Thanks Blaze! This looks really interesting. Network effect is a factor in what I’m bitching about, but we’ve got OK enough general fediverse participation where I am that this could be/get real useful for me.

Appreciate it, and what you do to promote fediverse stuff in general. Said it before and I’ll say it again - you’re doing good work.

I’m going to tell you my core problem, just to get some feedback/vent a little: i’ve wanted to end my Facebook account since Cambridge Analytica. I hate the feed. But Facebook has one key thing keeping me locked in at the moment - Events.

Back in the pre and early Facebook stages, there were websites that had well-curated, broadish event calendars for my city. These are now universally dead. Websites dedicated to the local music scene? Also pretty much dead (RIP punkottawa.com). Some have tried to get something going independently in later stages, but all have failed. Even my favourite college radio station, which has folks super tied into the community and local music scene and plug stuff on the air frequently, has pretty much abandoned their community events calendar. The problem gets worse if I’m travelling outside of the city, in that I have no clue where to even start looking effectively outside of Facebook (@ me, Montrealers and Torontonians in particular). Stuff like bandsintown is ok, but misses a lot when you’re more into bar gigs than concerts

I’ve yet to find a non-Facebook approach that captures events I’d be interested in that doesn’t miss something. RSS feeds from websites for known gig spaces (either natively or with a web2rss thing) can get part of the way there, but there’s been cases of stuff happening at new/unexpected venues (a hot sauce store here, at some point, became a gig venue) that I’ve only found out about via Facebook. And this ignoring non-music related stuff that occasionally comes up serendipitously.

I’ve yet to come up with a great solution, and that kinda ticks me off.

No holds, 2/5 star user rating on my library’s catalogue site, lol.

You can see how I came to this conclusion - haven’t the foggiest otherwise.

Lol, found it - Beautiful Goats: Portraits of Classic Breeds by Felicity Stockwell. My prevailing theory is that there’s a group of folks in my city who just put holds on everything and pass on the titles they don’t actually want.

Good tips!

And for the Canadians in the room, same here!

Now, there’s gonna be holds on the really good stuff* from past experience, but regardless it’s an awesome service.

*Off topic story: I used to work a job that would have unexpected, lengthy periods of downtime. There was one of these periods where I’d browse the new acquisitions in my local library system. There was a book with photos of goats that had 68 holds on it. Literally, it was just a goat photography book.

To this day, I am intensely curious about who these 68 people were, and why they didn’t just get their pictures of goats from the internet like us normal people.

…this is embarrassing to say, but I never considered that this could be the case for vagina owners. Without going into too many details (not really my place to share), hasn’t come up with my partner and I re: sex, and I’ve never thought to ask her re: masturbation and sleepiness or lack thereof.

Could always just be an element of personal make up, though. I learned something today! Legit appreciate the added perspective!

Interesting! Probably something to do with reinforcement. Wonder what evidence supports that (totally believe it’s a legit suggestion, just curious how people reached that tip).

Huh - interesting. May just be a function of habit, but I always found stuff like that keeps me awake. I know other people don’t, though - my wife falls asleep to podcasts, but she also puts the TV on as background noise. Never understood that myself - it’s either music, or I’m going to be glued to whatever is on even if I have no inherent interest in it.

Learned a lot about Canada-US border security, food television competitions, and drag competitions that way, lol.

Always interesting to see what strokes work for different folks, though!

Lol, it’s a good tip, but a) sex has to be scheduled in my house these days, and b) masturbation just hasn’t been cutting it as a sleep aid recently.

Under normal/other circumstances, you’re not wrong :)

Man … between your comment and some of the others, I really need to get my sleeping space in order. It’s, uh, not good. Bit untidy (my wife has more clothes than we have space at the moment), my usual comforter has been downstairs waiting to be washed for a while now (using another blanket which has been fine until recently), etc.

I like the idea of doing some light stretching before bed, just to kind of relax the muscles. May try that tonight. Actually been thinking about taking up/taking advantage of a newbie deal for hot yoga in general during the quit - if nothing else, a nice hot space to spend some time during the cold winters :).

