Ridiculously tired !!

I feel phenomenally tired!

It has been a ridiculously busy week all told, and the weekend was hectic too. Coupled with too little sleep, back pain and not a very health diet for a few days, over busyness is a killer (hopefully not literally).

We have done some nice things amongst the busyness, but it has all come at once. Thankfully next week is less frenetic and I will be able to catch up on the little things (which make you feel stressed when they are neglected) before we go away (again!).

The Hubby tells me to stop moaning and be thankful that I am able to take four or five breaks a year when most people have to make do with one or two (or increasingly in today’s straitened times, no holiday at all) and of course he’s right but I do feel like I earn it and anyway, what’s the use of having a place in the southern Mediterranean if you don’t take advantage of it as much as possible?

Perhaps this excessive tiredness is a result of my age and the menopause, along with the high blood pressure, weight gain and poor sleep pattern? Maybe I’ll go through it and come out the other end a rejuvenated person! That would be nice, but somehow I can’t see it happening.

Quite simply, I am getting old and feeling my age! There are times when I feel still like I’m in my thirties which I think were my best decade in many ways, but more often than not I get the urge to curl up in my PJs with a good book and cup of hot chocolate with my dog and my cats and shut out the world. I hobble when I get up from sitting in a chair for a while as my limbs have gone stiff, and I am becoming less and less tolerant of other people and their peculiarities. But then you may have noticed that!

The tiredness is the worst of all the symptoms of age, because it is so debilitating and there is no easy solution if you are a bad sleeper. I’ve tried herbal pills which were useless, and then tried Nytol which works to a degree (but not, interestingly enough, after a glass of wine) but leaves you with a heady ache first thing in the morning. I’ve tried old fashioned remedies like a warm bath and warm milk just before bed, the bedroom is totally dark and quiet anyway, and I wear earplugs (The Hubby, although he denies it, snores!), all of it to no avail.

I do know other women who have started having trouble sleeping when they hit the menopause so I’m hoping that’s what it is, because I am now starting to look as haggard as I feel and getting increasingly grumpy and grouchy with the world. One poor friend went through a phase of not sleeping at all and God knows what she must have felt like. The trouble is I can usually go off to sleep, but wake up after a few hours with my mind buzzing and then have trouble dropping back off again. I regularly lie awake between 3am and 5.30am pondering the mysteries of life and other momentous things, only to drop back off just as the alarm is due to ring.

An afternoon nap is sometimes the solution at the weekend, but it isn’t always possible. I have always been able to sleep in the afternoon and then slowly come round, like a dozy fly on a hot humid afternoon, with the aid of a cup of tea for 15 minutes.  A siesta should be compulsory in the UK like it is in Europe as it really suits me. Shame my employers don’t think so.

I am working at home later this week and so I will schedule my working day to put my feet up in the afternoon. I’ll have to set the alarm. And don’t anyone dare ring me between 2pm and 5pm, I’ll be asleep!!