Avoiding Poker Insomnia
Anyone who has a side hobby like poker where they can make major money can get a little attached to it. In fact, I’ve found that the more and more I have gotten into poker, the more I find myself changing sleeping patterns. After all, what’s to stop you from staying up an extra half hour to enjoy the game you love a little longer? And sometimes that extra half hour can turn into an extra hour. Before you know it, you’re going to bed a whole two hours later on a regular basis just to stay up playing poker.
I know personally that I’ve stayed up as much as 4 hours later than normal just because I had insomnia and played poker while I couldn’t sleep. And the more you get into your playing sessions, the less likely you are to go to sleep when you should. That’s why I try to do certain things to condition myself to get to sleep at a decent hour and avoid these late night poker sessions.
One obvious thing I do is cut down on caffeine before bed time. Doctors say that you should stop drinking it a whole 7 hours before going to bed since it can stay in your system that long. Drinking too much alcohol is another thing that you should avoid since it is likely to affect your sleep in a very negative way. Sure it may help you fall asleep quickly, but your quality of sleep will be bad and you’ll most likely wake up very early too.
Another thing I do is keep my room cool since it’s proven that you sleep better when your core body temperature drops. The ideal situation for this to happen starts at between 75 and 54 degrees. The last thing I make sure to do is maintain a regular sleep schedule since your body sleeps much better when given consistency.
Now I’m not saying playing poker late at night is such a bad thing, but it’s definitely something I would like to avoid on a routine basis and this is done by getting your sleep.