Ask Lemmy

If you can't find a comfortable temperature when you're sleeping under blankets, just stick one foot, and maybe part of your lower leg, out from under of the blankets. It acts like a radiator, and will release much of your excess heat.

A kid showed this to me at a childhood slumber party, and it's been a useful tip ever since.

Switch to linux

If you can't sleep. Get up. Get out of your bed for a while.

Staying awake while laying in bed often changes the association of sleep with the bed. Removing sleep conditioning effects.

Also as someone who has had insomnia since I was a child. I can tell you if I lay in bed. Unable to sleep. And Stay there. Rolling around. I won't ever fall asleep.

But if I force myself to get up. Maybe have something to drink. Walk around a bit. Stare out the window for a bit. Then go back , I'm more likely to fall asleep.

And if I'm having really bad insomnia. I go for a walk. At this point I'm my life I can tell if it's going to require a walk or just getting up and moving around the apartment/house for a bit.

Even a 15-20 min walk can do wonders. But I typically do 30 to 1 hour walk. It depends on how I'm feeling.

You would think exercising in the middle of the night would wake you up more. But nope.

9/10 times I go for a short walk. I get back and fall to sleep almost immediately.

It's hard to force yourself to get up when you are exhausted and just want to sleep. But it's do the walk or not sleep at all.

Also. Going out at 2 or 3 am on a week day is kinda of an interesting experience. Depending where you live, you might be the only person around.

It's eirie and surreal. Subliminal spaces.

I quite like it. That also helps motivate me to do the insomnia walk. (Sometimes I ride my bike instead which is really nice as there are minimum cars. -make sure you are in light clothes and have lights and reflectors on your bike).

In a financial negotiation, avoid saying a number first, even if it seems like you're being rude, just say stuff like "what's your budget" instead. This trick sounds really stupid but somehow it is extremely effective.

Not really nonsense but in the winter to stay really warm in your bed, just lay a fleece blanket flat over the fitted sheet. Sleep directly on top of it with your usual blankets covering you. The fleece will radiate your heat, which will then get trapped by the top blanket keeping you much more insulated.

If you want to have a deep rejuvenating sleep, wake up for about an hour in the middle of the night after a few hours of sleep. Don’t do anything that will make you wide awake. Just chill out for an hour and then go back to sleep. The second period of sleep will be so much better than the first.

Throw a square of dark chocolate in chili next time you make it, at least 70% cocoa but the higher the better. Next time you make boxed Mac and cheese, add a dash or 2 of Worcestershire sauce to it. The best egg you’ll ever eat: 1 egg, 1 tbsp of mayo whisked together in a glass container or small bowl. Add 1tsp of butter on top and microwave for 40-60 seconds. You’ll be pissed off about how good it is.

Next time you eat Oreos and milk, put the Oreos in a bowl and pour the milk over them and eat them with a spoon like cereal. Next time you eat cupcakes, carefully break off half of the bottom and put it on top of the icing so it’s like eating a sandwich.

Don't be a cunt.

Simple advice that works. More people should try it.

When you sprain your ankle, DON'T MOVE. I used to try and walk it off because that's what everyone does and even coaches recommend it, but that's when the actual damage is done.

Spraining is usually just your tendons/ligaments going into emergency mode (getting very short/tight). So if you try to walk while they are still tight, they will actually tear, doing damage that takes weeks to heal. If you instead just keep that ankle perfectly still for like 30 seconds to 2 min, the ankle will be completely fine.

Trick is, you have to overcome the social pressure to hurry it along (i.e. on a hike at work, or on a sport field).

Here’s how I quit smoking about 15 years ago.

Step one: for about a month, every time I smoked I told myself I’m ready to quit. Every cigarette, every time.

Step two: the next month, every cigarette, every time, I told myself they stink and taste like shit.

Took about 3 weeks into the second month and I never picked up another. Oh and I can be around other smokers and don’t crave them. They still fucking stink.

YMMV

cook bacon in water. 

don't drown it, but add just enough to render out the fat without the bacon being in direct contact with the pan, preventing sticking and burning. then once the water steams out the bacon is left to fry in its own juice, giving perfectly crispy bacon every time. 

