kaywhyn's Blog

[kaywhyn]

All rightie, I'm doing it. Joining some of the others here who already have blogs. Actually, I did at one point maintain a blog on Wordpress, but as I have left it untouched for the last several years, I'm pretty much deprecating it. Also, my very first forum post for 2021

To start off, my family trip to Vietnam last year from February 2020 to March 2020. I stayed for 3.5 weeks, almost a month long. As you may or may not remember, in my introduction post I mentioned that I was born to Vietnamese parents, but I was born here in the USA, since they moved here almost 10 years before I was born in the 1980s. Thus, this makes me Vietnamese-American. This was the very first time I have ever gone to my parents' former native home land. So glad that I finally got to go after almost 31 years. Because I loved my stay, I would definitely love to come back to visit again sometime in the future.

I finally got to visit some never-met-before relatives of mine. Before this trip, I had corresponded with some of them via Facebook. However, I haven't met most of them in person until this trip. Even with 3.5 weeks in Vietnam, there's still many I have yet to meet. I have a lot of family still in Vietnam, although I have many here in California as well. In particular, one of my uncles on my dad's side that I finally got to meet in Vietnam is the only one who still hasn't visited the USA. I have an aunt on my dad's side whose husband lost his struggle with cancer and passed over the summer. I have never met him before this trip, but I'm so glad I finally got to meet him, even if my total meeting time with him was only 15-20 minutes before we parted. It's even more romantic with how he was one of my dad's high school friends who ended up marrying my dad's sister. This means he eventually became my dad's brother-in-law. Aww. 

Regarding the climate, every day it was 90+ degrees in Saigon, Vietnam, This is in February 2020. Way too hot for my liking. Even worse, it's super humid, so you're constantly sweating. There was some comfort from the heat at nighttime, but not much. So, I feel the next time I come back to visit Vietnam that I would visit some other time, just not February. Then again, had we gone to the north, I heard it was raining a lot and nowhere near as hot. Unfortunately, due to Covid and time, we couldn't visit Hanoi this time. 

The crazy thing is that my family and I went at just the right time during the midst of the Covid pandemic. Had we gone a week later, we would had been stuck in the country for who knows how long and not been able to return back home to the USA. In particular, my dad returned home 2 days before everything shut down on March 18, 2020. In this case, he was very fortunate to have returned home safely. During our vacation, we were unfortunate that some of the places we wanted to visit were shut down due to Covid, but I think we still did a fairly great job of being able to see plenty. We weren't able to go visit the north this time, but hopefully we'll get to the next time we come back in the future. I was really looking forward to visiting Hanoi. In particular, I wanted to see Ha Long Bay, which is pretty much a very highly recommended place to visit if you're ever in Vietnam. I have seen pictures of it online and in some online videos, and the place looks extremely nice.
     
All rightie, now the photos themselves, as well as short descriptions. I stayed in Saigon the entire time I was in Vietnam. These first several photos of the city at nighttime is my very first night in Vietnam. And yes, that is a picture of me holding my milk tea drink. Photo credit goes to my brother. Thus, everyone now knows what I look like. Don't let my youthful appearance fool you, though. I'm apparently older than a lot of the registered forum members here. Or, if you're subscribed to my Youtube channel, my profile pic is a picture of me from back in either 2008 or 2009, when I was in my early years of college. Not sure if any of my YT subscribers figured that's me in the picture.

My brother and I also explored the night market in Ben Thanh. As you can see, plenty of things are in English, which is fortunate for the both of us, since we don't know how to speak the Vietnamese language too well. Or, at least not as well as we used to. We lost a lot of the language growing up, as we learned English and switched to it completely. Even then, a lot of the people in Vietnam know English as well, so if you ever go visit, don't be afraid to speak in English. They're quite friendly for the most part, although watch out for pickpockets.

February 10, 2020: First day in Vietnam/Saigon 


















You can think of these next two photos as like the city hall of Saigon. Quite lovely at night. Both dated 2-11-2020.






This is Bui Vien street in the city of Saigon. It's pretty much the go-to place for the nightlife in the city, where plenty of tourists/visitors go to hang out and live music entertainment. The second photo is of a bar on Bui Vien street where some of my cousins took me to hang out. Great and fun night, although I definitely had too much to drink that night, as I was quite hammered First photo dated 2-10-2020, while the second one is dated 2-18-2020.






