How do you calm down and goto sleep?

I find it hard to get to sleep.

My mind is constantly in overdrive... analyzing my trades, the market, the Fed, news, gold, trade war... how it all fits together, and what it means for tomorrow's price movements.

How do y'all relax and actually get some sleep?

 

For me, no caffeine after my morning quad shot cappuccino. Unless I have a splash of diet coke in my evening rye. Usually though, my evening libation is an old fashioned, or a manhattan, or in winter sometimes a hot toddy. A Sazerac once in a while. An evening cocktail while watching a Dark Shadows or Star Trek or Lost In Space episode is a nightly ritual in the House of Growl, but I do not overindulge in either. Also I do not eat after 10 PM, even a snack. Me and GF usually don't boink in the evening. Morning is better... gives us an incentive to wake up. Getting up early helps me to get to sleep early. Getting to sleep early helps me get up early.

I am usually in the rack by 11PM or 11:30, and read books on programming or trading or beer making or metallurgy or smithing or welding or boatbuilding or engine repair/maintenance or wiring or whatever. A 20 minute read and it is snooze city. Usually awake by 5:30 or 6. GF leaves for work usually around 8. After a good boink, and making my morning cappuccino, of course. She works from home sometimes and that messes up my routine a little but I try to stick to the routine. Sometimes I have a quick nap after the morning market session, then off to the shop to work on stuff, or to one of our boats to work on stuff or go sailing or fishing for a bit. The nooner prevents me getting sleepy in the late afternoon or evening, which might make a late nap tempting, and create difficulty falling asleep at night. GF gets home from work some time between noon and 9PM depending on what all is piled up for her to do at the office. I make supper cause I am retired now and she can't cook but I cook good enough to make Martha Stewart swoon and Gordon Ramsey cry tears of joy. No shit. Shoulda seen what I did with a couple of Prime NY Strips yesterday.

Routine activity will make sleep routine. Regulation and moderation of caffeine and alcohol intake are essential. Avoid excessive stress producing activity after midafternoon. Even your internet activity should be routine, almost boring, after sundown. Stop worrying about your prostate or taxes or the decline of western civilization or the market or politics or how long you are going to live. Think about how you can make the world a better place. And switch from bourbon to rye. If you smoke, quit. Don't start a program, don't get patches or gum, just quit. You CAN. You just think you can't. Been there, done that.

 

I get up early. This helps sound unbroken sleeping.

I always use a stop-loss. I set my orders to enter long or short before bed and forget the markets until the next day's close. At that time I will see which orders have triggered, which stops have been hit and which open positions I need to close manually to either stop further losses or to bank profits.

I used to watch Theresa May on the news, that was always good encouragement for falling asleep but sadly she's unable to assist that way now.

 

Rye is to Bourbon, what Bourbon is to Canadian.

 

Yet you pollute it with Diet Coke

 

I am not much on pricey single batches, or bourbon distillers who decide they will try to get on the rye bandwagon. The one exception to both rules is Knob Creek, a straight small batch rye made by Jim Beam. Pikesville, and Whistle Pig, are pretty good brands, also. I buy Old Overholt or Sazerac for the house. Sazerac is sort of a newcomer on the scene, and it is a bit more fragrant and less edgy than Overholt. As the brand name suggests it does make a nice Sazerac. I seldom sip any whiskey straight up so I don't have much of an opinion there but rye is not known for its neat drinking qualities. Old Overholt is fantastic in an Old Fashioned or Toddy. I like either one in a Manhattan. Bourbon doesn't provide enough punch for mixing with anything, to me, except maybe in a Mint Julep. I will happily drink a Jack and Coke but that is neither nor. I used to drink a lot of Ezra Brooks 12yo Bourbon with Coke but I haven't seen a bottle of EB 12yo in many years now. Evan Williams Black and Beam Black took its place for me, until I got on the Rye. Evan Black I have to admit is a pretty good budget whiskey.

I have drank a lot of midpriced bourbons (Makers, etc) and a lot of well regarded single batches, too, and I just don't appreciate them like a rye. Oh they are good, yeah, but on my palate, rye is just better. Where bourbons really assert themselves is drinking neat, and that's just not my style. It feels more like battling fumes than drinking.

I have come to like the sharpness of rye so much that my next batch of home brewed beer will have some rye malt in it. Later this year I plan on making a batch with no malt extract, just a dark 6 row barley malt and malted rye, in equal proportions, with a little oat to sort of smooth it out. I will ask our local expert on the best hops and yeast for that project so I haven't decided on that yet. It should prove very interesting. I am very limited in the yeasts I can use, not having room for a fermenting fridge, and GF gets mad at me when I turn the house thermostat down to 64deg. So I go with yeasts that work well at low to mid 70s. Maybe this winter I can experiment with some colder yeasts.