In poker, players can often spend double digits of hours each day they’re training in a bid to improve their poker strategy. Sometimes, however, it’s the extra things you can do to improve your life that end up having a positive effect on your poker game.

Last time, we detailed how you can perfect your travel game, and we’ve already told you five diet changes every poker player can benefit from. This time, we’re looking at the first building block for almost every good day at the felt – a good night’s sleep.

Poker, by its very design, is such a stirring game that sleep can often seem counter-intuitive to winning. Casinos pump oxygen in to keep players of all their games awake. Online tournaments often last until the early hours of the morning. Poker is exciting, demanding and uses mental energy, often exhausting amounts. It can, however, keep you up.

Falling asleep may seem impossible at the end of an exciting tournament day during a major event, for example, but it can be achieved. Here are five ways to help yourself get the rest you need to be at your best. We’re going to skip right past the ones we tipped you in the diet-based advice, purely because if you’ve read up to this point chronologically, you’ve already kicked caffeine, alcohol and excessive sugar intake… haven’t you?