Man takes prescription drug for the first time. He discovers that he has most of the side effects and does not like his experience. News at 11
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My 'smart drugs' nightmare
41–50 of 55 posts
Re: My 'smart drugs' nightmare
#42Does modafinil provide any benefit to physical performance, or is it purely cognitive? For instance, does it do anything when lifting, or playing sport or similar?
I've found it positively affects my self-discipline in all sorts of ways, including finishing sets I might lazily walk away from. I haven't noticed any physiological effects, and I've done some fairly intense exercise on it.
How often do you take it?
Re: My 'smart drugs' nightmare
#43Video: "the drug is definitely working because I've been lying in bed for an hour, and I just can't get to sleep." An hour ?? Amateur. It takes me 2-4 hours every night to fall asleep, no matter how tired I am when I lay down. And then I wake up 3-4 hours later, and then fall asleep again after another 30 or so minutes. Been that way for as long as I can remember. So yeah, I'm always tired during the day. Was startin…
why view sleep as an unconcious act? sure if you force yourself to stop breathing eventually your body will shut down and force you to breathe but you are also capable of taking control of your breaths, determine their length, frequency, potency sleep is the same learn to control it if those 2-4 hours are undesired, while waiting for your body to wrestle control back from you, then they are wasted, or worse, time.. u…
When I do lie down, it's because I'm too mentally fatigued to continue working. It's usually 13-16 hours after having woken up (or as little as 6-8 hours if I am working intensely the entire time), so this is normal.
The 2-4 hours are just wasted time where my mind goes over having a million fake "conversations" in my head, recalling past traumatic events and regretting my actions then, and if I'm lucky, thinking about a problem I've been trying to solve during the day.
Can't really count it as meditation because my mind is racing at 100 miles an hour the entire time. I can always tell when I'm getting close to falling asleep because my thoughts become more and more erratic, almost dream-like in their absurdity. Sometimes I'll snap out of that state and realize what was happening.
I'd love to learn how to control it, though. That'd be super.
Re: My 'smart drugs' nightmare
#44Video: "the drug is definitely working because I've been lying in bed for an hour, and I just can't get to sleep." An hour ?? Amateur. It takes me 2-4 hours every night to fall asleep, no matter how tired I am when I lay down. And then I wake up 3-4 hours later, and then fall asleep again after another 30 or so minutes. Been that way for as long as I can remember. So yeah, I'm always tired during the day. Was startin…
Have you tried trazodone for sleeping? That stuff knocks me out. I take adderall for ADHD and used to have insomnia too until my doc prescribed me trazodone. Now I fall asleep in 10 minutes and get the best sleep of my life. http://www.crazymeds.us/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Meds/Desyrel
I haven't. Heard very bad things about prescription sleep aids not giving you proper REM sleep cycles, and being very habit forming (makes things worse when you get off or you build up a tolerance), and causing nasty side effects.
That sounds nice, though. The Adderall would probably help a lot too, but I don't seem to have any luck at all with doctors being open to letting me try things out to see if they'd benefit me or not.
The last time I went to one for sleep issues, she tried to push an SSRI (Zoloft) on me >_>
Re: My 'smart drugs' nightmare
#45Video: "the drug is definitely working because I've been lying in bed for an hour, and I just can't get to sleep." An hour ?? Amateur. It takes me 2-4 hours every night to fall asleep, no matter how tired I am when I lay down. And then I wake up 3-4 hours later, and then fall asleep again after another 30 or so minutes. Been that way for as long as I can remember. So yeah, I'm always tired during the day. Was startin…
Random things I did that I think worked: 1) Going for a walk in a park. Cool fresh outside air helps reset the brain. 2) Read something, preferably a book. Not on a phone or tablet. Not too interesting which will keep you awake wanting to finish it "Understanding The Linux Kernel", for example does wonders for me. 3) Watch a documentary about nature or space. Something not too intense or crazy.
Thanks for your advice!
For 1, that's a great idea and I really need the exercise. But it's ruled out for 4 months of the year due to northern temperatures. I have a very low tolerance for cold, so if there's snow outside, it's extremely unpleasant, tears up my throat, paradoxically burns my hands and ears, etc. Can overdress to compensate, but even then it's still unpleasant and slippery outside.
For 2, I'd love to read more in general. But I have absolutely no imagination, and get lost in side thoughts. I'll find out after having read six pages that I had zoned out and don't remember a single thing I read. Maybe that's okay if I'm just trying to fall asleep. I think I'll give this suggestion a try with my "Making Sense of Japanese" book ;)
For 3, won't the blue light from the TV cause someone to stay awake? I heard it disrupts the body's production of melatonin, because it think it's daylight.
