[Migrated, see pinned post] Casual Conversation

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

I take a gummy.