Hey, folks. I’m taking care of some non-blog business (nothing bad), so posts will likely be a bit light for a few days, and moderation will be a bit slow. But please keep sending tips!
In the meantime, here’s a cat. I posted this one before but, come on, this is an excellent cat who deserves some more publicity.
@ Axe, in one of your first comments that I read here, you described yourself as “not a very nice person”.
Now, are there actually two of you (good and evil Axe); were you fibbing back then; have you undergone significant changes – or what?
Rhetorical questions are now a method to make convoluted compliments 😀
@Mish
Ain’t gonna lie, that was cute. To answer your rhetorical, a bit of each. it’s mostly peer pressure from people I admire, the magic of revisable text communication, and the fact I don’t hafta be around y’all anymore than I absolutely wanna. Obligation breeds acrimony ?
*snuggles avatar like a sleepy dog* <3
@Sinkable John
I don’t deal with insomnia but I do deal with struggling to fall asleep. Even when I’m absolutely exhausted it can take me hours to fall asleep from when I lie down, and the longer it takes the more brain lock I have, which means it takes even longer to sleep. Something that I’ve found helpful to slow my brain down is to play episodes of shows that I’ve watched a lot of in the background. Of course this only helps because I have shows like The Simpsons that I basically know by heart, so my brain can recall what’s going on without any thought. I doubt it’ll be helpful for your insomnia but it may help slow your mind down
Evil Axe is the one who takes over when someone says dumb shit or uses inappropriate language. Then he slinks back into Good Axe’s pocket (not the one where he keeps theories).
@rugbyyogi
I’ve been in your son’s position ! It’s a shitty place to be.
What worked for me is that my mother, instead of simply rebutting the bullshit, gave me the tools to do it myself. That’s why I’m much more critical of my father than she is, even though she’s the one who suffered more. Same went for politics. That really helped me out of the “who’s telling the truth, or are they both bullshitting me ?” situation.
The important thing is to make sure your son doesn’t feel like he’s manipulated into being the ball in some sick game between adults.
Now to be fair I have absolutely no idea what kinda tools are appropriate to help a kid form a reasonable opinion on Trump.
ETA cause again I forgot to refresh and check if there was anything new before posting.
@Shadow
I don’t watch a lot of TV so that method wouldn’t work, but I’ve tried similar methods with for example music, and it goes back to the same problem that my brain will use the slightest excuse to get to full speed. I don’t know if it’s the main reason for my insomnia but it certainly contributes to it – along with giving other kinds of problems in my waking time. For example I can have severe attention lapses in the middle of conversations because a single word that the other person said can trigger a huge chain of reactions in my thoughts, and I can’t process everything. It happens when reading too.
I think I might need a new brain. This one’s broken.
There is a social acceptability factor where some small percentage of people will lie on polls and in studies they’re participating in rather than admit to something they view as socially unacceptable. The anonymity doesn’t matter with these people. I don’t have a link on the subject though. I just remember learning about it in college.
I actually have a hunch that there will be Republican women voting for Hillary Clinton who will never admit it. It’s complete speculation and I could be wrong, but that’s my gut. When I was door knocking and fundraising for John Kerry back in 2004, I had a few women chase me down the street after rejecting me at their door to slip me cash and tell me they were secretly voting for Kerry. Bush was a lot more palatable to mainstream Republicans than Trump is, so my guess based on past experience is that there’s a sizable number of woman voters in conservative families going turncoat this year.
Take me with a whole salt flat though because this is based on feeling more than fact.
@John
Not quite. If Evil Axe fully took over, I’d be banned ?
Runnin outta fuckin pockets, yo. And I hate cargo pants…
Anyway, we seem to be back on sleep. So here goes. I’ve been having some trouble, not nearly Submersible Jean trouble, staying out. Passing out is easy. Then, I’m back awake. I refrain from looking at my tablet screen to check the time, cos bright lights interrupt sleep patterns. On the occasions when my will has failed, it’s usually 3-4 hours max. Turn over to try again, and an hour later I’m awake again. Rinse and repeat ad absurdum. By the time I decide to call it quits and just get up, it’s been about 7hrs. Doesn’t feel like it. Any advice, yall? Very preferably drug free and cheap
@WWTH
Trump has underperformed his polls thus far, so I buy it
@WWTH
Okay that makes a lot of sense to me. From where I stand (and that would be across the goddamn ocean so my perspective ain’t worth much) it’s not that surprising that Trump managed to go this far, but the real battle is far from won. France in 2002 had a somewhat similar crisis (our election system is completely different so that throws the equation off in a way) and it ended up with ol’ One-Eye failing miserably. Granted, the situation was very different, but the premise is the same : some unfathomable asshole manages to get scarily close to presidency through “unconventional” means. So if 2002 here is any indication, and it probably isn’t, Trump is gonna get humiliated.
@Axe
Submersible Jean is my female narcoleptic twin. (And possibly evil too, unless she’s the good one, it’s unclear.)
