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Ask HN: How often do you pull an all-nighter?
And do your friends/family condemn you for "being extreme" ? – still seems a bit taboo for society since many in the workforce leave their work at the office.
- dilithiumhe3 9y agoTotally depends on what I'm doing, but if things are interesting 2-3 days a week. Sometimes once.
- chanfest22 9y agonot once since college. sleep is important :)
- goldenbeet 9y agonever. Sleep is important physically and mentally and I've never had a legitimate reason to skip on sleep. (There are some cases where it would be unavoidable, they're just rare) There are times where I'd like to stay up all night to work on something I'm enjoying, but I force myself to stop and go to bed.
- twobyfour 9y agoOnce or twice a year when I get caught up in a really good book at bedtime. Never for work.
- asidiali 9y agoSame - but with binge watching a new series.
- koiz 9y ago1-2 times a week. I rather finish what I'm doing and sleep after.
- kgraves 9y ago5 times a week. I rarely do it on weekends because that's when I need to catch up on sleep, parents don't care as much.
- neilsimp1 9y agoSo you're awake for five days straight? That can't be healthy.
- twobyfour 9y agoThat doesn't seem physically possible without amphetamines
- jason_slack 9y agoMy teenage son can only stay up for 3 days straight without crashing pretty hard.
- PebblesHD 9y agoIt's been quite busy in the office lately with changes and releases so it's been 2-3 days a week, but the average is closer to 1 outside of busy periods. Generally not so much of an issue with the family, as I'm only really annoying the cat when i get home...
- danielvf 9y agoAs a teen, I did lighting design at an outdoor amphitheater. The only time you could see the lights was at night, so I worked through the night a few times each year before new shows. But as an adult, writing code, never. By this time in life, I’ve used up whatever sleep reserves have. If I were to stay up for a night, I’d not be able to function the next day. Kids keep me up at night too much anyway. :)
- KhalPanda 9y agoNever. I think people that frequently pull all nighters (i.e. those claiming to do so multiple times per week) are probably missing the point that they'll get more work done with ~6 100% productive hours per day, than 18+ hours at fastly reduced productivity. It's not sustainable.
- EADGBE 9y agoThe last time I did it was at/for work and it was shortly before I quit. Before that? I had to be maybe 14.
- twobyfour 9y agoAre most of the people here who say they do this frequently just staying up until dawn and then crashing for the rest of the day? Or are you working through the night plus the next full workday?
- richardknop 9y agoNever. I did it few times several years ago when I was working on a personal side project and before that during university. But since I only have a day job at the moment I leave my work at the office. There's always another day you can continue where you left previously. No need to lose sleep.
- AnimalMuppet 9y agoNever. In 32 years as a professional developer I have never pulled an all-nighter. The closest I came was telling a co-worker "I won't leave until I get this done". I was there until 2 AM. At midnight, I was looking down at a printout (yes, I'm old enough to have worked with those), and my glasses slipped off and broke as they hit the edge of the table. I worked the last two hours leaving nose prints on the screen (not literally, but close).
- jason_slack 9y agoI practice a polyphasic sleep cycle so I am often up a majority of the day and night.
- Kevin_S 9y agoHow long? I tried once in college and it broke me after less than a week.
- jason_slack 9y agoI just started my 3rd year.
- Nilef 9y agoThat's incredible. Have you done any writing on your lifestyle/how you maintain it?
- jason_slack 9y agonot really, but I'm happy to share if you have questions. E-mail in profile.
- probinso 9y agoI would be interested as well
- jason_slack 9y agoAMA. E-Mail in profile.
- matchmike1313 9y agoAlmost never. The only reason I have ever pulled an all-nighter is if a serious bug has been found or a server has crashed.
- metamodule 9y agoOnly with high priority deadlines. I had an intense project last week that I had spent days on. Last minute I wanted to change how the data was distributed and rewrote it overnight. It paid off though, the team loved it. After mentioning that I pulled an all-nighter, I got the rest of the day off. Would not recommend otherwise!
