Poker nightmares
 

Everytime I get done with a long long night session (say 2000+ hands straight) and I go right to bed, a lot of times I'm dreaming the entire night about random poker situations, enough to make me kind of nauseous. The whole night it's nothing but seeing random cards in my head and I can't get any decent, peaceful sleep. Anyone else have this problem? I'm wondering if I had a long session before going to bed every night, would I still have the same problems sleeping or would I get better at dealing with it?

Re: Poker nightmares
 

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Everytime I get done with a long long night session (say 2000+ hands straight) and I go right to bed, a lot of times I'm dreaming the entire night about random poker situations, enough to make me kind of nauseous. The whole night it's nothing but seeing random cards in my head and I can't get any decent, peaceful sleep. Anyone else have this problem? I'm wondering if I had a long session before going to bed every night, would I still have the same problems sleeping or would I get better at dealing with it?

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The problem is going straight to bed after a long session. Quit playing half an hour or an hour earlier if you find it tough to sleep afterwards.

I don't think this is particular to poker. If I'm out late on a gruelling investigation, I will go home in order to complete my documentation and recordings (instead of returning to the office). If I try to go to bed immediately, the events of the night continue to run through my head.

You need to separate from what you were doing. Watch TV, lift weights, read a book... whatever you find helpful.

And yeah, I have had the running poker scenarios as well after a marathon session.

Take some time to relax before you call it a night.

Re: Poker nightmares
 

I always assumed we all did this. I dream of constant hand sequences.........actually, these dreams suck.

Re: Poker nightmares
 

I would not say nightmares but I simply cant not fall asleep.

Frigin cards and numbers running through my head.

Re: Poker nightmares
 

been there. done that.

...

well actually...
been there, doing that [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I hope that it's actually good in some sense. Unless you dont get the rest you need. I figure that perhaps the brain assimilates and processes the hands and hopefully subconsciously learns something.

Re: Poker nightmares
 

One time my girlfriend heard me say this in my sleep: "God damn it, I keep getting 25 offsuit!"

Re: Poker nightmares
 

One word.

Porn.

Re: Poker nightmares
 

Rats have, in the hippocampus in the brain, cells which are called 'place cells'. When they are running around the maze, the place cells fire at certain places in the maze once the rats have learned the maze to a degree. If you continue recording from the place cells in the brain when the rat is asleep, the place cells continue to fire in the same pattern as they did in the maze. If you go one step further and disrupt the firing of the place cells, the next day, the rat does not perform as well in the maze. So, presumably, while the rat is sleeping it is reinforcing the pattern of place cell firing, and 'learning' the path through the maze while asleep.

Another example of this sort of practicing-while-sleeping phenomenon is playing Tetris. There are people who, due to various surgical procedures, cannot remember anything for more than ten or fifteen minutes. If you have them play Tetris for several hours and then wake them up in the night and ask them what they were dreaming about, they will tell you they were having this weird dream about falling shapes and basically describe Tetris without knowing what it is. And the next day they perform better at Tetris, even though they do not remember playing the game at all.

So think about the hand replaying while you are sleeping as free practice which requires no work on your part. Not nightmares. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Poker nightmares
 

its an ongoing battle with me, last night it took a half a bottle of nyquil to knock me out.

i usually quit playeing around 1 A.M. and then i comb through here for a little while, eat a pear and unwind with whatever is on ESPN/ESPN2. this helps a little but i usually just toss and turn till' about 4 or 5 in the morning.

Re: Poker nightmares
 

Glad to know I'm not the only one with this problem. It really seems to keep me from getting a good, "restful" night of sleep when this happens. Mostly happens if I have a really good or really bad session, rarely if it's a middling one.