I Can’t Sleep - Roller Skating | Peaceful Bedtime Reading

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

Drift off with this calm bedtime reading designed to support deep sleep and ease insomnia, as these opening moments gently settle your mind while you relax into a peaceful exploration of roller skating. In this quiet episode, you’ll discover the surprisingly rich history of roller skating, from early inventions to modern cultural influence, all shared in Benjamin’s steady and soothing cadence. There’s no whispering—just comforting, fact-filled storytelling meant to help soften stress and settle restless nights, encouraging your thoughts to drift and your body to relax so it becomes easier to release tension and welcome rest. Press play, snuggle in, and let your mind float toward dreamier places. Happy sleeping! Read with permission from Roller skating, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_skating), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox Media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. And today's sponsored episode about roller skating is for Deanna. Roller skating is the act of traveling on surfaces with roller skates.

It is a recreational activity, a sport, a form of transportation. Roller rinks and skate parks are built for roller skating, though it also takes place on streets, sidewalks, and bike paths. Roller skating originated in the performing arts in the 18th century. It gained widespread popularity starting in the 1800s. Roller skating was very popular in the United States from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Then again in the 1970s, when it was associated with disco music and roller discos. During the 1990s, inline outdoor roller skating became popular. Roller skating has often been a part of black and LGBT history in particular. Sport roller skating includes speed skating, roller hockey, roller derby, figure skating, and aggressive quad skating. The earliest roller skates known are from 18th century Europe. These skates were used in theater and musical performances, possibly to simulate ice skating on stage. Early roller skating was done in a straight line because turning or occurring or occurring. Curving was very difficult with the primitive skate designs of the time.

Limited to an occasional performance prop at the time, roller skating would not see widespread use until the 1840s. Waitresses in an 1840s beer hall in Berlin used roller skates to serve customers. Ballet and opera of the late 1840s, such as Le Prophet, featured roller skating. This helped to make roller skating popular for the first time in 1850s Europe. Technology improvements such as rubber wheels in 1859 and four-wheeled turning skates in 1863 contributed to the spread of roller skating.

The popularity of roller skating has fluctuated greatly since then. It is typically called a craze at its high points. Roller skating boomed in popularity from 1880 to 1910. Roller skates were mass-produced, and skating in rinks became popular with the general public in Europe, North and South America, and Australia. Specialized types of roller skating appeared in this period, such as figure skating, and speed skating. After a decline in popularity, roller skating became a little bit of roller skating became. widespread again in the 1930s to the 1950s.

This era is known as the golden age of roller skating. Many skating rinks offering electric organ music were built throughout the United States in this period. In the 1970s, roller disco became widespread. This style of skating originated with disco music predominantly among black and gay skaters. During the late 1980s, 1980s and the 1990s, outdoor and indoor inline skating with roller blades became popular. Roller skating declined in popularity in the early 21st century, but became more popular again during the COVID pandemic.

Roller skating has long been tied to black American social movements, immigrant communities, and the LGBT community, particularly for women in roller derby. As a hobby it is perceived as whimsical and is widely accessible to many people. Historical timeline 1743 First Recorded Use of Riller Skates in a London stage performance The inventor of this skate is unknown 1760

First Recorded Skate Invention by John Joseph Murley who created a primitive inline skate with small metal wheels. 1818. Roller skates appeared on the ballet stage in Berlin. 1819. First patented roller skate design in France by M. Petiple. These early skates were similar to today's inline skates, but they were not very maneuverable.

