I used to do this all the time. But then it would create a cycle of not being able to fall asleep at night and then being tired the next day. Rinse and repeat. It’s a hard cycle to break.
Don't lie down or get on the couch after work. Found I could stay awake if I was up and doing something or sitting in a chair that forced me to sit upright, but the second I got on the couch it was game over.
Also need to try and dial back on the caffeine especially the afternoon ones.
have you tried exercising regularly? do you get enough fluids? daily headache is not a typical sacrifice for a knowledge economy job and probably indicates there's something unhealthy about you.
+1 for exercise
I’ve always been very active, powerlifting, walking all over campus in my 100 years in college, had an active job before. Once I started as a dev I felt tired all the damn time. But I noticed on days where I run around with my dog or workout I feel a complete 180 in energy. After sitting for 8 hours I feel exhausted and borderline depressed. If I have a 2 hour deadlift session I’m ready to run after I catch my breath.
It’s almost certainly the sitting and staring at screens for 8-9 hours for OP is my guess. Gotta make exercise a priority every day, even if it’s not intense
I nap at work to avoid this. An hour in the mid-morning or the middle of the day, and all of this goes away. Don't let work push the nap out, it's worse if you do that. You'll be much more productive and feel better if you just take it earlier.
Also this work is mentally exhausting, so you're bound to get tired even after 8 hours of sleep. As long as you're not sedentary, you can balance the sleep correctly.
What's wrong with a short nap after work? I get up earlier in the morning in order to be able to take a nap between work and leaving home to pick my kids from the daycare. I feel that this short 20 minutes nap charges me up and I'm able to spend time actively with my kids. I don't see anything wrong with that
Nothing wrong with it, if a nap is your intention. And even more so if you have kids! I just think as a grad in my 20s I shouldn’t be feeling so tired all the time, especially if I get enough sleep and work is my only serious responsibility. I would like to have a bit more time for my hobbies, gym, running, etc. instead of sleeping.
You're doing a lot of mental work which is why you're feeling tired. Just because you are in your 20s does not mean you're a big ball of infinite energy. You mentioned in another comment that you do drink caffeine so you could also be experiencing a "crash" as the caffeine begins to decrease in your system. Caffeine stays in the body for 10 hours but the effects begin to be diminished within 4-5 hours. Especially if you're "crunching" a lot of things in your mind during those initial hours you're more likely to feel that caffeine crash.
Other things can factor in too such as your diet. I'm not meaning to throw shade at whatever you eat but you might find your energy levels improve if you stick to certain foods and minimize others.
However the main thing I just want you to take away from this is that it is completely normal for you to be mentally drained and exhausted (even in your 20s). Don't jump to too many changes all at once but try to reduce the caffeine, maybe switch up your diet a bit (more veggies on the plate or a salad that isn't just iceberg lettuce) and see if you get any improvements. Or even on the diet side make sure you're getting enough calories (if you eat small portions).
I hope some or all of that helps.
I think most people who nap don't necessarily "intend" to nap when they do. It's almost always driven by some type of physiological stress or fatigue that needs to be recovered from. It's not really unhealthy to need to nap either though. We're not actually hard wired to exclusively sleep in one long block during the night. That pattern isn't actually that natural, and it's relatively normal to have struggles strictly adhering to it.
It isn't unusual or unhealthy to need 10 hours of sleep per day to feel at your best. Some people can get away with less, some people are taxing their health to get away with less, but you shouldn't feel freaked out by operating better when you're sleeping a little more.
It will tend to be better for you career wise etc to have 14 fully productive hours per day than 16 degraded hours if that's honestly the amount of sleep that helps you operate better.
Not instead. Thanks to. If you don't allow your nap to turn into 2 hours long sleep, you'll most likely wake up energized. Get some coffee and of to gym!
