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Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

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Re: Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

#21

Post by justacat »

I've had a tendency of entering prolonged periods of focus throughout my life, and at this point I can feel my brain almost optimize to the task at hand, there is a type of shift.

For example, I played and performed music seriously for a period of time (no singing), and it was pointed out by a close friend that any performance that lasted more than an hour and my verbal center would basically crash. It would take at least 30 minutes or even hours before my brain would be able to start talking like a normal person again. Prior to this point in time I had purchased a pocket dictionary which I carried around, seemingly to combat this issue.

At present, when I have been working on something particularly engaging at work my wife notices because my ability to communicate does suffer.

It is interesting that you noted 3 days, just because I recently heard a researcher talking about how getting away for 3 days can have a cognitive benefit: https://www.rei.com/blog/camp/the-nature-fix-the-three-day-e...

As was mentioned, getting checked out by a doctor does sound like a prudent step.

Re: Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

#22

Post by daveloyall »

malux85 wrote: post #4

I used to get this - it turned out that I was not breathing enough, which caused my blood pressure to go up. I would get so focused on a problem my breathing would slowly become more shallow. Now I have a water bottle on my desk and I slowly sip it all day, it forces me to get up every 1-2 hours to use the bathroom and fill the bottle back up -- and I deliberately use the bathroom 1 floor down to force me to go up an…

Hm, my breathing also varies somehow when I'm thinking. I'm not sure of the details, because it never happens when I'm thinking about my breathing!

I've occasionally pondered obtaining some kind of fitbit for lungs to see if I can spot said 'variation' on a graph. I'm not really sure I'm not just making it up.

Re: Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

#23

Post by emerged »

Could be that you over eat or under eat while working. Or are snacking on something you have a food allergy to. Could be that you're not getting enough exercise. Could be an environmental factor like mold. I've had all of these issues at one time or another resulting in brain fog.

Re: Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

#24

Post by corford »

Could just be simple brain exhaustion from prolonged concentration (I occasionally feel something similar, usually after back to back heavy coding days and I'm running low on sleep).

Like others are saying, a few things that might help: stay hydrated (water, not coffee/soda etc.), get a good night's sleep ahead of intensive coding days, don't eat crap food at your desk and don't stay in the "zone" for 6+ hours without getting off your chair at least once and doing something different for 30-45 mins (ideally involving fresh air, outside of the building).

Re: Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

#25

Post by jmhain »

I experience something very similar. It turned out to be at least in part from eye strain induced headaches ("computer vision syndrome"). I started paying more attention to ocular health, including following the recommendation of a comment here [0] and lowering screen brightness. It does seem to be helping.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12582810

Re: Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

#26

Post by cr1895 »

jacquesm wrote: post #10

Possibly eye trouble, bad air in the place where you work or a latent health issue. I used to get incredible headaches after long bouts of coding, it took me a long time before I realized I needed glasses.

>it took me a long time before I realized I needed glasses.

I'm rather astonished how relatively poor my eyesight had become before even thinking I might need glasses. Boil the frog, I suppose.

Re: Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

#27

Post by jacquesm »

cr1895 wrote: post #26
jacquesm wrote: post #10

Possibly eye trouble, bad air in the place where you work or a latent health issue. I used to get incredible headaches after long bouts of coding, it took me a long time before I realized I needed glasses.

>it took me a long time before I realized I needed glasses. I'm rather astonished how relatively poor my eyesight had become before even thinking I might need glasses. Boil the frog, I suppose.

Yep. And it's not as if I needed the hint, most of my family wears glasses. It's just that it changes ever so slowly day-by-day and then one day you wake up with a headache so bad that you can't see at all. Getting reading glasses was a major improvement in quality of life.

Re: Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

#28

Post by ErikAugust »

My first couple years as a professional developer were amazing - 7-12 hours a day of coding to keep up. Every single day I left the office totally spent mentally.

I would often dream about coding, or solving a problem that I was stuck on.

I did not however, get headaches or neck aches. In fact, I found being spent mentally to be somewhat of a pleasurable state!

Re: Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

#29

Post by shaydoc »

er1c_ wrote: post #11

I've had the spaced out feeling after work as a recurring problem for over a decade. Most days I am OK enough, but others the only thing I want to do is go home and stare at a wall as all cognitive abilities are exhausted. I run 10 miles a week and bike long distances, make all of my own meals, and have been working with various doctors for years. Nothing seems to help 'fix' the issue altogether.

I am the same, been like this for years. I recently cut out coffee and it's helped a little.

What I also find is my heart is always at its lowest at around midday.. drops to 49/50 before lunch.

I get up several times in the morning and walk around, but if I get in the zone with a problem I am always spaced out By the end of the day

Re: Ask HN: Does coding give you brain fog?

#30

Post by pmarreck »

You need to set reminders to take a break once an hour, walk around, stare off into the distance for 5 minutes. This article is from 2012 but mentioned 5 of them: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-free-apps-to...

I also noticed this was a side benefit of having a good test suite- if your test is valid, thorough, and passing, then you don't have to remember as much mental-model (because it's encoded in the suite), which would normally discourage you from getting up at all

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