Night Hacking (the productivity boost of 2 am) • Hacker News Board

Re: Night Hacking (the productivity boost of 2 am)

#21

Post by binglo » Mon, Apr 14, 2008, 6:46 AM UTC

Working at night is great. Trouble is, you pay the price the next day when you're downing coffees just to keep from falling asleep on your keyboard.

I'm guessing at least some here have made that trip out to the parking garage around lunchtime while simultaneously setting their cellphone alarm for +20 minutes for just a quick nap. Extra points if you keep a blanket in the back seat. :)

Re: Night Hacking (the productivity boost of 2 am)

#22

Post by b20a61u31 » Mon, Apr 14, 2008, 6:50 AM UTC

Thyroid-stimulating hormone,among others, are released prior to sleep. The thyroid controls how quickly the body burns energy, makes proteins, and how sensitive the body should be to other hormones. So it may be that you get a burst of energy just prior to sleep(to make you feel tired enough for a good night sleep).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyroid_gland

Re: Night Hacking (the productivity boost of 2 am)

#23

Post by extantproject » Mon, Apr 14, 2008, 1:32 PM UTC

dcurtis wrote: post #2

I've noticed the night effect for a long time too, and while the lack of interruptions might have something to do with it, I don't think it nearly explains my 3x boost in productivity. I think there's something biological going on as well. Around 1 or 2 am, I sometimes get a bang of energy and creativity that I never get during the day. It's the "second wind," the injection (possibly) of cortisol and other stress hor…

Sleep is cyclic; it comes in phases of varying depth. (http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm) I find the difference between seven and a half hours of sleep and six hours isn't bad, but the difference between six hours of sleep and four hours of sleep is much more difficult to deal with. Looking at the diagram on the linked page, it's obvious why: sleep stages three and four are important and if you sleep less than six hours they get screwed up. More REM sleep gets messed up too, which is also important.

Day-to-day energy levels are cyclic too. Every day I want to take a nap at 3:00 in the afternoon. I'm also most energized from around 10:00 to 11:00 in the morning. It's a pattern.

A boost of energy at a certain time at night happens likely for the same reason it does during the day: levels of consciousness are cyclic.

As far as nighttime being more productive: there are fewer interruptions which means you can concentrate. It's easier when your cell phone/RSS/Twitter/blog/text/email isn't blowing up.