Serious question about the weed. I only smoke maybe a half dozen times a year or so – and never buy any for myself, just hanging out with some friends and don’t have any reason to not smoke – but I can tell pretty well the difference between strains. At least indica/sativa – as I said, I’m not a hophead by any means. But I could only sleep with something really stony – otherwise I just get a little amped up and want to be active.
Is this a tolerance thing, or do you have a special strain that you choose for getting to sleep?
Note to "mod"s – in many places in the US, marijuana is effectively legalized when prescribed by a physician, so don’t get up in my ass again please, or I’ll snap it right off.
When I was in my early 20s, marijuana made me sleepy within 15 minutes (which is why I never did it–I didn’t see the point). Since I’ve gotten older and had such insomnia problems, I’ve tried marijuana to see if it made me sleepy like it used to. It does not. I smoke some, and then lay awake all night anyway. So I don’t take marijuana anymore.
Yeah, that’s about my experience too – I assumed more people enjoy the headier stuff these days, but it could just be me getting older. Not a big fan of “the slows” the morning after, but that might be my problem and not a normal response.
I’ve tried mindfulness meditation, which works 50-50 for me. The intent of meditating is not to sleep, however, but to calm and relax myself which puts me more in a mood to sleep.
My nightly regimen consists of 1 benadryl, 2 melatonin (300mcg), and occasionally a dose of Nyquil. I am not sure if the Melatonin is helping; it’s certainly not hurting.
Then I usually take another benadryl an hour later, and another dose of Nyquil an hour after that. Rinse, repeat. No more than 3 benadryl a night though; any more than that and it makes you itch. Same for Nyquil, too much tylenol is a bad thing.
Ambien used to work for me but I built up a tolerance. Ambien was fun because I could drop from wakefulness into a dream while not losing awareness. (Like literally, “whoa, I just fell asleep, this is cool.”)
I also downloaded that software recommended above, it’s awesome, whether it helps me sleep or not.
That’s interesting – I used to sit zazen for a few years, and the practice did seem to put me down, but not asleep. For me the mudras were critical, but, being such an overachiever (laugh) I liked to think on Hui Neng and so many other sutras. The feet right was good for me. Never tried it practice as an aid, though, for any purpose, including sleep, but why not!!!
Yoga/stretching gives me the same suppleness as exercise but without the having-to-wear-sweatpants or get out of breath, plus no adrenaline to keep me awake. This, along with the odd anti-anxiety pill - I don’t mix 'em but I do swap to avoid dependency - has been helping me with sleeping problems that I’ve suffered from since before my teens.
If i think it’ll be a bad night I drink a mug of chamomile tea, then 30 min later take 1 mg melatonin and 220 mg naproxen sodium (Aleve).
But. I find that even just taking a mild painkiller like Aleve, Tylenol or Advil gets me over the hump some nights and helps me to relax. I’m kind of surprised that so few people here have mentioned taking an OTC painkiller. It was a bit of a revelation for me when I figured out how mild discomfort might be contributing to my insomnia. The aching shoulders and hips of lying in bed tossing and turning, you know?
I also listen to podcasts as I fall asleep; ones with just one person talking and not sound effects. History of Rome, rather than RadioLab. Listening helps drown out the static in my mind and I fall asleep.
Though as I type this I had 2.5 hours last night. Hoping for better so it’ll be the full cocktail tonight.
Mmm…I didn’t try anything complicated; it was just deep breathing and being aware, for example sensations to a certain part of the body. But I guess essentially it’s the same.
I don’t have trouble sleeping at night most of the time but I work nights 3-4 days / week, generally from 7pm to 5am. I have a lot of difficulty sleeping past 10 am the morning following a night shift and I also have a lot of difficulty getting any sleep in the afternoon prior to going to work. The work is flying aeroplanes so I can’t take drugs that will leave me impaired in any way and it is also pretty important that I’m alert at work so I have to get good sleep.
Things that help me.
I don’t expect to get anymore than 1:30 sleep in the afternoon. If I relax my expectations I feel better about the sleep that I do get.
I go to bed fairly early in the afternoon giving myself a couple of hours between when I plan to get up and when I have to leave for work. That way I don’t find myself lying there looking at the clock thinking “I have to get up in 76 minutes, damn why can’t I sleep? I’m going to have to call in sick, they’re not going to be happy with me…”
Room as dark as I can get it plus an eye mask.
Air con on even if it’s not hot. The afternoon sun comes into the spare room where I nap and invariably warms it up even on a cool day.
Sometimes lying on the couch under a blanket in front of the tv gets me to sleep easier in the afternoon.
After a night shift I sleep in the spare room where it is darker and quieter. I try to get to bed before the sun comes up though I’m often driving home well into daylight so that’s becoming impossible now that it’s summer.
I try to remember that just because it’s daylight outside, my sleep pattern requires me to treat it as night and not expect to be able to do meaningful things between night shifts. E.g, I try not to plan to do important things on a day between shifts.