Our sleep: When and how to?

In part two of our discussion about sleep for poker players we'll find out if nightlife is harmful, and how to achieve quality sleep.

In the first part, we discussed what sleep is, and how many hours per day you need it. Today, we'll try to find out the best sleeping time, and how to make your sleep deeper and more refreshing.

Our sleep is regulated by two factors:

• Need for recovery. This is a natural reaction after a period of being awake. The more we are awake, the stronger our desire is to sleep.
• Internal biological clock. This bunch of cells in our brains is responsible for our waking hours and reacts to the lighting signals registered by our eyes. According to our natural biological clock, we usually feel drowsiness from midnight to 07:00 am, and also from 13:00 to 16:00. This clock is wound up in the first months of our lives and controls the biological processes in our bodies including body temperature, blood pressure and secretion of hormones.

Turns out, the biological clock is one stubborn device.

Charmane Eastman and her team at Rush University found out that you can shift your biological clock by one or two hours every day. Thus, in no less than a week, you could ideally adapt your biological clock to any work schedule without significant harm to your health.

Problems begin the moment your schedule shifts, for example you sleep through the day for a couple of days and then you have to return to the night sleep. In this case, as you understand, your biological clock can't adapt. What's the danger here? British scientists confirmed that such irregularities directly affect about 1/3 of human genome. So what are the consequences? Researchers don't have a definite answer yet, but they are almost sure that there's nothing good about it.

Derk-Jan Dijk, Professor of Sleep and Physiology at the Surrey University, claims that fundamental processes are affected. People experiencing sleep irregularities are more vulnerable to conditions like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cancer.

Does your experience tell you that, in your poker room, there are lots of weak players at late-night/early-morning hours? Do all the best tournaments start late in the evening? No problem, just plan your gaming hours accordingly but don't stray too far from the path! If you have to go to bed at 8:00 am, then go to bed at 8:00 am. You can catch up on "Game of Thrones" later.

How can we fall asleep faster and sleep better?

Sometimes it's not easy to sleep. Babies cry in the night, spouses snore, air in the room is hot/bad, pets may decide to wreak some havoc, etc. Such situations are familiar to us all. The following advice will help you to improve your situation, whatever it may be.

• Don't break your sleeping schedule. That's the most important part. Train yourself to go to bed and get up at the same times, and don't change this schedule (at least try not to do it radically). As said above, sleeping "when you can" is really dangerous.
• Use your bed for sleep (and intimate stuff) only. Your bed should be your place of sleep and relaxation. Kick off the habit of watching TV shows while lying in bed.
• Be physically active but not too close to your sleeping hours. Even if you have only 30 minutes of fitness per day, these 30 minutes shouldn't happen later than 5-6 hours before your bedtime.
• Don't play poker right before you go to bed. I don't think there's any need to explain that the gaming process requires your brain to function at its best. It obviously needs time to return to 'normal' mode. Finish your gaming session not later than 3 hours before bed.
• Avoid caffeine. The stimulating effects of caffeine can last up to 8 hours!
• Don't drink alcohol before bed. One shot may help you fall asleep faster, but your sleep under the influence won't be deep most of the time. Besides, it would be prone to interruptions more often.
• Try to eat or drink less before bed. A big meal may cause indigestion which, in turn, will cause sleeping problems. Basically, digestion is hard work, and if your body has to deal with it while you sleep, it won't be able to recover properly. Stop eating 3-4 hours before bed.

• Drink a glass of non-fat milk before going to bed. The tryptophan amino acid contained in milk will help you get to sleep. Actually, all dairy products are a good source of tryptophan. In our bodies, it transforms into melatonin and serotonin which induce sleep. Tryptophan is also contained in oats, bananas, poultry meat and peanuts.
• Try to relax. Reading and/or listening to music may become a useful relaxing ritual before going to bed.
• Take a hot bath. Decrease of body temperature after bathing will induce drowsiness, and the bath itself will help you relax.
• Create a comfortable atmosphere in your bedroom. Make your bedroom cool, dark, quiet and comfortable.
• Go outside while it's sunny. Sunlight plays an important part in regulating your sleep. Try to spend at least 30 minutes outside during the daylight hours.
• Don't stay in bed if you can't fall asleep. Don't go to bed until you feel like it. If you can't fall asleep for more than 20 minutes, get up and try to relax somehow until you're sleepy, then go to bed again. If you're worried that you can't sleep, it prevents you from sleeping, thus creating a vicious circle.

Conclusions

So what conclusions can we draw here? Poker players have a unique opportunity to plan their sleeping hours and should be doing so. Plan your sleep the way you plan your gaming sessions. It doesn't matter if you sleep during the day or during the night, just keep to your schedule and sleep at least 7.5 hours per day. The place where you sleep should be used for sleep only, while your bed should be comfortable. To make your sleep even better, follow the advice above.

Remember: the better you sleep the better game you will bring to the poker tables.

Other articles by Grigoriy "ahlinpoker" Skrypnik

• How much sleep do you need?
• The obstacles in your way to a poker fortune
• Take the best breaks you can
• Rest better to win big!
• When you knew there were nuts...

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