Of Caffeine, Sleep Deprivation, and a good ole’ fashioned code binge!
Someone, please rescue me.
I was up until 3 AM this morning hacking away on ACPI support for Haiku. I’d like to extend a big thank you to all the folks who’ve sent me ACPI namespace dumps. I’ll be contacting some of you in the near future about testing out the first of the ACPI device drivers I’m writing. *drum roll please* Thermal zones and active / passive cooling device support!
Got to work by 9:00 this morning, I’ve had two cups of very black coffee, a few raisins, some peanuts, and a couple other things you’ll find in trail mix. We’ve got a deadline for Friday with a demo / presentation on Monday (that I’ll be demo master for) and it might be a bit of a tight deadline. However with the caffeine binge from the last 18 hours, I’ve been massively productive today. I’m starting to wonder though if the shakes I’ve got are caffeine or low blood sugar. I think it’s caffeine, I’ve been mostly off the stuff for the last two months, and I aim to be off again by the weekend. The last thing I need is to revert to a Mountain Dew junkie.
If I don’t end up with something else to do tonight, I could easily see this becoming a five day binge. While that may be good for work and Haiku, it’s pretty catastrophic to my health. My other option is to start ripping out the woodwork in small bedroom and begin refinishing / painting it. I may just start that this weekend. I’ve got family room end-tables to build too…
March 1st, 2006 at 4:01 pm
I would strongly suggest that the shakes are a combination of the caffeine and the low blood sugar, made that much worse by lack of sleep. If you’re already in a state where you have insulin resistance, caffeine makes things that much harder to deal with properly: guess what happens when you push your body too long without sleep.
Haiku doesn’t need rapid progress for a short time at the expense of the health of the contributors, and there’s often a price to pay in terms of quality when you push yourself too hard for too long anyway. If you push yourself too hard, you’ll soon be worthless for work and Haiku, and you’ll be spending far too much time getting to know the medical establishment around there.
1. Get some sleep
2. Don’t try to do so much so quickly
3. Resist the urge to push yourself to greater productivity through chemistry (lay off the caffeine and sugar)
4. Remember that you’re only immortal for a limited time (can you place the song that’s from? :P )
March 1st, 2006 at 4:21 pm
I ate some crackers, the shakes when away. It was low blood sugar. My hands / wrists were jittery, nothing uncontrollable.
I’ve had worse.
I’m not going to kill myself for Haiku, and I’m not going to do this for prolonged amounts of time, but I needed a good boost today at work (I’ve felt like I’ve really been slacking off lately) and the coffee did the trick. Short binge bursts aren’t so bad — I’ve done this for the better part of the last 10 years. It’s when they turn into weeks and months at a time (something I haven’t done in over a year, and I’m in way better shape for it) that they get really detrimental.
Besides, I’ve got enough to do once I get home that I won’t be able to code-binge like I used to. Thank heaven. That’s how I got in such terrible shape before.
I lived that childhood dream (Mt. Dew, code, completely neglect nearly everything else) and it was literally killing me. Far faster than I ever expected it would. Been there, done that, got the stretch marks.
March 1st, 2006 at 8:34 pm
JT – somehow I think you’re over-reacting to the caffeine just a -little-… possibly how you’d actually react to it if you consumed some, but on a different level…
March 1st, 2006 at 8:51 pm
MYOB:
Actually, no: I based my statements on a combination of experience and research. The more you feel like you may need caffeine (sleep deprivation) the more problems it can cause when you have it, because of how the body works. Chances are, as you get older, if you pay any attention to your health and how you feel when considering what you’ve been doing, you’ll be more able to recognize such things. Right now, you’ve got the handicap of youth on your side that masks such things, but you can’t expect that to last forever. The body needs sleep, and artificially delaying the natural pattern (catching up on sleep) has a price: that price (in this discussion: there are likely to be other things as well) involves how the body processes and uses insulin, and caffeine is part of that equation. Ingesting caffeine but otherwise getting the proper amount of sleep causes less of negative effects than when you ingest it but are sleep-deprived. Caffeine isn’t all bad, but it isn’t all good for the body, either.
March 1st, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Caffeine blocks adenosine reception so you feel alert, but it is no substitute for sleep.
If you do anything on lack of sleep, it’s probably not going to be your best.
I do think JT is a health nut. :-)
There are much worse things in life than caffeine.
I’m not addicted. I can quit anytime. Yeah. Where’s my coke !?
March 1st, 2006 at 11:59 pm
Nah Mike, I’m not a health nut, just a plain nut: not sure what size (haven’t been fully assessed there: it might be a coconut, a walnut, a peanut, a cashew, etc.) however, I’ve had a few more years of self-experimentation to report on, and I am definitely feeling more and more mortal… but hey, I had you lagging behind at WalterCon, IIRC :)
March 2nd, 2006 at 4:30 am
It’s because I have stumpy little legs.
March 3rd, 2006 at 8:31 am
“if you pay any attention to your health and how you feel when considering what you’ve been doing, you’ll be more able to recognize such things.” Wise words : )
Bryan I could explain a lot but it’s faster if I tell you this; I did this course; http://www.avatarepc.com It’s great and you’ll be a lot ‘smarter’ afterwards ; ))
March 8th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
Yep, I gotta agree with JT. Probably 20somethings don’t notice the effects, can live off caffeine, but you get into your thirties it does start catching up with you. Caffeine takes you less far and you crash harder. I had to switch to decaf after years of drinking regular like a fiend. Among other things it’s easier to get going in the morning and those afternoon crashes don’t happen.