Midnight Programming

DaveTheCoder

Do you ever get so absorbed in development that you skip eating and sleeping?

cybereality

Yeah, I do my best work when I stay up all night drinking diet soda and vaping, but I know it is really bad for me.

Erich_L

@DaveTheCoder said: Do you ever get so absorbed in development that you skip eating and sleeping?

Eating can be skipped but I definitely get much worse at programming as the night goes on. Best to save the night for tasks that can be done while brain-dead.

epicspaces

sometimes, I stay programming from 12 in the morning until 12 at night, I know it's bad, but what can you do about it, addiction

kilon

Very rarely , I love sleeping and eating, especially eating is super important for me to stay very productive. But sometime I can get carry away and work more than usual. Generally my productivity starts to peek at 10:00 and stops at 18:00, its a downhill path from there on.

My brother on the hand he is a night owl so he works quite late in some cases even 04:00 but he also starts much later. So yeah it depends on the person.

some_lame_kid

The liminal state between sleepy and sleep-deprived is where my best work comes from. I'd sleep even less if I wasn't trying to build muscle mass, but REM sleep is when most tissue is repaired and reinforced.

fire7side

I keep totally irregular hours so it could be any time of the day. I always take my power naps though, so I have enough sleep no matter what time it is. I just try to eat 3 meals a day. If I have a snack at night it's carrots.

some_lame_kid

I haven't had a full meal in so long. Most days I make a small cup of oats and gradually eat nuts throughout the day, probably an egg sandwich at some point if I've been doing something beyond sitting at a computer.

cybereality

Well I made Ella in a week barely sleeping. I just worked all night, then napped for a few hours with the lights on wearing my pants and everything, woke up and kept working. In fact, I don't even remember making it, I was like in some flow state. This is the only way I get good work done.

fire7side

I'm super slow at it. I spend a lot of time just thinking about how I'm going to do something. Do research. Come up with alternatives. Watch tutorials. Then finally get started with a test of some kind and slowly build to a working prototype. That's just for a certain part of a game. Then I combine them when they are far enough. I'm also thinking about how I'm going to do the graphics, story, etc. Sometimes I'll switch to Blender for a while. Do some research playing some game. Sometimes just take a break from it altogether.

Erich_L

@cybereality said: Well I made Ella in a week barely sleeping. I just worked all night, then napped for a few hours with the lights on wearing my pants and everything, woke up and kept working. In fact, I don't even remember making it, I was like in some flow state. This is the only way I get good work done.

In college I used to make videos for fun and my experience was similar; enjoyed a lot of creative rushes. I think a big part to it is having fun with that creative high while also working on something that can be finished relatively quickly. The only time I've had that experience with games was with an html and javascript shoots and ladders I made in about three sittings.

Kojack

It's 7:50am, I haven't slept, and I've got three programming environments open. Well, I tried to sleep, but couldn't, so I gave up. Today is also my first day back at work for the year, but this week is working from home, so I can do it whenever. Next week I have to start traveling to work again. :(

jbskaggs

Lol Sleep! Some weeks I go for days no sleep, Some days I sleep 20 hours.

I find the best work I do is when I have clear goal and enthusiasm about my project. Then sleep and food are not very important- but the crash can cause me amnesia and lost days to fatigue and other issues. If I dont get a certain amount of exercise daily my cancerous body just collapses sometimes for weeks.

I also vape but only when I need pain relief without losing mental speed. I have any prescriptions I want as I am on hospice and I found that somethings Over the counter or natural like THC can outperform the high end narcotics and I can really keep on task.

I found that if you suffer from anxiety and worry that lorazapam works wonders to calming me down to sleep and not have axiety attacks. Natural versions would be St John wort in tea form. THC I have mixed feeling over- some of the blends are there to only get you stoned and I avoid them like the plague. What I use provides no "high" but it makes me hungry, stops nausea, and controls pain.

Also caffiene is an excellent pain killer- but man can it cause insomnia in me!

But a others have said my brain kicks in best around 1 to 3am.

cybereality

Yeah, well I grew up with serious sleep problems. It was fine when I was a kid, but in college and also after when I freelanced for a while, I just couldn't sleep. I could literally stay up for days and have energy. I have to take a lot of prescriptions now (for other reasons) and they make me sleepy, so that is a welcome side effect. But if I didn't take my meds I would basically never get tired. I've stayed up for like 1 week at a time with no problem.

jbskaggs

@cybereality said: Yeah, well I grew up with serious sleep problems. It was fine when I was a kid, but in college and also after when I freelanced for a while, I just couldn't sleep. I could literally stay up for days and have energy. I have to take a lot of prescriptions now (for other reasons) and they make me sleepy, so that is a welcome side effect. But if I didn't take my meds I would basically never get tired. I've stayed up for like 1 week at a time with no problem.

My word! That could be dangerous! Im glad you have it under control.

fire7side

So, I don't know, I feel like type B personalities are in a minority here.

cybereality

Well I read a lot of books and watch tutorials as well. But you can do it too much. It's called paralysis by analysis. You think you're "not ready" so you spend all your time preparing, and you'll honestly never be "ready". There was a good quote, forget who said it (some famous computer scientist): "Everyone you've heard of, that ever made anything great, got there by doing something they were unqualified to do, until they did it."

jbskaggs

@fire7side said: So, I don't know, I feel like type B personalities are in a minority here.

I can flit from personality types daily. Most of the time Im type A though.

fire7side

@cybereality said: Well I read a lot of books and watch tutorials as well. But you can do it too much. It's called paralysis by analysis. You think you're "not ready" so you spend all your time preparing, and you'll honestly never be "ready". There was a good quote, forget who said it (some famous computer scientist): "Everyone you've heard of, that ever made anything great, got there by doing something they were unqualified to do, until they did it."

Yes, I am guilty of that. I generally get into it eventually. It's like when you go to the beach and there are some toe dippers and some that just run out their and dive in. I've always been a toe dipper. I still get out there though. Just my nature. No rush. Make sure everything is all right and then ease yourself in. It's like this one guy told me. If I was in a hurry, I would have started earlier. My brother is a type A and it drove me crazy just sharing driving to our job because it was always just barely making it there before clock in time. Not even an extra five minutes. I always liked to get there and have a cup of coffee before starting. If something went wrong, I was still on time.

jbskaggs

Another thing about sleep even - some of your body's filtering and regenerative processes only occur at the maximum performance with sleep- and sleep that is induced by drugs will not always stimulate those processes. This is another reason if you are sick or worn out you have to sleep to remove and balance acids, bases, carbonates and some plaques. Lactic acid is especially difficult to remove when your awake and will cause body wide aches and pains especially in extremities and joints. Not mention your brain does self maintenance while you sleep- the different sleep stages trigger different healing and emotional maintenance. SO that without sleep your emotions, clarity, and logic suffers. Synaptic pathways breakdown and data gets lost or corrupted. But when you sleep those pathways are renewed, reinforced, and maintained. When you dream this is one of the reasons you find solutions to problems, remember things your forgot, and are inspired by new creative ideas.

The amount of sleep you need is unique to every person- so is the number of times a day you need to sleep. Many people need to sleep 2 to 4 times a day of varying lengths or they decline. Others need only 2 to 4 hours a day.

In my current state I need between 12 and 20 hours a day. And that happens in 3 shifts thru out the day and for the most part I am helpless to prevent it- unless I develop insomnia then I can be awake for days even with narcotic sleep medicines. Which feels atrocious. If I can get a solid 6 to 7 hours sleep I can have some pretty nice energy filled periods.