I may have an idea but I’m not sure. Can you describe your “short sleep” ? Does it feel like you haven’t been sleeping at all when you wake up, like suddenly realizing you’re lying there instead of the usual “wake up” feeling ? Or is it just like “normal” sleep, except much shorter ?
@Diving Johan
Both the former and the latter
The former is fine. Used to it. Not a problem. I wake up a bit groggy, but it more feels as if time jumped forward and I missed it. Tell me if that’s a some sorta actual, medical problem, but it works fine for me
The latter is my current issue. I even have dreams sometimes. Which sucks, cos I hate dreaming. I usually have no knowledge of my dreams the instant I wake up, but it seems like, if I wake up in the middle of said dreams, they stick in my mind longer. Makes the whole experience rather bizarre…
@Axe
Welp. That definitely complicates matters.
REM sleep and dreaming in general is a weird, complicated, potentially shitty matter. And I don’t have a solution that doesn’t involve drugs.
Only way I’ve found to evade it altogether is alcohol, because it basically kills that sleep stage. There you have half the reason for me being slightly drunk right now and an alcoholic in general. Thing is, the result is that it shortens your sleep, so you don’t want that.
The other way is weed – it doesn’t suppress dreams, but it makes you sleep so deeply you can’t remember them even if you spend the whole morning trying. Deeper sleep also seems to cause longer sleep in general, so that’s one way, but you said you wanna avoid drugs so alcohol and weed don’t help a lot here.
We need someone with actual brain science knowledge in here*, ’cause I’m stumped. Although, knowing why you don’t wanna dream in the first place might help. I know why I don’t want to, and it doesn’t help because it’s an unchangeable thing (I stated somewhere why I prefer scary nightmares to the “good dreams”) but in your case it might be the key, maybe. It’s a big maybe.
As an aside and a potentially real solution, all of my sleep-related problems have lately been exacerbated A LOT by the sheer temperature. If you think it’s way too hot right now, chances are it might also be affecting your sleep. If you can work on that in any way, it may just help. I find that water sprays + a fan is great (except the fan is noisy) so maybe that could help ?
*We need to get Scildfreja to drop summoning signs or something.
@Plunged Hank (I’ll run out eventually)
It’s not that hot indoors, so that ain’t it. Was worse before and this is new
As for why dreams suck, I don’t like my reality being bended. I mentioned a dream I had a week or so ago. Terrible dream. I’m pretty sure I was a girl (not woman, girl), there were too many spider webs, lotsa people got hurt, someone I cared about died (a person I dreamed up, but I convinced myself he was important to me), I was back in high and/or middle school, and it was far too dark to see the petting zoo. Doesn’t make sense to me either. Anyway, I woke up confused and spent who knows how long just trying to be ‘me’ again. Tryna have my own, unaltered thoughts again. Even the happy or neutral dreams fuck me up, tho less so. I still dream occasionally when I get a full, uninterrupted rest. But it’s much rarer, and they fade faster. Easier to deal with
Coincidentally, it’s the same reason I don’t care for drugs. Never tried it, never plan to, but if getting high is even a fraction of the dream weirdness, I can’t imagine I’d enjoy it
Thanks for trying anyway 🙂
@ Axe
Might I suggest ‘Resurgam’.
That means something akin to brought back from the depths. I found that out from a client who has a number of boats called that. Turns out there’s a bit of a market in sunk vessels. People buy them and refloat them because it’s much cheaper than wasting your money on those flashy ‘actually afloat on the surface’ boats.
@Axe
Much of my knowledge about sleep derives from my own experience so it’s flawed, but I reckon kupo and epitome might know more seeing as they’ve dealt with temporary insomnia, which is (somewhat ironically, maybe) much trickier from what I can see.
On dreams, I find that “rebooting” can help in a way in finding your thoughts again. That is, going right back to what you were doing just before you went to bed, as soon as you wake up – pretending sleeping and dreaming never happened at all and killing all chance of remanence from your dream by just switching back to a state of mind you’re familiar with and in control of (yeah I’m not clear at all, sorry). Dream memory being a fickle thing, it might just help.
If waking up from the dream induces any kind of strong emotion by itself, it may not work though. The dream itself will fade, but not the emotion.
By the way, Plunged Hank was the embryonic state of Jean and I. Diving Johan is the gestalt being we are working on creating through a machiavelic plan that involves merging the both of us through pseudoscience, New Age crystals and a lot of drugs. (There may be a few Jewish feminazi scientists from the Frankfurt school involved.)
@Alan
Resurgam sounds like the final boss in a JRPG
@Foundered Siobhan
I do often ‘reboot’. Not for the specific purpose you mentioned, but just outta habit. However:
Yeah, well…
I don’t wanna oversell the dreams, the constantly waking up is worse. And most dreams are incredibly mild. It’s just a little worse now on average. I’m a hardy sort, I’ll be fine
Ah, the Shebrews. They always have the wackiest experiments
I’ve been summoned!
