A popular saying goes that programmers are machines that turn caffeine into code.

And sure enough, ask a random programmer when they do their best work and there’s a high chance they will admit to a lot of late nights.
Some earlier, some later. A popular trend is to get up at 4am and get some work done before the day’s craziness begins.
Others like going to bed at 4am.

At the gist of all this is avoiding distractions. But you could just lock the door, what’s so special about the night?

I think it boils down to three things: the maker’s schedule, the sleepy brain and bright computer screens.

The maker’s schedule

Paul Graham wrote about the maker’s schedule in 2009 – basically that there are two types of schedules in this world (primarily?). The traditional manager’s schedule where your day is cut up into hours and a ten minute distraction costs you, at most, an hour’s worth of time.

On the other hand you have something PG calls the maker’s schedule – a schedule for those of us who produce stuff. Working on large abstract systems involves fitting the whole thing into your mind – somebody once likened this to constructing a house out of expensive crystal glassand as soon as someone distracts you, it all comes barreling down and shatters into a thousand pieces.This is why programmers are so annoyed when you distract them.

Because of this huge mental investment, we simply can’t start working until we can expect a couple of hours without being distracted. It’s just not worth constructing the whole model in your head and then having it torn down half an hour later.

In fact, talking to a lot of founders you’ll find out they feel like they simply can’t get any work done during the day. The constant barrage of interruptions, important stuff to tend to and emails to answer simply don’t allow it. So they get most of their “work work” done during the night when everyone else is sleeping.


Ballmer's Peak
But even programmers should be sleeping at night. We are not some race of super humans. Even programmers feel more alert during the day.

Why then do we perform our most mentally complex work work when the brain wants to sleep and we do simpler tasks when our brain is at its sharpest and brightest?

Because being tired makes us better coders.

Similar to the ballmer peak, being tired can make us focus better simply because when your brain is tired it has to focus! There isn’t enough left-over brainpower to afford losing concentration.

I seem to get the least work done right after drinking too much tea or having a poorly timed energy drink. Makes me hyperactive and one second I’m checking twitter, the next I’m looking at hacker news and I just seem to be buzzing all over the place..

You’d think I’d work better – so much energy, so much infinite overclocked brainpower. But instead I keep tripping over myself because I can’t focus for more than two seconds at a time.

Conversely, when I’m slightly tired, I just plomp my arse down and code. With a slightly tired brain I can code for hours and hours without even thinking about checking twitter or facebook. It’s like the internet stops existing.

I feel like this holds true for most programmers out there. We have too much brainpower for approximately 80 percent of the tasks we work on – face it,
writing that one juicy algorithm, requires ten times as much code to produce an environment in which it can run.
Even if you’re doing the most advanced machine learning (or something) imaginable, a lot of the work is simply cleaning up the
data and presenting results in a lovely manner.

And when your brain isn’t working at full capacity it looks for something to do. Being tired makes you dumb enough that the task at hand is enough.

Bright computer screens

This one is pretty simple. Keep staring at a bright source of light in the evening and your sleep cycle gets delayed.
You forget to be tired until 3am. Then you wake up at 11am and when the evening rolls around you simply aren’t tired because hey,
you’ve only been up since 11am!

Given enough iterations this can essentially drag you into a different timezone.
What’s more interesting is that it doesn’t seem to keep rolling, once you get into that
equilibrium of going to bed between 3am and 4am you tend to stay there.

Or maybe that’s just the alarm clocks doing their thing because society tells us we’re dirty dirty slobs if we have breakfast at 2pm.

Fin

To conclude, programmers work at night because it doesn’t impose a time limit on when you have to stop working,
which gives you a more relaxed approach, your brain doesn’t keep looking for distractions and a bright screen keeps you awake.

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-programmers-work-at-night-2013-1

hmmm,

WORKING AT NIGHT IS PERFECT FOR ME.

most of this is true...
I tend to code when am hungry... Other times I spend time thinking about what to write

My Fingers get itchy, unless i'm typing away. When i'm not coding, i'm thinking and writing

i work at night everyday except on sundays when i work through out the day...

!. its quiet at night(perfect for syncing the brain into concentration mode) its easier to concentrate without distractions
!!. The brain produces most of your body's neuro transmitters i.e. serotonin, dopamine at night and these guys make you alert, lss they are your nitro button
!!!. programmers are all depressed insomniacs that can only sleep when exhausted and are also originally from mars and thus are more accustomed to darkness, they only come to earth to meet their customers who reasonably are from venus.

HARDDON:
Others like going to bed at 4am.

Thats me. In fact, I have to make a conscious effort not too stay up too long. At a point I would go to bed between 3/4/5 am and wake up 12/1 pm. Needless to say, it wasnt particularly healthy so I had to stop.

At the gist of all this is avoiding distractions. But you could just lock the door, what’s so special about the night?

Locking the door doesnt work. The distractions are mainly human in nature. The reason why night works is because the distractions are asleep then

Ballmer's Peak
But even programmers should be sleeping at night. We are not some race of super humans. Even programmers feel more alert during the day.

