Sleep

A lot of things are going to be changing soon.  When I make my first withdrawal from Juicy Stakes Poker my accounting setup will have to change.  By the end of this year I hope to put a little money money on a second poker site, play a few live tournaments and open a bank account for the business.  My spreadsheets aren't set up for that.

My accounting is one thing that has to change.  The other is that I have to fix some things that aren't working.  The biggest issue is when to play and when to sleep.

The day and night (1014 and 2214) anchor tournaments aren't working.  I play both of them sometimes, but there are two things that make that difficult.  First, I have insomnia. It's very difficult for me to fall asleep.  Second, outside appointments and other commitments blow my schedule up, making it even harder to get enough sleep.

If I play in the morning, something is going on later in the day, then I try to catch a nap before an evening tournament--well, that just isn't working.  I can't force myself to take a nap.  Getting addicted to sleeping pills is not an option.  I look at sleeping pills the same way  I regard drinking alcohol.  They are addictive, I have never used or consumed either and I'm not about to start now.

I can be very tired but completely unable to sleep.  I can't just be tired and go to bed. I have to be exhausted to the point when I can't focus on what I'm reading or working on. If I can't follow the plot of  a TV show then I'm usually ready to go to sleep.  I've tried taking naps, but I often stayed in bed for over an hour waiting for something to happen.  I think it's partly an ADD issue.  My brain has to have something to do, and I'm not good at sitting (or standing or laying) still.  When I'm so tired that my brain is barely functioning, that's when I can sleep, sometimes for more than ten hours.

When I woke up yesterday it was amazing!  It was the best that I've felt in at least a month.  I realized that I had slept for nine hours.  It was the first time in at least a month that I got more than six hours of sleep out of 24.

Yesterday I decided to go with all of my newfound energy, play the tournaments starting at 1829 and 2315, and turn off my alarms for getting up to play.  It's 0405, I'm still full of energy, and after I post this I'm going to do some flash card work.  If I decide that I'm awake enough to play the 1014 tournament I'll do that, but I will no longer force myself to play it when I'm tired.