Why gambling urges hit at night

Why is night harder?

A lot of people trying to quit describe the same pattern: I'm fine in the day, I fall apart at night. There are a few plain reasons.

• You're tired. A day of decisions wears you down. Saying no at 1am takes far more effort than saying no at 10am.
• You're alone. Everyone's asleep. Nobody's there to ask what you're doing. It feels like nobody will ever know.
• The phone is already in your hand. In bed, in the dark, screen on. A betting site is three taps away.
• Late games and live tables. Late kick-offs, overseas leagues, live casino tables that never close. The opportunity never switches off.

Knowing this matters, because the problem isn't your willpower. It's that you have the easiest access at the hour you're most worn out.

Make the night decision in daylight

When the urge arrives, working out what to do is hard. So decide in advance, while you're calm. A simple plan is enough:

1. Charge your phone in another room. An old watch or a cheap alarm clock does the job of an alarm.
2. Pick a backup for sleepless nights. A podcast, a book, an episode of something. Know what you'll do if you can't sleep.
3. Tell one person “if I'm struggling at night, I'll text you”. They don't have to reply. Just having someone to text lightens the load.
4. Mark the big games. Put the late matches in your calendar and plan for those evenings separately.

When the urge comes: the ten-minute rule

An urge comes like a wave: it rises, peaks and pulls back, often within minutes. In those minutes, don't argue with yourself. Postpone the decision: “Not now. I'll think about it in ten minutes.”

Use those ten minutes to get out of bed, switch the light on, drink some water, go to another room. When your body moves, the thought moves too. Ten minutes later, the wave has usually passed.

A wall for the weakest moment

A plan is good, but at 3am remembering the plan can be hard. That's why the barrier has to work without you. Blocking gambling sites on your phone, removing saved cards, deleting the apps: each one adds taps between you and a bet. We cover how in how to block gambling sites and apps on iPhone.

If you slip one night

It happens. One night doesn't erase everything. In the morning, instead of punishing yourself, look at how the night started: what time was it, how were you feeling, where was the phone? Change next night's plan to match. We go into this more in I gambled again. What now?