Interesting how nicotine can be used as both stimulant and relaxant ha ha.
New forum format and members, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Over the years we have had members with more biological and chemical knowledge than me explain how nicotine works on the body and mind. But, my layman's understanding is that nicotine is neither a stimulant nor a relaxant (word?). But, it is all in how the blood sugars react with the nicotine. The pipe has tons more nicotine than a cigarette, but it is all in the delivery. It takes much longer for our bodies to ingest the nicotine, but at the onset of smoking your pipe, the body releases stored sugars into the blood, which gives us the higher heart rates and the illusion of more energy, like what cigarettes do when ingested straight into the lungs. But, once you reach the threshold of nicotine poisoning, the sugars are depleted and the body starts to feel tired, stomach gets queasy, and you can get the spins. You can offset this by eating a nibble of chocolate or something that can quickly give you more sugars. But, if you just continue to smoke, you can smoke into a sleepiness.
I've seen first time cigar smokers, hunker over asleep and green in the bathroom of The Briary a few times. I have also had a friend who fell asleep on his deck while smoking University Flake on his back deck and awoke with his pipe in hand. Many others have reported similar things on here over the years.
I used to have a real problem with insomnia for decades before I started smoking a pipe. I am a go go go kind of person, and my doctor had to prescribe sleeping pills to get me to conquer days upon days of no sleep. But, when I started smoking my pipe and found the heavy twists and flakes, I was able to go to sleep without having to use the pills, and have not used them since taking up this "hobby," for lack of a better word.
Yeh, I get a little bit of that rush when I smoke Virginias and vapers throughout the day, and I keep a pipe lit and in my clench pretty much all day. But, at night, I will smoke a twists till I get that droopy eyed feeling and then just slide over into my bed and sleep like a baby. A few times I have had my wife wake me up and force me to bed, because I fell asleep while smoking, which is unusual for a guy who used to have a problem with even sitting down for long periods of time at night.
Maybe someone else can offer the exact affects of nicotine and such with all of the big words, but I believe I have the Reader's Digest version down, ha ha. Hope that helps.
