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 Geeks and sleep management
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| Author | Topic: Geeks and sleep management |
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jherazob Geek Apprentice 
Posts: 42 |
posted May 25, 2002 13:39
   
I'm wondering what's the standard for sleep management for the average geek. I've always heard how the best code is born at about 2-3AM, and that geeks are heavily caffeine dependent to maintain sentience (something coherent with my experience), but i'm curious, how do you people manage (or don't manage) sleep, with and without a specific goal you're pursuing (like making some piece of code compile, or maybe fixing something)? I know that without enough caffeine i'm off to dreamland in classes and other places, but what about you? IP: Logged |
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LifetimeTrekker Highlie 
Posts: 502 |
posted May 25, 2002 14:00
I am not dependant on caffeine...I'm an insomniac, and all too often find myself awake between 2 and 3 am (which is most annoying when I have to get up at 4am). I find that if I get a four hour nap/sleep period, I'm good for the rest of the 20 hours in a day, with or without stimulants. I do make it a habit to catch naps when time permits, not necessarily 4 hour ones, some times an hour or two, sonetimes 15 minutes. It's very rare that I actually enjoy a full night's sleep. It's not a habit I would encourage others to cultivate...I find it's bloody irritating to have to wait for six or eight hours to be able to do something (shop, pick up computer parts, order a pizza, etc) IP: Logged |
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magebard Geek Apprentice
Posts: 49 |
posted May 25, 2002 17:15
Several failed attempts at switching to the uberman sleep cycle. Usually work until around 4am, and wake up around noon. I'm naturally hyper, skip the caffeine and give me more sugar. Energy = More Cola Too. IP: Logged |
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macadddikt18 BlabberMouth, the Next Generation.     
Posts: 1687 |
posted May 26, 2002 15:10
well, i like sleep. I normaly go to bed around 11 and get up around 7:30. Most of my best coding for apps is done between 4-8 in the afternoon. AS for caffeine, i do not injest the stuff. Who knows what evil side effects it may have on me. I am proud to say i am caffeine free, and i have been for years. Nayt ------------------ IP: Logged |
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jherazob Geek Apprentice
Posts: 42 |
posted May 26, 2002 16:31
quote: Yes, that was more or less my philosophy for years... until i started doing fun-coding (coding just for the fun of it, those happy days mucking around with the videocard on Turbo Pascal  ). I slowly started sleeping more and more late. These days is the case of "Oh, look, i should be waking up about now and i haven't slept a second" I was trying to steer away from caffeine too, but i finally had to give in when i risked semesters and even a job by geting asleep on the wrong moments I hope i can find a way to earn a decent living in this country in crisis (Colombia, not USA), and to be able to safely maintain that sleep schedule... IP: Logged |
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GameMaster Alpha Geek  Posts: 343 |
posted May 26, 2002 16:49
Depends on what my schedual is like... When I am working around a heavy schedual (with school, work and social life): My alram clock, my computer with MP3 Alarm Clock (playing Zarathustra by Struess), and sheer will get me up at 6 or 7, and I stay going to 2 or 3... I was rasied witha late bed time, and have become quite a night owl. I am addicted to caffine.... and so during the Summer, with a night job (5:00p - 9p, 20 to 30 hrs a week), I'd stay up untill, what even I would call, the wee hours (5 or 6) and crash untill I had to start going to get to work. As I'm a bum at the moment... Since I'm taking a credit overload this summer, I haven't gotten a new job, and since the summer seession hasn't started I am a copmlete bum and have no concept of time (except days 'till my summer semester of hell starts), and have spent a few waking 48 hour periods followed by long sleep sessions to balance it out. I need a job that I can only put a few hours a week in untill this semester is over, and then work about 25 to 30... Hoping for something in sales that's hours + commission, as I was truly spoinled by my last job... but I'll take anything that wil pay enough to allow me to support myself, and have a little money for my "toys." ------------------ IP: Logged |
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chromatic Super Geek 
Posts: 142 |
posted May 27, 2002 09:20
I try to avoid caffeine as much as possible. These days, my best code comes from sudden flashes of inspiration walking, showering, cooking, or doing anything but sitting in front of the computer. The trick is to develop good habits to encourage those inspirations and to manage the coding process to capture them. That's why I write tests. IP: Logged |
