I was just talking with a mate about that the other day. We are both 62 this year.

Our conclusion about what sucks getting older comes down to two things; constant low level pain, but above all it is lack of proper sleep.

I used to be able to sleep 8 hours without interruption, and if I had a few late nights I could always catchup and sleep in when I got the chance. Now, I am lucky if I get 4 hours uninterrupted sleep, and average not more than six hours a night. As for sleeping in, ha. Bladder says no to that.

Low level pain comes from things like sore joints, arthritis, muscle pain, and a bunch of other things. Things you can just shrug off and ignore when you are younger and/or well rested, but not so much when you are always tired.

Has my personality changed? No, I don’t think so. But I certainly have a lot less patience and tolerance of annoyances than I once did.

Now if you will excuse me, those damn kids are on my lawn again, and it’s time for my nap.

No, their personality doesn’t change.

Let me tell you about getting older.

• Everything physical gets harder. Including keeping off excess weight.
• Some of the indignities that have been visited upon me: ear hair, nose hair, and eyebrows seem to grow out of control, and need regular trimming now. I have developed some mild arthritis that requires weight training to keep the pain under control. The fat pads on the soles of my feet have nearly disappeared, so I can’t walk around barefoot any more, and must wear cushy shoes. I have to manage high blood pressure, and keeping a close eye on my blood sugar, because most of my family of origin has, or is on the border of, Type 2 diabetes. I’ve got benign prostate hyperplasia, which translates to having to urinate practically hourly, and I can’t sleep through the night anymore.
• My memory is not what it was. I used to recall everything, instantly. I could practically look at a page of text in my mind and recall it. Now, I struggle sometimes to find the word I want, to remember the names of people that I should have no problem recalling.
• Back to the sleep. I’m falling asleep by about 8:30pm. I never get more than about six hours of actual sleep. So I’m tired most days, most of the day.
• I can’t take too much darkness, cold, or heat anymore. It’s annoying to feel like I need to be in a carefully climate controlled environment all the time.
• My jar of fks emptied out a couple of decades ago. I can still recall when I cared what random people thought of me. That was kind of a miserable time. Now, the only people whose opinion of me matters are my wife and kids.
• I never had much tolerance for stupid. I’m less likely to hide it if you annoy me with stupid now than might have been the case 20 years ago (see previous bullet point.)

One more important thing. I’m not saying every old man is like this, but, typically, a man has less of a social network than women. And men tend to die earlier than women. And old man is more likely to lack much of any social network besides his wife, and that will also contribute to a loss of social skills over time.

Adding new things that make me grumpy. For context, I’m old enough to start collecting SS if I wanted, and cashing in my 401Ks, but not old enough for Medicare.

• Ageism in the workplace. I work in high tech, which means lots of young managers, and I have been passed over after interviews a couple of times by young managers who did not even have the knowledge and experience to evaluate my knowledge and experience.
• I’ve got 30 years experience in my industry, constantly keeping up to date with new technologies. I take no pleasure in saying “I told you so” to still-wet-behind-the-ears engineers who insist on doing things their way, but it happens all too often.

Another thing that gets me grumpy is people older than me flexing about how wonderful their life is, or trying to give me advice on how to have a happier life, or chiding me that I’ve let my body go. All of you can just go fk right off. Did you read the fkn question? Do you understand the spirit in which the answer was given? Or has your cognitive decline proceeded faster than you realized?

Look, my life is fine. I have posted a list of complaints, because OP wondered why older people might get grumpy. Do not assume, for a moment, that I’m going around ranting about all my ailments and inconveniences to anyone who will listen. Mostly, if they come up, I joke about them. I am already well aware of all the interventions available for my various ills. And unlike some commenters on this answer, I am aware of how disrespectful it is to offer unsolicited advice. There are two categories of people that it is ok to give such advice to. Your minor children, and people who report to you in an organization. That’s it. And when you choose to offer unsolicited advice outside of these specific circumstances, you are displaying either a lack of emotional maturity, or evidence that cognitive decline has proceeded to the point that you lack the ability to keep your mouth shut.

Once my mom hit her 70s, and I would ask her about this and that about her health, she would always say, eventually, in Italian, “La vecchiaia è una carogna. Ma non invecchiare è più carogna.” Which roughly translates to “Old age sucks. Not getting old sucks worse.”

This answer was written tongue-in-cheek. If your take-away from this answer is that I’m a grouchy malcontent who continues to fail to do the right things for the health of my body and mind—be grateful that the people around you have the patience and respect to put up with you and not call you out on your behavior.

If you leave a comment, and I find you’ve blocked me, I will delete your comment and block you in return.