Are you burning the midnight oil?

  • Thread starter Thread starter protek
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 20
  • Views Views 598
protek

protek

"Takai desu ne." -"Jinsei da."
Joined
Feb 17, 2008
Posts
3,999
Country
Finland
Region
Oulu, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa
Do you spent the wee hours up fiddling with your retro gear, playing your favorite game, enjoying your best single malt or some other way dedicating time for yourself?

Sometimes, I find myself browsing the retro forums at 3 a.m. or soldering a cable at midnight and then testing the cable a few hours more. Needless to say that if I need to wake up half past six, I'm not feeling very fresh. Now, closing 40, just a few hours sleep tends to leave its marks. Based on the unpleasant feeling on my chest my blood pressure is probably high. It takes me the better half of morning and lots of coffee to get back on track.

Of course it would be healthier to get a decent night's sleep but as a father of a two-year old boy, free time during daytime is a luxury I cannot afford. So I have to try to balance things and hope I don't suffer a stroke or something.
 
I think most of us are the same here, the later hours is where we get our 'quiet' time to enjoy our hobby, of course this isn't ideal.

I get back aches in the afternoon next day from lack of sleep, strange as it is I have had this since I was a kid - I would be at school and suffer the same after a late night of gaming/computing. When I was a wee nipper I'd be up to silly o'clock playing with my Spectrum, of course my parents thought I was sleeping.

So I guess lack of sleep affects us all different but if you are having unconfortable feelings in the chest I think you should see a doctor, it could be something else causing them. Better safe rather than sorry.

When it starts to affect our health this a good time to take a step back :coffee:
 
Don't bother burning much midnight oil anymore, usually watch TV/Movies in bed til around 1-2am. I usually do when I'm out of work though, time becomes meaningless to me during those times :lol:
 
Last edited:
I stay up as much as possible, sometimes up to 3 AM, but my eyes don't help me that much; last 4 years i'm on two sets of glasses, and long-term computing becomes painful.. :(
 
My two children (and the wife of course) keeps me from staying up too late, otherwise I surely would.
 
Well I can't do much late night fiddeling or gaming when I am working.

I'm an energy engineer and I do installs mostley for private homes and sometimes businesses.
I carry around 20kg of equipment with me and with 7-9 customers that is about 16 times of lifiting and putting it down and walking with that.
Plus sitting on my knees all day and using screw drivers and wire cutters is beating the energy out of me.

If you do that all week plus a fair bit of driving, then I really have to get my 7-8 hours of sleep and the weekends I don't do much either.

The only exception is now, but I have 4 weeks vacation, of which I already have used 2.
I can now go untill 1:00 or 2:00, but even if I do that like I did yesterday, then this sunday is where I catch up, from about 12:00 to 16:00 I was out and pretty deep in wonderland :-D
 
Now my Amiga's are pretty much set up I don't stay up quite so late - there have been times in the past when I have been working on Amiga Tower projects and A1200 case modding when I have had some really late nights.

I used to race Nitro Buggies and Electric RC Cars - now that was time consuming - cleaning and re-building the Buggies before the next week's meet was a bit of a nightmare really - I made some ridiculous set up mistakes due to being just so tired.

Now it's just nice to play a game and turn it off at a reasonable hour - saying that, if I am nearing the end of a game I can stay up quite late - late night boss fighting is not good for you in your forties :-(
 
I don't think it has anything to do with age. You can stay up and still look after yourself well. If your chest hurts then please consult your doctor. They even have NHS lines these days that you can ring up. I don't advise asking Google. You'll find yourself with Aids and cancer every time, and more importantly - no prescription. :lol:

The thing I love about the Amiga is that you can switch it on and switch it off. I can't help but bash other computers here, but even on a stock A1200, DPaintIV or AMOS is up and running in next to no time, and its even faster with a harddrive and a little fast ram.

In short, if I ever find myself unable to sleep, I can switch on my Amiga, have made something (that I think is) awesome in 5-10 minutes, which will satisfy me to the point of feeling nice and sleepy.

And so I'll save it, switch it off, climb into bed and dream some happy dreams about ponies.

