3 ms·

The more sleep-deprived I am - the worse my working memory feels to work, nevertheless the more productive I am. A sleepless night gives highly elevated product

The more sleep-deprived I am - the worse my working memory feels to work, nevertheless the more productive I am. A sleepless night gives highly elevated productivity during the next day. I feel boost of attention capacity, inspiration and creativity. It even gets easier to do mental math. Obviously a sleepless night also causes some physical discomfort but 500 mg of L-tyrosine cures it (and itself also gives some extra boost). I also used to practice taking a nap every time I come home from the office but such an evening nap always (since my early childhood) makes my mood horrible (grouchy, unenthusiastic and asexual) for hours to come.

wallopingfuture 5y ago
Funny you mention L-tyrosine, it "Tyrosine promotes cognitive flexibility" - Source: https://www.grelin.net/post/ztwmC7c43thoriuAFVaC https://www.grelin.net/post/ztwmC7c43thoriuAFVaC
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  As far as I know it's a standard medicine to treat sleep-deprived patients when insomnia treatment is not [yet] successful.
aaaaaaaaaaab 5y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_therapy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_therapy
pure_simplicity 5y ago
I have experienced that too and I wonder why that is...
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  So do I - that's why I share. Perhaps somebody may have an idea.
Jensson 5y ago
You probably aren't more productive, you just feel more productive in that you can sit and grind for a long time. I did a lot of practice programming where I measured myself, some things that would take hours when I was tired but I felt I was doing a lot of things took like half an hour when I was rested. However when I was rested I didn't feel that I accomplished much, it was just an easy task and then I moved on, while when I was tired I was feeling like I was moving mountains. Also code quality issues and bugs were much more common when I was tired.
- noiwillnot 5y ago
  Sleep deprivation migth help to focus and do those tasks at all instead of procrastinating. That's my experience at least dealing with boring and unpleasant tasks.
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  > You probably aren't more productive, you just feel more productive in that you can sit and grind for a long time. And when I am well-slept I can't sit and grind for a minute, I'm 95% anxiety and procrastination then. Even reading an article which doesn't fit in a single screen feels almost unbearable. But when I'm severely underslept it feels easy and joy to read anything almost no matter how long. I would rather sleep 2 hours a night every night, be happy and productive (but astonishingly dumb when talking to others in real time though) if I didn't believe this probably is harmful for overall health in the long run. Nevertheless it always is hard to get up and it requires a lot of sleep to feel good physically so I always sleep ~13 hours/night on weekends&vacations.
  - Jensson 5y ago
    Have you tried adhd meds? Probably a healthier solution than trying to constantly sleep deprive yourself, and most likely more effective as well as you then no longer handicap your mental abilities.
d3ad1ysp0rk 5y ago
I don't have any research to back this up, but it's possible that framing it as being more focused on less interesting work rather than "productive" helps clarify what might cause it. When we are well rested, our brains are functioning at a higher level, which includes spending energy making micro decisions about how important things are, what the priority is, what work is related to what you are currently looking at, and so on. When over tired, our bodies exert less energy on non critical processes, which might mean not overanalyzing or being distracted away from a task you'd rather not have to do. So getting certain work done is easier when tired, but productivity would arguably include doing the "right" thing, mapping the right information together, and so on, which you'd want to be better rested for. Curious to hear if you agree on the productivity vs focus clarification, or if you feel like you're truly more productive in the sense that you do some of your best work (greatest ideas, executed efficiently, with minimal errors) when tired?
fsociety 5y ago
May not apply to you, but sleep depriving yourself can be an unintentional self-treatment for ADHD, or even other things like depression. Good to know if anyone reads this comment and identifies with it.

wallopingfuture 5y ago

Funny you mention L-tyrosine, it "Tyrosine promotes cognitive flexibility" - Source: https://www.grelin.net/post/ztwmC7c43thoriuAFVaC https://www.grelin.net/post/ztwmC7c43thoriuAFVaC

qwerty456127 5y ago
As far as I know it's a standard medicine to treat sleep-deprived patients when insomnia treatment is not [yet] successful.

aaaaaaaaaaab 5y ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_therapy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_therapy

pure_simplicity 5y ago

I have experienced that too and I wonder why that is...

qwerty456127 5y ago
So do I - that's why I share. Perhaps somebody may have an idea.

Jensson 5y ago

You probably aren't more productive, you just feel more productive in that you can sit and grind for a long time. I did a lot of practice programming where I measured myself, some things that would take hours when I was tired but I felt I was doing a lot of things took like half an hour when I was rested. However when I was rested I didn't feel that I accomplished much, it was just an easy task and then I moved on, while when I was tired I was feeling like I was moving mountains. Also code quality issues and bugs were much more common when I was tired.

noiwillnot 5y ago
Sleep deprivation migth help to focus and do those tasks at all instead of procrastinating. That's my experience at least dealing with boring and unpleasant tasks.
qwerty456127 5y ago
> You probably aren't more productive, you just feel more productive in that you can sit and grind for a long time. And when I am well-slept I can't sit and grind for a minute, I'm 95% anxiety and procrastination then. Even reading an article which doesn't fit in a single screen feels almost unbearable. But when I'm severely underslept it feels easy and joy to read anything almost no matter how long. I would rather sleep 2 hours a night every night, be happy and productive (but astonishingly dumb when talking to others in real time though) if I didn't believe this probably is harmful for overall health in the long run. Nevertheless it always is hard to get up and it requires a lot of sleep to feel good physically so I always sleep ~13 hours/night on weekends&vacations.
- Jensson 5y ago
  Have you tried adhd meds? Probably a healthier solution than trying to constantly sleep deprive yourself, and most likely more effective as well as you then no longer handicap your mental abilities.

d3ad1ysp0rk 5y ago

I don't have any research to back this up, but it's possible that framing it as being more focused on less interesting work rather than "productive" helps clarify what might cause it. When we are well rested, our brains are functioning at a higher level, which includes spending energy making micro decisions about how important things are, what the priority is, what work is related to what you are currently looking at, and so on. When over tired, our bodies exert less energy on non critical processes, which might mean not overanalyzing or being distracted away from a task you'd rather not have to do. So getting certain work done is easier when tired, but productivity would arguably include doing the "right" thing, mapping the right information together, and so on, which you'd want to be better rested for. Curious to hear if you agree on the productivity vs focus clarification, or if you feel like you're truly more productive in the sense that you do some of your best work (greatest ideas, executed efficiently, with minimal errors) when tired?

fsociety 5y ago

May not apply to you, but sleep depriving yourself can be an unintentional self-treatment for ADHD, or even other things like depression. Good to know if anyone reads this comment and identifies with it.