Recovering from All-nighters

[Fluxxed]

SWIM is a DJ and is starting to play out more and more, mostly on saturday nights, during the night. Often he his many miles from home
and consequently ends up taking some ecstacy/mdma (not too much) and having a fun night, getting to sleep around 8am or 9am, getting up around noon and driving home, spacing out all afternoon, dosing on and off, then getting back into work on monday morning.

Mondays are normally fine, but tuesdays & wednesdays can be really hard.

Anyway, SWIM was wondering if any of you smart people here have any tips for combatting the 2-4 day side effects of being up all night, on E, dancing etc.

Are there any foods, or suppliments that are known to help the body/mind heal quicker?

Swim appreciates any advice

[Beta]

Post load (around two hours after mdma) with antioxidant (R lipoic acid and idebenone are very get ood for that) and 5htp (when you'r coming down).
If you feel anxious the following days, take around 100 mg of 5htp (it can get you a bit sleepy tho).

[Fluxxed]

thanks Marcan, swim just wants to clarify:

R lipoic acid and/or(?) idebenone a few hours after, then some 5htp in the morning (around 6am), then maybe some more on monday/tuesday?

What dosage of the lipoic acid/idebenone? Is this an over-the-counter suppliment?

[Beta]

Actually, swim take idebenome (along with sam-e, piracetam and choline) 1/2 hour before mdma because it is also a cognitive enhancer. R lipoic acid at the end of the peak (2 hours after mdma for swim). 5htp at the beginning of the come down (4 hours afer mdma for swim). If you go to bed, you can take 5htp just before.
I buy it easily on internet. You can also find it in nutrition shops (depends on the country).

[Lettish]

Lipoic acid Swiy can have up to 200mg over 24hrs. The recommended is 100-200mg. Lipoic acid has a NOAEL (no observable adverse effect level) of approx 60mg.

Swim believes the best way to deal with the comedown is 5-HTP. To an extent it is absolutely harmless (Swim has heard of people taking 2000mg / day and being fine, though just be careful). It's readily available over the counter, is not suspicious or dodgy in any way. Keep some on Swiy and late into the night/morning when Swiy starts to feel a downer, pop 100mg. Then pop another 100mg before Swiy sleep. Another 100mg when Swiy wake up. Eat plenty of fruit and veg or a nice hearty healthy meal. Consume water to rehydrate the body. Pop another 100mg 5-HTP. Have about 300-600mg stretched over 24hrs for the next few days.

[Fluxxed]

Thanks lettish, that sounds good! SWIM will give it a go next time

SWIM also wonders how much of the side affects of an all-nighter is due to:

Loudness of the music (ears ringing - brain fatigue)
Disturbance of sleep cycle

I guess its possible these factors could contribute equally to the "dark tuesday". In fact SWIM recalls an old New Scientist article saying that much of the reported short-term side-effects of MDMA could be attributed to the lack of sleep. Any thoughts on this?

SWIM has never stayed up all night without doing lots of chemicals, so has no reference point

[experimenter]

Originally Posted by Fluxxed

Thanks lettish, that sounds good! SWIM will give it a go next time

SWIM also wonders how much of the side affects of an all-nighter is due to:

Loudness of the music (ears ringing - brain fatigue)
Disturbance of sleep cycle

I guess its possible these factors could contribute equally to the "dark tuesday". In fact SWIM recalls an old New Scientist article saying that much of the reported short-term side-effects of MDMA could be attributed to the lack of sleep. Any thoughts on this?

SWIM has never stayed up all night without doing lots of chemicals, so has no reference point

SWIM has had lots of experience with staying up all night, usually from alcohol, MDMA, psychedelics, but much to often being sober. SWIM has had problems sleeping in the past due to stress.
Although drugs do make it worse, SWIM finds lack of sleep to be very hard on the body and can imitate/potentiate a drug hang over.

[RaverHippie]

Originally Posted by Fluxxed

Thanks lettish, that sounds good! SWIM will give it a go next time

SWIM also wonders how much of the side affects of an all-nighter is due to:

Loudness of the music (ears ringing - brain fatigue)
Disturbance of sleep cycle

I guess its possible these factors could contribute equally to the "dark tuesday". In fact SWIM recalls an old New Scientist article saying that much of the reported short-term side-effects of MDMA could be attributed to the lack of sleep. Any thoughts on this?

SWIM has never stayed up all night without doing lots of chemicals, so has no reference point

SWIM repeats this routine every weekend except he always goes home before crashing. SWIM ends up at raves will take some sort of chemical, though MDMA surfaces once a month, goes until 6,7am then goes back home to college and is always ready for class monday morning. The following routine has worked 50+ times for SWIM and friends and is similar to Lettish's suggestions but elaborates a bit on times. Immediately following the end of the roll before SWIM crashes 100mg of 5htp is consumed. After waking up from crashing 100mg of 5HTP is consumed. The next morning 100mg 5htp is consumed. This always leaves a nice afterglow from the MDMA, which lasts until the next weekend usually, and COMPLETELY gets rid of the "suicide tuesday" effect.

As for the sleep cycle repair I always do this. If I needed to stay up all night tonight for something I would do that. Then I would go about the next day as I normally would but I might sip tea for some extra caffeine if really drousy--the object is to never nap. Then I would go to sleep that night at a normal time. I have done this so many times I can stay up all night and the next day at will. When I recommended this technique to my friend who uses drugs, shame on him, it doesn't really work if he tried to avoid crashing to stay up until the next time he would normally fall asleep. He just tries to go back to a normal sleep schedule once his drugs have worn off

[Lettish]

Absolutely, that down feeling can definitely be linked to overall body fatigue. Swim believes this because even when he goes out and does not use drugs (except a bit of alcohol), he can feel very low the following day, especially if he misses out on sleep.

[Beta]

On the other hand swiy would probably not stay up all night without chemicals...