This is cooking advice.

If you struggle with cooking or find that you mess up often, try preparing all of the individual ingredients before you start cooking. Eg. measure, wash, cut every ingredient. Apparently this practice is called mise en place.

If you ever watch a cooking video and it looks so effortless this is probably why. It was a game changer back when I was learning to cook. Suddenly it felt like I could make every recipe with ease.

This practice has drawbacks as it could dirty more dishes and increase cook times but it allows you to tackle most dishes at your own pace. I definitely recommend it whenever you make something new for the first time.

If you have a song stuck in your head, and it's driving you a bit mad: listen to it. Something about your mind trying to fill things in (it's been many years since I've read this bit of advice, and unsure entirely on why).

If you get that feeling where you need to sneeze but it's not quite enough for a full sneeze, say the word grapefruit. 60% of the time it works every time

So if you ever get a random headache that is just a pinching pain in a random spot then try breathing there. I don't mean breathe deep or breathe into that spot but actually concentrate super hard into that spot and imagine this is where your lungs are. Concentrate when you breathe and think about how the air goes exactly into that spot directly from your mouth cause this is where your lungs are now, and how you breathe out from there. Keep concentrating and breathing there.

I don't know why it doesn't work if I just take deep breaths but this is legit the only way I can stop the pulsating stabs until they are gone. Concentrate hard tho because once you stop the pain returns unless the attack is over.

Staying warm actually does ward off illness. Specifically, you need to keep your nose warm or else its local immune response becomes surprisingly ineffective.

Rapid eye movement and looking at things, mentally noting them, acknowledge sounds and smells can help regulate moments of anxiety.

These placebos are one hell of a drug.

For insomnia. Get up and start doing your morning routine sans coffee or food. It can work like a kick to the head, happily sending you right to sleep.

Seeing a horizon can fix short-term balance issues, or temporarily relieve long-term issues like labyrinthitis/vertigo, because it feeds the secondary ocular-vestibulo brain bit and gets you back settled and leveled. Unless you're drunk or damaged, it's a neat trick.

If you’re walking with an open container of liquid that’s filled so full it’ll spill, purposefully avert your gaze from the liquid sloshing as you’re walking.

Getting nervous that you’ll spill, will cause you to spill.

If someone is about to sneeze, wait until they begin to inhale and say something unexpected to them and it will stop them from sneezing.

I told this to my wife and she scoffed and didn't believe me. One day her allergies were kicking up and she started to sneeze. I waited for the right moment and said "GRAPEFRUIT" to her and... She didn't sneeze.

The secret is timing it correctly.

If your clothes have an odor, you can spray a cheap vodka over them to neutralize the smell.

If you're stuck on a creative project or out of ideas on how to approach a problem, and you feel a little fatigued mentally, have a cup of coffee or something with caffeine and lie down for a short nap.

It'll take some time for the caffeine to kick in, so you might even drift off, and this way it seems to stimulate the mind in a way that produces insights and ideas more than just keeping you from feeling tired.

If you have black coffee either because you're out of creamer or doing a non-diary thing, sprinkling a tiny bit of salt into the coffee will take the bitterness out of it without tasting salty.

In your head, change the name of a food you wish to avoid. I've done this with McD's.

In my head, it's been called McDicks since high school. I, personally, don't enjoy eating dicks. So, when I see the sign, and I feel like a Big Mac would go down easy, I say to myself, "I don't eat dicks."

It works.

For those who enjoy eating dicks, well, you'll have to choose another association. Also, I didn't think the phrase "feel like a Big Mac would go down easy" would be so overtly sexual.

On August 27 2031 make sure you turn left instead of right. You'll know when I mean.

You can't make yourself calm down because our emotions control us, not the other way around - but you can control your breath and your breath can affect your emotions. Box breathing, 4-7-8, or even just deep "flower breaths". All work great at centering yourself when emotions are getting out of hand

If you're clumsy, do a grappling martial art like wrestling or Jiu-Jitsu. After 6 months even if you still suck at that martial art (e.g., me) your nerves and muscles will know how to move shockingly efficiently.