I used to make time for gaming with my friends every day by sacrificing my sleep. I only realized how much it messed with my health once I started getting a full 8 hours of sleep. Now I mostly play during the weekends.
I’d also suggest Linux Mint if you are just starting out. In fact, it’s still a great distro for advanced users as well. I use it as a fallback distro sometimes.
You could also check out Fedora or rather a gaming optimized fork of Fedora named - Nobara Linux.