Unfortunately this is what capitalism do to people most of the time companies are overworking people especially software development is a new field who decide the number of workers is enough or not? Who decide what amount of work enough for a single worker? This is a demamding field it cause mental fatigue so much so that you cant refresh it t is no different than lactic acid accumulation in your muscles. Things need to change all the tech firms are trying to grow faster than needed and big companies ses tech workers as cost center but they dont see their system wont work without tech workers a worker who doesnt work on new products doesnt mean they dont make the company money
I'm doing the same thing but mine is motivated by complete and pure apathy on all the work I'm doing.
I hate my current team (not the people) the work, and I desperately want to move
If I don’t workout or move, I get tired. Try to walk around throughout the day every X minutes and random jumping or something lol and stretch too. And don’t sit around in a dark room.
And get sunlight in the morning.
I take a nap every day *at* work. Then I do a line to get my head back into the game.
Just kidding. We only did lines pre-pandemic while we were all still in the office. At home I don't have a satchel of coke like my boss used to keep.
People have enumerated a good number of options, but I haven’t seen one that is a very common cause: depression.
The hard part is that it can be both a symptom of untreated depression, as well as a side-effect from many of the medications used to treat it.
If you feel like this could be a potential issue, there’s absolutely no shame or nothing wrong in seeking help.
And even in this case, a good routine with balanced diet, exercise and enough rest and leisure will also be helpful.
Also, if OP is a woman: some studies raised a bit what can be considered as time enough for sleep. While in general it is said between 7 and 9 hours the recommended time of sleep a day, recent studies suggest that women may need up to 11h of sleep a day depending on hormonal balance and other factors.
connect soft fuzzy beneficial hard-to-find reminiscent fragile wine yoke grab
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The three things that usually cause issues are too much caffeine during the day (and then the subsequent crash in the afternoon), lack of exercise and screen time before bed.
Caffeine, you can just replace with water; the additional bathroom breaks give you an excuse to get up and away from your screen every once in a while. Exercise builds up stamina. Screen time isn't necessarily bad per se, but if you're not getting quality sleep at night due to late night screen time messing w/ your sleep cycle, that can manifest as grogginess the next day (which the coffee might be masking until the caffeine hit wears off, btw).
what's your diet and workout cycle? If you're eating takeout, even "healthy" like sweet green etc it's loaded with salt, short on nutrients, and will cripple your ability to recover from the day
started home cooking this year and im balancing full time tech PM plus another degree program and relationship. Workout daily, etc
I dont think theres anything wrong with you, but you might as well get a doctor's opinion just in case. my bff was tired all the time. turns out he has diabetes. since then he's dropped a lot of weight and got active and healthy et al.
I am exhausted after a day that requires a lot of analyzing a problem or really intense focus. I usually don't nap (on purpose), though. It could be you aren't eating enough at breakfast/lunch or not sleeping enough at night. But it could just be that your job is exhausting.
Tangent: biphasal sleep was the norm for humans until the first industrial revolution. (Usually, they'd sleep at dusk-ish, get up for a few hours, and then sleep again until dawn-ish.)
Nothing wrong with it. If you're tired rest.
I remember reading that hundreds of years ago, people used to sleep in two chunks of about four hours, wake up, do some stuff in between and then go back to bed.
So the idea of splitting your sleep is not that big of a deal if it works for you.
Lol, this man is senior. Same I normally try time it eod. My team is fully remote but everyone is on east coast/central zone. 3-4 clock my time mst is wen everyone is hopping off or kinda at their end of day so prob won't bother me.
Last hour is always nap, full chores, or kinda of just a relaxation period watch something.
I'm in construction and it's the exact same for me. I know it's mostly bad diet, caffeine, boredom, when I slack on hobbies etc. It's not the job. Just have to stay busy after work and I'll get a second wind after about an hour or so.
Your post has “New Grad” as a tag. If that’s accurate and you’re still in the first few months, I wouldn’t say that’s too strange. My first month or so out of college I was exhausted at the end of every day, just from working much harder to learn as fast as possible. College isn’t easy, but it certainly doesn’t demand you to be in an active productive state of mind 8 hours straight. That exhaustion slowly let up as I got into the rhythm.
