I swear, YouTube uses the camera on my phone/tablet to detect if I am facing the screen or not. It doesn’t have ‘permission’ to access the camera, but the behavior is too consistent to be a coincidence.
I can’t fall asleep to silence. I have to have something playing to keep me from being alone with my thoughts, or I will literally never sleep. So I watch YouTube videos while Im tying to fall asleep. I skip every ad as soon as it will let me when facing the screen. Every time, and I mean literally every time I turn over so my back is to the screen, YouTube will start playing one of those long ass ads, ones that will go on for 1/2 hr or more if I don’t turn back over and hit ‘skip’. It’s just too consistent to be random.
The best is when it’s the ad for the stupid ass ‘superhero’ audiobook where the main character is the only person who doesn’t have a superpower and gets picked on, and by picked on I mean they force him to watch as they SA his girlfriend. I have done the thing where you can request they don’t show you that particular ad at least a dozen times now and it never helps.
I already know that guy will get his superpower eventually. I already know that he will get his revenge on his bullies. Its about the most obvious, 5th grade level writing you could imagine. Nothing about it appeals to me, I hate that fucking ad with a passion.
If you haven’t tried it yet, I’ve listened to “nothing much happens” podcast for years and years now and it helps me fall asleep faster. If you don’t like this one in specific, there’s plenty of the same genre online for you to try. I prefer sleep specific content because the audio does not have any sudden changes or loud noises. Also screens on while sleeping decrease sleep quality, IIRC
I appreciate the recommendation, I’ll look into it thanks.
There are a few channels like that I watch, one is “History to fall asleep to” or something like that.
I just downloaded NewPipe, and on there you can turn off the screen and just have the audio playing, so that’s awesome.
It’s tricky for me, because if the show is too boring, my mind will wander and I’ll start to get anxious, thinking about things I shouldn’t. Conversely if it’s too exciting, I’ll get too into it and it’ll wake me back up lol
I know, I’m kind of a mess.
To make matters worse most sleeping medicine doesn’t work at all for me, and the only one I’ve found that does gives me dry mouth to the point it gags me.
I hope this one is just the right amount of interesting for you. I particularly like that there are recurring characters and you can keep up with, and “cameo” style apearences and references if different episodes. Easy enough to ignore if you’re not into that. My favorites are the baker and the cat Marmelade.
Best of luck sleeping!
I tried flagging it as such when I asked them to stop showing me the ad. Either they are fine with it or the advertiser found some loophole to get around the TOS. It’s possible they edited the ad copy so that the SA is only implied now, I don’t really pay attention anymore.
I also didn’t even mention the bullies SA the protagonist as well, at least they heavily imply it and mention the blood in his underwear. Gross.
I can’t fall asleep to silence. I have to have something playing to keep me from being alone with my thoughts, or I will literally never sleep.
I have experienced this. Something that helped me is “cognitive shuffling.” Essentially forcing your thoughts to drift.
The technique I learned was this:
Pick a word, preferably one with lots of different letters.
Start with the first letter. Think of as many objects starting with that letter as you can, and picture them. You don’t need to be rigid about this, and don’t waste time trying to come up with objects if you’re stuck, just move onto the next letter. If you finish the word, pick a new one. But I don’t know that I’ve ever finished a word before falling asleep.
The idea is this sort of directed but disconnected thinking helps put your mind into the sort of state that lets sleep come. And when I’m diligent about it, it works like a charm. It’s like a way to actively fall asleep.
Unfortunately because it requires some effort I often don’t do it. But I do recommend it!
I swear, YouTube uses the camera on my phone/tablet to detect if I am facing the screen or not. It doesn’t have ‘permission’ to access the camera, but the behavior is too consistent to be a coincidence.
I can’t fall asleep to silence. I have to have something playing to keep me from being alone with my thoughts, or I will literally never sleep. So I watch YouTube videos while Im tying to fall asleep. I skip every ad as soon as it will let me when facing the screen. Every time, and I mean literally every time I turn over so my back is to the screen, YouTube will start playing one of those long ass ads, ones that will go on for 1/2 hr or more if I don’t turn back over and hit ‘skip’. It’s just too consistent to be random.
The best is when it’s the ad for the stupid ass ‘superhero’ audiobook where the main character is the only person who doesn’t have a superpower and gets picked on, and by picked on I mean they force him to watch as they SA his girlfriend. I have done the thing where you can request they don’t show you that particular ad at least a dozen times now and it never helps.
I already know that guy will get his superpower eventually. I already know that he will get his revenge on his bullies. Its about the most obvious, 5th grade level writing you could imagine. Nothing about it appeals to me, I hate that fucking ad with a passion.
If you haven’t tried it yet, I’ve listened to “nothing much happens” podcast for years and years now and it helps me fall asleep faster. If you don’t like this one in specific, there’s plenty of the same genre online for you to try. I prefer sleep specific content because the audio does not have any sudden changes or loud noises. Also screens on while sleeping decrease sleep quality, IIRC
I appreciate the recommendation, I’ll look into it thanks.
There are a few channels like that I watch, one is “History to fall asleep to” or something like that.
I just downloaded NewPipe, and on there you can turn off the screen and just have the audio playing, so that’s awesome.
It’s tricky for me, because if the show is too boring, my mind will wander and I’ll start to get anxious, thinking about things I shouldn’t. Conversely if it’s too exciting, I’ll get too into it and it’ll wake me back up lol
I know, I’m kind of a mess.
To make matters worse most sleeping medicine doesn’t work at all for me, and the only one I’ve found that does gives me dry mouth to the point it gags me.
I hope this one is just the right amount of interesting for you. I particularly like that there are recurring characters and you can keep up with, and “cameo” style apearences and references if different episodes. Easy enough to ignore if you’re not into that. My favorites are the baker and the cat Marmelade. Best of luck sleeping!
I guarantee you that’s against YouTube’s ad platform’s TOS too.
I tried flagging it as such when I asked them to stop showing me the ad. Either they are fine with it or the advertiser found some loophole to get around the TOS. It’s possible they edited the ad copy so that the SA is only implied now, I don’t really pay attention anymore.
I also didn’t even mention the bullies SA the protagonist as well, at least they heavily imply it and mention the blood in his underwear. Gross.
I have experienced this. Something that helped me is “cognitive shuffling.” Essentially forcing your thoughts to drift.
The technique I learned was this:
Pick a word, preferably one with lots of different letters.
Start with the first letter. Think of as many objects starting with that letter as you can, and picture them. You don’t need to be rigid about this, and don’t waste time trying to come up with objects if you’re stuck, just move onto the next letter. If you finish the word, pick a new one. But I don’t know that I’ve ever finished a word before falling asleep.
The idea is this sort of directed but disconnected thinking helps put your mind into the sort of state that lets sleep come. And when I’m diligent about it, it works like a charm. It’s like a way to actively fall asleep.
Unfortunately because it requires some effort I often don’t do it. But I do recommend it!
Newpipe
Awesome, thank you. I just installed it and it seems to be working great.
Also signing up for PeerTube as well. 👍
Also invidious and peertube.
I’m convinced social media algorithms show you content you choose not to see because they count “don’t show me this again” as engagement.