DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a reasonably healthy 76-year-old woman. I eat a healthy diet, avoid processed sugar and work out usually twice a week, plus one day with a personal trainer. I am a breast cancer survivor. I drink 5 ounces of wine with dinner on weeknights and slightly more on the weekends. I am in bed around 11:30 p.m. every night and asleep easily by midnight without any sleep aids other than magnesium glycinate.

I generally sleep 7 hours with a few trips to the bathroom but always get back to sleep right away. I often wake up on my own around 7 a.m. and feel perfectly rested without a particular desire to get up. So, I use the bathroom and go back to bed to get the 8th hour of sleep I supposedly am entitled to.

When I do sleep for 8 hours, it is difficult and uncomfortable to get up after the last luxurious hour. Am I actually harming myself with this self-indulgence? — C.K.

ANSWER: The name for the uncomfortable feeling on awakening is “sleep inertia.” Many people will get this after a long nap.

If you feel well-rested upon spontaneously awakening after 7 hours, my general advice is to get up and seize the day! The advantage is not having sleep inertia symptoms. I think you will feel better this way. However, I don’t think you are harming yourself by having an extra hour of snooze time.

DEAR DR. ROACH: I am a 77-year-old woman in good health. I walk daily. The only prescribed medications I am on are two different eye drops for glaucoma. My eye pressure is under control; I have it checked every three to four months.

I was looking for a sleep aid at my pharmacy and was surprised to find that most of them say not to use them if you have glaucoma because they are antihistamines. Why would this effect the pressure in my eyes? I would think that by clearing your sinuses, it would relieve pressure in your head and therefore your eyes. — S.H.

ANSWER: Glaucoma is a family of diseases of the optic nerve. The most important risk factor is elevated pressure inside the eye, but it is possible to get glaucoma with normal eye pressure. Not everyone with high eye pressure develops glaucoma. Still, when screening identifies high pressure, or when an eye exam diagnoses glaucoma, we want to keep the eye pressure down as this slows down or stops progression, even in people with normal-pressure glaucoma.

There are two general ways eye pressure can increase: One is due to open-angle glaucoma, and the other is due to angle-closure glaucoma. You should find out which kind you have. If you are just being treated with drops, it’s likely you have open-angle. If you had a laser procedure, you could have either, but most people with open-angle glaucoma who do well on medications do not get surgery.

If you have open-angle glaucoma, then plain antihistamines should be no trouble, but people with angle-closure glaucoma are at a higher risk and should avoid all medicines with glaucoma warnings, unless they’ve been specifically approved by their ophthalmologist. Antihistamines with decongestants (usually over-the-counter cold remedies) should be avoided in particular as they can cause the angle to close, dramatically raising eye pressure and threatening sight.

Facial pressure from clogged sinuses or nasal passages is not transmitted to the eye, which has a different way of relieving fluid and pressure and can be impaired in people with glaucoma.