Something strange is happening. I used to be able to stay up until all hours of the night and sleep until noon. However for the past couple of years, I find myself going to bed earlier and earlier. And not only am I rising at dawn without the need of an alarm clock, I wake up all through the night — sometimes to snoring!

I don’t necessarily abhor the waking up early part of this new development in my sleeping patterns, it’s just that it seems peculiar that after a lifetime of being able to snooze like a baby, now when the sun begins to sink so do I.

At first I thought I was just transitioning from being an owl into becoming a lark, but after looking over the characteristics of the early bird, it was still apparent that my true identity was still closer to the nocturnal creature.

So I figured that there was only one answer left to this new found phenomenon going on with me — it may have something to do with age.

As much as I like being right, this was one time I wish I had been wrong, but I wasn’t.

As if it isn’t enough that my hair is graying and that the money I spend on wrinkle creams is growing, now I have to add sleeping to the list of “well that’s just what happens when we age” mantra.

According to a website, as we age our sleep quality like our skin quality changes and our memory starts to become slack.

It seems, unlike those who are young, we who are of a more mature age do not have the ability to sleep as long and as soundly, which ultimately affects cognitive function.

Apparently, when I learn something new, that information is stored in my hippocampus, but because I am not a 25-year-old anymore and I do not have the sleep patterns of a young person, new information will have a harder time traveling to my prefrontal cortex, which is where long-term memories are stored.

So what is a girl of a certain age to do? Beg for high-powered sleep aids that are sure to cause just as many problems as not remembering how to program her cell phone?

Absolutely not, thankfully scientists have discovered that to counter act the slow-flow of info into the part of my brain that helps me recall my newest knowledge, all I need do is nap.

It will not help 100 percent, the experts say, since you cannot reach a deep sleep with a nap, but it will help.

I guess all I need now is a rocking chair for my siesta.

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach her at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com. Readers are invited to submit their opinions for publication.