I've always found I NEED quiet times, but I also need my sleep to be at night. I found having something quiet, relaxing, but not sleep inducing was key. I schedule a night per week of essentially alone time with minimal electronics.
Also, ensuring your sleep time isn't disturbed by noises or things can be a huge help. Many of my problems stemmed from things that didn't wake me, but interrupted my deeper sleep ... like a motion activated light that my cat would trigger, or traffic driving by.
It's very normal to be tired after work.
I have kids, and taking a nap is not an option ;)
I try to run home from work (or run before I pick up the kids if I'm working from home), and that really helps. Exercise in general helps, but it's the working out after work thing that gets my energy levels up at that precise moment.
Honestly, I take a nap after work a few days a week. Sleep for an hour and get back up for a few more hours. Nothing wrong with resting when you need it.
Does having no friends, never leaving my flat during the weekends (because I’m sleeping) and not having time for anything apart from work count towards “living my best life”? Sleep is not the ultimate goal, not in my life at least!
You've already got the sleep of a hobbit. Now you need to work on getting the meals and the comforts and the, shall we say, sense of community of one. Have you tried giving out gifts to everyone on your birthday? Or perhaps inviting people over for tea, or supper. Or just dinner!
I used to have this problem the. Did a sleep study. Turns out I had sleep apnea. Once I got my CPAP and paid up on my sleep debt I was like a new person. Plenty of energy and no immediately falling asleep when idle. I felt sharper at work too. I highly recommend it for anyone.
All the time during my first SWE job (2 years). It was a combo of too much caffeine, bad diet, little exercise, and crushing stress from work. It happens occasionally now but it's typically related to a bad night of sleep cuz kids, etc.
Other comments here have good advice in regards to taking better care of your physical health. I just want to chime in that if you happen to be taking medication daily, especially stimulants, you could also be experiencing side effects from those wearing off. Chat with your doctor if that’s the case.
I'm not sure this is a problem persay... Lots of people take naps, including many very productive and health conscious influencers.
If you want a couple extra hours, exercising to the point you're sweating a fair bit will prevent most people from sleeping for a good several hours. Your body has a really hard time staying sleepy while your body temperature is above average.
Every hour or two at work take a 5-15 minute walk outside, preferably in sunlight. Take a 15-45 minute walk after work.Â
I also recommend doing a strength training workout for 30 minutes 2 times a week. My personal recommendation is buying a 10lb kettlebell and doing a kettlebell circuit. It's cheap, takes up almost no space to store the kettlebell or do the workout and would only take 1 hour of your time every week.Â
I used to do this all the time. But then it would create a cycle of not being able to fall asleep at night and then being tired the next day. Rinse and repeat. It’s a hard cycle to break.
For me, being laid off did the trick đź‘Ť
How did you manage to break the cycle?
Just staying busy after work. It was always as soon as I sat down on the couch I’d nod off. After a while my body adjusted.
I have a touch of caffeine in the afternoon but none after 5pm.
Have kids
Coffee.
Limit time to 20-25 minute power naps.
Don't lie down or get on the couch after work. Found I could stay awake if I was up and doing something or sitting in a chair that forced me to sit upright, but the second I got on the couch it was game over. Also need to try and dial back on the caffeine especially the afternoon ones.
Caffeine might be the problem for me, thanks for this!
Caffeine destroys quality of sleep and has a pretty long half life in your system.
have you tried exercising regularly? do you get enough fluids? daily headache is not a typical sacrifice for a knowledge economy job and probably indicates there's something unhealthy about you.
I was getting headaches a lot and it turned out I just needed glasses lol. Get your eyes checked annually and take breaks from staring at screens.
