Nanny state foolishness. It’s just crewed spaceflight, not rocket science.

I’m a light sleeper with a loud mind, as well, so this kind of thing has always been a problem for me. The two main things I find helpful may not do the trick for you, but here goes:

First, trying to force myself back to sleep always just ramps my brain up worse and makes it more difficult than it already was to fall back asleep. I stopped trying to force the issue, which has counterintuitively sped up the time it takes me to fall back asleep. I don’t get up or engage my mind with anything significant, but if I’m awake, I’ll put soft music on my earbuds or scroll on my phone set to the dimmest setting. I may not fall back to sleep immediately, but I’ve found that lowering the pressure on myself to fall back asleep makes it happen more readily than when I spend 2 hours and 45 minutes being like “if I fall asleep right now, I can still get another 3 hours. go to sleep. fall asleep. sleep will happen… now!”

Second, I’ve increased my oversell magnesium intake. I know you said no substances, but I feel like this is different. There have been a few studies–popular science type stuff, nothing peer reviewed that I know of–indicating that magnesium improves sleep quality and the ability to return to sleep if woken up. Might be the placebo effect, but I don’t care because I’ve noticed an improvement.

Sorry you have to deal with this flavor of insomnia, too. Super sucks.

I live in the Midwest region of the United States.

$55k in student loan debt, down from $100k eight years ago. $10k auto loan. $210k on the mortgage, which I honestly can’t believe I was ever approved for. No credit card debt.

There have been some very scary moments, but I’ve somehow managed to keep my head more-or-less above water so far.

Vanguard says they can thank the retirement industry for that.

lol

My mom got me this “protection” charm from a woo-ass lady at a farmer’s market once. It was cool looking, so I wore it on a tight necklace that couldn’t slip over my head, and I never took it off.

A couple years later, I was in a nasty rollover car accident that could easily have killed me. I walked away only mildly banged up. I realized later that day that the necklace was gone. I scoured the car and even went to the crash site looking for it. Never saw the thing again.

Land of the free my ass.

I do touchless, and I don’t bother with anything beyond the basic wash option. That tricolor foam stuff looks fun while you’re in there, but idk how much good it actually does.

I don’t care about my car looking shiny and clean, but I’ve driven hail cars exclusively for the last 15ish years. I try keeping them rinsed off at all times to avoid anything gnarly festering in paint cracks or whatever. Every third or fourth fill-up, I’ll run the car through the cheap $8-10 touchless wash, even (especially) during Minnesota winters.

I think hand-washing is the only way to go if we want our cars clean looking, but who am I trying to impress, you know?

I work in higher education, coordinating advanced degree programs. This situation makes me think of half a dozen research faculty I know personally that behave the exact same way.

I’m not of the opinion that people of advanced age are automatically less competent, but it’s a fact that age-related cognitive decline is a thing. People persisting in important decision-making positions after such decline cause immense and compounding problems.

It’ll never happen, but I’d love for us to collectively decide that a particular age range is the end of a person’s professional life and the beginning of something new and exciting and also dignified. I’m aware of the cultural reasons that it can’t happen in this particular time and place, but it would improve things a lot if it could.

The most.

A reason isn’t even necessary, insane or otherwise. They’ll just say “they caused this. Look what they did,” and that will be good enough for a lot of people.

Paths of Glory is 10/10 stuff. So good.

I didn’t see your Timecrimes rec before posting mine. It’s so well done & I want everyone to see it!

I’m not usually into anime, but Perfect Blue captivated me from the start. Its whole vibe was so engrossing.

I’ll check out some other Satoshi Kon titles. PB is all I’ve seen so far. Any specific recommendations?

Sci-Fi

Timecrimes

The McPherson Tape

The Dead Zone (not that lesser known, but old enough that maybe it’s getting that way)

Animation

A Town Called Panic

Perfect Blue

Comedy

It’s a Disaster

One, Two, Three (might be better known than I think, since it’s a Billy Wilder movie)

Coherence is fantastic!

I’m visualizing the experience, sitting in a 10’x12’ room, and totally unconstrained. Just that makes me feel anxious.

I think that I’d have a mental break in less than a day. Probably in less than a few hours.

I couldn’t do it.

Well, we’re a few thousand miles apart, so the pancakes bit might not be feasible lol. On any fun discord servers?

Nah, that one’s true.

Do you live in the US? If so, what region? Wanna go to a movie sometime and then get pancakes & talk about said movie?

I wouldn’t say that I have zero friends, but I certainly don’t have the social circle I wish I had. That worries me for my own future. I’m gonna die someday, and I don’t want to slip into the abyss feeling totally alone.

And the fact that I don’t seem to be an outlier makes me worried for the future health and resiliency of entire communities.

The expanding prevalence of loneliness