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Snaggy Moderator 
Posts: 1581 |
posted May 27, 2002 09:57
I work best in the morning now... although the evening is OK too... late nights I can't handle anymore, not like in my teen years  and they make the next day a write-off.... like chromatic, I also find inspiration in the shower. IP: Logged |
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Xanthine Highlie
Posts: 702 |
posted May 27, 2002 12:59
I don't code, but I find that my most productive experiments happen in the afternoon. My most productive studying is also in the afternoon or early evening, but it doesn't always work out that as because of my class/work/extra-curricular schedule. I usually end up starting my homework around 10 pm and continuing into the wee hours of the morning, so I am a caffeine junkie. I also require a minimum of four hours of sleep. If I'm going to get less, I might as well just stay up 'cuz there's a pretty good chance I won't wake up. Unfortunate;y I can't do any sort of math more advanced than a very basic derivative after around midnight (or 1 am if I'm lucky). So anything that requires mathematical skill gets done first, or gets redone the following day when my brain is functioning "normally". ------------------ IP: Logged |
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TheAnnoyedCockroach Highlie
Posts: 536 |
posted May 27, 2002 20:16
I would imagine that I sleep too much to actually code... Though I'm taking a programming course this year, so I might actually start... I usually don't go to bed before midnight, sometimes after 2, and I wake up anywhere from 9-12 in the morning. Usually. Then I end up taking naps throughout the day, no matter how much sleep I got the night before. Usually they last no more than twenty minutes or so. I've also noticed that I oddly feel more refreshed if I've gotten less sleep. It's strange, but I seem to function better on 6 or 7 hours than 8 or... 12. My sleep cycle, then, is basically nonexistent. ------------------ IP: Logged |
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Akira Super Geek
Posts: 197 |
posted May 28, 2002 10:00
I find that it's not so much the amount of sleep I get as much as the pattern. If I get 4-5 hours consistently, I can function fine; it's when I allow myself to sleep in on the weekends that I really get wacked out. Usually I'm up till 2 and asleep till 7:30, and I give myself a break and sleep in on Saturday. Then I'm miserable when the alarm goes off at 7:30 on Sunday but back on track when it goes off on Monday. ------------------ IP: Logged |
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annie Alpha Geek Posts: 289 |
posted May 28, 2002 14:31
I never get enough sleep. I need at least 8 hours (preferably 9-10) so as not to feel tired, but I go to bed too late and have to wake up fairly early for work. So I end up sleeping in on the weekends to catch up, but I undo it all again when I stay up Sunday night and end up tired Monday morning. IP: Logged |
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neotatsu Geek
Posts: 63 |
posted June 12, 2002 03:10
sleep......hmm I'm a night person. All my best ideas come to me at night, so much so I've just about all but given up on sleep. I DO sleep but the less I get The better I function the next night...As of right now it's been 3 day's since I've slept, and I'm feeling, as twinkie would put it, damn quiggy thank you. I probably will be going to bed here soon, but thats because a) im bored out of my mind cause I finished my final paper yesterday, and b) I havnt slept in 3 days for crying out loud, I'm not stupid I know how bad that is for me, but I find it's so much easier for me to function on no sleep at all. When I DO sleep no matter what I wind up laying and staring at the ceiling for an hour or so, which is when inspiration tends to strike, ah damn...anywho...I DO ingest caffine...I used to ingest loads upon loads of the stuff...At one point I was drinking almost enough caffine to kill me....Right now I'm on a low caffine diet...in other words I'm out of soda for a little while heh....well It's fine though because I've only had 1 caffinated beverage in the last 2 weeks, and that was this afternoon ...and I'm happy to say withdrawls have yet to take effect.
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ilovemydualg4 Geek
Posts: 82 |
posted June 12, 2002 03:14
quote: about the same for me, except that i drink a hell of a lot of chai tea ( a lot of caffiene, but not as much as other things, like that caffinated soap) ------------------ IP: Logged |
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Zwilnik Alpha Geek Posts: 344 |
posted June 12, 2002 15:47
Just managed to get a stash of Mountain Dew from a UK importer of sweets & drinks ( www.cybercandy.co.uk). Which is fortunate because I'm currently doing an all night coding session at then end of a 2 week non-stop sequence of coding for a milestone. IP: Logged |
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