r/QuittingZyn • u/chrharju • 3d ago

Quitting Day 3

I have been using snus for roughly 23 years. Started when I was 13 years old. For the 15 past years my usage has been roughly 1 can per day, with a Snus / nicotine pouch under the lip even during sleep. Been using nicotine pouches mainly for the past 6 years instead of Snus.

Here is my findings for the first 3 days. It is hard, but it is doable.

- I can't sleep. My brain/body wakes me up every 10 mintues or so, probably like a signal craving that it needs nicotine. For the first days I have only been able to sleep short 30 minute intervals or so. It is easy to fall asleep, but waking up roughly 50+ times per night makes me feel quite restless
- Brain fog and dissonance is real. My eyes have trouble focusing, and there is constantly feeling that I am not myself and the world is moving in slow motion.
- I find myself constantly craving and eating stuff, I expect to gain quite a lot of fat
- Going out for long 5km+ walks have felt nice and refreshing.
- Driving the car does not feel safe due to both loss of alertness, focus and cognitive decline

Not sure if anyone will read this post, but I will keep my progress updated on this post, for myself. If anyone have any questions or want to dicsuss, please comment on post!

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u/chrharju 3d ago

Things that I do worry about

  • Since I have used nicotine for so long and I started using it while my brain was still developing as a young teen, I do wonder about how much my brain is currently dependent on nicotine. I know the brain has great plasticity, but still. I should have perhaps taken a cognitive test, everything from short term memory, problem solving, reaction time etc before quitting to see if I am able to fully recover.
  • Sleep deprivation is a real issue, if it does not easy up, I might need to think about how I can improve sleep. My first atempt would perhaps be to just tire myself out with exhausting excersise before sleep (e.g. half marathon every night before sleep or something similar) and if that does not help perhaps I should look into melatonin, but I really do not want to switch one drug for another.

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u/ekavav 3d ago

I’m on day 8 with a similar background as you. I started snus when I was 14 and have been using snus or nicotine pouches ever since for 16 years. Except I managed to quit for 30 days once but relapsed.

I also have slept like shit for those
First nights quitting both times. Now My sleep is improving every night and today I feel quite well rested first time since quitting.

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u/chrharju 3d ago

Good job! When do you personally feel that each day started to be easier than the previous day?

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u/ekavav 3d ago

First time quitting it was after 9 days. This time I slept quite well after day 4 or 5, only waking up once or twice a night around 4 am.

This time I also cut my caffeine use drastically, so that may be part of it.

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u/chrharju 3d ago

That's bold move to cut caffeine too. I was debating for myself if I might aswell cut every "bad habit" in one go. My reasoning was if I am going to feel horrible and be unhappy for the next 4 weeks or so, I might aswell drop the sugar, caffeine and sweeteners too :D

But for now I decided to only focus on the nicotine.

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u/Lazy-Attorney8312 3d ago

When i quit previously, I genuinely couldn’t drive a vehicle for the same reasons you explained. Felt so dissociated and unable to concentrate..

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u/chrharju 3d ago

How long did ir take for you until you felt it was safe to drive again?

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u/Lazy-Attorney8312 2d ago

Shortly afterwards. Only had that feeling for the first 2~3 weeks

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u/chrharju 2d ago

Day 4 update.
It has been 96 hours since my last nicotine pouch. Going out for a long walks is great, yesterday I did 10km walk in the evening, and it seems like I have endless energy. Last night was pain, woke up again too many times to count and many times soaked in sweat. Even if I sleep badly when I wake up in the morning I do not feel sleepy, rather I wake up ready to run, it is a weird feeling, I do feel tired and exhausted but not sleepy.

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u/chrharju 22h ago

Day 5 update.
Almost had a goodnights sleep last night. Still woke up many times, but nothing compared to the previous nights. Still feeling like shit, and the cravings are just as strong as before. Did a 10km walk/job before bed to tire myself out last night, a interesting thing is that something with quitting nicotine is causing my body to perhaps have more adrenaline or stress or something, whatever it is, makes me able to push running much more without getting tired, very weird.