It was difficult with these skates. to do anything but move in a straight line and perhaps make wide sweeping turns. Rest of the 19th century. Inventors continued to work on improving skate design. 1823. Robert John Tires of London patented a skate called the Rollito. This skate had five wheels in a single row on the bottom of a shoe or boot. 1857

The hobby of roller skating gained enough momentum to warn the opening of the first public skating rinks. The Strand, London, and Floral Hall had these first roller rinks. 1863 The four-wheeled turning roller skate or quad skate with four-wheels set and two side-by-side pairs front and rear was first designed in New York City by James Leonard Plimpton in an attempt to improve upon previous designs. The skate contained a pivoting action using a rubber cushion that allowed the skater to skate a curve

just by pressing his weight to one side or the other, most commonly by leaning to one side. It was a huge success, so much so that the first public roller skating rinks were opened in 1866, first in New York City by Plimpton in his furniture store, and then in Newport, Rhode Island with the support of Plimpton. The design of the quad skate allowed easier turns and maneuverability, and the quad skate came to dominate the industry for more than a century. 1875. Roller skating rink in Plymouth, England held its first competition.

1876. William Brown in Birmingham, England, patented a design for the wheels of roller skates. Brown's design embodied his effort to keep the two bearing surfaces of an axle, fixed and moving apart. Brown worked closely with Joseph Henry Hughes, who drew up the patent for a ball or roller-bearing race for biting. bicycle and carriage wheels in 1877. He used as patent included all the elements of an adjustable system. These two men are thus responsible for modern roller skate and skateboard wheels, as well as the ball-bearing race inclusion in velocopedes, later to become motorbikes and automobiles.

These were arguably the most important advance in the realistic use of skates as a pleasurable pastime. 1876. The toe stop was first patented. This braking implement provided skaters was the ability to stop promptly upon tipping the skate onto the toe. Toe stops are still used today on most quad skates, as well as some types of inline skates. 1877. The Royal Skating Indoor of Skating

ring building is erected Rue, Vait Brussels. 1878. In Boston, 17-year-old Pawnee Skater Fred Bright Star Murray defeats Kenneth Skinner, the fastest speed skater in the area at the time. This begins Murray's career. 1880s Roller skates were being mass-produced in America. This was a sports first first.

of several boom periods. McAjia C. Henley of Richmond, Indiana, produced thousands of skates every week during peak sales. Henley skates were the first skate with adjustable tension via a screw, the ancestor of the Kingbolt mechanism on modern quad skates. 1884 Levant M. Richardson received a patent for the use of steel bulber and skate wheels to reduce friction. Allowing skaters to increase speed was minimum effort.

1898 Richardson started the Richardson ball bearing and skate company which provided skates to most professional skate racers of the time, including Harley Davidson, no relation to the Harley Davidson motorcycle brand. The design of the quad skate has a quad skate has remained essentially unchanged since then, and remained as the dominant roller skate design until nearly the end of the 20th century. The quad skate has begun to make a comeback

recently due to the popularity of roller derby and jam skating. 1900. The Peck and Snyder Company patented an inline skate with two wheels. 1902 The Chicago Coliseum opened a public skating rink Over 7,000 people attended the opening night 1935 The Chicago Coliseum hosts the first transcontinental roller derby With a pair of men and women

And Chicago becomes the first place of roller derby 1837 Roller Skating the Sport was organized nationally by the Roller Skate Rink Owners Association and the onset of Roller Skating's Golden Age. 1977 Inline skates looking like ice skates were used by D.E.F.A., the East German State Film Studio, in the film D. Sertansen Shua, based on the fairy tale, the 12 dancing princesses, and some winter scenes on a frozen lake.

1979. The roller disco trend in America occurs, highlighted in films like that year's roller boogie. Scott Olson and Brett Olson of Minneapolis, Minnesota, came across a pair of inline skates created in the 1960s by the Chicago Roller Skating Company and seeing the potential for off-ice hockey training

set about redesigning the skate using modern materials and attaching ice hockey boots. A few years later, Scott Olson began heavily promoting the skates and launched the company Rollerblade Inc. 1983 President Ronald Reagan declared October National Roller Skidding Month 1993 Active brake technology

Roller Blade Inc developed ABT or Active Break Technology for Increased Safety 2020 to 2021 Ruller skates are in short supply worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic Artistic roller skating is a sport which consists of a number of events These are usually accomplished on quad skates, but inline skates may be used for some events.