Why then do we perform our most mentally complex work work when the brain wants to sleep and we do simpler tasks when our brain is at its sharpest and brightest?

Because being tired makes us better coders.

Being tired makes me sleepy not a better coder. Duh!

I'd like to see a weary person wade through lines of code to find an unmatched pair of braces or a semi colon. In general, I come alive at night but if Im tired, I go to bed. There will be another night.

Brand_new: WORKING AT NIGHT IS PERFECT FOR ME.

Any oda reason apart from d aforementioned?

lordZOUGA: most of this is true...
I tend to code when am hungry... Other times I spend time thinking about what to write

Wow! And to fink hunger brings about lack of concentration and impaired sound reasoning and space projection?

How does it work ƒoя Ʊ ?

Raikishi: !. its quiet at night(perfect for syncing the brain into concentration mode) its easier to concentrate without distractions
!!. The brain produces most of your body's neuro transmitters i.e. serotonin, dopamine at night and these guys make you alert, lss they are your nitro button
!!!. programmers are all depressed insomniacs that can only sleep when exhausted and are also originally from mars and thus are more accustomed to darkness, they only come to earth to meet their customers who reasonably are from venus.

ℓ☺ℓz ................

HARDDON:

Wow! And to fink hunger brings about lack of concentration and impair sound reasoning and space projection?

How do it work ƒoя Ʊ ?

I just forget am hungry... It doesn't hold when the food is near... Just when am too lazy to get it.

Well i don't think so i always work in the morning and day.

jeff smith: Well i don't think so i always work in the morning and day.

Oηε off i suppose

Coding at Night is the Best for me.. I Get more Concentration with the Noiseless Background..



Also, listening to Ice Prince's Aboki Track wit BEATS BY DRE produces excellent results..

I code better @ night....in short over half of my bed is filled with my books,laptop,dvds etc....I goto bed each passing day or uhm..dawn with the sound of my cpu fan in my head....sad

Judinho59: Coding at Night is the Best for me.. I Get more Concentration with the Noiseless Background..



Also, listening to Ice Prince's Aboki Track wit BEATS BY DRE produces excellent results..

U code with music? Wow
...teach me how to....

:d

Might not work ƒoя you gee

₱®ÌИСΞ:


U code with music? Wow
...teach me how to....

Honestly, its the Truth.. I luv coding with music. It just makes it fun and gives me good results..

I like it quiet...veeery quiet and night coding is actually good for me cos when others are sleeping, I have all the time to come up with ideas for myself

working at night rocks well cos no distractions and you will have full concentration on what you are doing.
but i enjoy it most when i have ear plugs on and the music is at medium.

I work at night because...I am a zombie/vampire.

Honestly I am starting to wonder what my ancestors did for a living that I feel much more comfortable at late hours.

Wish I was a normal person who got sleepy @ 11pm

This is Factual...
infact 4me itz Day & Night......I spend less cos I code..no hangin out, less food, n less phone callz..lolz..

Judinho59:
Honestly, its the Truth.. I luv coding with music. It just makes it fun and gives me good results..

You are mid brain dominant type like me, but I code any time of the day. The muzik help me shut out every other noise, since the music consists of songs I know A-Z I can easily shut it out leaving me with my brain in the code it help me to read and assimilate too even in a noisy environment.
Google for kinestetic learner.

CodeHouse: I like it quiet...veeery quiet and night coding is actually good for me cos when others are sleeping, I have all the time to come up with ideas for myself

daz just the way iriz gee.

absolute tranquility..... you cud see your ideas in flesh...... !

and you cant but pour your mind...you soul

ekt_bear: I work at night because...I am a zombie/vampire.

Honestly I am starting to wonder what my ancestors did for a living that I feel much more comfortable at late hours.

Wish I was a normal person who got sleepy @ 11pm

be appreciative gee. you got no idea what you can actually achieve being this way

hey guys, i av bin on d sidelines of d programming playfield 4 so long, now taking my lessons in python. Pls where specifically, can i get video tutorials on these programming languages. I av bin 2 d comp. Village ikeja bt wasnt able to see sumtin tangible. I knw ikeja has it all, but where specifically pls, thnx

Kaysalas: hey guys, i av bin on d sidelines of d programming playfield 4 so long, now taking my lessons in python. Pls where specifically, can i get video tutorials on these programming languages. I av bin 2 d comp. Village ikeja bt wasnt able to see sumtin tangible. I knw ikeja has it all, but where specifically pls, thnx

You can view the free tutorial at the www.thenewboston.com/tutorials.php this site has a lot of tutorial for beginners in series of languages and non programming tutorial too can be found on this site. But if you think the cost of downloading this tutorial is too much for you and you reside in Lagos you can call me for the python tutorial I downloaded from the site all for free.<+2348064620491>

adexsimply: you could download them online..you knw? google has it all

Sure Saч . A man"s nxt best friend after his dog