*makes pony noises*
 
I used to stay up well past midnight most evenings, but now I find it really affects me the next day so I try and go to bed at 11-12 most nights. I do however have the occasional idea I can't get out of my head and start doing some soldering/cleaning etc right before bed time :)
 
Glad it's not just me then :)

If I'm not coding Amiga games till 1AM, I'm probably playing Doom or Full Throttle on my Miggy

Really suffer the next day though!
 
nicholas.jj.taylor said:
...In short, if I ever find myself unable to sleep, I can switch on my Amiga, have made something (that I think is) awesome in 5-10 minutes, which will satisfy me to the point of feeling nice and sleepy...
Click to expand...

Right there with you!
Miggy can get you happy and sleepy in 15-20 minutes tops!
Does this sound a bit weird?:blink:...Heck, who cares!:cool:
 
I'm usually in bed by midnight at the latest if I've got work the following day.
Weekends/days off I can be up as late as 3am.

There never seems to be enough time on an evening before a workday!
 
Similar for me having a 1 year old boy, the only time I can get anything done is when he is asleep in the day (but I'm often doing housework or cooking then), and so I normally stay up to at least 1am playing some games or generally fiddling around on the internet, computers, retro stuff or watching a film. It's only rarely I will go to bed early if I feel really tired.

When I was a bit younger I would often stay up all night and go to bed in the morning at 6am and sleep till 12. Especially when I used to play Guild Wars. Working strange hours plus freelance had its advantages.

But these days I find I can't stay up past about 2-3am as I start to just drop off to sleep at my desk or on the sofa. I think age has caught up a bit in this regard.
 
99% of the time I'm normally in bed by midnight at the latest as I need my sleep. I don't know if anyone else is the same but I find, during the working week, I never have a lot of energy/motivation in the evenings (even if I've had nothing to do all day). It's normally home, tea, telly, bed.

Sometimes though if I have a project on the go I cannot go to bed until it's done. Otherwise I just lie there with the frustration of non completion in my head.
 
protek said:
Sometimes, I find myself browsing the retro forums at 3 a.m. or soldering a cable at midnight and then testing the cable a few hours more. Needless to say that if I need to wake up half past six, I'm not feeling very fresh. Now, closing 40, just a few hours sleep tends to leave its marks. Based on the unpleasant feeling on my chest my blood pressure is probably high. It takes me the better half of morning and lots of coffee to get back on track.

Of course it would be healthier to get a decent night's sleep but as a father of a two-year old boy, free time during daytime is a luxury I cannot afford. So I have to try to balance things and hope I don't suffer a stroke or something.
Click to expand...
This sounds pretty much like my story. With two kids (2,5 years and 4 months) there's not much of possibility to have time for myself during daytime - their nap hours are dedicated for houseworks - so nights it is for me, but with mileage of 34 staying up all the way till early hours tends to take its toll: I don't suffer of any physical problems due to staying up but the general state of tiredness caused by parenting and regular living doesn't allow pushing it too much, I become seriously ****ed off person when lack of sleep exceeds the certain limit so I need to avoid crossing the edge just for the sake of people around me.
 
All the time!

If im not re-arranging my mancave, im cleaning cartridges or putting things away. :D
I have 3 kids, so by the time they are fed & in bed its usually past 8pm anyway, so to get anything done usually takes me past midnight because my weekends seem to be filled with endless jobs like visiting the tip (now renamed, the household recycling centre)

One thing I have noticed is the lack of TV I watch now!, I always used to watch a lot of TV after work, now I only watch 3-4 hours a week & if I am going to watch something its usually a movie.
Most nights im on the ipad in bed, ebay, youtube, football manager :cool:
Even though I do stay up late sometimes, I really feel it the day after, when I was younger & used to go night fishing, I would happily sit in a chair staring at a float until 6am - without any sleep & it wouldnt even affect me, now though, If im fishing & it gets to 1am im usually asleep & if im up any later it takes me days to recover :blink:
But were all getting older!!!!!!!
 
I find myself looking at programming for the old computers and wanting to really get into the guts of it to make games. I have loads of books here so there is lots to read.
 
recently been up till about 1am, and then up for work at 8am :nuts:

It's hard for me to sleep, usually just lie there thinking about things for about 2 hours before I actually sleep :mad:

and no, sleeping tablets /drink etc ain't the answer :blink:

someone said people with high IQ's stay up longer, maybe that's why :coffee:
 
im a full time dad with a little lad, work evenings and get home at about 10:30, takes me ages to unwind when i get in so end up playing games, watching tv until 2 most nights, then up at 6:30 with the kids again. I really should start going to bed earlier but it is the only time i ever get to myself and dont want to give it up just yet :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom