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Been through this before, so I know it gets better eventually, but what do you folks generally do to optimize beddy-bye time? To the insomniacs, what are some things you do in the wee hours/early morning for a relaxing start to your day?

This morning's choice is checking out the music of Casiopea - saw them mentioned in a meme here recently, then later on saw one of my favourite gig spaces has a great local fusion jazz band doing a show covering them at the end of the month. Very chill, feels like menu music of a mid-90s Japanese 3D game in a very good way, lol. Funny how these things happen sometimes, kinda like seeing the car model you just bought everywhere on the road shortly after purchase.

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[-] klemptor@startrek.website 2 points 2 months ago

Ha, I saw that meme and listened to Casiopea all day long while I took down my xmas tree. 😎

For sleep, I'll put on some sort of white noise, like rain sounds or a crackling fireplace. That usually gets me feeling sleepy. Or sometimes I'll read a book that I'm not really into (and then my husband will find me dead asleep with a book in my hand and my glasses still on).

When I've had shitty sleep, I avoid coffee. I'm more a tea person anyway, but coffee on top of poor sleep makes me a jittery anxious mess. Strong tea will wake me up without the jitters. And I make myself a big breakfast - something like 2 eggs, 3 pieces of Canadian bacon, a slice of buttered raisin toast, and cantaloupe. No phone, tv, or music until I start feeling energetic.

[-] reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 months ago

I’m on a T break too and I forgot that weed had been preventing night sweating for the most part! Probably my least favorite side effect of taking a break because I have to do more laundry.

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[-] Chakravanti@monero.town 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer for sleeping and relax. Rooibos for Calming and clear thought. Yerba Mate for Waking up and organized thought. I throw the Rooibos into my Yerba Mate drink to start with too. Rooibos lasts about 6 hours. Yerb Mate is everything you thought coffee was going to be that first try but it's like that every time.

[-] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 2 points 2 months ago

so taking a long, hot bath before bed helps me sleep and we got a red light therapy unit and that does it to. Combining both and oh man hard to keep my eyes open.

[-] PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I usually do fine on my own, but if I'm struggling, ASMR videos can really put me to sleep.

I don't really like the ones with girls doing your hair or skincare that are the top search results (but lots of people like them and they might work for you!), and prefer ones that are just simple wooden blocks, glass beads, washboards, etc.

[-] pemptago@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

I like easy tidying as a wind down activity. Mostly putting things back in their place. For bed, I have an ereader with warm lighting that's been great. If I'm without it, something that calms my mental zoomies is practicing the alphabet backwards. I start forward with chunks, "abc - cba," "abc, def - fed, cba," etc. It keeps my mind active till I get bored and want to fall asleep.

In my experience, and from speaking with others, taking a break from cannabis can mean remembering dreams more vividly. It might be worth leaning into that: write dreams down when you wake and think about them when you go to bed. I find if I try to think through a dream and build on it, it puts me in that dream-state and I drift off.

Oh, and one last tip. Lights work better than alarms for some. So if you put a lamp on a timer, it may help normalize your wake-up time, if that's an issue.

Good luck!

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Basic sleep hygiene, no large meals in the evening, try to avoid blue light (blue light filters for screens or avoid screens), try to cool bedoom down before going to bed. Earplugs might help as well. Complete darkness. All those nasty power leds, tape on them. I myself have smart lights so I can't make them red and real dim so as to avoid any disturbance through light.

Aside from that, melatonin ~30-60 min before hopping into bed and often an ambien 30-5 min before.

Then again that's even when I do smoke. And I'm understating my medication slightly.

For me the best substitute when I quit weed was genuinely Terry Pratchett novels. They're sort of whimsical and provoking humorous thoughts. Much like weed often does. And the books are exceedingly good natured, even the baddies aren't really that evil. Usually they're more like arbitrary concepts.

So tldr sleep hygiene and reading under a somewhat low light while the room cools down and when it gets too cold and you're getting tired of reading, close the window and hop into a crispy bed.

Should help at least. Some of these things at least. Probably. Maybe.

[-] ZDL@ttrpg.network 2 points 2 months ago

All those nasty power leds, tape on them.

We've banned anything with yellow, green, or blue LEDs in the bedroom. On top of that:

Complete darkness.

