3 ms·

Anyone else ever go to sleep while thinking about the problem you were hacking on, and end up having horrible dreams while you (ineptly) try to solve it in your

Anyone else ever go to sleep while thinking about the problem you were hacking on, and end up having horrible dreams while you (ineptly) try to solve it in your sleep? I get really bad sleep that way and wake up stressed out.

nostrademons 19y ago
No, but several times I've gone to sleep thinking hard about a problem and then solved it in my sleep. That's why I keep my laptop by my bed. I tend to get really weird dreams when this happens - not unpleasant, just a little odd. For example, in high school I had a calculus midterm the next day and dreamed that I was sitting on a brick wall at an orphanage solving a volume integral while little kiddies played underneath me and waited for me to have a great fall. I ended up solving the integral in my sleep, then found that there were 3 volume integrals on the test the next day. Ended up scoring about 10-15 points higher than if I had not dreamed about it. I had similar experiences in college with physics problems and lately with computer programs, but I can't remember the actual dreams. Oftentimes I end up solving them in that time when you're not fully asleep but not fully awake either.
mhartl 19y ago
I've had similar experiences to nostrademons. I often crack hard problems in the groggy netherworld just as I'm going to sleep or just as I'm waking up (or during an afternoon nap). Showers and long walks are also good for this purpose. I mainly dream about software these days, but I had similar experiences in college and grad school with physics. Freshman year I figured out the orbit in an inverse quartic potential during a nap (warning: you pass through the---bang!---center of force), and in grad school I unlocked the last remaining problem in my Ph.D. thesis during a one-hour random walk around campus. Incidentally, all this contributes to my conclusion that I'm not well-suited to a normal job. Even if I could get an employer to accept intellectually that they should pay me to take naps and go for long walks, I don't think they could ever really come to terms with it emotionally. Whereas the cofounder of my last startup probably never even noticed I occasionally napped and that I spent half my time walking around town; if he did, he certainly didn't care.

nostrademons 19y ago

No, but several times I've gone to sleep thinking hard about a problem and then solved it in my sleep. That's why I keep my laptop by my bed. I tend to get really weird dreams when this happens - not unpleasant, just a little odd. For example, in high school I had a calculus midterm the next day and dreamed that I was sitting on a brick wall at an orphanage solving a volume integral while little kiddies played underneath me and waited for me to have a great fall. I ended up solving the integral in my sleep, then found that there were 3 volume integrals on the test the next day. Ended up scoring about 10-15 points higher than if I had not dreamed about it. I had similar experiences in college with physics problems and lately with computer programs, but I can't remember the actual dreams. Oftentimes I end up solving them in that time when you're not fully asleep but not fully awake either.

mhartl 19y ago

I've had similar experiences to nostrademons. I often crack hard problems in the groggy netherworld just as I'm going to sleep or just as I'm waking up (or during an afternoon nap). Showers and long walks are also good for this purpose. I mainly dream about software these days, but I had similar experiences in college and grad school with physics. Freshman year I figured out the orbit in an inverse quartic potential during a nap (warning: you pass through the---bang!---center of force), and in grad school I unlocked the last remaining problem in my Ph.D. thesis during a one-hour random walk around campus. Incidentally, all this contributes to my conclusion that I'm not well-suited to a normal job. Even if I could get an employer to accept intellectually that they should pay me to take naps and go for long walks, I don't think they could ever really come to terms with it emotionally. Whereas the cofounder of my last startup probably never even noticed I occasionally napped and that I spent half my time walking around town; if he did, he certainly didn't care.