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Nootropics

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Re: Nootropics

#181

Post by [deleted] »

mettamage wrote: post #94
HalfwayToDice wrote: post #74

The best nootropic is getting a good nights sleep. It takes effort! Preparing for bed early and disciplining yourself to put the light out is not easy. Not nearly as easy as popping a pill. But it's so much more effective than any drug listed here. And for a safe and provable quick cognitive boost, take some caffeine, preferable green tea with theanine.

It's hard for me to fall asleep. I haven't cracked it yet how to do it perfectly. What helps: view the problem as improving your likelihood to sleep. Before I viewed the problem as falling asleep 100% of the time, which is a really defeating view to have when I can't fall asleep. Sleep tips that help me: 1. meditation: still experimenting with body-scan vs. breath meditation, they both help but have different effects…

[deleted]

Re: Nootropics

#182

Post by delegate »

I've experimented with nootropics about 10 years ago. I was on a regimen of Piracetam, Hydergine and several others, the names of which I don't remember now, plus the usual vitamins, fish oil, etc.

I did the nootropics for about 2 months or so.

Short term I've felt improvement to my memory, my thinking has changed, I had more mental energy and sharpness.

However, it also changed my personality and the way I was seeing other people, which resulted in me gathering the courage to separate from my wife.

In retrospect, this was a very good move for both of us, but at that time it wasn't that peachy.

I've stopped taking those nootropics because I didn't like the robot that I've become.

However I still like the idea of chemically tuning your consciousness.

10-15 micrograms of LSD is the solution for me, because it opens me up emotionally, increases enjoyment of music and art, while also allowing me to tackle complexity with ease.

Re: Nootropics

#183

Post by bambax »

mettamage wrote: post #94
HalfwayToDice wrote: post #74

The best nootropic is getting a good nights sleep. It takes effort! Preparing for bed early and disciplining yourself to put the light out is not easy. Not nearly as easy as popping a pill. But it's so much more effective than any drug listed here. And for a safe and provable quick cognitive boost, take some caffeine, preferable green tea with theanine.

It's hard for me to fall asleep. I haven't cracked it yet how to do it perfectly. What helps: view the problem as improving your likelihood to sleep. Before I viewed the problem as falling asleep 100% of the time, which is a really defeating view to have when I can't fall asleep. Sleep tips that help me: 1. meditation: still experimenting with body-scan vs. breath meditation, they both help but have different effects…

Can you explain your problem in more detail? Do you fall asleep late in the night and then feel tired all day, and then it repeats over several days? If you miss a whole night's sleep, surely the next evening you're so exhausted you fall asleep easily?

I have found that I sleep much much better with a total absence of noise and light, so I now use ear plugs and an eye mask. This has improved the quality of my sleep a lot.

Also, we all have a cycle that lasts approx. 90 minutes; you will fall asleep more easily at the end of that cycle; the time window is around 10 minutes. You need to be prepared to go to bed when that window starts; if you start preparing to go to bed when you feel sleepy, by the time you're in bed the moment's passed and you need to wait another 90 minutes.

Re: Nootropics

#184

Post by jules »

mettamage wrote: post #94
HalfwayToDice wrote: post #74

The best nootropic is getting a good nights sleep. It takes effort! Preparing for bed early and disciplining yourself to put the light out is not easy. Not nearly as easy as popping a pill. But it's so much more effective than any drug listed here. And for a safe and provable quick cognitive boost, take some caffeine, preferable green tea with theanine.

It's hard for me to fall asleep. I haven't cracked it yet how to do it perfectly. What helps: view the problem as improving your likelihood to sleep. Before I viewed the problem as falling asleep 100% of the time, which is a really defeating view to have when I can't fall asleep. Sleep tips that help me: 1. meditation: still experimenting with body-scan vs. breath meditation, they both help but have different effects…

The trick to sleeping is simple: make sure you are mentally and physically tired, and switch off your computer and dim the lights one hour before you want to sleep.

