7 Subtle Signals Worth Paying Attention To After 40

Small shifts that are easy to put down to ageing, stress or a bad night. Here are three of the seven — and what to do if they sound familiar.

1. The 3pm wallNot ordinary tiredness — a heavy, foggy drop at roughly the same time each day, usually with a strong pull toward something sweet or another coffee.
2. Hungry again within two hours of eatingA meal that should hold you for four hours holding you for ninety minutes, repeatedly, is worth noticing.
3. Waking between 2am and 4amRegularly, without an obvious reason, and often finding it hard to get back to sleep.

Why these get dismissed

Every one of these has an innocent explanation. You are busy, you slept badly, you are getting older. And often that is genuinely all it is.

But when several show up together and persist for weeks, they are worth a conversation rather than a shrug. Not a cause for alarm — a reason to get information.

What to actually do about it

Awareness is only useful if it leads somewhere. If two or more of these sound like your last few months, the next step is a conversation with your doctor and a simple blood test — a fasting glucose and an HbA1c.

Those two numbers cost very little and take one appointment. They tell you where you actually stand, which is far more useful than guessing from symptoms. This page cannot diagnose anything and neither can a checklist; only testing can.

Want the long version? Read the full guide to all seven signals on our blog.