Sleeping hack?

# Chapter 65

Not drinking at all for the moment is one of the hacks that I am applying to my life. And one of the side hacks that has improved greatly from not drinking, is the quality of my sleep. This was not an issue in my younger decades. Just lay horizontal and boom, I was asleep. Waking up was the problem in those younger decades! Not going to sleep nor the quality of sleep, ever was the problem.

Fast forward 40 years and there are some revelations and different experiences to be had. Now it can take a long time to fall asleep, and then a long time to go back to sleep every time you have to get up and pee throughout the night, and you start to develop strategies to mitigate these lay-there-awake-for-hours experiences.

But with 40 years of alcohol consumption stirring the sleeping condition and experience, there was little to grade except poor sleep to bad sleep to I-always-feel-like-I-need-more sleep. Now with unhindered-by-alcohol-sleep possible, the possible grades have improved dramatically. Good sleep is possible, great sleep is possible, and according to Ruby Warrington, “orgasmic sleep” is possible (not sure I have ever experienced that one), which ones do you want to have and experience? I consistently stay near the great sleep category these 107 days without drinking alcohol. Of all the things I have tried over the decades to improve my sleep, nothing comes close to the impact of simply not consuming any alcohol - that one decision changes the sleeping hack completely. In fact over the years, the impact of alcohol on my sleep was the most consistently worst part of drinking at all. Worse than any other effects.

This morning, when my dad got up (my current human alarm clock) I woke up full of energy, optimistic about the day and the future, happy to be me, filled with all the possibilities of this moment. So much better than dragging my ass out of bed, stumbling through the morning, bumping into stuff physically and mentally, wondering why I have to go through this difficulty I brought on myself . . . a post-imbibing morning when waking from some poor or bad sleep. You choose. Everyday.