When I was in college, I'd wait until the night before an assignment was due, then I'd work on it all night until it was time to leave for class. I'd go to class with no sleep, but as soon as class was over, I'd find a place in the building to crash for a few hours.

 

When I was in college, I'd wait until the night before an assignment was due, then I'd work on it all night until it was time to leave for class...

Yea. That, and with a twelve pack of beer.

 

Yea. That, and with a twelve pack of beer.

For me it was a BIG pot of coffee.

 

I am a night person and I do my best thinking from 9 PM to 3 AM.

Are you sure? Perception of time changes at night. I can remember working on some programming problem late at night, thinking I was making great progress. Then I'd look at the clock and realize how much time had gone by. Or I'd get up the next day and realize I'd spent hours writing crap.

Try doing timed sudoku puzzles. I might average 5 minutes in the morning but 8 minutes at night, but the latter may feel faster.

 

Are you sure? Perception of time changes at night. I can remember working on some programming problem late at night, thinking I was making great progress. Then I'd look at the clock and realize how much time had gone by. Or I'd get up the next day and realize I'd spent hours writing crap.

Try doing timed sudoku puzzles. I might average 5 minutes in the morning but 8 minutes at night, but the latter may feel faster.

When I was young, dumb and happy and living in the dorms, I would take naps in the afternoon so I could study calc and physics when it was quiet in the dorm (easier to sleep than study in the ruckus). My mind always needed (and still needs) quiet for deep analysis and creativity. I would never be successful working in a cube farm.

 

It sometimes takes me a couple of hours to fall asleep. I lay there awake in the dark until after midnight, when I have to wake up at 5am, thinking about random crap. It takes that long for the flywheel of my mind to wind down, if I've had the speed turned up to 11 all day.

I've been struggling with an issue at work for a couple of days. One issue with my project that has been holding me back. I couldn't find or realize the cause of the issue. Two straight days banging my head against a wall, no progress. Then last night, laying in bed, I had an epiphany. I realized what was causing the problem and immediately knew what the solution was.

Fast forward to today, I can't remember what the hell I was thinking last night. So this morning instead of wasting time banging my head against the wall, I'm wasting time trying to retrace the steps in my mind and re-realize what I realized last night. I should have written it down, and the thought did occur to me to write it down, but (ironically) I remember thinking "no, this is too obvious and too important and too simple to forget."

I'm hoping that this little time-wasting exercise of online confessionals about my time-wasting and my faulty memory, will jog my faulty memory. It isn't working yet.

I've had similar things happen. I've had solutions come to me in my sleep, or sometimes when I'm taking a shower, or sitting on the can, or driving down the road -- basically my mind can't leave a problem alone and is constantly working on it even if I am doing something else. I remember one time I was talking to a general officer (a true four-start and you generally don't ignore what they are telling you -- even when it's crap, and this one wasn't in the habit of spouting crap) and my mind drifted off to a problem I had been fighting with and I got such an insight while standing there that I couldn't help but let my mind pursue it. He noticed and called me on it, but I was able to recover by basically saying, "I'm sorry sir, but something about what you just said gave me an idea as to how to solve a problem that I've been struggling with." Fortunately he didn't ask me anything about what he had just said, because I didn't have a clue.

But while I have had answers come to me in dreams (or while semi-asleep), I have also had epiphanies in my dreams that I KNEW were the exact answer to my problem only to realize upon waking (or sometimes even still in my dream) that it was pure bullcrap. Yes, it was a great solution in a totally fanciful dream world but bore absolutely no resemblance to anything remotely possible in the real world.

 

I dunno... she's the first one that came to mind... got a better suggestion? (hope she doesn't look like your avatar )

It's amazing what Hollywood make-up artists can accomplish, isn't it?

I'd offer up that gal in Divergent -- I think they picked her because they wanted to use someone the hinted at JL in Hunger Games.

 

My mother used to keep a pencil and paper beside her bed for that very reason, to jot down such useful thoughts; but was often surprised, come the cold light of day, to read the rubbish she'd written in the night.

I used to do the notepad thing. 90% of the time I discovered that my fatigue made me forget some simple laws of chemistry or physics because the ideas were usually really bad by the morning when I was back to my full, alert self.

... Now, I find that when this situation occurs to me, that if I let it go, it will come back to me later ... If it doesn't, I chalk it off to never being the correct solution in the first place.

But while I have had answers come to me in dreams (or while semi-asleep), I have also had epiphanies in my dreams that I KNEW were the exact answer to my problem only to realize upon waking (or sometimes even still in my dream) that it was pure bullcrap. Yes, it was a great solution in a totally fanciful dream world but bore absolutely no resemblance to anything remotely possible in the real world.

Well I never did remember what that "solution" was, so I'm going to try to take comfort in telling myself that whatever it was, was crap. I've since figured out another solution. It isn't perfect, but it works. Still feels like a compromise though, in light of the "one true answer" that night, if it ever were such. Time to "leave well enough alone" and move on. Thanks guys.