I'm Aida Limone and this is the slowdown.

I am for the most part a good sleeper.

It takes me a little while to fall asleep, but then generally I sleep through the night.

But something no one tells you about aging is that pretty much after 40, most of your

friends and family members will start talking to you about sleep.

Everyone will talk about how they need more sleep or how sleep has been interrupted

by children or how they have to stop eating after 8pm to make sure they can sleep.

Sleep becomes everything.

When I was in my 20s, I never thought about sleep.

It was just something I did.

I crawled into bed and it happened.

I could drink and eat and stay out late or stay in and go to bed early and sleep would

come.

But now I have to make sure the room temperature is right, cold, cold, cold.

The bed is firm, there is not a sliver of light assaulting my eyes.

I sleep well, yes, but I work at it.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in three adults don't get enough sleep.

And if my friends, anecdotes, and agonies are any fair sampling, then this is true.

And yet we need it.

We're told we need more of it to be healthy, to lower our blood pressure, to improve our

mental and physical well-being.

But you know what's never helped me to sleep, thinking too much about sleep.

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