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I fixed the same bug all night in my dreams. Nothing was committed.

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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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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.

 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.

 that's a good way to put it. bugs have a finish line, taste doesn't. the only trick that's worked for me is giving myself a deadline on the decision itself, like a fake ticket that says pick by friday, otherwise it really can loop forever.

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.

 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.

 That's exactly it. Once the daytime load has somewhere to go, the night stuff mostly takes care of itself. Hope tonight's dream is a rerun of a bug you already fixed.

I can't stop thinking about coding. All day, everyday. How do I stop?

I get this one, and I would gently separate the two things you are holding. The tiredness is not proof you care, it is proof the work never got a boundary last night. A brain rehearsing ten wrong fixes until morning is not problem solving, it is an open loop it could not put down, and open loops feel like dedication while they quietly tax the next day.

What actually closes it for me is externalizing the loop before bed. Write the exact failing state and the single next thing you will try, somewhere you trust you will see it in the morning. The looping usually comes from your brain being afraid it will forget, so once the problem is safely out of your head it stops holding the tab open. The care shows up in how you work rested, not in whether the bug followed you to sleep.

Relate to this hard, mine's usually 'did I actually follow up with that lead' on a loop. What's helped is offloading the noticing part entirely, if something tells me clearly what still needs doing, my brain stops rehearsing it at 3am.

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