Has annyone heard of this? Add to the list of teetotaler celebrations.
Too close to Dry January!
My initial plan to only drink on weekends has been sabotaged by All The Things This Year.
Meh.
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Iāve seen sober October pop up on my social media feeds. I donāt know of anyone who is doing it though. I donāt know of anyone that does dry January either.
On another note, I gave up drinking last summer purely for health reasons. I have difficulty sleeping at night, which was the motivating factor, so I tried giving up coffee first and that didnāt help much. The next step was giving up alcohol to see what happens and Iāve been sleeping everywhere all the time but in installments. I will be going for a sleep test next Monday to see if I have sleep apnea which Iām pretty sure I have. Apparently I stop breathing when I sleep so weāll see what happens. I never felt really hung over when I was drinking but definitely felt groggy the next morning so thatās one thing that has gone away. Also, I have some early morning activities planned this year so I want to be able to get up and at 'em early and to be clear headed to enjoy them so thereās that. Iāve found my overall health has improved since I quit drinking but that was my own personal decision. And a lot of places sell some really nice non-alcoholic drinks now. Two grocery stores I shop at has a whole NA drink section and a health food store I went to recently actually has a whole aisle dedicated to NA drinks.
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I love the (comparative) abundance of NA options that have made their way on many menus of our favorite bars.
Def see what that sleep test brings! My PIC had to go to a sleep lab a few years ago, afraid he may have sleep apnea. All he has is a deviant septum.
Sorry ā that should be deviated, butā¦ deviant is funnier 
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Iād love to have something deviant.
But, to return to the question, yes Iāve heard of Sober October. Itās sponsored in the UK by MacMillan Cancer Support - our leading cancer care charity (my specialist prostate cancer nurse works as part of the hospital team but is employed by MacMillan. I hadnt appreciated that Sober October was international.
FWIW, Iām now in my 26th year of being sober (and nicotine free). It is never challenge free so Iām impressed with anyone who can stop even if only for a few weeks
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Like Dry January, any excuse is great if someone needs a reason to not imbibe. If the habit sticks, so much the better. I guess I come from the school that one just does what it right for oneself. Maybe Iām cynical but, this seems like just another thing to let people virtue signal and hashtag on social media.
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People virtue signal online?
Well Iāll be damned.
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Congratulations! That is a massive feat.
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Gen Z is drinking less and driving the wagon nowā¦since theyāre the prime target of alcohol drink makers. On that note, non-alcoholic wine and beer might not be such a niche market. After college and my 20s, greatly reduced drinking. Wine with a nice dinner, work related social reasons except retired now. Also, you have to consider drinking can get pricey as a hobbyā¦.and thatās not the way things are pointed.
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Good luck with the sleep study. I also gave up caffeine entirely in 2009, and as of last year donāt drink alcohol after 7 PM, all for sleep. I was diagnosed with mild OSA after a sleep study but the cure (CPAP) was worse than the disease, so Iām just living with that. Pharmaceuticals are my salvation currently. Looking forward to getting over with this menopause crap so I can go back to taking drugs only some days, vs. every day.
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I highly recommend a dental appliance/device for sleep apnea. After wearing the dreaded mask and suffering the side effects from that, I went for the dental device. Mine is a two piece āretainerā like thing I wear at bedtime made by SomnoMed. My dentist ordered it and custom fitted it for me. It was an Rx through my pulmonologist. Iāve worn it for almost 5-1/2 years without a problem. It cost me the same as a CPAP; the medical insurance picked up the bill.
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Thanks, might give that a try if my sleep doctor will write an Rx for it. But my issue is that EVERYTHING wakes me up/disturbs my sleep. Itās been a lifelong problem. I have a million and one strategies to sleep better (including CBT-I decades ago) and I would be not too bad off now if it were not for f*ing menopause. That destroyed sleep entirely for me.
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I hear you! Light sleeper going through menopause here. Iāve also had to scale back the alcohol. My partner is a particularly restless sleeper who also requires ābackground noise/lightā while he sleeps (read: low tv). I wear ballistic grade ear plugs and weāve compromised on a YouTube channel that is reasonably dim. I have two fans going in the bedroom at any given time for temperature and circulation (plus the AC). And, one of my blood pressure meds (until we switched my schedule around recently) is a diuretic, causing me to have to get up a couple times in the night anyway. About the only thing I have found that has been useful outside of decreased alcohol has been daily exercise (~90 minutes), so that deep sleep is more likely to be triggered and leading to a more ānormalā overall sleep pattern. I still tend to wake up every couple hours, but I am more likely to go back to sleep now than before.
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My ideal bedroom is pitch dark and dead silent. My PIC prefers a white noise app that I have gotten used to for the most part.
And since our bedroom is not pitch dark, we both wear sleep masks.
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Ooh, Iād kick Mr. travelmad478 right out of the bedroom if he had the TV on. Iāve never had a TV in the bedroom in my life and could not sleep a wink with that constantly flickering light. Ceiling fanācheck. Eyeshadesācheck. Blackout shadesācheck. I sleep with earbuds in because I can only get back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night by listening to audiobooks or podcasts.
@Amandarama If you have not yet gotten into @justbeingmelani on IG, you need to check her out!
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Herself has long been a snorer and I wore earplugs but would still get disturbed. Then, when I developed prostate issues some years back, it meant I was up several times in the night for a pee - which disturbed her. Our solution was separate bedrooms. It works and we both sleep much better. And the morning cuddle is a great start to the day.
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I go NA frequently. I think I like NA Heineken better than the A. Many great choices out there, though. Great to see.
Kids these days, in my experience, are much more likely to try the many THC or Nicotine options. Alcohol is harder to come by.
Still, my favorite Kids in the Hall sketch might just be āGirl Drink Drunk.ā That, or āSausages.ā
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And itās great that we are able to choose. I posted an article a year ago or so that took an equally light-hearted approach to curbing oneās drinking ā if just for a short time ā that unfortunately deteriorated into a discussion about alcoholism.
The issue of alcoholism always comes up when people talk about reducing or cutting out alcohol and I hate it. I really truly cut out alcohol because I want sleep. One of my friends gained a lot of weight during her menopausal years so she went all out and quit drinking (she was a social drinker before), she adopted a vegan diet and bought a bike and so far the pounds are coming off. Neither of us are alcoholics. When I met up with my dinner club last Christmas I ordered two mocktails and one of my dining companions tried shaming me for it. She thought my drinks were cocktails and told me I was going to get really drunk from those drinks. I told her I doubt it - there is no alcohol in either of those drinks and the conversation ended there.
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