Nov 14, 2016 3 min read

I think I’m getting old. I know that old is a state of mind, but my mind is agreeing with my body. I am pushing 40. I have a college student for a daughter. I complain about my joints hurting before it rains.

If only the wisdom of the elderly accompanied my worry about age.

One of my biggest concerns is that I find myself requiring tons more sleep than I have ever needed before. In my youth, I was able to roll into bed after 3 a.m. and get up by 6 a.m. to work all day. Now, I feel like I could crawl in at 3 in the afternoon and STILL be exhausted the next morning.

Also, for the first time ever, the time change has had significant effects on my sleep pattern. I find myself falling asleep – in a chair, at the table, pretty much wherever I am – well after dark, but when I glance at the clock, I discover that it is barely an average dinner time. I struggle to function until I can head to bed and still feel a modicum of self-respect.

It is often only 8 p.m. OK, sometimes earlier.

But then, once I am asleep, I no longer remain asleep all night. Many nights, I awake between 1 and 3 a.m. and then can’t get back to sleep. I try to remain still, so as not to disturb my husband, but often I can tell by his breathing that he is awake as well, and we’ll just begin talking about whatever comes to mind.

Other nights, I get up and start a load of laundry, watch television, wash dishes, play with the cats or even read my Bible and pray for a while. After an hour or so, I feel tired again, so I go back to bed. But when the alarm goes off hours later, I do not feel rested. This makes it even harder to stay up the next evening until an adult’s bedtime.

This particular week has been bad because of the supermoon. A moon is deemed “super” when the full moon falls on the same night it is closest to Earth in orbit. It is a frequent occurrence, but this month’s is closer than it has been to Earth since 1948. Pretty neat to see, and amazing to consider that the orb is still hundreds of thousands of miles away and showing off so much light.

Ah, the light. That brings me back to my middle-of-the-night wakefulness. This supermoon is emitting more light at 3 o’clock in the morning than we are receiving from the sun at 5 p.m. No wonder I’m all messed up!

Hopefully, my body will catch up with the changing season. Hopefully, the moon will go back to a normal brightness that affects me less. Hopefully, I will begin sleeping – and getting rested – very soon.

Much more of this and my attitude might start to superstink.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.