I used to go to Forumosa Happy Hours sober. It was great.
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Maybe that’s why I chat here sober 
Beats most of my neighbours.
Never thought about a happy hour sober. them drunk probably makes it fun again.
Nah, I have far more interesting conversations with people three sheets to the wind. I think at one point if I had ordered a beer they’d had thrown me out. Love and support and all that. lol
Good times.
Well, I’ve taken the day off. Had to get my crown put in and thus ends the Thanksgiving to now root canal/covid debacle.
First weekend has arrived. My sleep, after seven days sans alcohol, is incredible. Slept through the night, got up to pee at 5:20 and that’s the start of a new day.
Weight is dropping. Has anyone told Lizzo?
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Had a craving last night watching Harlequin, Netflix, conquered with ice cream and popcorn from 7/11.
Can’t see me losing weight.
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Your body craves sugar. Sugar is addictive. Your body is in withdrawal. Let’s see if you still crave sugar next weekend.
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Why aren’t I getting these positive effects? Maybe I just didn’t drink enough to begin with. 
That’s a nice bit a shade there. Must be the withdrawal. 
Honestly, I haven’t noticed any effects at all. Maybe saving a bit more money?
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That was my experience too when I abstained for Lent a while back. I do suffer insomnia issues, and I hoped going dry would help. It didn’t - not for the first week or two when I thought there was a chance my system was “purging” or whatever, nor five weeks later. I haven’t found any correlation between good and bad sleep and whether or not I had a drink that night.
The very rare occasions I have three or four drinks, yeah, that’s a bad night’s sleep. But one versus none, no discernible difference, unless it’s beer right before sleep, and then there’s going to be a toilet trip.
Biggest difference really was “Huh, this evening time on the sofa with a good book / magazine / movie / TV show and a cup of herbal tea is certainly enjoyable, but I do like the taste of whisky / random basic cocktail / beer / wine more than I do the tea.”
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My sleep quality also isn’t great (too much coffee?), and going dry hasn’t made any difference in that regard either. Maybe I should be quitting the coffee instead of the alcohol, but the coffee is so much more addictive in my case.
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That’s where I am. The wife and sat in the living room yesterday, no TV, and just talked for 30 minutes as the cat stretched out, curled up and slept in front of the fireplace. I find I need far fewer distractions when sober.
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Yeah, I can drink coffee right up until bedtime. Has never really bothered my sleep. But, yeah, caffeine is the devil.
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I’ve taken a month off coffee before as well, but not in a long while. I used to have a cycle of drinking a cup a day, then two, then three, then four, then WHEE!!!, then, oh, better reset. But fortunately I’ve been at a steady two cups a day for a number of years now.
I don’t think that made much difference for me sleeping either. I rarely have trouble getting to sleep. It’s waking up at 3am (presumably long after the 2pm coffee has worn off) and being unable to get back to sleep that’s the problem. At least I usually no longer get stressed about feeling like I need to get back to sleep: I just sigh, start an audiobook on a 10-minute sleep timer, and hope that I don’t need to restart it too many times. (Way off-topic: the Audible iPhone app now has a cool feature where, if it’s turned off due to the sleep timer, you can just shake it and it’ll start again on the same timer. Fantastic I no longer even have to turn on the screen.)
Several of the podcasts I listen to advertise edibles these days, and I’m curious if they’d help, but, oh well, not in Taiwan!
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Would you like a volunteer to conduct a study? 
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Just goes to show how complicated human biochemistry is. Everybody reacts differently. I remember getting splitting headaches when I quit coffee in my 20s, but then just felt a little low energy when I quit again in my 30s. The wife starts to get headaches just by having her first coffee too late in the day. I may have to quit again now to see if it improves my sleep.
I have the exact same problem. No trouble falling asleep at all, but then sleep quality gets bad in the middle of the night and I may wake up multiple times and have trouble getting back to sleep. Maybe if I quit alcohol and coffee at the same time things will improve. And then there’s no midnight snacks, no screentime before bed, etc., etc. Maybe sleep is overrated?
Oh, I did try edibles a few times back in the U.S. Didn’t seem to make any difference…although my dreams did get a bit more colorful.
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I’d like to see a thread dedicated to those about to give up caffeine for a month. Pollan said that was the hardest thing he’s ever had to quit.
Never tried. I have colleagues who use them to relax after putting their kids to bed. Seems weird to me. I’d rather quit and move when things got to that point.
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Yeah, I read that one too. I was a little surprised by how strong his reaction was. Like I said, everybody reacts differently. I just felt a little sleepy in the afternoon for about a week my second time around.
The thing I don’t like about edibles is that the effects last a long time. If you don’t get the dose right, you can wake up pretty out of it. Not a great way to start your workday. 
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If any of you are skinny, the waking up and having trouble getting back to sleep could be low blood sugar. Eating a handful of cashews at 3am works like a charm for a friend of mine.
Or it could be any one of a thousand other things
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