A Short Story About Sleep & Drinking

​I posted this on Twitter a few days ago, but since I’m trying to make better use of this space, I’m reposting it here.

Thanks.

I went over to my friend Bill’s house one weekend about 2.5 years ago to watch college football. We got HAMMERED. Once I called my wife & told her I didn’t think I could drive safely home, she said, “Fine. See you tomorrow,” & the gloves came off. 

Think: ugly college party weekend, but I was 48.

With Sally at a beer festival a few years ago.

Next day, I woke up feeling about the way you might expect. Drove shakily home & told my wife, “I think I need to detox. I’m gonna take a week off from drinking.”

Wife said, “Make it two.”

So I did. Wasn’t even hard, truth be told.

By the end of that second week, I was swimming, lifting, & sleeping better than I had in a decade or more. I track all my fitness stats with an obsessive engineer’s precision, so I KNEW this was real. I had actual data.

I’d been aware at some level that my wife & I had started drinking more during the pandemic. We’d split a bottle of wine more nights than not during the lockdown, & in hindsight, this affected me more than I’d realized. We never let it go, & it got a little out of hand.

Unfortunately, a 5’10” male cannot become a collegiate swimming champion without dedication bordering on obsession. When I think of my swimming career now, it feels like remembering that time I had a mental illness. Alas, six weeks into my dry fitness journey, I felt myself slipping back into a *really* old mindset. At peak competitiveness, I can get antisocial to the point of being mean, & my wife called me out on it.

We shared a glass of wine that night, & with effort, I let that shit go.

So. 

I’ve learned with time that I can have a glass of wine maybe 3 times/week without it affecting me. Two drinks will definitely disrupt my sleep, as will ANY beer. I still indulge sometimes, but I do so knowing that it will impact that night’s sleep & the next day’s swim. So I only do that on Saturdays, for the most part, but I do constantly remind myself that the social part of marriage is more important than the physical part of being a 50-year old charity racer.

I hope that helps. It really has been a journey. 

I developed insomnia after I got divorced WAY BACK in 1998. I didn’t feel like I’d put it all the way behind me until after the no-alcohol experiment detailed above.