

How to beat that exhausted feeling - cake
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/may/05/frank-lipman-spent-sleep-health

======
gms
I think one of the major causes of this, although not mentioned in the
article, is the institutionalised culture of having to arrive at the office at
a certain time early in the morning, then having to spend the next 8-9 hour
block trapped in it.

With such an inflexible regime, all it takes is one night of going to bed late
(real life can disrupt even the most disciplined schedules) and you're doomed
to exhaustion for the rest of the week. Let alone the fact that people aren't
clones of one another; not everyone has the same sleep patterns.

~~~
lucumo
On the other hand, my experience has taught me that going to bed late and not
having to get up at a certain time in the morning, leads to going to bed even
later. I've found that this does not make me less tired, but more.

~~~
gms
I don't disagree, but it's nice to have the option once in a while for when
real life throws a spanner in the works.

------
wheels
For me, personally, it's a much simpler formula. I feel exhausted when I've
been doing something I don't want to for too long. Exhaustion and motivation
are really tightly linked for me.

I notice that I get brutally exhausted when it's time to change jobs or
otherwise move on in life. Can't wake up, have trouble getting things done,
generally just worn out.

The funny thing is, if I start something else the next day, like a new job I'm
excited about, boom, back to full steam. I don't sleep much and don't want to,
work crazy hours and wake up excited about rather than dreading my to-do list.

Thus far the startup life has catered well to that. At one year in I'm still
excited almost every day about getting up to work. I work around 100 hours
most weeks and it doesn't seem like a chore. I'm really hoping that pattern
holds true for the long haul.

~~~
juliend2
You mean that you work like 14 hours a day, 7 days/week? Is it full working
hours that you could invoice or just 100 hours that you spend in front of the
computer? What does your daily schedule look like? Just curious.

~~~
wheels
It's not nearly consistent as 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. First, I don't
sleep on a consistent schedule. Some nights I sleep 3 hours, sometimes 10.
Usual is closer to 5. These hours of sleep may or may not actually occur at
night.

Second is that I'm not consulting, so "billable" and "work" aren't the same
thing.

Yesterday I spent:

\- 1 hour in a meeting with a potential customer

\- 2 hours traveling there and back on the subway, during which I read work-
related research papers

\- 1.5 hours talking with my co-founder about stuff we've got coming up on the
horizon

\- 1 hour reading and answering mails

\- 9 hours, from around 6:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., coding with a break in there
for cooking dinner

I then woke back up this morning at 7:30 a.m. and am about to get back to that
code, after my morning routine of checking mail and news. :-)

------
mynameishere
I'm always impressed when people can make a living giving ho-hum advice like
"listen to soft, relaxing music" and "cut back on sugar".

~~~
silentbicycle
I'm always surprised by the lengths people (self included) will go to rather
than just sleep, stop eating when they aren't hungry, etc. People seem to want
a more complicated solution.

~~~
swolchok
We (self included) need a better way of coping with that associated sense of
malaise (well, at least /I/ have one of those).

~~~
silentbicycle
Yeah. It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody, but I found that I felt a lot
better in the evening when I hadn't been marinating my brain in loads of
caffeine all day. Green tea gradually over the day, or a mug of coffee in the
morning and another sometime after lunch is all right, but much more than that
makes me manic, then cranky, then gloomy. Not good.

Also: Getting regular exercise helps _so_ much.

------
Flemlord
Work out in the morning and don't eat too much.

------
xiaoma
I think he was right on about keeping a dark bedroom, but his ideas about
exercise are off:

 _"Exercise is important too, although, says Lipman, this should be
restorative rather than exhausting - he doesn't think we are built to run
marathons or spend hours on treadmills._

 _Instead he promotes moderation, focusing on yoga and simple programmes
designed to retrain our bodies to rest and recover..."_

Not only are human bodies remarkably well-built for running, but it was key in
our evolution. Yoga was not.

[http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/daily/2004/11/17-running...](http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/daily/2004/11/17-running.html)

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4021811.stm>

~~~
triplefox
This is why I've started adapting my desk to allow standing most of the time.
I feel fresh even at 6 or 7pm. I tried standing _all_ of the time for a day or
two but I find that sometimes I want to sit too.

------
Everest
I also want to dispute the notion that life today is so incredibly busy and
challenging. Sure, we work 8-10 hours a day but for the most part its doing
higher level thinking and interesting work (at least for people on this
board). On the other hand, jobs at other times in history required probably
the same number of hours but in more labor-intensive pursuits (farming,
construction, etc..).

Whether we want to believe this or not, all of us could leave our job and find
something easier. We might have to downgrade our lifestyle a little but we
would survive. So not only do we work jobs that really aren't that tough but
we have the flexibility to leave at any time. In short, we need to stop being
whiners.

------
lowe
I've found my own effective method for beating that exhausted feeling: I call
it "supercharging" your batteries. The trick is to down two or three redbulls
immediately before going to sleep. 45-50 minutes later you basically hit the
ceiling, transitioning in seconds from unconsciousness to compulsive
jabbering. be careful with this technique: if you're unable to fall asleep
before the medicine kicks, you're screwed.

The author maintains that fats and cheap carbs can only interrupt the body and
add to its exhaustion. I think this is true only if you fail to shoot the
moon.

~~~
eru
Sounds unhealthy. And Redbull does not taste too good, either.

~~~
lowe
I've found Bob Marley's soothing island rhythms, pitch-adjusted to 60bpm where
necessary, go a long ways towards neutralizing the bad taste.

------
ondra
It's making me fucking sleepy. I can't procrastinate well enough now.

~~~
ondra
Should have gone to <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=593729>, my bad. I
don't seem to be able to delete it, why?

