I fixed the same bug all night in my dreams. Nothing was committed.
by•
Woke up tired like I'd worked a full shift. Same bug, looping, my brain solving it ten slightly different wrong ways until morning. Git log empty. Nothing real happened.
Part of me took it as proof I care about what I'm building. The other part knows a brain that won't clock out isn't a flex, it's a leak.
Do you get this one? And if you do, what actually makes it stop?
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This happens when your brain is carrying too much unresolved state, almost like an unclosed loop. I've noticed it's less about workload and more about uncertainty. A clear debugging plan often does more for sleep than another hour of coding.
Promomix
There’s something interesting about how obsession helps us build but can also trap us. I wonder if experienced founders eventually learn a better off-switch or just accept the chaos.
For me it's worse when it's not even a bug, it's a decision with no objectively right answer, naming, API shape, that kind of thing. A bug has an actual fix waiting to be found so the brain has somewhere to land. A design choice can get re-litigated forever because there's no "solved" state to stop at. Writing down the next concrete step before closing the laptop is the only thing that's worked for me too, same as a few people above, it gives the open loop somewhere to go instead of just floating all night.
SlimSnap
@galdayan Yeah, that's the worse one. A bug ends when it's fixed. A naming decision never ends, you just get tired enough to ship one. My brain files "good enough" under unfinished and keeps poking at it.
Have you experimented with taking a short evening walk before sleep? Physical separation from work sometimes makes it easier for the mind to let go.
yeah, mine does this with architecture decisions more than bugs, like Gal said above. what stops it for me is writing the actual next step down before closing the laptop, even one sentence, so the brain has proof the thread isn't lost and doesn't need to keep rehearsing it. leaving it "in my head" is what turns it into a 3am rerun
I know this feeling well. Have you tried ending session with written notes? That might help your brain finally disconnect.
Yeah, I get this, just not with code. Mine is running three businesses at once, my brain keeps auditing all of them at 2am even when nothing's actually wrong. What's helped isn't willpower, it's cutting down how much I have to hold in my head during the day so there's less to loop on at night. Built FounderFlow for exactly that reason, so I want to be upfront I'm the founder, but the honest answer to your question is: the leak stops when you stop being the only alarm system.
SlimSnap
@stacywycof83995 Getting it out of my head during the day is the part that actually helps, yeah. The night looping is just the daytime load with nowhere to go. Willpower never did anything for me either.