Recently I started reading Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman. It’s a collection of short stories he’s written. At the beginning, he went through all the stories and briefly touched on each one of them. On one of them he described an interaction between a friend of his, and Ray Bradbury, author of Farenheit 451 among others. One line stood out to me.
<blockquote>
If you want to be a writer, you have to write. Every day. Whether you feel like it or not. That you can&#39;t just write one book and stop. That it&#39;s work, but the best kind of work.
</blockquote>
I’m not a writer, doubt I’ll ever be, but I have been wanting to write more. I have a few ideas for short stories, I have some blogging ideas, but I never actually dedicate the time to sit down and actually do it.
I think I’m going to try to change that and try to dedicate some time every day to writing something. Maybe a blog post, maybe a couple paragraphs in a short story, who knows, but something.
When I have sat down to write, it’s been peaceful and it’s helped me collect my thoughts in a way. Let’s see if I can stick with it.

Writing Everyday

Something that&#39;s been on my todo list for a while is to improve my sleeping habits.
I was listening to a <a href="http://www.strongerbyscience.com/podcast-episode-114/">Stronger by Science podcast episode talking about sleep habits</a> and realized that my sleep habits are not exactly great. The biggest thing I have going against me is really the fact that I play hockey with ice times that are often around 10pm or even later sometimes.
There were a few things that the podcast mentioned. The biggest points that I took away from it was:
<ol>
<li>Get yourself on a consistent sleep schedule</li>
<li>Sleep long enough</li>
<li>Avoid caffeine roughly 6 hours before bed (even more time is better)</li>
<li>Avoid too much alcohol before bed</li>
<li>Keep the room dark and no screens</li>
</ol>
Looking at the points, I could definitely improve on just about all of them.
I&#39;m not sure I&#39;ll ever completely get on a consistent sleep schedule. On nights when I don&#39;t have hockey, I try to be in bed between 10 and 10:15pm with a 6:45am alarm. On nights where I play hockey, even if it&#39;s an early game and I get home before 11, I&#39;m still amped up and wouldn&#39;t be able to sleep if I got into bed. I&#39;ve written about <a href="https://kpwags.com/posts/2023/05/05/calming-down-after-hockey">how I&#39;ve been reading a bit before bed after hockey</a>.
Sleeping long enough generally isn&#39;t a problem on non-hockey nights. I generally aim for a good 7-8 hours which I feel gives me a good energy level. The problem of course is when I&#39;m playing several nights in a row and feel like I&#39;m constantly playing catch-up with my sleep.
Avoiding caffeine I&#39;ve been working at on getting better. I generally don&#39;t have coffee much in the afternoon. I might occasionally have some around the 2-3pm lull, but not on an every day basis. I would however often have an energy drink prior to the late games to give me some extra energy for the games. That I&#39;ve been working on cutting out entirely with decent success.
Alcohol is one that I could be doing better at overall. They call my hockey league a beer league for a reason. And while I don&#39;t drink too much at any point, the consistent couple of beers after games don&#39;t help matters. I could probably do with cutting back more on non-hockey nights as well.
The one thing I&#39;ve actually been doing well is not laying in bed prior to going to sleep looking at my phone. I almost always put it on the charger, crawl under the covers and turn off my light. Light-wise, my bedroom is mostly dark. Only light is a little bit of light from the night light in the hallway and the glow of our alarm clock. We have 2 windows, and both have blackout shades, which is nice when I&#39;m under the weather and need to sleep during the day. Normally though, we only keep one down so that we have the natural light to help wake us in the morning.
I know proper sleep is necessary for us humans to function properly. It&#39;s key for recovery and important for our health. I&#39;m hoping to figure out a better way to get into a better rhythm to make sure the sleep I do get is enoug, and that I don&#39;t always feel tired. I&#39;m just trying to figure out how to best get there.

Figuring Out Better Sleep Habits

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.

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Writing Everyday

Figuring Out Better Sleep Habits

Calming Down After Hockey

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