sleepy

They say you need less sleep as you get older. However, while I'm not sure whether my recent sleepiness is a trend or an aberration in my personal sleep schedule, I'm finding that I need a lot more sleep of late. My famously insomnia-fueled night-owl hours seem to be over and I find my self ready, willing, and able to hit the hay around or slightly past midnight each evening. Getting up at 6 or 7, or even 8 an 9, seems to still be just out of reach. I wake up many times, but, with each instance, find myself exhausted and incoherent and in need of just a leeeetle more sleep. Which turns into an hour or three. So, the upshot is, I've been getting steadily 9 or 10 or even 11 hours of sleep each night, and I still wake up with a big, stuffy head and feel quite distracted and exhausted. I mentioned it to my doctor, and she thought it might be a touch of seasonal affective disorder. As the seasons move seamlessly from winter to spring, though, I've been sleeping gradually longer, not shorter, hours. Even with the shades up and the (precious few hours of, at my house) sunlight streaming in. This can't be normal, right? I haven't needed this much sleep since I was a little kid. I used to get by just fine on 5 or 6, with a healthy catch-up on the weekends. What's going on??