I've personally enforced this with some very nice eye shades. If I put them on in even broad daylight I can sleep easily if I'm ready for sleep. They're like blackout curtains for your eyes. (My SO doesn't do this; his loss.)

As an extra, I take one shot of liquor an hour before I go to bed. After an hour all the alcohol is metabolized (do not go to sleep with a measurable blood alcohol level!) so I'm relaxed and mellow and ready for sleep.

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

As an extra, I take one shot of liquor an hour before I go to bed. After an hour all the alcohol is metabolized (do not go to sleep with a measurable blood alcohol level!) so I’m relaxed and mellow and ready for sleep.

It might help get to sleep, but it harms the quality of your sleep. So does my ambien of course, but less so than alcohol, as it's actually a pharmaceutical designed for that. But it is a drug to get to sleep, primarily.

https://www.wmchealth.org/blogs/the-truth-about-nightcaps-ditch-the-drink-get-a-go-783

Alcohol interferes with the crucial rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage, impacting memory, learning and mood.

Get some sort of cheap health wristband activity thingy if you want to follow your sleep better. I've liked mine, got it last year for 39€. It shows the amount of REM, deep and light sleeps. It might be that you do sleep better with a single drink, but generally science does tend to agree that it reduces quality of sleep. However a few times when I've been properly drunk, I've actually slept like twice as much and thus gotten more REM sleep, and felt more relaxed when I woke up. But I would say that alcohol does reduce my quality of sleep most of the time, even if it doesn't necessarily feel like that.

But again, not judging I don't know what works for you and I take ambien pretty much every night so that's pretty comparable to one shot imo

[-] ZDL@ttrpg.network 1 points 2 months ago

It might help get to sleep, but it harms the quality of your sleep.

It harms the quality of your sleep if it's still in your system. Which is why I warned specifically against that.

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

You're thinking that when you don't have alcohol in your blood and it's broken down by your body, that "it's not in your system"? The breakdown produces for instance acetaldehyde and then further into acetate. That's why people get hangovers and are still sick a long time after the buzz has worn off and there's no alcohol in their blood.

If you drink alcohol today, the metabolites are still detectable in urine for a few days. No-one just ever tests for those, but actual BAC.

[-] ZDL@ttrpg.network 0 points 2 months ago

You can detect metabolites of almost anything in urine and/or stool for days. That's not the question here. The question is do these metabolites interfere with sleep?

From personal experience I know it's a REALLY bad idea to sleep with any measurable blood alcohol content. When I've done that, I fall asleep quickly but I wake up feeling more tired than when I fell asleep. When I let it metabolize first, the quality of the sleep improves dramatically. So it sounds like acetaldehyde and acetate don't impact my sleep negatively at all.

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

And from science I know it affects the quality of your sleep.

You do whatever you like but don't argue against science with some shitty reasoning you made up. That really screams alcohol problem.

So it sounds like acetaldehyde and acetate don't impact my sleep negatively at all.

Oh yes you just must be immune and the science is wrong, gotcha

[-] ZDL@ttrpg.network 0 points 2 months ago

The modern version of "it is written in scripture" is "studies say".

The modern equivalent of "I'm a flaming asshole" is to attribute negative characteristics like "alcohol problem" without evidence. (Ironically this is also anti-science, but let's not sprain what passes for your brain too strongly here.)

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Ah yes "who cares about your science, this is what I feel like", as if subjective experiences have never fooled anyone?

The plural or anecdote isn't evidence.

It's not "without evidence" and I didn't attribute it to you. Don't you think I take care to take breaks from my meds to see that I don't have a) a physical dependency b) a psychological need (addiction)? It's not always possible, as sleeping is then slightly harder, but I try to test that out with at least a few week break every year, because it's healthy.

You do realise the nature of addiction is such that when you actually suffer from it, you'll make yourself believe you don't?

It reminds me of those people who adamantly demand that caffeine has zero effect on them (as they drink it frequently and still sleep and don't notice effects from it.) While everyone around them is annoyed to fuck by their constant jittering and foot tapping.

I'm not saying you have a problem. But alcohol does reduce your quality of sleep. Your "but I don't feel that way" won't discredit all the science which shows it does. Sorry. I'm not telling what to do or judging you in any way ffs.

[-] Pronell@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I like Tylenol PM. (or whatever version of otc painkiller you prefer)

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[-] bitchkat@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

I take a gummy.

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this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2025
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