Waking up thinking about code

#1

Is that normal?
I think I might have anxiety. I had a dream and I was coding or thinking of coding, and when I wake up the first thing I think about is coding.
I usually wake up anticipating my alarm clock, even on weekends.

How do you manage stress and anxiety?

I feel like I’m wasting valuable time that I could be working on my skills or projects.

:cold_sweat:

#2

I dream about code all the time.

As far as stress, many jobs have stress. Life can have a lot of stress. Dealing with stress is not unique to coding. Some stereotypical advice would be to get some exercise or take up meditation. Maybe do some research into the sources of your anxiety. Do some reading, talk to someone, etc.

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#3

I’m not convinced that dreaming about something means you are anxious about it. I mean, after a coding dream, do you look forward to coding something or dread it? I think there are many beliefs that dreams are directly connected to our conscious lives. If so, I’ve been attacked by aliens many times, since I was about 4 years old on a hot summer’s day. My feet were moving, but I wasn’t. Thankfully my legs worked after I woke up.

Gosh! Stay away from big pharma’s solution.

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#4

I often fall asleep with my mind digging at a coding challenge, working on trying to figure out the ins and outs of the problem, and often, when I wake up, I know the answer. Sometimes I remember dreaming about it, and sometimes my brain just needed the time to organize and collate.

Back when I was like nine, I decided one summer to open a nightcrawler business. Fishing is a thing around here, and we lived on a horse farm. Horse manure is great for producing two things: stink and worms. So there I was. After four days of digging worms, packing them in lots of 25 (in used yogurt containers), refrigerating them, spreading the piles and studying the care and feeding of worms… I had a solid WEEK of dreaming nothing but a writhing mass of worms.

Let me tell you, after THAT stuff… I LOVE my coding dreams.

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#5

So… a few things.

  1. Yeah. When I’m spending a lot of my conscious time thinking about or learning something, I often find it in my dreams (usually in totally weird ways, but I’m totally weird). This is especially true of those slowly-waking-up dreams in the morning. If I go to bed thinking about what I am going to do the next day, it is often very present in my mind when I first wake up.
  2. Programming can be a high-stress activity. We all have types of stress or pressure that we thrive in and types that will break us. Only you can determine what programming is for you.
  3. If anxiety (about coding or otherwise) is interfering with your ability to get good sleep, please consider getting some professional help regarding that. Mental health is a health concern and sleep is an important part of both mental and physical health. If you weren’t sleeping well because of your snoring, you would see a specialist. Anxiety that interferes with your wellbeing is just as valid a reason to see a specialist.
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#6

I guess it might be stress. Lot of work related issues.
And I also put a lot of pressure on myself, like as if we were in some kind of “race” to be a web developer. I want to get there there, I just have to understand it takes time.

I signed up to codewars, and completed the first challenge, and seeing the “best practices” most voted solution gave me this sad feeling of ineptitude. Like I was playing with sticks and you guys were flying jets. Anyways, It’s all on me for putting so much pressure on me.

thanks for reading :wink:

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