fact that I have woken up!

Drinking milk last thing at night triggers a wake-up call, at least for me, as I have to visit the bathroom. So, that's out. Also, having a warm bath doesn't seem to work either. I am against taking pills in general, but I do take 1 mg. of melatonin about three times a week and that helps me get to sleep, not to stay asleep though. In any case, I have found over the years that many of the 'remedies' are not only expensive, they don't really work anyhow.

I'm trying to discover the things that trigger the wakefulness. One thing that seems to bring the heat on is eating red meat. I don't eat a lot of it, not only for this reason, but because too much red meat isn't good for you anyhow. It's a very heavy protein and some of it is pumped full of hormones. I have discovered that the best nights' sleep come after eating only veggies with a little fish or fowl.

It depresses me to think that I might have had the best sleeps of my life—that is, when I was younger. Ah, I envy the young for that alone, never mind all the other stuff one has to suffer from an aging body.