Sleep and absinthe

[buddhasynth]

I don't drink it at night. Not regularly anyway. I spent a coupla years doing a number of dream enhancing things and wrote a fair amount of 'em down. Great material, no doubt but the xit becomes exhausting after awhile for me.

 

Absinthe never really affected my dream content that I can recall, but it has definitely affected my sleep patterns. Back in the day (when proper dosage had yet to be empirically ascertained) it would get me completely hammered but I couldn't sleep and wanted to rock out or play video games, which invariably became disastrous after a few rounds. After crashing waking up 3 or 4 hours later and sitting on the john with crazy "secondaries", flashing blue or purple with lil buzzy guys flying around the head like lil' transparent violet dragonflies. Slow and stupid the next day, and all light senitive and sorta fisheye upon waking, not unlike the morning after an hallucinogenic adventure. But I only got Drunk last night! What gives?

 

I drink it in the daytime a couple hours before making dinner. Rarely if ever do I have more than 3 in a day. It's really nice that way. I'm into keepin' it nice.

[Absomphe]

I don't drink it at night. Not regularly anyway. I spent a coupla years doing a number of dream enhancing things and wrote a fair amount of 'em down. Great material, no doubt but the xit becomes exhausting after awhile for me.

 

I did that in 1985/86, when I lived in Seattle. I didn't have the benefit of absinthe to aid in my researching of the subconscious, just early incarnations of Bigfoot, and Grant's Imperial Stout.

 

It was a basically a journal of my lucid dreams during that two year period. when I was inspired by Stephen LaBerge's Lucid Dreaming. Unfortunately, I left it at Murphy's Pub one day, and never saw it again.

 

I always hoped it gave the person who found (and presumably kept) it, nightmares that wouldn't quit.

[tayker]

Alcohol, in general, affects my sleep.

 

I only had water before bed last night, but I had numerous dreams about falling off of buildings, planes, etc., for some reason.

[Timothy B.]

Last night I had a dream about cleaning up dog poop. Then at 4 in the morning, a smell woke me up and I had to clean up after my ancient puppy whose bowel control is declining.

 

Sometimes a brown oblong thing isn't a cigar...

 

-- T

[Brian Robinson]

Sometimes a brown oblong thing isn't a cigar...

Please tell me you tried to pick it up and light it.

 

That would make my evening.

[buddhasynth]

were this another forum I'd send you a photo....

[Timothy B.]

Please tell me you tried to pick it up and light it.

Do you often discover Cubans under a dog's butt?

 

(I'm certain there's an excellent play on words in there, but I haven't the brain cells to find it.)

 

(Edit add: perhaps it's a variation on the goose that laid the golden eggs.)

 

-- T

 

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read. -- G.Marx

[Attack Accountant]

I've had dog issues of my own lately only it involves a border collie mix and cow pies. It's not my dog. He just lives here. So my point is, I wake up smelling "stuff" too.

[baubel]

Sometimes a brown oblong thing isn't a cigar...

Please tell me you tried to pick it up and light it.

 

That would make my evening.

 

 

"I had to follow him around with a plastic bag for a week, man."

 

Our puppy sometimes robs Wells-Kitteh (without us knowing about it), and then expects us to play with her, after she's carried one of her toys around in her mouth. It's a shitty thing to do.

[calistyle]

That's funny this thread was created. I've drank absinthe about 4 nights now...and the first night I didn't get much, but the second night I did have different dreams, that felt real and I remembered them in the morning. I was thinking to myself, I wonder if its the absinthe or just a phase...I must admit I actually like it, but most important waking up like I didn't even drink is my favorite.

[Sol2Sol]

I kind of got Absinthe happy last night and had 2 Leopold Bros, 1 Coquette 1797, 1 La Clandestine, and topped all that off with a glass of PF 1901. At 4:00 AM I awoke after having a dream about stinging nettles. I was wide awake and just repeating the words 'stinging nettles' over and over in my head. Never did go back to sleep.

St. Georges has stinging nettles in it I believe. Perhaps that should be my next purchase???

[Jetzster]

Sol2Sol, ah, no..

[Meatwaggon]

I kind of got Absinthe happy last night and had 2 Leopold Bros, 1 Coquette 1797

Sounds like you're still under the spell of the green fairy.

[Mat B.]

Had a pretty good dream about absinthe, but sadly it wasn’t absinthe induced. The other night I had a dream I was on a wild rampage to find a hidden bottle of PF somewhere in what was a cross between three neighborhoods I’ve previously lived in. I found it, but then customs agents came from nowhere and wanted to harass me. I actually woke up in the form like I had been cradling it.

[Meatwaggon]

I had the first dream I can remember in the last several months, and it was about chewing on some AA leaves. I remember dreaming why the hell would anyone grow these plants in their yard if they aren't distillers. Then immediately I found myself in someone's back yard picking leaves off the plant and chewing on them. I dreamt that they were only very mildly bitter and tasted like....plant. Then I woke up. Instead of dreaming about nubile lucious oily women, it was about an AA plant. How sad is that. I need to stop drinking absinthe nightcaps FFS.

[Toqueville]

I seldom have dream recall when I sleep on absinthe. I do tend to sleep rather deeply after a few doses though, eventually waking with the perception that my head had just hit the pillow only moments before..yet I feel entirely refreshed.

[Auguru]

Yikes! Over 3 years since my original post. 'Been away from the forum for a long while (January), feels like I've been in a really long, complicated dream... Hope I can spend a little more time awake and online. Gotta do some catching up with all the great folks here at the WS!

 

Have yet to find any spirit that has the same effect as absinthe on sleep/waking.

