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Calming Down After Hockey

May 5, 2023
2 Minute Read

I enjoy playing hockey and will often play as much as 3 nights a week. Being an adult, I’m stuck with the late ice times so the kiddos can be home and in bed. This means that I’m often not starting games until 10:00 to 10:30pm some nights. This means that I’m not home until midnight some nights. Add in the rush of adrenaline from playing and it’s not a fun combo. I’ve started to settle into a good habit though.

Getting home at midnight after a beer league hockey game on a work night is no fun. What makes it worse is that you’re still amped up, so even if you get into bed, you’re still too “awake” to sleep.

A little before the new year, I tried a new strategy of coming home and reading for 30 minutes to an hour before crawling into bed. It’s a quiet activity that helps calm me down and lower the adrenaline. I’ll sometimes read with one last beer too (which may or may not be for the best, but oh well).

It’s nice to be able to be “productive” and to get something out of the post-game buzz rather than twisting and turning in bed possibly keeping my wife awake. It’s become somewhat of a ritual and in a weird way I kind of look forward to getting comfortable on the couch in a quiet house with my cat and a good book.