"if you are less than 40 and aren’t working at least 15-18 hours a day you are not working enough" I find this to be very bad advise. Nobody should work 18 hrs every day.
And sleep deprived people are really, really crippled at deciding what the wisest thing to work on is.
At the same time, by making an inviolable commitment to myself that I was going to enter a certain competition, and accepting as a given that I would be making certain sacrifices in my social and personal life from the training effort required, it made that commitment into something that I just did, without thinking about whether it was something I wanted to do at that moment. And removing that decision, that "do I really want to do this chore?", it's possible to have the consistency of effort necessary for performance at an elite level.
So I think it's valuable advice, to say start small, attempt surmountable obstacles, and develop the habit of consistent practice. And I think it's valuable to let people know that if they have an ambition to be an "iconic computer person", they will have to make large sacrifices.
I know that I'm not willing to sacrifice everything else in my life for programming. And I'm alright with that. But I don't criticize the people who have the drive to spend 15-18 on their passion. It's certainly not advice that's widely applicable, though.
My physicians(s) have no explanation and, I assure you, I've seen several of them in an effort to address this.
It's comforting to know that I'm "an idiot comparable to a drug abuser", however. Thanks.
If you don't set an alarm and just sleep until you wake up 'naturally' do you sleep longer and get symptoms, or just wake up after 6 hours or so?
Just interested. I tend to wake up 5 to 6 am most mornings without alarm.
It broke my sleep schedule (which is fixed now thank God!) and really took a toll on my mood and motivation.
Completely not worth it.
In fact once you get much about 40 hours a week the opposite happens in my experience.