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Sleep problems in later life

People's stories

Men aged 75+

P. - Interview 16

P. - Interview 16

Age at Interview: 95
Sex: Male
Background: Widowed, retired University Professor

Brief outline:P. has been retired for 35 years but still continues to undertake research and has published more than 30 papers since his retirement. He likes to try and be active as much as he can during the day and doesn’t like to doze off in the evening because he feels that is a waste of time. He does sometimes have difficulty getting off to sleep, but finds that reading a book often helps with this.

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P. always sets his radio alarm for 7 am because he thinks it is wrong to stay in bed too long, but he may doze on and off for a while listening to the radio.
Print But then you mentioned that, so your alarm goes off at 7? Yes, sometimes I get used to hearing the alarm and I go back to sleep again. I find that sometimes. You do go back to sleep again? Well occasionally yes. I sort of doze. So I don’t really get up properly till about half past seven. Okay is there a reason you set your alarm. Is there a reason like you feel like you need to set your alarm? Well what happens I turn the radio, it is the radio that comes on, you see so I listen to that if I can hear it but probably I won’t have my hearing aid on so I might not be able to hear what he says. I might only hear a few words. But why is it you feel, what I am interested in is why you feel you need to be up at 7 or awake at 7? I don’t know. I feel a sort of conscience I suppose. It’s, I am probably more a puritan background I suppose. It is sinful to spend all the time in bed!

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