February 23, 2020

These photos were from during our tour of Saigon. This is our first night in the city of Hoi An. In case you're wondering about the lanterns, that's because at the time we came it wasn't too far off the Vietnamese New Year, Tet, for 2020. Hence, why the place is still highly decorated at that time of year. Even then, it was still a great time when we came, as it's just so lovely at night. I got to go on a boat ride in the river where we released the lanterns in it. I think what I would like to do at some point is to visit Vietnam during the actual Vietnamese New Year, so that I can compare how different it is in the country than from how my family celebrates it in the USA. It's only 3 days long in the USA, but in Vietnam it goes on for at least a week. Also, students are generally off during the holiday, but no such thing in the USA. They still go to school during Tet.








February 24, 2020

These last set of photos are in the city of Da Nang/Ba Na Hills. This is where the Golden Bridge is located, which is the bridge that looks like it's held up by the marble hand.








Later in the day, back in the city of Hoi An, we met our tour guide and had a nice ride on a basket boat. I believe the photos of me were taken by our tour guide. The tour guide and I rode in the same boat. Regarding my shirt, UCLA is the name of the 4-year university that I attended in southern California for college from 2007-2011. It is part of the UC system and is an extremely prestigious university. It is currently ranked #1 among public schools in US News and World Report magazine. It wasn't always #1, though. My school has only recently achieved the top spot in the last 3-4 years. Before that, it was second, behind UC Berkeley. 








Well, hope everyone enjoys the photos. Definitely go visit sometime. I of course will be posting about other stuff or whatever I would like to reflect on from time to time here. Keep checking this space.

[Simon]

Hi,

quality timing for the long-awaited visit, to still catch all the night life. Interesting that February is so hot, Thailand Vietnam is still north of the equator.

The following images will not load: Final picture of 2020-02-10, and all subsequent pictures. Happens to me in Firefox and Chromium, thus doesn't appear to come from my script blocking.

Consider slash (/) instead of dash (-) as a separator in the US date format mm/dd/yyyy for clarity that you mean the US format, or write the year at the front (yyyy-mm-dd). Dash was chosen in yyyy-mm-dd for clarity because it isn't used in any other format.

-- Simon

[kaywhyn]

Interesting that February is so hot, Thailand Vietnam is still north of the equator.

Vietnam is an interesting case. There's only 2 seasons, a rainy and sunny season. From what I remember, it only rained on 2 separate days the entire time I was there. However, it was 90+ degrees every single day. Combined that with being extremely humid, and we had to leave the AC on all the time.

The following images will not load: Final picture of 2020-02-10, and all subsequent pictures. Happens to me in Firefox and Chromium, thus doesn't appear to come from my script blocking.

Strange. I'm using Firefox and I can see all of the images just fine. I don't know if this is related, but are you using the new forum appearance? I'm not sure if it has anything to do with that.

Can anyone else see the photos just fine?

Consider slash (/) instead of dash (-) as a separator in the US date format mm/dd/yyyy for clarity that you mean the US format, or write the year at the front (yyyy-mm-dd). Dash was chosen in yyyy-mm-dd for clarity because it isn't used in any other format.

That's really interesting. I never thought about the possibility of confusion arising from using solely dashes or slashes in the date. However, I don't think the slash is exclusively a USA thing. I think it's more of a personal stylistic preference. I think when filling out applications here in the USA it's the same thing. Sometimes, they use dashes, other times they use slashes. Generally, I try to be consistent whenever possible, but unfortunately, I think I interchange the two a lot. I of course write the date using only dashes or using only slashes, never a mix of both. Therefore, I'm not consistent in using only slashes or only dashes in the date. I think I have always used the slashes more, but on occasion I will switch between the two. In the same way, the standard way of writing the date in the USA is MM/DD/YYYY, so no possibility of writing the year first from me So, I'm not much help there in preventing confusion for you lot, and you'll just have to get used to my style/format. Since I switch between slashes or dashes at will, if anyone starts using the other, I will perfectly understand what is meant by the date.

What will take me time, though, is getting used to the date and then month order. So, for example March 2, 2020 I would write as 3/2/2020, since that's the USA way, but in most other places (probably everywhere else) you guys would write the same date March 2, 2020 as 2/3/2020, which to me means February 3, 2020, not March 2, 2020. The only time this wouldn't cause any confusion is if the date is greater than 12, since there's 12 months. So, 12/15/2020 vs 15/12/2020 are understood to both mean December 15, 2020. However, I can always write out the date fully in words like I did before every set of images above, eg, February 27, 2020. In this way, there's no confusion that can arise when writing the date shorthand and deciding between either dashes or slashes, as well as what can happen when one encounters a different order of writing the date shorthand from what one is used to.