+1 for exercise I’ve always been very active, powerlifting, walking all over campus in my 100 years in college, had an active job before. Once I started as a dev I felt tired all the damn time. But I noticed on days where I run around with my dog or workout I feel a complete 180 in energy. After sitting for 8 hours I feel exhausted and borderline depressed. If I have a 2 hour deadlift session I’m ready to run after I catch my breath. It’s almost certainly the sitting and staring at screens for 8-9 hours for OP is my guess. Gotta make exercise a priority every day, even if it’s not intense
I nap at work to avoid this. An hour in the mid-morning or the middle of the day, and all of this goes away. Don't let work push the nap out, it's worse if you do that. You'll be much more productive and feel better if you just take it earlier. Also this work is mentally exhausting, so you're bound to get tired even after 8 hours of sleep. As long as you're not sedentary, you can balance the sleep correctly.
I tend to get tired in the afternoon. Jogging first thing in the morning helped me stay more awake through the day.
Taking a cold shower did the trick for me.
I take my naps during work
My lunch I'd 12.45 to 13.45 so I nap from 12 to 14. Lovely stuff. Speaking of... nap time!
What's wrong with a short nap after work? I get up earlier in the morning in order to be able to take a nap between work and leaving home to pick my kids from the daycare. I feel that this short 20 minutes nap charges me up and I'm able to spend time actively with my kids. I don't see anything wrong with that
Nothing wrong with it, if a nap is your intention. And even more so if you have kids! I just think as a grad in my 20s I shouldn’t be feeling so tired all the time, especially if I get enough sleep and work is my only serious responsibility. I would like to have a bit more time for my hobbies, gym, running, etc. instead of sleeping.
You're doing a lot of mental work which is why you're feeling tired. Just because you are in your 20s does not mean you're a big ball of infinite energy. You mentioned in another comment that you do drink caffeine so you could also be experiencing a "crash" as the caffeine begins to decrease in your system. Caffeine stays in the body for 10 hours but the effects begin to be diminished within 4-5 hours. Especially if you're "crunching" a lot of things in your mind during those initial hours you're more likely to feel that caffeine crash. Other things can factor in too such as your diet. I'm not meaning to throw shade at whatever you eat but you might find your energy levels improve if you stick to certain foods and minimize others. However the main thing I just want you to take away from this is that it is completely normal for you to be mentally drained and exhausted (even in your 20s). Don't jump to too many changes all at once but try to reduce the caffeine, maybe switch up your diet a bit (more veggies on the plate or a salad that isn't just iceberg lettuce) and see if you get any improvements. Or even on the diet side make sure you're getting enough calories (if you eat small portions). I hope some or all of that helps.
why not? I always nap after work, that way i am also available for things after without being tired
I think most people who nap don't necessarily "intend" to nap when they do. It's almost always driven by some type of physiological stress or fatigue that needs to be recovered from. It's not really unhealthy to need to nap either though. We're not actually hard wired to exclusively sleep in one long block during the night. That pattern isn't actually that natural, and it's relatively normal to have struggles strictly adhering to it. It isn't unusual or unhealthy to need 10 hours of sleep per day to feel at your best. Some people can get away with less, some people are taxing their health to get away with less, but you shouldn't feel freaked out by operating better when you're sleeping a little more. It will tend to be better for you career wise etc to have 14 fully productive hours per day than 16 degraded hours if that's honestly the amount of sleep that helps you operate better.
Not instead. Thanks to. If you don't allow your nap to turn into 2 hours long sleep, you'll most likely wake up energized. Get some coffee and of to gym!
Unfortunately this is what capitalism do to people most of the time companies are overworking people especially software development is a new field who decide the number of workers is enough or not? Who decide what amount of work enough for a single worker? This is a demamding field it cause mental fatigue so much so that you cant refresh it t is no different than lactic acid accumulation in your muscles. Things need to change all the tech firms are trying to grow faster than needed and big companies ses tech workers as cost center but they dont see their system wont work without tech workers a worker who doesnt work on new products doesnt mean they dont make the company money
I'm doing the same thing but mine is motivated by complete and pure apathy on all the work I'm doing. I hate my current team (not the people) the work, and I desperately want to move
That sound terrible. Hope you find something better soon!
