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my very first thought is your approach to getting out of your slump sounds too "passive" -- reading and listening to lectures is great...but...at some point you need more...
rather than just reading and listening, then if you're in a real slump, then i think it's important to get outside advice, spend the money for the coach or have a friend whose game you respect work with you and you can "sweat" each other's games, there's a point in which reading/watching videos/etc. just runs off unless you have an objective teacher/coach/expert friend to give some help -- besides no way you can stay in bed moaning when you have appt. to meet the coach
obv. if you are looking at people in midlife, as opposed to someone who is experiencing slump in relative youth as tiger woods did sometime back, then a lot of them are going to go into extensive "slumps" in many sports because you don't have the same body you had in your youth, golf is probably one of the more forgiving, but i think in some sports there comes a time in midlife when you have to accept that you are not as competitive in that sport as you once were -- it might be TIME to look into senior's leagues, look into switching to something else where you don't have the pressure to perform and can just enjoy, get into coaching beginners yourself etc. -- depends on you, what change you make, but sometimes being depressed is nature's way of saying, hey this can't go on, something's gotta change
also changing hormone levels will affect your ability to sleep deeply, and hormone replacement therapy is actually becoming less accepted for women and probably never was all that accepted for men (altho i don't see why testing your testosterone level wouldn't be OK, some doctors would consider this to be "crank" type advice) -- we're now supposed to grin it and bear it and go "natural" and pretend all this medical tech was never invented -- sigh -- however, if you do have a cooperative doctor, i would certainly look into being sure there's no medical issue --
i never would have thought until i experienced it that a woman in midlife could bleed so much she got anemia, sigh, the things you learn! -- while this wouldn't be your problem, it's possible you could have some other issue that would respond to proper testing and medication -- alas, if the doc gives you the brush off and says you're fine, when you KNOW you're not fine, i don't know what else you could do
some sports just have very high likelihood of prolonged slumps, golf is certainly one of those, poker is another, last summer i had a huge streak where i was winning far above my expectation, which was naturally followed by a long and irritating "slump" which adjusted my win rate to a more realistic level, and all this while still enjoying the "joys" of being a female in mid-life, well, the only thing to do was to insist on time to myself, to pursue other non-competitive sports such as hiking and birding, where i could get out and get away and not be focused all the time on the "slump"
hard to have a "slump" in hiking, you simply pick a trail every week or every month, and you do the trail at the pace of your choosing on a beautiful day/week and if you don't get eaten by the bear, you may now declare yourself the winner :-)
don't put yourself in a pressure cooker all the time, be sure to have NON competitive yet ACTIVE sports or activities
you should still continue to read/study/listen to a lecture every day, in fact, i even keep a notebook of what i have done each day to study and improve -- however, you also need something else to keep from just "wallowing"
if you have a link to the man who studied the golfers, i would be interested in reading what he said
getting older stinks, there's no use pretending it doesn't, but i have personal acquaintance with many people who have continued to be successful players at blackjack and poker even after 70, so as a middle aged person i am just getting started and have plenty of time to ride out the "slumps," for some sports tho, the realistic thing is to have a plan about how you will change your sport or your approach to sport so you can still enjoy life without beating up your aging body
there is too much pressure now to pretend that 50 is the the new 30, 40 is the new 20, and it feeds all kinds of unrealistic ideas, no wonder people get depressed, when some air brushed bimbo who does nothing harder than read a teleprompter is trying to pretend that your body is the same as it was 30 years ago, you get all this pressure telling you that you're the freak for tiring more easily, well, you're not the freak, the media is just trying to sell you a lot of shit that's only flattering if you're a moron and you're not a moron so you just get all arggghhhh!!!
so in short, my advice is, have a realistic goal for your sport, know how long "slumps" should last, get a coach, get outside, and don't be embarrassed to sleep 9 hours a night, (also get a check-up but if the doc has already said you're fine don't become a doctor shopper because becoming a hypochondriac won't help anything either)
good luck, one day the slump will be over and the victories all the sweeter...
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