Appreciate this! I know T breaks can be particularly challenging if you’re actively using cannabis for pain management, so much respect to you.

Appreciate the comment - all good on the lack of experience with cannabis withdrawls, intent was really just folks talking about sleep habits in general and early morning routines.

It’s a good tip. I have some meditation experience under my belt as well, and it’s usually provides some useful tricks for inducing sleep. Funny, actually - as a young teen I was dating someone who meditated (their Mom was Indian, so coached in a particular outlook) and had trouble sleeping. Described what I did as sort of like meditation, and she asked “But how can you fall asleep”. I said “You know when you’re feeling relaxed and your mind starts to drift? Change your focus to that relaxed feeling, and feel it getting deeper.” Worked like a charm.

Nowadays, I use a looped bathtub filling sound and just focus on the sound of the water. Usually works unless there’s some kind of biochemical nonsense afoot :)

Appreciate it!

Solid advice in general, particularly for people approaching this for the first time.

The only issue I’ve had subbing out CBD is, I usually get it in flower form (legalization in Canada has it’s pros and cons - ready access to CBD flower, even if the choices are a bit limited, is a definite pro). You’re absolutely right - it does help with relaxation without getting ‘high’. But previously, I’ve found myself smoking it a bit longer than I’d like, with an inkling feeling of “You know what’d make this better? Some fucking THC”.

Danged if it didn’t help as a break-glass option for the insomnia in past breaks, though. And I do have some CBD pills I got my wife left over I could break into if all else fails.

Appreciate the comment!

Totally! Definitely only under consideration for the worst of it.

I used to read in bed pretty frequently - need to re-jig my sleeping area a bit to better support the habit (have a standing lamp rather than a reading lamp. Just a me thing I think, but it’s an annoyance to have to stand up and turn the light off when getting dozy, so I usually just try to go to sleep ASAP. Minor inconveniences and laziness getting in the way of doing good stuff I know has worked - kind of what this quit is about, in a way 😆).

Trust me, I am stoked for the shift in sleep quality. One of my favourite bits of stopping, it’s just the wait to that point that’s the killer. Appreciate the well wishes!

Sort of understand the downvotes - otc painkillers taken needlessly aren’t the healthiest option, and acetaminophen can wreck havoc with your liver if you’re not careful (my wife ran into some problems during pain management) - but I legit appreciate your perspective and comment. If it works, it works, but be careful my friend.

Not gonna lie - in other situations, was not above a couple shots of Nyquil to knock me out if absolutely sleepfucked. But those were really rare, weird scenarios - not my first choice personally.

This is the one thing I’m doing right, at least, and I hope has greater effect once my endocannabinoid system chills the fuck out.

Prior experience, once things even out, has me sleeping and waking without needing an alarm (still set one just in case, but usually am up about 5 minutes before it goes off). Hoping I can pull that off again, it’s pretty sweet :)

Ah, meditation - something I’m familar with, works wonders, apply basic techniques in day-to-day life, promised I’d do in the mornings alongside this (not directly connected, just a timing thing) - and I still haven’t set dedicated time for practice.

Same with the journaling stuff actually - it’s a great habit, but another one that’s fallen off. Good answer!

What’s hilarious is that both my wife and son have difficulties with sleep under normal circumstances, so we totally have magnesium in the house already. Worth a shot at least. Thanks for the reminder, lol.

Dang, this almost sounds idyllic. What a wonderful way to bookend your day! Kinda jealous.

Taking notes :)

💪You got this! Dunno what your experience with cannabis and breaks in general is, but it does taper off, and when it does whoo boy, sleep quality sky rockets (though I can only speak for myself, YMMV).

Sometimes after only a couple days (that was awesome, but I was smoking pretty mild stuff up to it), sometimes after a couple weeks (my first serious one many years back, with this one looking similar :( Stupid hash era)

Oh shit, completely forgot about this. Used an extract the first time doing this and it totally did help - only issue was I stayed asleep a lot longer than intended, and was kinda groggy, but did get some full nights out of it. Thanks! May give that a shot again.