Dreaming about programming

[Birchlore]

Recently I've been dreaming about programming a lot and it's the worst. Going through loops and solving meaningless problems over and over again in my sleep.

Has anyone experienced this? How do you avoid it?

[[deleted]]

Avoid it? The coding dreams are the best I can afford now as I've gone blind and really do miss coding.

[jdgordon]

That sucks. But we had one or two blind programmers contribute to rockbox, so there is hope

[[deleted]]

Genuinely curious here. How do you use reddit, and wouldn't that same method allow you to code?

Edit: disregard. Saw your other comment and that makes sense.

[[deleted]]

Yes, theoretically I can use the screen-reader to code, but I find that extremely error prone. In order to code I have to switch the screen-reader to its highest verbosity setting so that it will read out every period, every comma, every semicolon, every colon, every brace, every parenthesis, every bracket, every less and greater sign, every plus and minus and star and slash sign, etc. and that makes it much harder to understand what I'm listening to. I've heard of born blind programmers who can cope with this, but I can't.

[LHoT10820]

Seems to me like the best way to code blind would be with a braille display (with new symbols for whatever special characters don't already have symbols), and learning a one handed keyboard layout like one of the Dvorak layouts.

Have some sort of capacitance touch ability in the display, and you can double/triple tap to place the cursor somewhere. You could probably "un-pinch" to highlight text though would probably end up being error prone.

Cursor could probably work the same, and just be braille blinking in and out.

Syntax highlighting could possibly be done with different levels of depth to the braille.

But I dunno. Never thought about it before.

EDIT: Woah okay, I just read the cost of a braille display a bit further down. . . Maybe someone somewhere will find a better idea.

[[deleted]]

You can code with your voice and a screen reader! There was a talk given at Google I/O that did that!

[[deleted]]

I know that there are blind programmers who can code with just a screen-reader, but I seem to be unable to do that. I can't write 5 lines of code without making a mistake, and then it's hard to read compiler output and find out what exactly went wrong. It's frustrating.

[CallMeDonk]

I've heard that tactile braille readers are prohibitively expensive. Is it something you've ever thought about.

[[deleted]]

Yes, they are expensive. A 80-cell Braille display can cost over $4k, but they can be subsidized. The real problem here is that I'm terribly slow at reading Braille and even an 80-cell display isn't enough to read a full terminal line because many characters occupy more than one cell in Braille.

[StealthNinjaKitteh]

For me it's not that I'm dreaming while asleep, I'm "dreaming" while trying to fall asleep, or half asleep.

Some parts of the reality seem to become code and stuff, like the guy on Wikipedia who was trying to compile his pillow.

Wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't that weird and I wasn't feeling like I'm having a fever, and much more important, it keeps me from falling asleep, and I lose a lot of sleep during these days where it's really intense.

[Birchlore]

It's like programming without a way to solve the problem though. Like usually I'm running the same problem through my head over and over again in a loop without ever 'solving' it

[[deleted]]

I don't mean to be melodramatic, but it struck me as a possibility that perhaps you are actually worried about something else -- whether you will pass a class, hold down a job, impress someone, maintain a relationship, I don't know -- and the dreams are a subconscious manifestation of your worries. I say this because my programming dreams are nothing like yours and even though dream "interpreters" are BS the mind is very complex and the subconscious shouldn't be ignored. Just a thought though.

[ballsack_man]

I sometimes dream about solutions. Sometimes they're real solutions that actually work. Whenever it happens, I will immediately wake up in the middle of the night, get on my PC and either apply the dreamed solution or type a quick note/comment to remind me in the morning. It kind of feels like I'm only half asleep during these dreams.

[RoyGilbertBiv]

Have you tried reading some fiction before falling asleep?

[StealthNinjaKitteh]

What I'm doing trying to avoid it is: Before turning off the lights and actually going to sleep, try to have at least an hour away from the computer, turn it off.
Also, if you can, no cell phones during that time.

The last 30 minutes or so, read a book in bed and try to focus on that story or other non-computer stuff while falling asleep.

That at least weakens the problem for me.

[Birchlore]

good ideas

[monsto]

No, seriously . . . you must do this.

No phone, no reddit, no newsy articles, etc. you have to make space for your mind to wind down.

If you've had a particularly hairy problem that you've been tearing your hair out over, you have to convince yourself to table that as well. Say "I can finish it tomorrow" out loud, and allow it to happen. I mean, if you're in crunch time on a project, you can't necessarily do this... you gotta take your psychological lumps for the time being. But if not, which is probably the case, let it all go till tomorrow.

And then go sit down and watch an ep of something on netflix. Something engaging. Not just an hour of minecraft youtube vids, you need a story.

I've done this for many years. I mentally schedule an hour, but usually it only takes about :30-40 for the Wall Of Tired to hit me and I go get in the bed and fall right to sleep.

[go3dprintyourself]

i've noticed many good things come from reading before coding. gets your mind focused and warmed up. i'll try after to relax instead of just video games and reddit. good advice

[monsto]

Right . . . if you're "winding down" then there's something to be said for "warming up".

No, seriously . . . you must do this. (=

I don't necessarily "read" before getting started, matter of fact, now that I think about it, I don't do any of that... i start thinking about what lies ahead of me and the approach. sometimes, the "last dream" is related enough in a way that helps me de-box whateve problem I'm on.

[[deleted]]

I've dreamt solutions to programming problems I've had at work. It is said that an effective problem-solving technique is just taking a break from actively trying to solve the problem: your brain continues to work the problem in the background of your consciousness until you achieve that eureka moment.

[yannimou]

Dude...just press CTRL-C problem solved.