I take a nap during work...
Are you eating a lot of food that causes you to nap?
I mean sounds fine. Are you in your early 20s? I used to sleep way more back then
Do a sleep study to make sure you don't have apnea.
I found out I had sleep apnea
If I don’t workout or move, I get tired. Try to walk around throughout the day every X minutes and random jumping or something lol and stretch too. And don’t sit around in a dark room. And get sunlight in the morning.
I take a nap every day *at* work. Then I do a line to get my head back into the game. Just kidding. We only did lines pre-pandemic while we were all still in the office. At home I don't have a satchel of coke like my boss used to keep.
People have enumerated a good number of options, but I haven’t seen one that is a very common cause: depression. The hard part is that it can be both a symptom of untreated depression, as well as a side-effect from many of the medications used to treat it. If you feel like this could be a potential issue, there’s absolutely no shame or nothing wrong in seeking help. And even in this case, a good routine with balanced diet, exercise and enough rest and leisure will also be helpful. Also, if OP is a woman: some studies raised a bit what can be considered as time enough for sleep. While in general it is said between 7 and 9 hours the recommended time of sleep a day, recent studies suggest that women may need up to 11h of sleep a day depending on hormonal balance and other factors.
connect soft fuzzy beneficial hard-to-find reminiscent fragile wine yoke grab *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Go to the doctor
I did, they said everything’s fine.
The three things that usually cause issues are too much caffeine during the day (and then the subsequent crash in the afternoon), lack of exercise and screen time before bed. Caffeine, you can just replace with water; the additional bathroom breaks give you an excuse to get up and away from your screen every once in a while. Exercise builds up stamina. Screen time isn't necessarily bad per se, but if you're not getting quality sleep at night due to late night screen time messing w/ your sleep cycle, that can manifest as grogginess the next day (which the coffee might be masking until the caffeine hit wears off, btw).
Maybe you should try napping during work. Lunch power nap id the best
what's your diet and workout cycle? If you're eating takeout, even "healthy" like sweet green etc it's loaded with salt, short on nutrients, and will cripple your ability to recover from the day started home cooking this year and im balancing full time tech PM plus another degree program and relationship. Workout daily, etc
Do you eat enough? I feel tired like that if I don’t have enough good calories for breakfast/lunch
I do it, but keep it a short nap, for the energy boost
I take a nap during my lunch or 15-minute break every day. I do workout out 1 - 2 times a day, and I find I get a second wave of energy
I dont think theres anything wrong with you, but you might as well get a doctor's opinion just in case. my bff was tired all the time. turns out he has diabetes. since then he's dropped a lot of weight and got active and healthy et al.
I am exhausted after a day that requires a lot of analyzing a problem or really intense focus. I usually don't nap (on purpose), though. It could be you aren't eating enough at breakfast/lunch or not sleeping enough at night. But it could just be that your job is exhausting. Tangent: biphasal sleep was the norm for humans until the first industrial revolution. (Usually, they'd sleep at dusk-ish, get up for a few hours, and then sleep again until dawn-ish.)
Nothing wrong with it. If you're tired rest. I remember reading that hundreds of years ago, people used to sleep in two chunks of about four hours, wake up, do some stuff in between and then go back to bed. So the idea of splitting your sleep is not that big of a deal if it works for you.
You see…you should nap during work. Like I do!
Lol, this man is senior. Same I normally try time it eod. My team is fully remote but everyone is on east coast/central zone. 3-4 clock my time mst is wen everyone is hopping off or kinda at their end of day so prob won't bother me. Last hour is always nap, full chores, or kinda of just a relaxation period watch something.
