Comment by lkrubner | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lkrubner | Hacker News Reader

For me, the big shock has always been the extent to which sleep can kill a fantastic streak of productivity. I sometimes have weeks of incredible energy, where I work 12 or even 14 hours every day, and I do my best work, and I have deep insights, and invent new products and new kinds of software. And generally, over the course of a week or two, I become more productive each day. And finally I have a day when I am on fire and I'm writing incredible code and I'm writing some of my most popular essays, the stuff that continues to be read years later. And I go to sleep thinking that tomorrow will be just as good. And I sleep 9 hours. And I wake up and I am a completely different person. My thoughts don't make sense. I'm a bit disoriented. I drink 3 cups of coffee but I still feel groggy. I have no energy. The magic is gone. I'm lucky if I get 4 hours of good work done. And the next day is terrible, and the next day is terrible, and the so on. And it is always a shock what a sudden start there is to this prolonged grogginess, and it always seems to start with one night where I sleep a bit too long.

Maybe you’re mixing up cause and effect. Maybe your “sleep” was collapsing with exhaustion when it all caught up?

That sounds right, sleep is just the beginning of recovery from burnout. I can get pretty productive for some deadlines, working nonstop, but if there is too much to do, it can become painful to work or think, and the productivity can even come to a complete halt. Only after a week or more can I do anything. So, lessons learned a few years ago, it's best to keep overworking to short bursts, and there are no miracles.

yeah that sounds about right

That theory would only work if sleep caused me to feel refreshed. But I don't think any of us have ever had the experience that more sleep lead to more awakeness. It's not as if we are well rested after 8 hours of sleep, and even more energized by 9 hours of sleep, and even more energized by 10 hours of sleep, and even more energized by 11 hours of sleep, etc.

I think most of us have had the experience of over-sleeping, and then being strangely groggy all day. Certainly, most of my friends have had that experience.

That may be because your sleep deficit is say 20 hours and your need 8 (6 if lucky) to break even so you need something like 10 hours a day for 10 days to catch up.

All this is to say I occasionally feel groggy but if I consistently sleep “a lot” I feel great after a few days.

This almost sounds like a mild manic swing followed by a crash.

Yes, if it is recurring, possibly cyclothymia.

I noticed this to that's why I scheduled Thursday and Friday off and do all my socializing and relaxation Thursday night through Sunday. Then Sunday, I would start work at night and finish around Monday around 5pm. With this schedule (working 20 hour shifts Sun-Mon, Mon-Tue, Tue-Wed, Thur) I was extremely productive.

Interesting! If I have a period of sleep deprivation followed by a night of catch-up sleep, I'm often always slow and groggy that day. It seems worse if I sleep late rather than going to bed early. I mainly fight this by having a pretty regular sleep schedule and avoiding significant sleep debt.

You can't cheat your body. Your body will take the sleep if it feels it needs it. Also, sleep deprivation stacks, so if you miss 1 hour each day you'll eventually fall asleep all of sudden.

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