Sleepless in St. Augustine

It seems that as we age, the amount of sleep we need or get seems to lessen.  I remember reading a Stephen King book, Insomnia, quite awhile back.  The main character in the book is a 70 year old man who sleeps less and less as time goes on.  I can relate.  I am becoming well acquainted with the early hours of the morning.  A typical night for me now goes something like this:

                      9:00 pm       I fall asleep on the couch watching TV.  I awaken and decide
                                           to go to bed.  Often I can fall asleep fairly easily. Sometimes not.

                    12:00              I wake up throwing the covers off as I am burning hot.

                      1:30 am        Having woken up in an attempt to cool off, I am still
                                           trying to go back to sleep.  I attempt reading or perusing
                                           Pinterest online until I feel sleepy and can sometimes fall
                                           back asleep. Sometimes not.

                       3:00 am       I wake up cold and put the covers back on only to have various
                                           parts of my body realize I am awake and they demand my attention.
                                           The bladder wants a trip to the bathroom, my stomach decides it is
                                           either hungry or having a bout of heartburn or indigestion necessitating
                                           a trip to the kitchen or medicine cabinet.  Other parts decide to chime
                                           in with aches and pains. I make attempts to quiet all these bothersome
                                           naggers.

                       3:30 am       My dog, who is himself quite old now, decides to get in on the act
                                           and demands to be let out.  Ignoring this request is futile. He will
                                           increase his vocal demands to ongoing barking at full volume. While
                                           letting him out, I think about taking a sleep aid and decide its too late
                                           and I will wind up sleeping until noon and feel hung over when I do
                                           wake up.

                       4:00 am       Lying awake wondering random crazy stuff.  What is the meaning of
                                           life?  Who created the universe?  What was the combination of my
                                           locker in 8th grade?  Just what the hell is wrong with me? Ugh

                       5:00 am       I realize I am not sleeping and that this night will result in yet
                                           another "bad night".  I debate whether to just get up and do something
                                           as continuing to lie in bed seems pointless.

                       6:00 am       I notice that the quality of darkness in my bedroom has changed
                                           indicating the arrival of daylight. I have never been able to sleep
                                           when its light out.  Like the opposite of vampires, I need to be in my                                                      sleeping place and asleep while it is still dark.  Once daylight hits, that's it.

                        7:00 am      I drag myself out of bed for another tired day.

After several nights like this, I become so over tired I am like a 2 year old who has missed their nap; I am cranky and out of sorts.  And please don't write me with suggestions for sleep. I think I have tried them all. Some occasionally work, although leave me feeling groggy the next day.  One of my sisters had a great experience a while back. She needed some minor surgery and when I called to inquire as to how she was feeling, she replied, "Great! Best sleep I've had in years".  The doctors had used the same drug that was administered to Michael Jackson to help him sleep to put her under.  She slept very soundly for a long and much needed nap.
She decided that more surgery might be in order just to get some good sleep.  I may have to see what I need done. ha ha.