[RThomas]

I'm hoping this is the best forum for this post. If not, feel free to relocate it.

I'm 19 years old and in addition to a regular nine-to-five job, I play poker on the side. I enjoy it a lot and really get into playing once I get started. The problem is, lately I've been playing farther and farther into the night, getting a start later in the evening after I get home and sometimes playing until midnight or 1AM. Since my regular wake up time is around 6:15AM, I usually only get about 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I find myself not able to go to sleep at night, laying in bed staring at some poker forums or watching late-night tournaments on my laptop.

Also, my weekend sleep schedule seems to be nearly always screwed up. I'll start playing on Friday night and eventually go to bed sometime Saturday morning, which naturally throws off my Circadian rhythm. Most of the time when it comes to Monday, I've only gotten a couple hours of sleep on that Sunday night at most.

I don't have too many pressing problems with my home or work situations, but this seems to be a nagging problem that won't go away. I enjoy playing poker and wish there were ten more hours a day that I could do so, but it just seems like I can't fit everything I want to in a day's time and still get a nominal amount of sleep. I'm wondering if this is perhaps a temporary problem, something a break from poker might fix, or if this is some sign of a deeper seeded problem. Even on nights that I don't play poker and do something else, I feel like because I stayed up late playing other nights, that I need something to do until the wee hours.

I've traditionally had problems sleeping through my teenage years and have sought out professional help a couple times. I know that teenagers tend to not sleep as much as they should, but I'm not sure if this is something I should be worried about. I know there are ways to correct this problem and I believe I can right myself with some work, but I'm just wondering if any of you have ever experienced this situation; and if so, how did you go about fixing the problem and getting back to a healthy sleep schedule.

Edit: I should make it clear that I don't feel addicted to poker or gambling in any way. I feel like I could quit the game as a whole if a really pressing matter required me to. Perhaps I am and just don't see it but I just feel like this is kind of a broad problem that falls into this area.