My parents originally grew up in Vietnam, and there they format the date the same way you guys do in Europe, where the date comes first and then the month. So, when they moved to the USA in the 1980s, they were initially confused with the way Americans write the date, where the month comes first and then the date. Since I've grown up in the USA my entire life, I of course am familiar with the month first and then date format, and so when I visited Vietnam last year I had trouble adjusting to the different way of writing the date their way.

[Dullstar]

Logically I think the best date format is to put the year first, then month, then day. That way, when times are written out, the largest unit goes in front, and the remaining stuff goes in descending order of size and everything sorts nicely if you pad with zeroes, or if your string sort can handle numeric substrings well (Windows 10, for example, properly recognizes that a folder called "Day 10" goes after "Day 2" even though a simple string sort would generally place "Day 10" before "Day 2" because 1 comes before 2 and it's sorting primarily by alphabetical order, not numeric value).

About half of the photos are visible on Firefox for me. For the ones that are not, an error symbol is shown, i.e. there's a placeholder for an image; it's not just missing. I suspect the cause might be related to permissions.

[kaywhyn]

I've reinserted the images starting from the final photo of February 10, 2020 and the ones after in the OP. Everyone should be able to view them now without problems. Indeed, I think the problem was the images were set to private when I uploaded them to my Google Photos. I have fixed that...hopefully! Let me know if you still can't see them.

Logically I think the best date format is to put the year first, then month, then day. That way, when times are written out, the largest unit goes in front, and the remaining stuff goes in descending order of size and everything sorts nicely if you pad with zeroes, or if your string sort can handle numeric substrings well (Windows 10, for example, properly recognizes that a folder called "Day 10" goes after "Day 2" even though a simple string sort would generally place "Day 10" before "Day 2" because 1 comes before 2 and it's sorting primarily by alphabetical order, not numeric value).

I definitely see your logic in the YYYY/MM/DD format. Indeed, there's really no wrong order for writing out the date, especially since not every part of the world uses the same order for shorthand writing dates. I personally prefer the MM/DD/YYYY not just because I grew up with this format, but rather this order feels more natural to me, especially since this is the way one would write out the date in words, eg, March 7, 2009.

As for why Day 10 would come after Day 2, that's because the word "day" matches both, so therefore alphabetical order is no good in ordering them. Instead, the computer has to look at the numbers and order it that way. You're absolutely correct in that Windows sorts by alphabetical order, but the thing is numbers aren't letters. With numbers, sorting is based on how many digits there are. Numbers with less digits will come before those numbers that have more. If the number of digits is the same, then they're ordered based on the first position where the digits differ. 1 comes before 2. However, 10 is a two digit number, whereas 2 is a one-digit number. Thus, the 1 is not in the same place value as the 2. If it was simply a 1, then yes, Day 1 would come before Day 2. It's simply due to how 1 and 10 aren't the same number. Here, the 0 is a placeholder, but by adding a 0, the 1 is shifted into the tens place value, so the 1 is no longer in the ones place value.

Of course, if it's preferred, one can simply sort it in descending order as well, which is easily done in Windows by clicking on the "name" column.   

[kaywhyn]

The final Jeopardy episode with Alex Trebek as host just finished airing in my location half an hour ago. Tis a very sad day for longtime Jeopardy fans. Having been a longtime fan of the show, I've watched it almost every day for the last 10-12 years. I remember when I first watched this show in my early years of elementary I had absolutely no clue what was going on. I didn't watch it every day at the time, although it was pretty much an on and off thing, probably only watched one day a week for some time before I stopped watching for years. 

Many years later, during the summer before my sophomore year of high school, my interest in the show came back. It all started during a family summer vacation to Redlands, when one evening we were watching TV in our motel and a commercial came on talking about a dude named Ken Jennings, who was currently on a super megastreak on the show. I think he had won almost 20 times on Jeopardy at the time. Once we got back home from our vacation about a day later or so, I pretty much tuned in to the remainder of his winning streak daily. Even after he finally lost on his 75th show, I still tuned in to the show daily. He was pretty much my idol for intelligence, and I've pretty much rooted him to win every tournament in his future appearances. That wasn't to be the case, although he ended up winning last year's GOAT (Greatest of All Time) tournament. Congrats, Ken!