Re: My 'smart drugs' nightmare
#46Video: "the drug is definitely working because I've been lying in bed for an hour, and I just can't get to sleep." An hour ?? Amateur. It takes me 2-4 hours every night to fall asleep, no matter how tired I am when I lay down. And then I wake up 3-4 hours later, and then fall asleep again after another 30 or so minutes. Been that way for as long as I can remember. So yeah, I'm always tired during the day. Was startin…
I had similar problems sleeping. Somehow, Vitamin D supplements helped a lot. Don't really know why.
Yep, I had 9mcg/ml or whatever it was. Was supposed to be 50, but I was at 9.
I've been taking 1000% Vitamin D3 daily for the past eight months or so. Also occasionally take calcium (for heartburn) and magnesium. I think it did ultimately help with some bad chest pains I was experiencing, but a lot of that has also just been acclimation to them. Haven't gotten another blood test to see what I'm at now, because even with my insurance, the out of pocket charge for the last visit was over $1000.
Has not really helped with sleeping, though. I hear natural UV light is supposedly a lot better than D3 supplements. There was a good TED talk on how that helped people's cardiovascular health as well, whereas supplements did not. But all the "sun lamps" filter out the UV for the risk of skin cancer. The only actual UV ones I can find are meant for reptiles (lizards, turtles) or cost $1000+ >_>
Re: My 'smart drugs' nightmare
#47Video: "the drug is definitely working because I've been lying in bed for an hour, and I just can't get to sleep." An hour ?? Amateur. It takes me 2-4 hours every night to fall asleep, no matter how tired I am when I lay down. And then I wake up 3-4 hours later, and then fall asleep again after another 30 or so minutes. Been that way for as long as I can remember. So yeah, I'm always tired during the day. Was startin…
Have you tried cannabis?
I have, it's quite nice. Didn't have enough to try it for sleeping. But it's not obtainable at all here. I'm not the kind of person who knows how to make those connections to obtain it on the black market either. Everyone who seems to know how to get it is also hopelessly unreliable, go figure. I'll just have to hold out hope that my state will join the other four US states that legalized it by 2050 or so.
Re: My 'smart drugs' nightmare
#48Video: "the drug is definitely working because I've been lying in bed for an hour, and I just can't get to sleep." An hour ?? Amateur. It takes me 2-4 hours every night to fall asleep, no matter how tired I am when I lay down. And then I wake up 3-4 hours later, and then fall asleep again after another 30 or so minutes. Been that way for as long as I can remember. So yeah, I'm always tired during the day. Was startin…
Sounds like you have a sensitivity to caffeine? I find it works best with a cup or two of coffee. Also, 200mg seems high. I can get a decent effect from 50mg, and a big one from 100mg
I'd be surprised if I had a sensitivity to it. I drink tea all the time. Not really a big fan of coffee, but sometimes I'll drink that as well.
I also don't get hangovers when I avoid caffeine. And I have lots of strange tolerances to other chemicals, so ... I'm kind of an oddball, I guess. Probably some weird liver issues going on.
The tablets come as 200mg, and the armodafinil as 150mg. I did try cutting them in half, but found the effect much weaker. Even the whole tablet of the stronger armodafinil doesn't really get me back to "wide awake" status like everyone seems to claim they get. It's more like, "exhausted but not yawning and having trouble keeping my eyes open" tired.
Re: My 'smart drugs' nightmare
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've found it positively affects my self-discipline in all sorts of ways, including finishing sets I might lazily walk away from. I haven't noticed any physiological effects, and I've done some fairly intense exercise on it.
How often do you take it?
Once every 2-3 weeks
Re: My 'smart drugs' nightmare
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
why view sleep as an unconcious act? sure if you force yourself to stop breathing eventually your body will shut down and force you to breathe but you are also capable of taking control of your breaths, determine their length, frequency, potency sleep is the same learn to control it if those 2-4 hours are undesired, while waiting for your body to wrestle control back from you, then they are wasted, or worse, time.. u…
When I do lie down, it's because I'm too mentally fatigued to continue working. It's usually 13-16 hours after having woken up (or as little as 6-8 hours if I am working intensely the entire time), so this is normal. The 2-4 hours are just wasted time where my mind goes over having a million fake "conversations" in my head, recalling past traumatic events and regretting my actions then, and if I'm lucky, thinking abo…
I'd love to learn how to control it, though.
That'd be super.
i'm happy to offer some methods i use:
slow down, create a sleep space you can trust, breathe, visualise, learn
for you, or posterity