LordCobol

Join Date 08/2008

+12

from Ars Technica "Weird Science" column

"When you're low on sleep, it all looks good: I get a bit cranky when I'm not getting a sufficient amount of sleep, but I have seen people who get a bit giddy instead. This latter reaction is apparently the norm. After a bout of sleep deprivation, a trip to the MRI shows that subjects tend to have an overactive reward system, making them more prone to judge emotional stimuli as pleasant compared to control subjects. The risk here is that anyone trying to make a decision after pulling an all-nighter will be prone to assuming everything will work out well."

"'Based on this evidence, I'd be concerned by an emergency room doctor who's been up for 20 hours straight making rational decisions about my health," said the paper's author. I also wouldn't necessarily trust the sleep-deprived to take an important exam."

Or decide when a game is ready to release ?

elemental

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Ha ha, oh a left jab. I agree 100% that sleep deprivation can be lifting to one's mood, I'm glad to see it's been scientifically studied. I don't think it's as reducible to thinking everything will work out, though. It's more like everything small bothers you less. Also sleep can be sort of be described as blissful, so it's more like your mind slips into half-sleep when it's idle. I think there's an opposite effect from sleeping too much also, will make you more grumpy. A bad decision from not enough sleep - would be more due to not being able to devote energy to focus on a problem, not from viewing things in a too optimistic light. I don't think happy people make worse decisions than upset people, probably the opposite. Wait, is this about Elemental?

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I can vouch for that. Every time I'm sleep deprived I think the shows I make are Oscar material... if interent things had the Oscars. In the morning though, they are somewhat stale.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2415

I can vouch for that. Last Summer, every Tuesday and Thursday were all nighters. That is, I'd come in Tuesday morning and work until Wednesday evening, then go home and repeat the same process the next day.

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Nice find. Interestingly enough, one of the most reliable short-term "cures" for depression is sleep deprivation. I would imagine that what was reported in that article is capturing some of the mechanism behind that.

The brain is a pretty odd machine, huh?

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2415

The WOM launch would probably make a pretty good case of the effects of sleep deprivation. The week leading up to launch was a 129 hour week for me -- 3 all nighters that week according to my log.

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Alstein

Join Date 07/2004

+55

This is why delays > crunch. Simply put, I don't think a developer can put their best work out while crunching. This is why I cringe and worry about a game's quality whenever I hear about crunch.

I don't think GC2 had anywhere near the amount of crunch Elemental did.

My experiences working all-nighters in weather - I understand the giddiness part of that myself.

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ElanaAhova

Join Date 09/2008

+105

Frogboy, you shared that you did several all nighters re: EWoM, but did not say anything about the relative quality of your work during these times. How do you rate your outcomes on the times you did all nighters vs. work periods consisting of 'normal' sleep times?

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