Dreams are a tricky thing. For me insomnia and dreams are unrelated. I go through phases of insomnia and hypersomnia and phases of disturbing dreams and not remembering any dreams, but those two things don’t seem to have much impact on each other with one exception. My worst period of insomnia was when I was in grieving for my partner who passed away, and during that time my dreams were vivid, intense, and emotional and I didn’t want them at all. I would often take a long time to return to reality or be heartbroken to realize the dream wasn’t true. During this time I had sleep paralysis a few times, too, which is just an awful experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Worse than stepping on legos.
I have no advice for making dreams more tolerable other than trying to fix the emotional issue that makes the dreams unsettling or unbearable. But that I don’t think is the same for everyone. When I’m in a good place emotionally I’m okay with the weird dreams even if it takes me a long time to come back to reality and even if I can’t shake the emotions of the dream right away. But not everyone is that way.
@kupo
Well if that ain’t a kick in the perspective…
There have been a coupla times when I get up sluggishly and walk to the door of my room. Only then do to realize that was part of the dream, and I haven’t actually gone anywhere. So I try it again. And again. And again. I know I’m doing it. I’m ‘me’ the whole time, getting increasingly annoyed. Eventually, I wake with a start and move around, touching stuff and generally making sure it worked. Don’t know if it’s the same as your sleep paralysis, but I empathize all the same
@ Axe
I hear you there, all right. The only hooman bean I can be around for extended periods of time is my son, possibly because like me, he needs space, plus he lets me be. Other than that, no. When people say “You’re so happy and friendly!”, I’m thinking, “Yeah, but just try dropping by unannounced, or staying longer than we’d arranged…” It’s not pretty.
In other news, I have learnt a new word, resurgam (thanks, Alan!).
@ kupo
that heartbreak when you realise your dream was just a dream. Hugs for you.
@Axe
I only ever go two levels deep in the wake up/wake up again cycle. It’s similar to sleep paralysis in that you’re dreaming but think you’re awake but the difference is with sleep paralysis you’re unable to move and fully aware of that, plus you get this huge sense of paranoia and usually think there’s another presence in the room. You’re just waking up out of order–you’re becoming conscious before the chemical that keeps you from moving around in your sleep goes away, but it’s freaky to experience. I’ve found if I become aware it’s sleep paralysis the paranoia goes away instantly.
Edit:
@Mish
Thanks for the hug. I’m fully better now. This was 9 years ago, and I’m actually better off without him (he was abusive). It did suck at the time, though.
@Mish
*checks watch* You’ve got 3 hours and not a second more. Make it count!
@kupo
My brain sees 2 levels and is like
http://m.memegen.com/50evvt.jpg
Well whaddya know, that’s exactly what just happened to me. (At 4am, and I can’t go back to sleep, fuck you brain.) It’s happened regularly to me over the past five years but I still can’t get used to it. All of the hugs to anyone who’s ever experienced that.
Sleep paralysis seems like the most terrifying shit ever. Axe’s dreamception sounds infuriating. I don’t think I could deal with either of those without completely losing it – all in all lifelong insomnia is at least something you can turn a few positive things out of.
All in favor of giving sleep the well-deserved title of shittiest basic human need ever ?
@ John,
Sleep paralysis = shudder. I know, right? Poor kupo.
How’re you feeling now after your fabulous 4am wake-up call? Hey, 4am is like your special time, isn’t it?
Yay???
Here are hugs for EVERYONE (everyone here, I mean):
http://scout.cheatsheet.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/hu9.jpg
CW: reference to sexual assault
@Sinkable John and Mish
If that sounds freaky, I once had an incubus experience. Take sleep paralysis and add nocturnal sexual arousal and that presence you feel becomes an incubus (or succubus, mine seemed male to me, though) and I was actually strongly reminded of that scene from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Anyway, that was worse than the time I thought I was being abducted by aliens.
Sleep is weird.
Cat hugs are the best hugs.
It’s working out pretty poorly so far x_x
I mean it’s great when I can work but I haven’t written a single line in a long time now… That kinda defeats the whole “turning insomnia positive” thing. I’m stumped and in need of peer review to figure out a few things but my friend who does that for me is way too busy with her own work these days so I’m kind of running in circles.
*endless rant about insomnia and writing and how I hit my toe while making coffee*
ETA : @kupo
Eek alright that is really, really freaky.
I think you need to stop sleeping. You can have some of my insomnia if you want. You seem to need it far more than me. As an aside, I’m never complaining about my own sleeping trouble ever again.
@Sinkable John
Ha, it’s not all that bad. It’s only freaky until I wake up, then it’s just like an extra vivid nightmare. I actually find it fascinating and a little funny what kinds of things the mind does in these situations.
I’ve found if I’m stumped with writing and have to wait on someone, sometimes re-writing the whole thing from scratch helps crystallize it. Now, that depends on what I’m writing and why I’m waiting on a review, but sometimes it’s more productive than waiting. Sometimes doing something relaxing like showering or playing a video game helps new ideas come to me, too. Good luck!
@ kupo
@ John,
what kind of peer review does your friend do usually? As in, what aspect of the writing does she check?
*ouch, poor toe*