[gyomu]

When I was in college (over 20 years ago now), what we called “hackathons” was a bunch of us (4-6 max) holing up in an apartment for the weekend, and working on our personal projects while ordering pizza and sleeping on couches.

It was really nice having a group of people you could demo what you were working on/ask for help or feedback within immediate range at all times. There was also something really peaceful about coding at 5a on Sunday while everyone else was fast asleep.

When I moved to SF, I was so surprised to find out that there were “professional” hackathons. I went to a couple and came to the same conclusion as you.

I do miss the vibe of the OG hackathons I did with my friends, but I was 19 and we had no commitments back then. Nowadays the best way for me to be productive is to have regular meal, disciplined working hours, and good nights of sleep - so no more sleeping on couches with half empty boxes of pizza by my side.

[sublinear]

I... I'm about to hit 40 in a couple of years, and I still pull all nighters on the couch when I'm deep into my weekend hobby projects.

Not to be overly sentimental, but for me the 5am feeling is still the same if not better with family and pets around and the sunrise view I created for myself.

[colechristensen]

I find that I still can do the all nighters but much like the festive overconsumption of alcohol, the recovery time tripled and made the whole thing very much not worth it (except maybe on very rare occasions).

Sure I can stay up all night but it really just ruins the entire next week.

[applied_heat]

I swore them off after my last one. Mid 40s. All nighters used to be a source of joy though to get what felt like days worth of work done in a single sitting enabled by the absence of distractions

[Fuhrmanator]

It's anecdotal, but several nasty bugs involved code committed (according to git blame) between 11pm and 6am. Sometimes I hardly recognized the code as mine.

[tough]

Write drunk, edit sober

Twain or something

[sdrinf]

Early-40s here who still does all-nighters. How long is recovery time for you? What does it entails -ie what doesn't work as much as it should / takes longer while you recover?

[herewulf]

Mid 40s and I'll still do all-nighters on occasion when necessary. Recovering from sleep is no problem, recovering from an angry wife after sleeping well into the afternoon is trickier! ;D

[whatevermom]

This lol. At least she’s keeping you healthy by preventing you from wrecking your sleep schedule :-)

[colechristensen]

I'm very tired a mildly stupid and my body has no idea at all when it should be asleep for about a week at which point i'm mostly but not entirely better. then again I always had trouble with keeping a regular sleep schedule

I have long since learned how to maintain a healthy sleep schedule when the system is not disturbed by stupid decisions, my techniques just don't work as quickly as they used to. (the most impactful technique is "don't stay up all night, idiot")

[Aeolun]

At 37, it always seems like I’m still fine after several days of this, but then randomly I’ll suddenly be so sick that I need days to recover.

I’m guessing this means that the longer it goes on, the worse of an idea it will be.

[Cypher]

Early 40's too lets jam together

[jdbernard]

I hit 40 this year. I have definitely noticed a slowdown even in the last few years. Before 30 I could pull 2-3 all-nighters a week without really feeling any ill effects.

Then, maybe early-to-mid 30's I could only handle one per week, assuming I'd slept well otherwise. The sleep debt would be too high still and the next day I'd get headaches, feel extremely tired and unmotivated. Or I could sustain 2-4hrs of sleep a night for like 3-4 days, but again I'd pay for it if I didn't catch up (pretty sure I'm paying for it long-term anyways).

Here at the end of my 30's I can't really do a full 40-hours straight without sleep anymore (16hr day, 8hr night, 16hr day, then sleep). If I don't get at least 2hrs overnight then that second day is mostly wasted, maybe I get 4hrs out of the 16.

I've always known that sufficient sleep is important for your health, and I've tried to balance times of all-nighters with crashes to catch-up, but the allure of using the night as uninterrupted focus time is so strong when you work in modern corporate "open-plan" environments where always-on Slack/Teams presence is expected during business hours.

[fitzzy]

I'm much the same. For me, though, the best all-nighters have come from when insomnia hits and I can't stop thinking about a bug. Then I cave in, get out of bed, and hack away.

It's essential to have a flexible employer though.

[Cypher]

come over for pizza and lets work on a project together :3

[Aeolun]

Why would you sleep on the couch?

[ab0aa907]

Because it is one of the best sleeps when work/code/game until you pass out.

[volkk]

probably to avoid waking up his wife/kids if he's going to sleep at 5am

[idiotsecant]

I think those times are past us now. It's interesting how you usually only see what made some place and time special once it's no longer possible. Live in the now is the lesson, I guess!

[bendbro]

> There was also something really peaceful about coding at 5a on Sunday while everyone else was fast asleep

Great times

[dabockster]

I still do this occasionally, but I instead go to bed super early and wake up at 4:30-5 AM. You get the serenity of coding at the break of dawn but with none of the grogginess of the all nighter.