The Psychology Thread šŸ§ 

Off Topic
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A few of Mitch Hedbergā€™s jokes (your welcome). Oh, and @Brant_Drake I double checked and it was in fact Heroin, he died of an overdose unfortunately.

ā€œAn escalator can never break ā€” it can only become stairs.ā€

ā€œI donā€™t have a girlfriend. I just know a girl who would be really mad if she heard me say that.ā€

ā€œWhen someone hands you a flyer, itā€™s like heā€™s saying, ā€˜Here, you throw this away.ā€™ā€

ā€œI order a club sandwich all the time, but Iā€™m not even a member.ā€

ā€œWhen I was a kid, I lay in my twin bed, wondering where my brother was.ā€

ā€œDo you think that when a guy got the idea for a bong that a black light popped on?ā€

ā€œEvery book is a childrenā€™s book if the kid can read.ā€

ā€œI have no problem not listening to The Temptations.ā€

ā€œIā€™m sick of following my dreams. Iā€™m just gonna ask where theyā€™re going and hook up with them later.ā€

ā€œYou canā€™t please all the people all the time, and last night all those people were at my show.ā€

ā€œI would imagine that if you could understand Morse Code, a tap dancer would drive you crazy.ā€

ā€œI had a stick of CareFree gum, but it didnā€™t work. I felt pretty good while I was blowing that bubble, but as soon as the gum lost its flavor, I was back to pondering my mortality.ā€

ā€œRice is great if youā€™re really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something.ā€

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122

I always liked his zen attitude.

ā€œI went to the store to buy a candle holder, but they were out, so I bought a cake.ā€

ā€œI saw a wino eating grapes and was like ā€˜Naw man, you have to wait.ā€™ā€

ā€œIf I think of a joke and canā€™t find a pen to write it down, I wait long enough to convince myself that shit ainā€™t funny.ā€

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123

You know they call corn-on-the-cob, ā€œcorn-on-the-cobā€, but thatā€™s how it comes out of the ground. They should just call it corn, and every other type of corn, corn-off-the-cob. Itā€™s not like if someone cut off my arm they would call it ā€œMitchā€, but then re-attached it, and call it ā€œMitch-all-togetherā€.

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124

So heres a thing.

Iā€™ve had an on again off again relationship with sleep since for ever. Sometimes its great for years on end, other times its just way off, also for years on end. The past 5 years after having a heart attack while sleeping, it has been off. Way off for the first couple of years, and kinda messed up for about 3.

And my brain never seems to actually shut down unless Iā€™m sedated with fentanyl. Like for surgery and whatnot, but I have used some many years ago for general drug use, self medicating, getting high AF. Anyways, a peculiarity that my wife noticed a long time ago but canā€™t get used to is that Iā€™ll know what time it is even when sleeping, and wake up at an exact time. Whether its to shut off the alarm before it goes off or to catch a tv show, at any given predetermined time, my eyes open and up I go.

All that being said, Iā€™ve started using these youtube videos to see if they make any difference.

And after a few weeks, I think they have. I also like the wierd color schemes and mushroom themes, but thats neither here nor there.

So Iā€™ve gotten more calm and focused when Iā€™m awake, and seem to sleep much deeper. I donā€™t know much about neurology or brain waves and whatnot, but I have noticed some difference.

Has anybody else ever used anything like this, or have any knowledge or experience on why it might work?

I find it pretty interesting, and was about to discuss it a little with my therapist, but she just took leave to have her baby.

So I thought this might be an interesting thing to kick around.

Thoughts?

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125

I think these kinds of things came out under the term ā€œbinaural beatsā€ or something like that a few years ago. At least, thatā€™s the term I first heard used to describe the wave frequencies used in an app I downloaded for better sleep back then.

From everything Iā€™ve read, it works only as much as you believe it to work. Meaning the whole thing is placebo.

That being said, I sleep better next to a real fireplace, watching the flames as I go to sleep, and Iā€™m certain itā€™s placebo - but it works the same (though not as well) if I use candles and a fireplace screensaver on the TV.

