I feel like dreaming about things related to what you did during the day is mundanely normal.

The waking up part is the part that isn't desired. It might help to focus on resolving that as an independent problem even if it is indeed related.

It seems like playing most any game for any appreciable amount of time will absolutely ruin my ability to sleep.

What sort of time frame are we talking about? I do know that I experience something similar. But mostly if I am bench watching a series or are hyper focused on a game and keep playing until right before I go to bed.

If I take a break before that and go do something else entirely, this doesn't happen. I do need to do something that really does reset my brain a bit. Which can be difficult when deeply invested in a game or series.

Given you mention now having some time available, I fear this might be in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed.
But, if you do have time available earlier in the day I feel like it is worth exploring that.

I know someone who played so much Patapon that got similar symptoms, he was able to hear the songs all night in his head, even in dreams. It's a rhythm game, so I'm not surprised. The solution for him was to stop playing it.

Quick questions. Has this started happening with books and movies as well or just games and other interactive stimulus?

And you described having young kids. Did you watch anything with them? Maybe something hyper stimulating and interactive. Cocomelon, paw patrol, Blippy?

And do you have any sort of bed time routine with the kids. Reading time, changing them, putting them off to bed?

I'm asking because a lot kids media genuinely grinds away at my sanity. The over saturated colors and repetitive cadence does something that mades it difficult to relax properly afterwards. Caused its fair share of sleepless nights. Remember playing a lot of Marvel Snap back then and was dreaming in 3 lane card battles.

Is it possible that this is an acute response because of your time away from games? This happens to me when I'm highly engrossed in something and it burrows into my subconscious. It was common in grad school and happens when I'm learning a new skill (so many skiing dreams when I first learned.)

More precisely, I'm wondering if your brain really likes the thought processes associated with games. Having been away it's possible that this you're getting something out of them that is important to you. If the games themselves are disruptive, could you try stuff like Sudoku, Crosswords, etc.?

I hadn't heard of this specific effect before, but it sounds incredibly familiar to what I experienced when i started tree planting as a summer job when i was younger. For the first couple of weeks, I'd have these weird fever-dreams visualizing grids of saplings over and over while I slept (the job required being able to visualize planting spacing, and site location, so very pattern heavy). I definitely remember it happening my first season.. to be honest, I can't remember anymore if the sensation occurred at the beginning of each season, if it did, not enough to stick with me.

The thing is, and the point of my comment: the dreams stopped a couple weeks into the job, once I'd settled into the work. If my experience was similar to yours, I get It's definitely a weird feeling, but have you tried just pushing through the games for a bit and seeing if your brain gets used to them again over time? It may be trying to re-remember those skills.

Sorry, I sympathize, but don't have a suggestion for you. :(

I only experience this very rarely in games except XCOM, which I simply had to quit completely.
Playing a substantial amount of it would reliably prevent me from falling asleep afterwards; my head simulating the game for hours.

I have a similar situation with the books I read. My dreams will often be scenes from the books. Or thematically similar. I don't find they disrupt my sleep though. Does it happen if you play multiple games in the same day? If there are games that don't cause these dreams, maybe play those games last to sort of "reset"?

There may be something you can do before bed to reset the fixation, though short of suggesting something like a meditation, I'm not sure what would work for you.

Try different games? Pattern recognition could be the issue. Try something that is more randomized and realtime like a shooter and see what happens?

I can understand if there's a genre preference but I find I can fixate on patterned games if I overindulge but it takes hours, usually at the height of a newfound interest in a game.

This is an overkill, but since it can help many other things like stress, anxiety or mental clarity overall, I think meditation could help as a method that can in a way actively unwind parts of your subconsciousness that are overactive.

The basic method is sitting with your eyes closed and putting focus on your breath, until you realize that you're no longer focusing on your breath and instead are distracted by something else, after which you consciously let the thought/feeling that distracted you go and return back to focusing on your breath. One of the goals is to learn to softly shift focus without suppressing anything.

Normally when your mind is preoccupied by something, you can get lots of thoughts on related topics during meditation. So it's possible that instead of common thoughts like worries, planning for the future or thinking about whatever bothers you, you could get tetris effect similar to when you're trying to sleep. And in that case going through the cycle of repeatedly being distracted by it, realizing that it's happening and consciously letting it go could "clean" your brain and let you sleep normally. It does sometimes work like that with normal thoughts and worries.

It does take some time to practice and the meditation could take 20+ minutes for it to work, so this may feel like killing flies with a bazooka. But if you've ever thought something like "hmm, I might try meditation" and then never did it, maybe it's time. It might take a while for it to start working though, it's probably not going to happen until you get comfortable with the whole process, which doesn't happen in a week, probably more like a month.

How do you actually feel right when you wake up from these dreams? Excited? Frustrated? Do you have the urge to immediately start playing them again or do you want it all to just go away?

Sorry to hear you have this issue. It's interesting that it happens even when you play long before bed time, and in very reasonable amounts of time. This does happen to me, but that's because I end up getting obsessed with one game, and only play that game until I finish it or get tired of it. I also usually play in the evening, if at all, sometimes right up until bed time. In that case, the suggestion would be stop playing several hours before bed, which I think you already do.

Does the same happen with books or movies? Lately I have been cutting down on video game time in favour of books. Games are fun -- maybe too fun. While I don't have the same sleeping issues, I will admit that if I get really into a game, it does tend to take up a bit too much of my attention and time. I know that may not be very helpful, but in a way the absence of games can make room for other things that may ultimately be better. For me: reading more, writing more, walking outside more, exercising more. That said, you don't seem to play for hours and hour on end, so different context, but thought I'd share my experience and thoughts anyway.

It sounds pretty awful actually and I’m sorry. I think your might just have to stop playing games for while and fill your brain with different thought patterns. Maybe try to physically jolt your system in some way where gamification isn’t an tempting option.

(Rummikub is a great game btw. I’m on family holiday right now and we play it every night)

Have you tried general sleep advice like exercise or melatonin? Since you're waking up in the middle of the night, trying some things that help with deep sleep might be worthwhile.

I've found that being wound up and super focused on any activity is disruptive to my sleep as well. Usually it's obsessing about work, but a really engrossing game or project can keep my mind active too.

As an alternative approach, you could consider overdoing it a bit and exhausting your brain to the point that you don't want to think about the game anymore? That's the approach that usually works best for me on weekends etc. I need to play enough to feel satisfied and put the thing out of my mind.

are you taking any anti-insomnia medication? If I take too high a dose I get extremely unpleasant vivid dreams, it's a balance between enough for me to sleep and not too much. Maybe talk to your doctor if you are?

This happened to me in the past when I was very depressed. It went away after that. Not trying to diagnose you, just sharing my anecdotal experience.

How's your sleep when you don't play any games? Do you take any medications?