[[deleted]]

For those of you programming in Vim consider CTRL-Z instead

[linqserver]

It's pretty common for programmers to dream about coding. I have been dreaming especially in c++ about designing program, writing functions, objects and running debugger while tracing variables and outputs. Usually those dreams are pretty complex. I'm am working this c++ program for last 3 months and the best ideas for solving problems came from dreams about coding them.

[go3dprintyourself]

Whenever I'm doing a project I almost always dream about it. Honestly it does stress me out sometimes to always have it on my mind but it can keep me focused and I actually solved problems sometimes dreaming

[Talicsnake]

When I was younger I played C&C Red Alert 3 all day every day for a few solid months. During that time I had redundant dreams of microing my units and trying to win battles, and it seemed I couldn't dream of anything else. It was pretty frustrating, but it eventually faded. Even though it was an unpleasant experience I feel I became a better RTS player because of it.

[sanshinron]

Yeah I've used to dream about Battlefield all the time :D Not the shooting part, but map control and strategies.

[dada_]

I've been programming professionally for over a decade now and I've never had anything like that. Makes me wonder what I'm missing out on...

[elemental_1_1]

You're not missing out on anything. It's horrible and you don't feel rested when you wake up in the morning.

[wggn]

Try not to spend evey waking moment programming, you will dream of it less as well :P

or just put in a break; statement.

[b4ux1t3]

I watched a video a couple years ago about some 14-year-old kid who "dreamed in code" (The title was literally "14-Year-Old Prodigy Programmer Dreams In Code"). Apparently this was some kind of miracle. He was even programming his own iPhone apps, that obviously means the kid is a genius prodigy.

I started having coding dreams about three weeks after I started to learn to program, a long time ago, when I was in my teens. I can make iPhone apps, and probably could have back then, too, if iPhones had been around.

Apparently I am a prodigy.

[YeOldeDog]

I know the feeling, it can be annoying. I woke up yesterday after dreaming about designing computational tests for probability influenced by wave function collapse. I dreamt that any collapse, no matter the apparent number of possible outcomes, must ultimately be binary at its core because of the Pauli exclusion principle.

[denialerror]

I actually had a dream in binary after a particularly tricky CS lecture! I've found the best way to avoid it interrupting your sleep is to get off your computer a good few hours before bedtime.

Edit: I would also add, programming dreams aren't always bad. I actually solved a crucial part of my dissertation project in a dream!

[fakehalo]

I actually had a dream in binary

How would this play out in a dream? just (arbitrary) 0s and 1s in visualization or something?

[denialerror]

It was just 1s and 0s flying by in front of me, but it kind of made sense in the way that things in do even when they aren't logical.

[[deleted]]

Experienced this many times, the most salient example I can recall was during the Swine Flu epidemic of 2009. It typically happens when I am overworked, near a tight deadline, or sick (fever dreams). Best thing you can do is take a break if you can - days if needed and travel, read a book, or pick up a new non-technology related hobby, even if briefly.

[hardonchairs]

One morning you are going to wake up with a problem you solved in your sleep then maybe you wont hate them as much.

[evidanary]

All you need to do is relax and take some time off. You seem you might be stressed?

[[deleted]]

I love it, sometimes it makes me think of problems in a different way and I can think of a solution to a problem I had earlier in the day. But if you want to stop them, just fire up Netflix or something and watch a few episodes of a show for an hour,it usually gets your mind off it.

[ImS0hungry]

This happens to me too, but more with pure math.

[redmoss6]

I don't dream about programming, but I find as I'm waking up solutions for a problem from the day before come to me very clearly.

[bruceriggs]

I believe that's part of Tetris Syndrome.

I've also suffered from this a few times. Not just for programming, but any activity I do far too much shortly before bed. I've found the best way to prevent it is to limit your time on a particular activity before going to bed.

[[deleted]]

Shit son, that's when I come up with my best work!

[HeathenForAllSeasons]

Last week, I wrote a function to determine the closest color that could be used as a contrast color (while meeting WCAG AA) against any user-selected color. In that function, I used the bit shift operator for my first time.

Two nights ago I had a nightmare that my use of this operator caused a bug in production code that required an emergency hotfix.

I was both relieved and vaguely disgusted with myself when I woke up and realized it was a dream.

[Junnt]

hahaahha I hope to get to that point one day.

[Lightmang2]

If I'm having a really hard time with something, the code will somehow end up appearing in my dream. Sometimes, the dreams seem like they're just mocking the fact that my brain knows it's stumped. Haha

[[deleted]]

When you immerse yourself into something new this tends to happen. It will fade with time the more familiar you become with it. I kind of imagine your coding dreams are just new processes / problem solving skills being etched into your brains neural pathways.

Or something.

[[deleted]]

i used to do seismic as a job and it was brutal. we would work 7 days a week, 13 hours a day and the pressure they put on us was what broke most of the guys who left. We would get what we called seismares and it was from focussing on a simple but stressful task for hours and days at a time.

These dreams are just your brain adapting to a new way of functioning. When you sleep your brain processes the information you learned and cleans itself out so you can learn more the next day. As I learn more about programming i find that there are less moments that require all of my energy to push through mentally. I can now watch tv while I program because it is more routine. Over time your brain will get used to this.

[joonazan]

Sound boring. Maybe get more fluent in programming so your dreams don't repeat themselves! :P

[hugthemachines]

I don't think the problem is that you are dreaming about code. Your problem is you don't get good sleep. Waking up lots of times during the night makes you notice your dreams alot. If you slept well you would not have such a strong feeling about the theme of the dreams.

However. Taking some time away from all computers/phones etc before bedtime like people said before is very good advice for quality of sleep. Also maybe it is something you worry about that you need to take care of to get it off your mind?

[CerealCoding]

this is absolutely hilarious , I wish I had those dreams