Re: Nootropics

#185

Post by [deleted] »

mettamage wrote: post #94
HalfwayToDice wrote: post #74

The best nootropic is getting a good nights sleep. It takes effort! Preparing for bed early and disciplining yourself to put the light out is not easy. Not nearly as easy as popping a pill. But it's so much more effective than any drug listed here. And for a safe and provable quick cognitive boost, take some caffeine, preferable green tea with theanine.

It's hard for me to fall asleep. I haven't cracked it yet how to do it perfectly. What helps: view the problem as improving your likelihood to sleep. Before I viewed the problem as falling asleep 100% of the time, which is a really defeating view to have when I can't fall asleep. Sleep tips that help me: 1. meditation: still experimenting with body-scan vs. breath meditation, they both help but have different effects…

[deleted]

Re: Nootropics

#186

Post by bambax »

RachelF wrote: post #38
fowlerpower wrote: post #28

Does anyone else think this shit is totally bat shit crazy? I may be of the minority here but I am definitely not the minority in the real world. If you care about health why not exercise and eat healthy and never take any type of drug for any reason unless you are sick.

Most of us take drugs like caffeine and alcohol pretty often. The person who made this site has been willing to test, meticulously document and analyse his results. He's pretty informed as to the side-effects, so no, I don't think he's "bat shit crazy", he's doing us a service.

I take alcohol and caffeine (and sugar!) but consider doing it batshit crazy, as most people do: there are very few articles explaining how these substances could be good for you. They are not. The fewest drugs the better, let's not try adding more.

Re: Nootropics

#187

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway__123 wrote: post #117

Zoloft I am afraid of sounding like a shill, but the fact is I'm 30 engineer, who has been trying to feel better my whole life through experiments with: ketamine, CBD, various nutrients, various dietary changes, exercise, being more social, meditation. None of them made lasting improvement like sertraline has, I wish I had been open-minded enough to try it years ago. In retrospect, maybe it was ridiculous to try to f…

[deleted]

Re: Nootropics

#188

Post by respo-to-throwa »

throwaway__123 wrote: post #117

Zoloft I am afraid of sounding like a shill, but the fact is I'm 30 engineer, who has been trying to feel better my whole life through experiments with: ketamine, CBD, various nutrients, various dietary changes, exercise, being more social, meditation. None of them made lasting improvement like sertraline has, I wish I had been open-minded enough to try it years ago. In retrospect, maybe it was ridiculous to try to f…

How you deal with Zoloft killing your libido?

Re: Nootropics

#189

Post by bambax »

hasbroslasher wrote: post #123

So you're telling me you alter your biochemistry to become more productive without a care for how it affects your overall (mostly mental) health? Hell, I started smoking cigarettes at 16, which I rank near the top of my worst decisions ever, despite the fact that it helped me hack my brain chemistry as I powered through numerous difficult math and CS classes with top scores. As a result, I spent years thrashing, kick…

Very well said, this should be at the top of the thread!! ;-)

Re: Nootropics

#190

Post by dkns »

ctack wrote: post #140
echlebek wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's great advice, but it's a pretty big task for someone who might not get a lot of exercise to do 2 hours of intense weightlifting. I lift regularly, and my gym sessions only take an hour. The good news is that if you are sedentary, older, or sedentary and older, even a little bit of exercise will be extremely effective. Go for that long walk, or maybe a shorter jog, and do some pushups and un-weighted squats. Yo…

I've been doing Stronglifts 5x5 for the last couple of weeks. You do 3 sessions of 30 minute duration a week.

30 minutes? How come? You take a at least 1.5 minute break between every set. So for 5 sets of first exercise that's 7.5 minutes assuming you don't take longer breaks and that you didn't do any warmup and just went straight for proper weights. Now add exercise itself and it's easily 9 minutes. Times three (again, assuming you don't take longer breaks which is really hard to do when you start hitting heavier weights) and it's 27 minutes. Add warmup and stretching and it's easily around 40 minutes. I think my fastest stronglift session was around 50-60 minutes. The longest was easily over 2 hours. When I started hitting squats with weights around 1.4 my body mass just warmups and proper sets were 50 minutes in itself. That was about 11 sets of squats with some breaks being 3-5 minutes ones.
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