What Do Non Smokers Do At 3AM?
I have been up for about 45 minutes now, it's 03:29 GMT and I'm wide awake. When I was a smoker I would simply have got up, rolled a fat joint, smoked it and gone back to sleep, and of course I would have woke up stoned.
That's not me anymore and I don't have the slightest urge to do that, luckily I was never one of these smokers who regularly woke up in the middle of the night to have a wheeze.
Now, as a non-smoker I'm wondering what to do. I think part of it is I was a bit depressed last night just before bed, which prompted me to go to sleep at 21:30, which is ridiculously early even for me. Now and again I'll get to bed by ten, but ten thirty to eleven is usually perfect for me, that allows me six to six and a half hours sleep.
Getting Over Mild Depression
They warned me about this.
The other day as I perused the various stop smoking sites I saw that mild depression can be a symptom when you give up smoking. Unfortunately this has been exacerbated by the fact that I've moved into a new office, however it is not ideal and I've already committed a lot of money to it.
Another reason I may be mildly depressed is that when I was smoking 4-8 spliffs a day, there was a fairly steady stream of chocolate and sweets being consumed.
I was looking forward to cutting that consumption down, I felt my pancreas and teeth would benefit the most, not to mention a little less fat around my stomach would show off my blossoming gym-fed six pack.
What I didn't figure for was the fact that chocolate is a mild anti-depressant, and to suddenly cut it out like that must be a bit of a shock to the system.
The problem is, I don't think I really like chocolate that much!
I put an exclamation mark after that statement because up until a few days ago, I ate at least one bar of chocolate a day.
Sometimes I would try and go a day or two without eating any, but I'm sure I made up for that with fizzy drinks (soda), which I still love, but don't have any anti-depressant properties.
Work It
I suppose (self-employed) non-smokers do what I'm doing now, they simply get up, switch their computers on and catch up with some work.
Whilst this is working for me, instinctively it doesn't feel right. I spend large parts of the day in front of the computer and today especially I am going to be diving deep into the world of coding and learning and then more coding. So in a way I feel like I'm burning up my total tolerance levels towards the computer.
Plus, even though I'm awake and not tired, it feels like I should be giving my brain a rest. I could of course put youtube on and mindlessly flick around videos for the next hour or so.
The problem with that is it scrambles the brain and really messes with its ability to concentrate, which I think brings me to the answer of the question I asked at the top of the page.
Well maybe it doesn't answer the question; what do non-smokers do at 3 a.m.? But it does answer the question; what does this non-smoker do at 3 a.m.?
I'm simply going to do my concentration training, pull out my deck of cards and try and memorise as many as I can, last time I tried I got to 35, but I'm a bit out of practice and what better time to get back into it?
Well, it's 03:52 now, and this is the fastest article I've written in months! I'm hoping when I read back over it I haven't just written ..and then they went over and over again.
Ha! That's given me idea, if you know what I'm referencing in that last sentence and you put it in the comments, I'll send you 3 Steem.
It is not Googleable by the way, if you try you'll come up with a load of song lyrics and bible verses and it has nothing to do with either of those things.
One Hour To Go
OK, well I better skedaddle, seeing as I usually get up at 05:00 anyway, smell ya later . . .
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU CAN'T SLEEP? WHAT'S THE WEIRDEST SIDE-EFFECT YOU'VE HAD FROM GIVING UP SMOKING? AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
Title image: Sydney Sims @fairytailphotography for Unsplash
[*Cryptogee*](https://steemit.com/@cryptogee)
I have been through this phase where I couldn’t sleep without smoking or jsut even smoking 3+ times a day. How did I stop? I ended up in my country with no phone and urges . I struggled for months , crying and screaming . Afterwards I got over it , I realized I don’t need it . It was a battle but I stand strong , just like you
There are those who sleep and there are those who watch television or computer and there are those who work but for me I sit in the computer until I sleep
Everyone does what he loves
lovely write @cryptogee
thank you for sharing
resteem
All non smoker from 4to6 am may enjoy the natural breathe to take fresh air from surrounding after that may impart some hours for physical fitness activities like yoga and cyclic excersises and cardio vuscular exersises to burn some calories the more calories you will burn will tend to you to impart your more tendency of physical fitness level of your body.also the more calories burn will help to raise your physical fitness to an great extend.
My go to is infomercials. It's a bit of light and company, but it's not mentally engaging at all.
Sounds like pure brain rot! :-D
Cg
When i find myself awake in the middle of the night, i listen.
Usually some thought is trying to make itself known to me.
If you are the book writing kind, usually this early morning, before you are supposed to wake up time is very good for book writing.
take a deep breath and feel in harmony that it is already dawn and relax again, in my case the first days were difficult but now reach the pleasure of sleeping my normal hours, it is a matter of waiting a few days and everything will happen. Without effort there is no sacrifice
So very true, thanks for the beautiful words and pep talk! :-)
Cg
@cryptogee You have received a random upvote from @transparencybot for not using bidbots on this post and using the #nobidbot tag!
Wild guess, but a Charlie Brown reference? I pray when I can't sleep, always works for me.
Not bad! But alas no :-)
I'm not religious, but I get what you mean, I like to get into a meditative state.
Cg
I've read somewhere that sleeping continuously for some eight hours is a relatively modern thing, in earlier times it was perfectly normal to break the night in two, being awake in the middle of the night - though I can't find back to it.
I'd recommend reading (preferably paper), working on a post, doing housework or doing other work.
Hmm, interesting... I can see how that would work, especially today, I did go back to sleep for about an hour or so and now I feel fantastic!
Yeah paper reading, it's funny I know that, but at 3 a.m. for some reason I didn't remember! :-)
Cg
@cryptogee, I simply kept close my eyes and go to my childhood memories that’s the way I get sleep in a just mins. On top of doing mediation really helps to come of this kind of situation. Just 15-20 mins meditation before you go to sleep will help you to get good sleep because it calms down your mind and body. I would recommend you to do yoga nidra meditation you can find on YouTube.
Cheers!!!
Yeah good advice, I meditate for 25 mins every morning, but you're right I should get into it just before bed.
Thanks for the tip!
Cg