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Concentration and tiredness
http://www.lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=9117		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Uzziel [ Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Concentration and tiredness
I was wondering if anyone else experiences tiredness during fight situations
from reading / calculation / stress etc...

It seems whenever my stones get in fight situations my focus grows but
so does my mental tiredness.

Anyone else experience this?

After awhile I feel a little dizzy from going through the situation
over and over.

Thanks!

I made a poll and if you want to explain what you voted, and why that would be great.
Author:  skydyr [ Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
It doesn't always happen to me during one game, but if I have games back to back, the second game can suffer a great deal if I had a tough game previously. I stop reading as much and play without taking the time to really consider a move.
Author:  TheBigH [ Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
Yes, in fact this is one of the reasons I rarely play go these days. I am a scientist, and I work my brain hard all day. When I sit down to play after a long day, I am exhausted and my thinking becomes muddled, I play stupid moved from misreads, and it spoils my fun. Oh well.
Author:  shapenaji [ Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
I experience the opposite, fights energize me... when the fights disappear, my attention and focus start to sag.
Author:  Bill Spight [ Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
Uzziel wrote:
I was wondering if anyone else experiences tiredness during fight situations
from reading / calculation / stress etc...

It seems whenever my stones get in fight situations my focus grows but
so does my mental tiredness.

Anyone else experience this?


Generally mental exercise uses more energy than physical exercise. The brain is an energy hog, and produces a lot of heat. That is one reason why winter coats have hoods, to retain the heat. But researchers in the 20th century found no evidence for mental tiredness. What feels like mental tiredness is physical.

One possibility is what you indicate above: stress. Stress control is important, and can be learned. It is best to play while physically relaxed. :)

Quote:
After awhile I feel a little dizzy from going through the situation
over and over.


Dizzy? Perhaps your blood sugar has dropped. A sip of juice or a bite of a power bar might help. My girlfriend likes 100 calorie boosts. :)

BTW, going over and over a line of play is not generally a good idea. (Recent research in chess indicates that a little bit is OK, though. :) ) Kotov (chess) recommends reading each variation once only. Everybody makes mistakes, but you have to learn to trust your reading. :) Reese (bridge) has more pointed advice: Don't dither. Deciding on a play more quickly may help you to relax.

I have not experienced such tiredness during play. But I did use to build up stress. During bridge tournaments I would often grind my teeth during sleep and sometimes bite myself. Stress control is important. :) (BTW, I used self hypnosis to control stress. :) )
Author:  CnP [ Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
Remembering to breathe properly (not holding my breath without realising I'm doing it) helps me, & forgetting sometimes cause dizziness too
Author:  Boidhre [ Wed Sep 25, 2013 9:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
I've found sometimes when I go into a game already tired it wakes me up a bit and sharpens my concentration. Other times I just stay tired and play worse than usual. I don't think I've ever gone into a game not tired and gotten tired during it though unless it was close to bedtime and essentially would have happened regardless of activity. I think from what you said stress is the most likely culprit. Blood sugar, I don't know, I've never really had problems with that personally though my wife does get quite affected by it, simple sugars for breakfast mean fatigue around midday for her.
Author:  daal [ Thu Sep 26, 2013 12:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
For me it has gotten better with experience. I hope that this is not because I am thinking less, but rather that I am thinking more efficiently.

When I was a beginner, go was exhausting. There were even games that I resigned due to sheer exhaustion. Looking back, what made go so tiring was that I had so little idea what I should be thinking about, yet at the same time I was aware of so many possible lines of thought, probably due to all those good books I had been reading. Not being able to judge the appropriateness of any particular line made me unsure how much time and energy I should invest in it. It was like trying to drive a car with the foot pressed firmly on the clutch. My brain was spinning but it wasn't doing any work.

With a bit of experience, some signals become clearer and louder, and even if they are misinterpreted, they give you something to go on. Obviously there is a danger when one starts to get the feeling that one knows what one is doing. Go gets easier, and you start banging down stones without thinking about them at all. Luckily, you lose games this way.

Nowadays, much less of my mental energy is spent during the fuseki as I have a few principles to guide me through it. When the fights crop up, I generally have some idea what they're about. This means that instead of just flailing about wildly, some course of action suggests itself and I can set about trying to achieve something specific. This means that instead of barking up a whole forest of wrong trees, I am usually only barking up one, and I am pretty sure that there is a cat up there.

So my take is that it is much less tiring to be in a fight when you are pretty sure that that's where you should be. Fights are hard, but they are even harder if you don't know what you are fighting for.
Author:  Uzziel [ Thu Sep 26, 2013 1:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
I have done some soul searching on the issue, and what I have found is:


++I am having symptoms of sleep deprivation.
++General outside of game life stress
++Work Stress


I would have to say sleeping 3-4 hours every night is
the most likely cause of this.

After thinking about it multiple areas of my life have been struggling with
memory, cognitive, and energy impairments.

Guess I will just have to start sleeping on average 6-7 hours in order
to start feeling normal again.

Just wanted to post this here so others can evaluate themselves
and see if this could be the cause to their misery.
Author:  Bill Spight [ Thu Sep 26, 2013 1:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
Uzziel wrote:
I would have to say sleeping 3-4 hours every night is
the most likely cause of this.


Take care of yourself. :)
Author:  Uzziel [ Thu Sep 26, 2013 1:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
Bill Spight wrote:
Uzziel wrote:
I would have to say sleeping 3-4 hours every night is
the most likely cause of this.


Take care of yourself. :)


Yea :P I have always been a night owl, and I guess its time to start waking up early and sleeping early.
(Instead of waking up early and sleeping late)

Always considered that such a waste of time though :lol:

Guess that is why I am where I am :blackeye:
Author:  walleye [ Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
Uzziel wrote:
Always considered that such a waste of time though :lol:


Sleep is not just for resting. It also plays a crucial role in learning new skills. Without adequate sleep many of your wakeful hours, which you might think are productive, do become a waste of time indeed.
Author:  Codexus [ Fri Sep 27, 2013 3:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
Personally, I find it difficult to start playing another game just after one that ended in a big fight or was otherwise stressful. My brain needs time to recover! :D
Author:  daal [ Fri Sep 27, 2013 5:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
Codexus wrote:
Personally, I find it difficult to start playing another game just after one that ended in a big fight or was otherwise stressful. My brain needs time to recover! :D


I find it more difficult to start playing another game after one in which my opponent didn't put up much of a fight. After such games I find it hard to get my energy up again.
Author:  PeterN [ Sat Sep 28, 2013 3:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Concentration and tiredness
I voted no.

Assuming no other factor like actually needing sleep then I don't feel tiredness during the game and have no problem playing 6 or 7 games back to back. In each of them I do feel a pretty steady and gradual decline in concentration so by the time I reach end game I may well miss stuff I really shouldn't. If a fight breaks out though my concentration goes up as I need to pay more attention (or just die) and once it's over the decline starts again from that higher level.

Does make me wonder if I did manage to play a game all the way with the same level of concentration I use in a fight if I'd feel tired or not afterwards.

PeterN
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