[Touch-Money]

If I have more than 4 glasses I always have really good dreams, but I do need to keep a glass of water at the bedside because I will usually wake up at least once dying of thirst!

[Sola]

I've yet to have time for more than one drink a night.

*grumble, mutter, complain*

On those nights, I had better, longer, more refreshing, and uninterrupted sleep, though. I usually wake up every two hours or so. Don't recall any dreams, but I have strange, head-scratching dreams without any outside influences, so...

[OMG_Bill]

I don't drink absinthe every night but almost. Waking up about every two hours describes my plight and sleep deprivation according to my health care team.

The nights I drink absinthe and have vivid dreams and I mean reach out and touch them type dreams are not rare.

I remember quite a few of them but I don't wake up refreshed. My body may feel better but my mind is running a marathon. OK, maybe not a marathon but I feel like I'm running in oatmeal. Trying hard but not quote getting there. It's weird but I'm starting to find it entertaining.

Most of my dreams are pleasant but I attribute that to NOT watching the nightly news or scary movies with darkness as a background. My precious just smiles and nods when I tell her about them.

It's when she walks away that I see her shaking her head and raising her hands in disbelief.

 

Ok, switch off the "ramble mode" and see ya'll next time.

 

[Joe Legate]

I rarely drink absinthe after 9:00 because it does impair what little sleep I get. Absinthe or no, I rarely remember dreams which has been true throughout my life. When I do, the dreams are exceptional.

[elfnmagik]

I sleep hard after absinthe cuz' after 9, I'm impaired.

[belewfripp]

Alcohol has never affected my dreams, and so far absinthe in particular has not done anything, either. Tobacco/nicotine is what gives me messed up dreams.

[Carlo]

I am a very light drinker because of my stomach. I can't drink beer because of yeast, and as for wine I can only drink red. I drink so little that alcohol has hardly any effect on my wake or sleep, but when I drink absinthe, seldom more than two glasses, I see that I feel deeply relaxed. If I sleep, I get very deep sleep without dreams. This seems to be an effect specific to absinthe and not to alcohol in general. This relaxed feeling and the utter lack of any stomach issue make absinthe ideal for me.

[Hedonist]

Alcohol has never affected my dreams, and so far absinthe in particular has not done anything, either. Tobacco/nicotine is what gives me messed up dreams.

Absinthe and alcohol are so routine as to have no effect on my sleeping. Nicotine is less frequent, increases my metabolism and reduces my sleep and also, fortunately, my need for sleep.

 

I prefer night to day anyway. At the time of this post, it's 3:37am.

[belewfripp]

I used to stay up all night, too - but that was quite awhile ago now. I can't do that anymore, except every once in a great while.

[le5lieb]

Some absinthes will be as stimulating to me as if I had drunk RedBull. I'll be up and active until the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes, I lie awake in bed and realize, oh yeah, I had absinthe tonight.

[Amy Lewis]

The night of my first absinthe adventure when I first started up my fountain and opened the Jades I had a really vivid dream of being back in San Francisco, where I'd lived for 20 years, and from up near the Haight I saw almost the entire city swallowed up by the sea. It was really vivid and scary as hell. Woke me up that one did.

[gee13]

Interesting ressurected topic! It seems drinking absinthe affects different people differently... or should it be different lines of absinthes affecting...? I tend to end up having a very deep sleep and wanting to go to bed early after a session. This generally happens after 3-5 glasses before dinner. Recently I was holidaying in Ubud, Bali and had an ultra vivid dream based on having watched the Star Wars movie... maybe it was the combination of Butterfly amidst the heady scents of the deep tropics... This is what I wrote about it the morning after... "I just had a weird vivid dream about Star Wars Episode 8 ... apparently to keep the secret Jedi force alive Luke, after being disheartened by the jedi training disaster .. scatters his most trusted remaining jedi reserve to all corners of the known galaxy. I was some alien character trusted to ensure that they all had secret 'bug type' homing devices which were clipped on every jedi master only to be activated and united should there be a new threat from Snoke's new dark force army. One of the jedi masters was located in a secret planetary outpost led by a 'wholly' gay army mean and fierce militants dressed as Freddy Mercury and Village People wannabees. Apparently the jedi leader there is Luke's secret lover (played by Woody Harrelson)and they are Rae's real parents. Rae was left on Jakku as anonymous to protect her ... She is reunited with her gay fathers in Episode 8.. but there is another dark secret .. Rae had a step brother who was raised secretly by Luke's gay lover and this was the person (unbeknownst to Luke) that actually turned against Luke and massacred the other jedi students he was training... before he went into exile. Hell intense..."

[belewfripp]

*blinks* As someone once said to me, it would take an army of psychoanalysts to figure ^^^ out.

 

Usually I sleep really soundly when I've had absinthe, but the other night I had a crazy nightmare. I was with some Alien-style colonial marine types, exploring a derelict spaceship. I remember it was dark and we were moving to the end of a hallway. We were relieved to find no monsters lurking at the end of it. Then, suddenly, it's like I was looking down the length of my body in bed, as if I'd opened my eyes without moving my head. A sort of dark circle was moving from my peripheral vision, to the right of me, and gradually coming closer and closer, at an angle. Suddenly my arms and legs all jerked up, startled, as if something had just grabbed me on the leg. At this point, it's like it was a waking dream. My surroundings were my bedroom and I remember physically moving, but I don't think I was really "awake". I looked over to my right and saw a pale, translucent, somewhat humanoid silhouette lying to my right, with arms outstretched towards my right leg. I did what any good empiricist does and reached my left arm over to touch it, and I remember thinking to myself, "If there's actually something in bed with me, what the hell am i going to do?", but at the exact moment my hand made contact with the image, it disappeared and at that point I believe I actually, fully woke up.