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Aging doesn’t happen all at once; it comes on slowly and shows itself in funny and sometimes subtle ways. Your search for “best vitamins for joint health” changes every day. One day you’re out all night. Aging is more than just getting lines and gray hairs. It also means that your body, habits, and even tastes start to change in ways you never thought possible.
This list has five clear (and often funny) signs that you may be truly entering the “I’m old now” zone.
1. Sleep turns into a valuable resource
There was a time when you didn’t have to sleep. You could sleep until 3 a.m. and wake up at 6 a.m. and still get a lot done. Those times are long gone. Now, eight hours of unbroken sleep doesn’t seem like enough. You are more tired when you wake up than when you went to bed, and naps aren’t a treat anymore; they’re a way to stay alive.
It’s not just how much sleep you get either. You know a lot about sleep now. To get the best rest, you look into the best beds, try out memory foam pillows, and even think about blackout curtains. All of a sudden, you know what “sleep hygiene” means. Don’t even get me started on the nights when insomnia shows up out of the blue; those are pretty much disasters.
You also find yourself doing math in your head to decide if going to an event late at night is worth giving up your sleep for. It’s not always true, though.