Remember these two? There was a time when TV censors wouldn’t let you portray a married couple sleeping in the same bed. That was around the time we Baby Boomers were children.

Then we grew up and boy, how things changed. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, baby.

But now we’re getting older, and things are changing again, particularly in the bedroom. There’s a lot more snoring going on, from both sides of the bed. More tossing and turning. More sensitivity to temperature, noise and movement. More aches and pains everywhere. Sleep is becoming more elusive.

Well, that’s okay, we used to think, because older people don’t need as much sleep. Right?

No. We now know that isn’t true. Older people need the same eight hours as any adult. It’s just harder for us to get it, largely because we produce less melatonin and whatever else it is that brings on sleep. And that’s a problem, because we’re learning that sleep is more important than we’d ever realized.

For example, did you know that your brain cleanses itself during certain sleep cycles? Not having a lymphatic system to carry out the trash, our brains shrink during the night, allowing spinal fluid to wash the area and remove the detritus of the day. When we don’t sleep well, this process, one of many, doesn’t run optimally.

And getting up in the morning after an unrestful night is depressing. Nobody wants to do that. As a result, in a highly scientific survey consisting of asking myself and several friends, I’m learning that some of us are moving away from the customary one bed/two people construct. For example, my friend and her husband agreed to have separate bedrooms. She even went out and bought herself a brand new bedroom set. He got her old one. Hey, he’s happy. He still has visitor privileges.

Mom and Dad moved into separate bedrooms, when Dad began tossing and turning and snoring and getting up to use the restroom a hundred times a night. Mom’s a light sleeper, and she had trouble going back to sleep once she was awake, so that solution worked for them.

Then there’s the option of changing rooms in the middle of the night. I do that sometimes if I get restless or achey. I’ll go sleep in the guest room just for a different mattress. It’s wonderful. I’m trying to make sure I get as close to eight hours of sleep each night as possible, and it’s a joy to wake up and see the clock reading six a.m. What a luxury! I couldn’t do that as a younger person, and if you’re still raising kids or working fulltime, I feel for you.

For more information on the power and necessity of sleep, click here.