Some Good News…

I have some good news.

It feels strange writing those words because so many of my recent posts have explored the challenges of living with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). The fears. The pain. The uncertainty. Those things are still very real.

But this morning, being the CPA (Retired) that I have always been, I looked back at two months of data from my Garmin watch and, for the first time in a while, I found something genuinely encouraging.

My sleep is noticeably improving.

Not dramatically. Not miraculously. But measurably.

Even with the World Cup disrupting routines and tempting me to stay awake longer than I probably should have, the overall trend has been unmistakably positive. My Garmin Sleep Score has risen steadily, I am sleeping for longer on the nights I wear my watch, and my morning Body Battery has also shown a clear improvement. None of these measures is perfect, and Garmin’s Body Battery is a wellness metric rather than a medical test, but taken together they tell a consistent story.

Something is getting better.

The graphs also provide a useful dose of perspective. I remain a very long way from the averages expected for a healthy 51-year-old man. Most adults my age should be sleeping somewhere between seven and nine hours a night. I am not there yet. Not even close. My overnight recovery is also still well below what Garmin would regard as typical for a healthy adult.

That could be discouraging. But I also have to remember that disrupted sleep is one of the recognised features of PSP and is well documented. The disease itself works against good sleep. By healthy standards, these numbers are still poor.

Instead, I have chosen to see it differently.

I am not comparing myself with where I wish I was. I am comparing myself with where I was two months ago.

That comparison gives me confidence that I am doing everything I reasonably can to give myself the best possible chance of staying healthy for as long as possible.

The improvement has not come from a new miracle drug or an expensive treatment. It has largely come from changing habits that, in hindsight, I should probably have changed years ago.

The biggest change has been teaching myself to stay in bed when I wake during the night. For years my instinct was to assume I was awake for good.

I would reach for my phone, answer emails, reply to WhatsApps or simply start the day ridiculously early. Now I deliberately try, with my wife’s gentle but persistent encouragement (for which I am enormously grateful), to settle back down and give sleep another chance. It does not always work, but it works often enough to make a difference.

Retirement has had one unexpected health benefit. My inbox has become wonderfully quiet. Apparently, fewer emails really do help you sleep.

I have also changed my routine. Rather than doing yoga whenever I happened to wake up, I now have a fixed session at 7:00 a.m. with my live-in carer. Having that structure removes the temptation to turn another sleepless night into the start of another day.

I am learning that improving sleep is not about one big decision. It is about making a number of small ones, over and over again. And, perhaps, about retirement too.

Living with PSP often feels like a story of gradual losses, so it is important to celebrate the occasional gain. This is one of them.

I know there is still a very long road ahead. I know there will be setbacks. I know tomorrow night’s sleep could be terrible.

But today, the data tells me something I have not been able to say for quite a while.

Something fundamental is moving in the right direction.

That is good news.

And for now, that is more than enough.