I am normally a very light sleeper but in the last couple of weeks I have been experiencing some weird things during the night - like being aware of 4 or 5 long, lucid but decidedly bonkers dreams and then missing hearing my alarm despite being plumb awake 5 minutes before is was due to go off (at 05.33). I often wake up feeling very heavy on the side on which I was sleeping last and am also strangely lethargic.
But last night I worked out why (or at least why I think) this is happening. A new bloke moved into the flat downstairs. I have only really met him a couple of times but I have certainly heard him and his mates, late at night playing computer games with volume turned up loud. I have also smelt him; judging by the sickly horrible smell that wafts up the stairwell to my landing he appears to be a frequent and enthusiastic smoker of cannabis.
Surely it is this Miasma of Marijuana that is interfering with my kip? Or am I imagining it? Is it possible that I could be so badly affected by someone else’s pot smoke??
It’s probably unlikely unless his pot smoke is actually coming into your room, and even then, there would have to be a LOT of it. More likely it is the noise that he is making downstairs that is bothering you.
Maybe you should start smoking yourself. In greater quantities – not the paltry puff you’re getting here and there – pot could very well induce drowsiness and put you through a good night’s sleep.
My personal prejudices are very much against taking anything like that (although, perhaps hypocritically, I have no objection to alcohol). Plus it’s illegal.
You know it’s your moral and legal obligation to report this anti-social malfeasance. Think of all the benefits to your society if you do the right thing and expose these wasters to the authorities.
If in fact there really is something in the smoke affecting your sleeping, it’s far more likely it’s merely the unusual smell that’s bothering your sleep, rather than whatever tiny amount of THC you could be theoretically absorbing.
But I also think the noise is a more likely culprit.
It kind of bums me out that other people don’t like the smell of the ganj, man.
Seriously, it probably is your olfactory senses, but you will get used to it. I’m not sure how the law works where you’re at (I’m in Washington state, USA), but I imagine that the worst effect calling the cops could have on the smoker would be a brief conversation with officers at his doorstep. Not that I think calling the police is a fair tactic in this matter.
You should just get an air filter to purify the air in your room. This should do a lot to eliminate the smell of the second hand smoke. A clorophyll candil also helps.
It’s different for everyone, but back when I was a heavy pot smoker, I never remembered my dreams. It wasn’t until I quit that I started having “long, lucid, but decidedly bonkers” dreams.
Maybe you’re having trouble breathing the stuff in, but you’re not getting a contact high through your floor. And I think noise is more likely the problem.
Even though your environment is, as you say, usually noisy, the introduction of new noises (from this guy) really could explain things. Oftentimes, I only remember the dreams that I’ve had right before I wake up in the morning. If some noises to which you are not accustomed disturb your sleep, they can cause you to not remember waking up, but to remember your dreams more vividly. This could also account for you sleeping more deeply in the mornings (once he’s gone quiet) and missing your alarm, and also for the lethargy, because you’re not sleeping as soundly through the night.
As others have said, your symptoms don’t sound pot-induced, but even if they were, he’d really have to be blowing it right in your face as you slept.
I reject the noise factor and hope you will all be able to understand why when you consider where I live.
I am close to a main road that has a fire station, a police station and hospital with an Accident & Emergency unit all within about a mile of each other (therefore attendant emergency vehicles and their sirens can often be heard). I am about 400 yards from the main Great Western railway line and am under the flightpath to Heathrow Airport.
For these reasons, I KNOW it’s not the noise my neighbour makes that is affecting me; when he and his friends are smoking the ganja, they are generally pretty quiet.
I think I will go with the smell being the cause. But thanks for all your suggestions!
Some of us have reactions to any kind of smoke, cigarette, pot, incense, whatever. If Downstairs Guy is smoking enough that the OP is bothered by it, that’s not a good thing. What would you consider a “fair tactic”? If he talks to Downstairs Guy, and DG says “OK, dude, I’ll turn down the sound and block the vents” and the OP is still getting lots of fumes and noise, and then calls the cops, DG knows who complained. I don’t know about you, but these days, I really don’t want people to know if I complained about them.
I have doubts that secondhand cannabis smoke is going to reach you in concentrations large enough for a psychoactive effect. But for the record, Cannabis actually decreases REM sleep. Maybe they’re smoking Mugwort, a legal herb that looks and sort of smells like marijuana, and is said to enhance dreams? I’ve tried some of the latter lately, with some interesting results.