Early in my sophomore year of high school, my brother convinced me to join our high school's quiz bowl team. He was a senior in high school, so this was our second year going to high school together. He and his friends dominated and swept the competition in pretty much every tournament. I don't think we won every tournament, but we won several throughout the school year.

Even after my brother graduated from high school, I became the new captain of our high school's quiz bowl team in my final two years of high school. We didn't win any tournaments during my tenure as captain, but we got quite far before we were defeated. I remember in one match, it all came down to the tiebreaker question. It asked who was the character that Tybalt killed in Romeo and Juliet was. I buzzed in and answered correctly with

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Mercutio

During my college years, I continued to watch the show daily, or at least did my best to. 3 of my years I didn't have a TV. However, I bought myself a TV tuner, which allowed me to watch or record the episode in case I wasn't able to watch at the time it airs. So really, I don't think I watched it every day in my final two years of high school, but it continued in college. Even after graduating from college, I continued to watch every day while in grad school and my post-baccalaureate finishing up my teaching credential.

Because I think it's fun to test your knowledge, I aspire to be on Jeopardy one of these days. Unfortunately, it won't ever be with Alex Trebek due to his passing two months ago. I don't know when I'll audition, although there is now a process where you can take the online test at any time now instead of select days each year. I've taken the online test twice already in the last 3-5 years. I didn't do so hot the first time, but the second time I gotten maybe close to 30 or so out of 50 correct. I have to suspect that out of the 3 days of the online test that the day I took the test I lucked out with an easy one. I'm pretty sure the answers/questions are different for each of the 3 days. It wouldn't make much sense for all of them to be the same.

With this, RIP Alex Trebek. You will be missed, but I will continue watching the show for years to come. The show will not be the same without him. You can pretty much say that Alex Trebek IS Jeopardy. No matter who the new permanent replacement is, that person will not be able to replace Trebek completely. He's one-of-a-kind. I'm still in disbelief that he's gone from this world and having watched him on TV every day for the last 10-12 years when Jeopardy aired. 

[LemSteven]

Thanks for sharing your love of one of the greatest quiz shows of all time.  I know several forum members here live across the pond and aren't quite as familiar with American television, but Alex Trebek was a game show icon for more than 40 years.  Even though I knew he was suffering from stage 4 pancreatic cancer, I was still shocked to hear of his passing.  He said he would continue to host the show as long as he was physically able, and that's exactly what he did -- he taped his last week of shows less than two weeks before his death.  That's what I call dedication!

Jeopardy will be featuring a series of interim hosts for the next few weeks until they can find a permanent replacement.  The first interim host will be the GOAT himself, Ken Jennings.

[kaywhyn]

Hey LemSteven, thanks for your reply! Indeed, I love trivia and would like to one day try out for Jeopardy. Just need to find a time to make the drive down to LA. I actually lived in LA during my four years of college. On a day without traffic, it's a good 40-45 minute drive to LA from my place. The one thing that I wished that I had done while living in LA was attend a live taping of Jeopardy. I could still do it, especially if I'm willing to make the almost hour drive down to LA, but too bad it won't be with Trebek as host. I also have a lot I need to brush up on! So, it'll likely to be several years from now, when I'm likely to have a stable job and possibly even my own family. 

I'll never forget the morning I found out of Trebek's passing. My phone had an Apple News headline and when I unlocked my phone, it said that Trebek had passed. My instant reaction was complete shock. He was doing quite well, too, so for him to all of a sudden pass was very shocking. I don't know too much about the international versions of Jeopardy, but I'm sure there are several, so I think the show's still well-known in the likes of places like Europe and Asia.

I'm definitely excited to be seeing Ken Jennings temporarily host the show starting on Monday. He's going to be a great one. He's currently a consulting producer on the show. I hear that Katie Couric will be the second interim host after Jennings.

[kaywhyn]

Let's face it. Does anyone really sleep these days? Not sure what's going on here, but every day for the last several months I've only been able to sleep for about 1-3 hours at a time before waking up. Pretty much started around June or July last year. I wonder if it's due to how my body is so accustomed to being out of work for so long? I've been out of a job since the shutdown due to Covid back in March, and so I've been going off of unemployment benefits. I think another contributing factor is how I've been napping a lot so that by the time I do go to bed for the night it's easier to wake up in the middle of the night. I'm not sure if there's any sleep scientists here in this community. I did contemplate getting some melatonin, but I'm quite skeptical when it comes to taking any kind of medication. I have a friend who used to take it to aid in getting shuteye, but he told me it had a placebo effect on him. All the more reason why I'm hesitant to get it just for sleep. It might not even work, and there's always some kind of risk and side effects when taking something like melatonin.