- irremediable 9y agoIt is "extreme"; it's an extremely bad idea. It's unhealthy and unproductive. For emergencies, some people have to do it, but ideally it shouldn't happen.
- gt2 9y ago1-2 times per week.
- cm2012 9y agoNever. I almost never work after sunset.
- scottmf 9y agoI had a few 36 hour workdays this year. People thought I was crazy for doing so and they were right. There’s very rarely any benefit in trying to work when you’d usually be asleep. It’s arrogant to believe one could work 16+ hours without any productivity gains being significantly offset over the following days.
- e59d134d 9y agoI did a few times for the team. I got a lot of praise but tiny less than inflation rate raise. Never again and looking for new team now :)
- koolba 9y agoFor work, never. If shit hits the proverbially fan and I had to do it because something was broken then I'm sure I would. But other contingency planning and dev practices has obviated the need for that. For fun, every now and then. Not a regular thing but it's fun to pretend to be in your early 20s.
- mod 9y agoWhen I do it, it's not fun. I'm in my 30s and I'm actually a night-owl, but if I have to get up--nope! I actually just can't stay awake if I'm overly tired. I will fall asleep anywhere, including driving. I don't commute but I try to avoid it anyway, since I'll (involuntarily) sleep during work-hours to make up for what I lost.
- kevinherron 9y agoI've never worked all night professionally. I may have done it once or twice in college. I'm honestly not sure I could stay up all night even if I wanted to at this point (age 32, if that matters).
- sotojuan 9y agoFor work? I quit working at 6pm. For fun? I've tried doing video game/movie all nighters like I did when I was 13. At 23, I just can't any more for some reason. It's a lot easier for me to stay up all night if I am outside doing something, but that is rare.
- muzani 9y agoI've done it a few times. 1. A project for a client that needed to be done "yesterday". It was a 3 day 1 night project that we charged double for because of the timeline. 2. A multi-million 1 month project that we spent the final week working 100 hours/week. Project management got me a massage chair to sleep in at the office, bought and delivered whatever food I wanted. 3. When my daughter was less than 1 year old and I was freelancing. Days were distracting so I worked nights. 4. Bootstrapping my startup, regularly doing 100 hour weeks for a year. I was burnt out for a year after selling the startup. In summary, I only recommend it for urgent projects. It's productive for the first 5 nights but after that, productivity drops drastically. Sleep debt is even worse than technical debt.
- dsacco 9y agoProductive for the first five nights?! How the hell did you not crash after the second one? I’m pretty sure I begin having auditory hallucinations after just one all-nighter!
- rl3 9y agoI really hope that was said in context of non-contiguous sleep deprivation. 120 hours continually awake is nuts. I've done 96 hours before and I could only do borderline mindless tasks at 20% efficiency, let alone programming. It's possible to get a few hours each night, work literally every waking hour and be productive for weeks on end (at great peril of course), but for most developers I'd wager productivity is drastically reduced after 48 hours, and almost completely gone by 72. Recent science says sleep deprivation actually incurs brain damage, so it's definitely never a good idea except for emergencies.
- muzani 9y agoI actually quit my job for one project I did 5 nights on, so it was sort of a life and death situation (or so I thought). I did get about 6 hours a sleep, just didn't see my pregnant wife, or do anything besides eat, sleep, code. It led to a lot of burnout, and I later quit tech to run a cafe.
- mod 9y agoI have never pulled nor considered a (professional) all-nighter. No project I've worked on has been that important, though I can think of some situations that would be. I have left the office after 8pm (11-12 hour day) a handful of times, mostly when I broke things late in the day, or when we were migrating something large during off-peak hours. I don't consider working late a valuable tool to have in my toolbox. I'd rather deliver ahead-of-schedule, estimate more appropriately, and turn down work that is overly high-pressure. FWIW I'm an employed developer and my employer would never ask me or anyone else to do this, in my estimation.
- probinso 9y agoI'm too old for that shit. I don't pull all nightdress for work anymore. Companies shouldn't ask you to do this.