5 ms·

I've been working on switching most drinking for weed—for health reasons. Seriously. It's the best and lowest-side-effect sleep aid I've used. Hopefully it's no

I've been working on switching most drinking for weed—for health reasons. Seriously. It's the best and lowest-side-effect sleep aid I've used. Hopefully it's not secretly doing horrible things to me, but my sleep quality's been amazing since I started to take a little a couple nights a week. Most consistently-decent sleep of my life.

JohnWhigham 5y ago
Weed inhibits REM sleep. You may feel rested, but you're actually harming yourself long term.
- intergalplan 5y ago
  Damnit. Well, it's that or lots of 5-6 hour nights, or worse. Or bad hangovers and other weird shit from sleeping pills. Maybe time to get a sleep-tracker watch.
  - criddell 5y ago
    It might be worth going to a specialist for help.
  - WindyCityBrew 5y ago
    Do you drink a lot of coffee or other caffeinated drinks, especially later in the day? I used to think caffeine didn't have much affect on my sleep, until I cut it out. Old habits die hard, but I just drink decaf coffee now and am getting better sleep then I can remember.
    - intergalplan 5y ago
      ~2 cups of coffee probably 5-6 days a week, sometimes tea instead, rarely past noon and never past ~2:00PM (I only drink it as late as, say, 1:00PM if I happen not to realize how late it is). Maybe one soda per month, tops, don't really pay attention to when I have those, though. I'd guess afternoon/evening mostly, but it's rare enough that I doubt it's doing anything meaningful to my overall sleep-trends. I could try cutting it out, but I've had trouble falling asleep my entire life, and my average annual caffeine intake was very low until my mid-teens. I'm actually much better about sleep now than I used to be, even without meds. Worth a shot, though, I guess. I'd been thinking about dropping my intake to one cup per day, alternating coffee and green tea (which would represent a large increase in my consumption of green tea) anyway. Hell, at lower volume I could justify buying the expensive, low-package-weight, really, really good beans, so the flavor of the coffee I'm drinking would improve, though I might have to group coffee-days rather than alternate them, to avoid issues with beans going stale. Seems like ~halving my caffeine would be an OK start. Sigh. Guess I'm going to be spending a lot of money on sparkling water, just like when I kicked my soda habit :-)
- mr-wendel 5y ago
  You're also inhibiting your ability to dream (and your ability to remember them). That is a lot of critical emotional processing not happening. Dreams matter, even if they don't make rational sense.
txsoftwaredev 5y ago
I've had a similar experience. I've been using delta-8 at night for sleep and I've added 1-2 hrs a night according to my fitbit. I don't feel "hungover" or similar like I would from alcohol or OTC sleeping meds.
mathattack 5y ago
I haven’t replaced it with anything else. At some point I will try to kick caffeine but one vice at a time. :-)

JohnWhigham 5y ago

Weed inhibits REM sleep. You may feel rested, but you're actually harming yourself long term.

intergalplan 5y ago
Damnit. Well, it's that or lots of 5-6 hour nights, or worse. Or bad hangovers and other weird shit from sleeping pills. Maybe time to get a sleep-tracker watch.
- criddell 5y ago
  It might be worth going to a specialist for help.
- WindyCityBrew 5y ago
  Do you drink a lot of coffee or other caffeinated drinks, especially later in the day? I used to think caffeine didn't have much affect on my sleep, until I cut it out. Old habits die hard, but I just drink decaf coffee now and am getting better sleep then I can remember.
  - intergalplan 5y ago
    ~2 cups of coffee probably 5-6 days a week, sometimes tea instead, rarely past noon and never past ~2:00PM (I only drink it as late as, say, 1:00PM if I happen not to realize how late it is). Maybe one soda per month, tops, don't really pay attention to when I have those, though. I'd guess afternoon/evening mostly, but it's rare enough that I doubt it's doing anything meaningful to my overall sleep-trends. I could try cutting it out, but I've had trouble falling asleep my entire life, and my average annual caffeine intake was very low until my mid-teens. I'm actually much better about sleep now than I used to be, even without meds. Worth a shot, though, I guess. I'd been thinking about dropping my intake to one cup per day, alternating coffee and green tea (which would represent a large increase in my consumption of green tea) anyway. Hell, at lower volume I could justify buying the expensive, low-package-weight, really, really good beans, so the flavor of the coffee I'm drinking would improve, though I might have to group coffee-days rather than alternate them, to avoid issues with beans going stale. Seems like ~halving my caffeine would be an OK start. Sigh. Guess I'm going to be spending a lot of money on sparkling water, just like when I kicked my soda habit :-)
mr-wendel 5y ago
You're also inhibiting your ability to dream (and your ability to remember them). That is a lot of critical emotional processing not happening. Dreams matter, even if they don't make rational sense.

txsoftwaredev 5y ago

I've had a similar experience. I've been using delta-8 at night for sleep and I've added 1-2 hrs a night according to my fitbit. I don't feel "hungover" or similar like I would from alcohol or OTC sleeping meds.

mathattack 5y ago

I haven’t replaced it with anything else. At some point I will try to kick caffeine but one vice at a time. :-)