So really, I'm simply trying to look for ways to be able to sleep through the night without waking up without resorting to medication, as I don't even need to take anything for health reasons. Anyone got suggestions/tips? 

[Dullstar]

If you're concerned about it, it wouldn't hurt to talk to a doctor just in case there might be a medical reason for it... well, except for the cost if you're in the US.

[Simon]

From writing the dissertation, I remember this kind of mental block that prevents one from sleeping. Basic ideas:

• No caffeine a few hours before sleep; also reduce caffeine if you're on unholy amounts like 3 liters of Pepsi Max Lemon per day. (Complete caffeine abstinence is also possible, but might be not even necessary.)
• Physical exercise during the day, or in the hours before bed. There is no day job to get you tired yet, so replace it with some exercise. It needn't be much.
• Some recommend no electronics half an hour before bedtime, but I never stuck to this.
• Once the rhythm is roughly where you want it, add routine, and rise every day at the same time.

Fixing a rhythm is hard, at least you have no pressure to fix it within N days, but can fix it gradually.

Naps are fine and will recude the duration of the core sleep. It's your choice if you want that.

-- Simon

[kaywhyn]

If you're concerned about it, it wouldn't hurt to talk to a doctor just in case there might be a medical reason for it... well, except for the cost if you're in the US.

It's not too concerning, as I simply wonder why I haven't been able to sleep through the night without waking up. I doubt it's any medical condition that I might have, although I'll keep this in mind for the next time I get a check up. At least I'm not aware of anything that I might be suffering from that would cause all these sleep disruptions. Better to be safe than sorry, though. You'll see when you get to my age how things quickly change For example, I tire out far more easily than I did 5-7 years ago.

From writing the dissertation, I remember this kind of mental block that prevents one from sleeping. Basic ideas:

• No caffeine a few hours before sleep; also reduce caffeine if you're on unholy amounts like 3 liters of Pepsi Max Lemon per day. (Complete caffeine abstinence is also possible, but might be not even necessary.)
• Physical exercise during the day, or in the hours before bed. There is no day job to get you tired yet, so replace it with some exercise. It needn't be much.
• Some recommend no electronics half an hour before bedtime, but I never stuck to this.
• Once the rhythm is roughly where you want it, add routine, and rise every day at the same time.

Fixing a rhythm is hard, at least you have no pressure to fix it within N days, but can fix it gradually.

Naps are fine and will recude the duration of the core sleep. It's your choice if you want that.

-- Simon

I don't drink caffeine, so that's out. The only thing that could interfere with that is alcohol, which I occasionally do, mostly the weekends only in the evenings. I could definitely get more exercise in, as I'm constantly at my desk/laptop throughout the entire day. Unfortunately, my local gym is closed, and I've been patiently waiting for it to reopen. So, the best I've done here is by taking walks with my mom. I'm the same way as you in regards to electronics, so I don't see me breaking away from it half an hour before bed anytime soon.

Regarding naps, I think I've fought the urge to not nap during the day a few times, and it seems to not work so well, as I still end up waking during the middle of the night. I might just have to hit the hay earlier, although it's extremely difficult to do, especially since I've been so bad with being on my phone for a long time at night while lying in bed. Really this bad habit of mine is far too developed Hence it makes me wonder if anyone really ever sleeps these days

[namida]

I don't drink caffeine, so that's out. The only thing that could interfere with that is alcohol, which I occasionally do, mostly the weekends only in the evenings.

Alcohol is not likely to be the problem, unless we're talking really, really large quantities (and even then, I'd be inclined to suspect it's not the issue if you're only consuming it on weekends). I've even heard of people who say a drink (just one, not heaps) before bed helps them sleep - you could certainly try this, assuming you have no medical reasons to avoid alcohol altogether (and I'm assuming you don't since you say you drink on the weekend sometimes).

Not sure what the laws on it are like in your state, but if medicinal cannabis (or just outright walking into a store and buying some) is legal where you are, I'd definitely suggest giving that a go too. Just a small dose before you go to bed - take it about an hour beforehand if using edibles / drinks; while right before you go to bed is fine if smoking or vaping it. (Of course, smoking is bad for your health. Doing it once to see if this helps, should not do any long-term harm, but if you find it does help and want to do it regularly, it's worth looking into a solution other than smoking.) Speaking from experience on this one.

