One of my "gifts" is the ability to focus on a computer screen for absurdly long stretches of time.  This was useful to me when I traded the global markets and it's useful to me now as a poker player.  When I was younger and played computer games, I could easily play Wizardry, Ultima, Civilization, etc for 16+ hours at a time.  Not sure if this is some weird Korean thing - for those of you who don't know, a bunch of the top video gamers in the world are Korean (a few of whom are FT pros).  Even now with poker, if Mrs. Fly didn't call me to eat or watch TV or "whatever," I could probably play all day.

The problem comes when I STOP playing - I get a weird "wired" feeling, where I feel like I just had a cup of coffee and I need to calm down.  A few months ago, I found that watching poker videos put me to sleep - maybe something about watching some other guy play is boring enough to get rid of the "playing high."  Hand history videos are especially effective, because most of the time, there isn't much action going on.  How funny would it be when I finally meet Irock, Ricky, Irish (Apobates), etc. and start nodding off when they talk because I've been using their voices as a sleep aid for months?  And no - I'm not ghey.  I'll come beat your ass if you start spreading vicious rumors.  :-P  Speaking of which, it's weird that there aren't many women playing or making training videos, because I love the sound of feminine voices. (later post - maybe)

Anyway, back to me being wired after my sessions (which typically end in the wee hours of the morning) ...

Apparently computer screens are designed to look like sunlight - so your body is fooled into thinking it's the day.  Someone wrote some FREE software to change the temperature of the screen.  I didn't realize how bright and white I had my screen before - after sunset, the screen turns a more off-white.  G walked into my room and thought my monitors were broken - even a 7 year old could tell the difference right away.  According to the developer, "F.lux makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.  It's even possible that you're staying up too late because of your computer. You could use f.lux because it makes you sleep better, or you could just use it just because it makes your computer look better."  A bunch of the mid and high stakes regs swear by it, so I decided to give it a try.  I'll report back in a few weeks.  The first link is a review, and the second link is the site where you can download the software.

http://appaholic.co.uk/2009/08/03/fl...ower-of-light/
http://stereopsis.com/flux/

I decided to give it a try because it's "plausible" to me that one of the reasons I feel awake after a session of poker is because I'm staring at a "sunny" screen.  There's very little downside for me.  After 1 day, I felt a little better after my session.  Give it a try as well - I'd be interested to know what you think in a few weeks when I do my review post.  Altho one guy said it causes lags/crashes on his machine, everyone else seems to think it's okay.