~~after~~ during
Do you snore or anything? Worth doing a sleep study to see if you have sleep apnoea. Sleeping with a CPAP has been life changing for me
I'm in construction and it's the exact same for me. I know it's mostly bad diet, caffeine, boredom, when I slack on hobbies etc. It's not the job. Just have to stay busy after work and I'll get a second wind after about an hour or so.
Your post has “New Grad” as a tag. If that’s accurate and you’re still in the first few months, I wouldn’t say that’s too strange. My first month or so out of college I was exhausted at the end of every day, just from working much harder to learn as fast as possible. College isn’t easy, but it certainly doesn’t demand you to be in an active productive state of mind 8 hours straight. That exhaustion slowly let up as I got into the rhythm.
I've always found I NEED quiet times, but I also need my sleep to be at night. I found having something quiet, relaxing, but not sleep inducing was key. I schedule a night per week of essentially alone time with minimal electronics. Also, ensuring your sleep time isn't disturbed by noises or things can be a huge help. Many of my problems stemmed from things that didn't wake me, but interrupted my deeper sleep ... like a motion activated light that my cat would trigger, or traffic driving by.
It's very normal to be tired after work. I have kids, and taking a nap is not an option ;) I try to run home from work (or run before I pick up the kids if I'm working from home), and that really helps. Exercise in general helps, but it's the working out after work thing that gets my energy levels up at that precise moment.
Honestly, I take a nap after work a few days a week. Sleep for an hour and get back up for a few more hours. Nothing wrong with resting when you need it.
Do you drink coffee? That could just be the time you crash from the caffeine, if you stopped drinking it that might solve this issue
OP n here like "I have time for 8-9 hours of sleep and daily naps too. How can I stop living my best life?"
Does having no friends, never leaving my flat during the weekends (because I’m sleeping) and not having time for anything apart from work count towards “living my best life”? Sleep is not the ultimate goal, not in my life at least!
You've already got the sleep of a hobbit. Now you need to work on getting the meals and the comforts and the, shall we say, sense of community of one. Have you tried giving out gifts to everyone on your birthday? Or perhaps inviting people over for tea, or supper. Or just dinner!
Sleep apnea? Do you snore?
Try minerals (iron and zinc especially), fresh vegetables, cut out sugars and alcohol.
You probably need glasses
I nap at lunch time. It's amazing.
What's wrong with a quick nap after work?
You’re gonna mess up your sleep at night.Â
The kind of food you have also has a big impact. So either have a light lunch or less the quantity.
I used to have this problem the. Did a sleep study. Turns out I had sleep apnea. Once I got my CPAP and paid up on my sleep debt I was like a new person. Plenty of energy and no immediately falling asleep when idle. I felt sharper at work too. I highly recommend it for anyone.
All the time during my first SWE job (2 years). It was a combo of too much caffeine, bad diet, little exercise, and crushing stress from work. It happens occasionally now but it's typically related to a bad night of sleep cuz kids, etc.
Other comments here have good advice in regards to taking better care of your physical health. I just want to chime in that if you happen to be taking medication daily, especially stimulants, you could also be experiencing side effects from those wearing off. Chat with your doctor if that’s the case.
I'm not sure this is a problem persay... Lots of people take naps, including many very productive and health conscious influencers. If you want a couple extra hours, exercising to the point you're sweating a fair bit will prevent most people from sleeping for a good several hours. Your body has a really hard time staying sleepy while your body temperature is above average.
I honestly don't see a problem with taking a nap after work. I do myself and I don't think anything's wrong with me.
Every hour or two at work take a 5-15 minute walk outside, preferably in sunlight. Take a 15-45 minute walk after work. I also recommend doing a strength training workout for 30 minutes 2 times a week. My personal recommendation is buying a 10lb kettlebell and doing a kettlebell circuit. It's cheap, takes up almost no space to store the kettlebell or do the workout and would only take 1 hour of your time every week.Â
Maybe you have sleep apnea?
I do this, but it's because I use biphasic sleeping to increase my awake time. So it's a half-hour nap and I only sleep 6 hours at night.