Various flights of events are organized by age and ability or experience. In the U.S., local competitions lead to nine regional competitions, which lead to the national championships and world championships. Figures Figure artistic skating involves Prescribed movement, symmetrically composed of at least two circles, but not more than three circles, involving primary or primary and secondary movements, with or without turns. Figures are skated on circles which have been inscribed on the skating service. Dance

Scaters are judged by the accuracy of steps that they skate when performing a particular dance. In addition to being judged on their edges and turns, skaters must carry themselves in an elegant manner while paying careful attention to the rhythm and timing of the music. Freestyle Freestyle Roller Dancing is a style of physical movement usually done to dance that is not choreographed or planned ahead of time. It occurs in many genres, including those where people dance with partners. By definition, this kind of dance is never the same from performance to performance. Although it can be done formally and informally, sometimes using some sparse choreography as a very loose outline for the improvisation. Precision teams

A team of skaters, usually counted in multiples of four, creates various patterns and movements to music. Often used elements include skating in a line, skating in a box, splicing, subgroups skating towards each other such that they do not contact each other, and skating in a circle. The team is judged on its choreography and the ability to do not contact each other. the ability to skate together precisely, and jumps and spins are not as important. In this category, they are classified as small groups, six to 15 people, or big groups, 16 to 30 skaters. These show groups are also divided due to the level and ages, singles and pairs.

A single skater or a pair of skaters present routines to music. They are judged on skating ability and creativity. Jumps, spins, and turns are expected in these events. Sometimes with a pair or couple skaters, slow music will play, and usually it is two songs. Speed skating originally started on traditional roller skates, quads or four wheels per skate. The first organized national competition was

held in 1938 in Detroit, Michigan at the Arena Gardens Roller Rink, once home of Detroit's Premier Sports Palace. The arena opened in 1935 as roller skating began its ascension as a top sport. In the early years, competitors representing the Midwest states, primarily Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio dominated the sport. By 1950, as rinks hired speed skating coaches who trained competitors, the East and West Coast began to compete effectively for the national titles. But in the early years, national titles were dominated by Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. As rules were established for state and national competitions, the speed skating season began in fall, and continued through spring leading up to a state tournament.

Eventually, approximately 1947, due to the growth of speed skating, the top three places at a state tournament would qualify skaters for a regional tournament. The top three places at a state tournament would qualify skaters for a regional tournament. The top three places at regional tournaments then went on to compete at a national tournament. national tournament. Skaters could qualify as individuals or as part of a two-person or four-person relay team. Qualification at regional events could warrant an invite to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for a one-week training session on their outdoor velodrome.

Inline speed skating is a competitive non-contact sport on inline skates. Variants include indoor, track, and road racing with many different grades of skaters so the whole family can compete. Jam skating is a skating style consisting of a combination of dance, gymnastics, and roller skating performed on roller skates. The 2018 documentary film United Skates prominently features the technique. Among skaters not committed to a particular discipline, a popular social activity is the group skate or street skate, in which large groups of skaters regularly meet to skate together, usually on city streets. One such group is the San Francisco Midnight Rollers. In 1989, the small 15 to 20 groups that became the Midnight Rollers,

explored the closed double-decker Embarcadero Freeway after the Loma Prieta earthquake until it was torn down, at which point the new route was created settling on Friday nights at 9 p.m. From the San Francisco Ferry Building, circling 12 miles around the city back at midnight to the start. Although such touring existed among quad roller skate clubs in the night, 1970s and 1980s. It made the jump to inline skates in 1990 with groups in large cities throughout the United States. In some cases, hundreds of skaters would regularly participate, resembling a rolling party. In the late 1990s, the group skate phenomenon spread to Europe and East Asia. The weekly Friday night skate in Paris, France, called Pari Roller, is believed to be one of the largest repeating group skates in the world. At times it has had as many as 35,000 skaters participating on the boulevards of Paris on a single night. The Sunday skate night in Berlin also attracts over 10,000 skaters during the summer,

In Copenhagen, Munich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo, host other popular events. Charity skates in Paris have attracted 50,000 participants. The current official Guinness World Record holder is night skating Varshava, Poland, and number of 4,013 participants. the 19th of June 2014, but their real record from the 25th of April 2015 is 7,303 participants and over 38,000 skaters total in 10 events in season 2015. Aggressive in-line roller skating usually involves performing air tricks, line spins, or flips, grinds, and various types of stalls on the coping. Aggressive quad skating usually takes place on a street or in a skate park on many ramps,

vert, and bowls. Any roller skate can be used for park skating, though many skaters prefer a higher ankle boot over speed style boot. The boot of the skate may also be modified to withstand the higher impact that comes with this style of skating, whether it be at a park or on a street. Additional modifications to traditional roller skates include the addition of a plastic block between the front and rear trucks, commonly called slide blocks or grind blocks. The front and rear trucks can also be modified to use a three-inch wide truck to allow for

different tricks. Many skaters prefer small, hard wheels to allow more speed and less wheelbind. Roller hockey is the overarching name for variants of hockey played on quad or inline skates. Quad hockey, also called rink hockey, hardball hockey, or simply roller hockey, has been played since the 19th century. It is played in many countries worldwide and was a demonstration. Roller Sport in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Other variations include inline hockey and inline skater hockey.

Roller Derby is a team sport played on roller skates on an oval track. Originally a trademark product developed out of speed skating demonstrations. The sport underwent a revival in the early 2000s as a grassroots-driven, five-s aside sport, played mainly by women. Most roller derby leagues adopt the rules and guidelines set by the women's flat track derby association, or its open gender counterpart, men's roller derby association. But there are leagues that play on a bank track as the sport was originally played from the 1930s. Roller skating, like skateboarding, has created a number of spin-off sports and sports devices. In addition to roller blades, inline skates, there have also been

soaps. Normal-looking street or skate shoes with a concave plastic plate in the soul to allow grinds. Healy's. Normal-looking street or skate shoes with a single retractable wheel in the heel of each shoe, allowing the wearer to perform unique roller skating-like moves at leisure, while still walking normally, when the skating functionality isn't desired, and the wheel is mostly retracted into a recess slot in the heel. The fact that skateboarding and related wheeled sports are outlawed in many cities and suburbs makes the low-key and spontaneous nature of Healy's all the more enticing to the same demographic. Healy's were later also combined with soaps into a single hybrid shoe.

Freeline skates A class of unattached skates that wears place under their normal street or skate shoes. They typically have two closely set inline wheels, set with a short base under a small, squirish plate, usually surfaced with grip tape about the same width as the rider's shoe. This arrangement allows for a range of motion similar to single-wheeled skates like helies.

Due to the lack of straps on the contact plate, pre-line skates require constant motion to stay on and are a particular challenge for novices. Two-wheeled skates. There are also other lesser-seen two-wheeled skate arrangements. Some resemble in-line skates, but with two very large wheels bolted in at an angle from the outside, rather than a center-balanced row of four smaller wheels underneath of in-line skates. Others resemble free-line skates in that they have a small, squirish platform,

but with two medium-sized wheels on either side, somewhat between a free-line skate and a roller skate, but with in-line skate-styled wheels. Orbit wheel skates, another spiritual relative of the free-line skate whereby the skate stands on a grip-tape surface platform, just slightly larger than a free-line skates, inside of a large hoop, that contains a trapped wheel that can freely rotate into the grip plate each foot is planted on.

The footplates normally rest on the trough of the inner surface of these orbital wheels, with the toes pointing orthogonal to the rotation of the ringed wheel. It's said the experience of riding them is somewhat similar to skateboarding, and there are variance with the two wheels connected so the rider is fixed in a skateboarding like stance. Razor Jets heel wheels. An unattached heel wheel set up uses hook and loop straps to keep your feet in place during use. In relation to free line skates, the heel wheels can be unattached and reattached under any normal street shoes. skate shoe or gym shoe.

Polyuricane wheels allow for a smooth ride when using the heel wheels. This type of activity is done outdoors on cement.