[slicktux]

I sometimes ge the most complex logical dreams whilst going to sleep on a programming problem. The dreams are normal dreams but structured like a programming problem or logic…it’s like my brain is trying to dream normally but it’s also Fixated on programming logic so it subliminally incorporates it into dreams. Then I wake up and I feel like I’ve compiled the whole code in my head and did not rest.

[anyfoo]

I haven't had this in a long time, except for on the (fortunately rare) occasion that I have a fever. Fever dreams are already hell, but if they're non-sensical programming/computer science fever dreams, they were extra hell.

I remember one particular one a few decades ago, where I was feverishly (pun intended) trying to achieve something with XML, only it being a fever dream, nothing of it made sense, so I was wracking my brain for nonsense those entire hours.

[chrisweekly]

I've had similar experiences, and (having studied neuroscience as an undergrad and in casual / amateur research in the many years since) feel there's a lot of untapped potential to leverage in our hypnopompic and hypnogogic states (at the fuzzy boundaries of sleeping / wakefulness). Fascinating stuff.

(tangent) Also, please forgive my question which may seem impolite but I really want to know: why did you type "whilst" instead of "when" or "while"? Have you ever said the word "whilst" out loud, in a normal conversation? More letters, an extra (half)syllable, zero meaning or nuance added, I just don't get it. I wonder this every time I see it, mean no disrespect and would be grateful for a straightforward reply. (/tangent)

[pbhjpbhj]

Whilst/while is interesting.

Whilst to me is like being in the midst of something, not just that it is happening somewhere. It seems to have more specificity than 'while'.

"Whilst boarding the train..." Is going to be followed by something personal or hypothetical.

However, I think I'm prone to overlaying a gloss on words that isn't necessarily shared.

As I intimated 'whilst' I would use in philosophical contexts, arguments where there are alternative hypotheticals, say. "Whilst it might be said...".

Most likely it's just subconsciously learned, a product of native/mother tongue learning.

Would be interesting to see the word vectors extracted from literature/media moving over time and across contexts in order to make a comparison.

[spaghettifythis]

Not op, but I often do say 'whilst' out loud. It feels more structured and certain than 'while', which feels floppier as a word.

[skinfaxi]

It's to be used when the word that follows begins with a vowel sound.

[moi2388]

Is it? Do you have a source for this? Afaik ‘while’ is often used in US English and ‘whilst’ in British English.

[finghin]

both are definitely used in modern British English, but whilst is strange to my ears as I grew up in Ireland

[slicktux]

No offense taken; I do say it out loud during conversations ; at times. I find myself ‘saying’ it more in my head whilst having a stream of consciousness moment.

I find that I have two personalities and my writing/text personality is much more sagacious and better spoken (if that makes sense??)

[QuaternionsBhop]

This happens to me too. Often my dream plows forwards with unsound assumptions and I wake up believing something confusing.

[satvikpendem]

Now try lucid dreaming those, it's amazing and brings me closer to Nolan's Inception than ever before. I even think I've had lucid dreams since before that movie came out as apparently he was directly influenced by lucid dreamers.

[lukan]

Well, maybe you did work on your problems in your sleep and did get less rest because of it, so the new insights you got the next day(s), the groundwork for it might have happened in your sleepwork.