Taking time out everyday to do something that brings you peace - particularly before sleep - makes a LOT of sense, even if very little science can actually prove why it works.

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126

I havenā€™t looked into this topic deeply, but I know apps like BetterSleep are very popular with good reviews. Could be placebo, but placebo is fine if someone is actually sleeping better, right?

Some quick research:

  • A study in Frontiers in Neurology (2017) found white noise improved sleep onset latency in individuals with insomnia.
  • Nature sounds have been shown to reduce the bodyā€™s sympathetic response (stress) and enhance parasympathetic activation, promoting relaxation.

I think a lot of sleep problems come from an overactive mind, so distraction of any type helps ā€œquieten the voices.ā€ Even bedtime stories do this, and there are apps for that. I always read fiction before bed. Has the same effect for me.

Dani sometimes listens to ā€œDown to Sleepā€ where a British guy softly reads the classics. I think itā€™s a podcast.

Iā€™m not a fan of sleep tracking apps though. Some studies show they actually stress people out. Also, I question their accuracy.

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127

Maybe you could look into doing a course of CBT-I while sheā€™s out? So itā€™s cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, and it educates. For example, you should not be looking at clocks at night because youā€™re training yourself to wake up at 2am, at which time you look at the clock and go ā€œyep! there it is! every single night!ā€ Dark time/sleep time is all you should be thinking, as the most damaging thing you can do to your sleep is ā€œsleep effort,ā€ which is of course just one more form of anxiety.

Iā€™m hugely pressed for time right now, and keep leaving interesting conversations (beware having a thousand children, like I did!). Iā€™m gonna be so up your collective asses when my family clears out after Christmas and Iā€™m off work.

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128

I started sleeping all night with a CPAP machineā€¦works wonders

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129

The author James Herriott claimed he kept a particularly boring textbook on veterinary pathophysiology on his night table, and that he never failed to fall asleep before two pagesā€¦

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I have had mine for almost 10 years - wouldnā€™t go without it. It makes such a huge difference.

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I have a sleep study kit on the way. Should be here some time in the next couple weeks. :+1:

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Iā€™m not exactly sure what it means for mental health when cartoon porn (hentai) is the new top search term on the naughty sites. But this could be related to how porn addiction is related to real-life erectile dysfunction. Talk about unrealistic expectationsā€¦

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Expecting a 10 with huge fake boobs to bang the pizza guy is ā€œunrealisticā€ā€¦ Ok, Chrisā€¦

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Man, they have stats and trends and all of the metrics, Iā€™m still wondering why that poor girl keeps getting stuck in the dryer. :thinking:

:rofl:.
Glad to see the old standards are making a strong showing too.

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This is wild. I thought I was the only one who did this. My wife is weirded out that I never have an alarm clock and just decide when to wake up.

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Iā€™ve already booked front row seats. Donā€™t pull your punches.

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Yeah. If I take an afternoon nap on a saturday or something Iā€™ll say to wife ā€œMake sure Iā€™m up by 4:30. I have to go (where ever)ā€.
At 4:28 Iā€™ll get up and ask her why she didnā€™t wake me up.

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My wife has always been suprised that I can just wake up and go to work, and if she wakes me up I know what time it is in the middle of sleeping.

I just mentioned this thread to her and she looks at me horrified and says ā€œThereā€™s more of you?ā€

Iā€™m getting really interested in this now.

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I set my alarm for 2:30 am for workā€¦i am up by 2:25 everytimeā€¦so yes, there is more of us

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You ever have any long term conditioning? Like I used to wake up at 4:00 am to go out and deliver papers on a huge paper rout, every day from age 9 to 14. I think that doing that and having to be aware of time so that I could get up, do that, get home, get ready for school, and get to school might have ground an awareness into me.

Even before that- from 1st grade, I had to get myself off to school because my dad had to leave for work.

Things loosened up a lot when I quit the paper rout, but that was many years early on of everything having to go like clockwork Or Else!..

Iā€™d be late! :astonished_face: That was a Really Big Deal at the time.

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