[kaywhyn]

Not sure what the laws on it are like in your state, but if medicinal cannabis (or just outright walking into a store and buying some) is legal where you are, I'd definitely suggest giving that a go too. Just a small dose before you go to bed - take it about an hour beforehand if using edibles / drinks; while right before you go to bed is fine if smoking or vaping it. (Of course, smoking is bad for your health. Doing it once to see if this helps, should not do any long-term harm, but if you find it does help and want to do it regularly, it's worth looking into a solution other than smoking.) Speaking from experience on this one.

At first, I was amused that you, of all people, suggest cannabis to help with sleep. At the same time, I realized that you wouldn't had offered the suggestion if you weren't a cannabais user yourself. You also acknowledged that smoking isn't good for your health. Even if it doesn't cause any long-term harm by doing it once, I've already told you that the farthest I will go with drugs is drinking alcohol. Therefore, any kind of smoking, whether medicinal or for kicks, is out of the question for me

I will definitely try fighting the urge to nap during the day and seeing if that helps. I'll have to make sure that I sleep earlier at night, though. If it doesn't resolve my waking up in the middle of the night after an hour or so, I'll likely try getting myself checked up and seeing what the doctor recommends.

[geoo]

Is your main issue trouble falling asleep, or waking up after a few hours? I mostly have experience with the former (though this night -- right now in fact as I'm writing this post -- I woke up randomly in the middle of the night, so maybe that's an indication what I'm writing might hold more generally considering I was working on something exciting the previous evening that kept occupying my mind).

I think the most important thing is having a somewhat consistent schedule and a wind down routine. I do take a 25 minute nap every day after lunch and often I manage to fall asleep within 2 minutes as its so consistent every day. Still I can sleep for a 9 hours per night if I want to. (So I don't think napping per se is an issue, but if you feel the need to nap, maybe fix a time and duration every day rather than doing it ad hoc when you're feeling tired/bored.) Now, falling asleep at night in the first place is trickier for me than after lunch as I'm less consistent in what I do before going to bed. If I can't fall asleep it's mostly because I'm excited about something and I can't get my mind off it. That's where a wind down routine should be helpful, as once you do it regularly you can just follow it without having to make a conscious decision to do it, and (if it's long enough) take your mind off whatever you were thinking about. That could e.g. be taking a shower, brushing your teeth, then reading a few pages of a book while in bed. Or maybe even watching an episode of some series (though some might advise against that).

I once took this self-guided course (https://www.sleepio.com/) when I had free access to it; while I don't want to unequivocally promote it, it seemed very sensible to me (and a good portion of what I'm writing is also suggested there).
Generally, it is advised to avoid screen time before going to bed. It doesn't seem strictly necessary to me (because I'm bad at it and often I still manage to fall asleep), but if you're having severe troubles it might be. A low effort variant (though the effectiveness is disputed) is to use some software (e.g. https://justgetflux.com/) to shift your screen to a more red tone in the evening, based on the claim that it's mostly the blue wavelengths that prevent you from sleeping.

Another thing suggested in the course was that you should unconsciously associate your bed with sleep, so don't use it for anything else (which might dispute my earlier suggestion of reading a book in bed, so you could do that in a comfy chair instead). But more importantly that also means if you don't manage to fall asleep, you should give up after a little while (say 15 minutes), do something else and then try again, lest you unconsciously start associating your bed with the struggle to fall asleep and all the bad thoughts that accompany that. (That's why I got up to write this post rather than stay in bed.)

Then of course there's going outside and/or having some physical exercise (remark: the course advises not to work out close before bed time), which quite obviously helps too. I remember when travelling and being out all day I could fall asleep at 9 pm no problem, and you've probably had a similar experience, reading your first post.

A colleague of mine has had sleeping issues of a similar severity as you describe (can't sleep more than 2 hrs a night). She improved on it by being very strict about cutting screen time after (I think) 7:30 pm or so, and as far as I understand having a very clear evening routine from then until bed time. It's tough and takes a lot of discipline (and I'm not nearly there myself, but then I have less incentive as my troubles aren't as severe), but in severe cases it might be what is needed?


Talking about drugs, as far as I'm aware the legal classification (and social perception) of drugs is mostly unscientific bogus that doesn't follow any clear criteria. So if you're fine with alcohol, you're already taking one of the more serious drugs with respect to e.g. associated health risks, and the line you draw isn't really much of a line along some spectrum. (That said, I've never taken any to help me with sleep, so I can't advise on that.)