Trouble Sleeping?

[Jedo]

Has anyone else found that playing or studying go has given them trouble sleeping? Whenever I try to go to sleep, I always end up just thinking about what I want to do to get stronger, thinking about games I just played recently and mistakes I made and stuff like that. Anyone else have similar experiences?

It's not that I'm lying awake worrying or anything, it's more that I'm just too excited to go to sleep.

[kokomi]

Thinking about a go position on bed will help me to sleep faster, same does listening to english radio.

[Jordus]

I have the same problem... then I end up playing igowinlife.... then i get frustrated... then i start thinking again... then I play some more go problems a little later...

[kokomi]

Thinking about a go position on bed will help me to sleep faster, same does listening to english radio.

I feel this sentence is wrong. Where's Helel? (S)He once said that (s)he could help on correct my mistakes.

[tj86430]

Thinking about a go position on bed will help me to sleep faster, same does listening to english radio.

I feel this sentence is wrong. Where's Helel? (S)He once said that (s)he could help on correct my mistakes.

I'm not Helel, and neither am I an authority on English, but I believe that

"Thinking about a go position in bed will help me to fall asleep faster, listening to English radio does the same."

would be at least a bit better.

[rubin427]

count me +1.

Thinking about the game I just lost invariably keeps me awake longer than I would have stayed awake before I found go.

[Apoah]

This was me last night. I had this peculiar connect and die problem replaying when I would close my eyes. It's all fuzzy now, but at the time I was understood it completely.

I feel that there are go patterns floating around in the back of my mind and overlaying almost every activity throughout the day. Especially if it is a day that I have had time to practice a lot.

[lorill]

Has anyone else found that playing or studying go has given them trouble sleeping? Whenever I try to go to sleep, I always end up just thinking about what I want to do to get stronger, thinking about games I just played recently and mistakes I made and stuff like that. Anyone else have similar experiences?

Yup, that's also my case. I don't think playing go is the cause though, as I had this problem with every activity I find myself involved more or less seriously.

Nowadays it's go, yesterday it was music, and programming before that, ...
When I was a child, it was simply reading books, I can't put them down and sleep knowing there's another page waiting for me.

[Perception]

Has anyone else found that playing or studying go has given them trouble sleeping? Whenever I try to go to sleep, I always end up just thinking about what I want to do to get stronger, thinking about games I just played recently and mistakes I made and stuff like that. Anyone else have similar experiences?

Yup, that's also my case. I don't think playing go is the cause though, as I had this problem with every activity I find myself involved more or less seriously.

Nowadays it's go, yesterday it was music, and programming before that, ...
When I was a child, it was simply reading books, I can't put them down and sleep knowing there's another page waiting for me.

This is basically how I am. Whatever my current focus is I have trouble putting it out of my mind when I should be doing something else. Although I've noticed that it's much worse with Go. I'm pretty much always thinking about board positions from games I've played/reviewed recently or tsumego.

[Menezes]

I didn't use to do it, but lately I have been... When I lose a game I played late at night and shortly after it I go to sleep, I simply can't get my head out of the losing game. And the problem is, instead of wondering what I could have done, I just get mad at myself because of some mistake I made.

[kokomi]

Thinking about a go position on bed will help me to sleep faster, same does listening to english radio.

I feel this sentence is wrong. Where's Helel? (S)He once said that (s)he could help on correct my mistakes.

I'm not Helel, and neither am I an authority on English, but I believe that

"Thinking about a go position in bed will help me to fall asleep faster, listening to English radio does the same."

would be at least a bit better.

Thanks tj86430

[topazg]

This was me last night. I had this peculiar connect and die problem replaying when I would close my eyes. It's all fuzzy now, but at the time I was understood it completely.

Hehehehe, I so know this feeling. Every go position and problem seems to go well in my dreams - I'm certain I could crush Lee Sedol if only I could convince him to play me when I'm asleep.

[Thunkd]

Thinking about a go position on bed

in bed

will help me to sleep faster,

will help me fall asleep faster
or
will put me to sleep faster
or
makes me fall asleep faster

same does

as does

listening to english radio.

[Li Kao]

Thinking about a go position on bed will help me to sleep faster

When I can't sleep because I keep thinking about nasty stuff like upcoming exams I like thinking about go problems(the empty 4x4 and 5x5 boards in particular). Unlike simple stuff like counting sheep or whatever they are enough to fill most of my brain and push the annoying stuff out.

[ethanb]

I've got some experience with insomnia - quite surprisingly it's a really common side effect of narcolepsy. Maybe micro-sleeps mess up your circadian rhythm? Or maybe since sleep studies find that narcoleptics sometimes enter REM sleep and think they can remember what happened during that time [definitely happened during my sleep study] maybe we really are sleeping and just think we're not. The brain is weird.

But over the years I've figured out that if you really have insomnia (or whatever the heck happens to me anyway) just lying there isn't going to help; it's not necessarily a matter of racing thoughts, it's just the (seeming, at least) lack of response from the part of the brain that says "hey, I'm shutting down now." The best thing to do is sit up, turn the light on, and open up a book of life-and-death problems. Work on those for ten to fifteen minutes, and when you find yourself nodding turn the light back off.

Two benefits: 1) you get back to sleep, and 2) you studied some go rather than wasting your time going "argh, why can't I sleep?!"