Coffee, Caffeine, etc.

[Garoth Moulinoski]

Usually on a typical weekend I might be able to scrounge six or seven hours out for dork cave gaming, but I plan to get at least double that this weekend. 

You're unhealthy. ._.

...I'm doubting myself as a gamer now. But I think it's for the best.

[DankPanties]

Unhealthy?  How so?  Sleep deprived for sure!  But I am a vegetarian and I work out every day.   

Or do you think out of a whole weekend, six or seven hours is bad?  Then there are a lot of unhealthy people on this board!

Here's a story though, this will probably be TMI, but I think there's a moral enough:

You see, on a normal weekend, during the daytime, I spend that with my significant other, and also family obligations.  So I don't start gaming until 10:30 or 11:00 at night.  Then I will play until 1 or 2 in the morning.  Actually, that's pretty much the case for week nights lately too.  At least on the weekend I don't get up at 6:50AM, more like 9:00AM, so I catch a little more sleep.  Now sure, I could be a selfish jerk and tell my gf and family to kiss off and just game whenever I want.  But then, they would all feel neglected and my personal life would suffer for sure.  So I choose to give up sleep instead, but still have a love life and a gaming hobby.  Every now and then though, my gf goes out of town to visit her folks.  I flip-flop when I go with her (getting a little time apart periodically is good for a healthy relationship).  This time is a flop, so I'm staying home over the weekend alone.  Which means, aside from doing chores, I can say fuck the world and just game my ass off old school style.

HOWEVER I would never do that to the detriment of my relationship.

See... I know a guy who used to game hardcore all the time and ignore his wife too often for his gaming hobby.  Still, they were married for a long time.  One day though, she suddenly died of a heart attack.  After that, he verbally lamented that he wished he had spent more time with her when he could have.  He wished he could trade all those JRPG hours back for relationship hours with her.  Well, I took that to heart (no pun intended).  I swore that I would only hardcore game after my gf goes to sleep at night, and rather spend my time with her while she's awake.  Luckily she likes to go to bed around 9:30pm or this would be a problem.  So I'd rather have dark circles under my eyes and a happy gf, than a pit of regret where my heart was and a dead wife.  That isn't to say that his neglect killed her (I have mixed feelings but it's a long story), but you can't take time back you already spent on gaming.

The whole point here is... never take anyone in your life for granted, and don't choose hobbies over their desire to be with you.

Regret is the final boss you can never beat.

[Garoth Moulinoski]

DP... I'm at work... I'm shedding tears at work. Curse you.

I don't have a significant other (thankfully?), so I could, theoretically, game all I want. But I end up getting tried of playing games (or the same game) for too long, so I like to go on walks, or drive someplace...

But I will keep your experience in mind. I've always been afraid of how I'll behave if I ever have a girlfriend or get married... I don't want to give up my hobbies but I don't want to be a burden or embarrassment to anyone... But your story brought another thing to get worried over!

Anyway, I guess that must be why you seek out multiplayer, co-op games!

[DankPanties]

Yes, yes, yes.  Get your girlfriends or wives to enjoy co-oping with you, and you'll have it made fine folks.  You'll get to game more often, and it'll build up your teamwork skills (applicable to real life too as far as cooperation / compromising goes).  It feels really good to take down bosses with your significant other.  But that's not all we do, of course.  Our other big hobby is hiking in state parks, but this time of year it's too !$@$!% hot for that.  So we're just watching Game Of Thrones right now.

When you do get in a serious relationship Garoth, you don't have to give up your hobbies, you just have to scale them back a bit.  You get other rewards to compensate though.   

[Nightcrawler]

I've always been afraid of how I'll behave if I ever have a girlfriend or get married... I don't want to give up my hobbies but I don't want to be a burden or embarrassment to anyone... But your story brought another thing to get worried over!

If your wife or girlfriend makes you give up your hobbies, you've found the WRONG person! DP has got it right. Typically the right person will want to share in many of your hobbies, including gaming. You can expect to scale back a bit, but only because a new responsibility more important than gaming has been added to your life like any other.

DankPanties:

I commend you for being able to live and function on that schedule. I get up at 6AM and *I* go to bed at 10PM. I am heavily sleep deprived with those hours. I'm practically in a coma on the weekend trying to pay off my sleep debt. You are able to get much more life and hours out of your day than me. I wish I could function on less sleep like that. 

[DankPanties]

I commend you for being able to live and function on that schedule

It has been through years of conditioning.  I have always been a night owl who didn't sleep enough even when I was single.

My current schedule is... during weekdays, I get up at 6:50AM, and go to bed by 1:00AM.  That's Mon-Fri.  Sat and Sun, I get up at 9:00-10:00AM, and go to bed between 1:00-2:00AM.  So how can you survive on 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night (most of the week)?  I have three tricks I use:

COFFEE.  I drink 3-5 cups a day.  This brand.  I find instant has more kick than brewed, personally.

A 15-30 minute nap every other day, as soon as I get home.  I use this handy device for timing my naps and waking me up.

And last but perhaps most important, exercise.  Right now in the evenings everyday I walk 2 miles, run 1 mile, and do a shit load of pushups.  Luckily my gf does this with me, having an exercise partner makes it so much easier.  When I was completely out of shape I used to think the whole "exercise gives you more energy" thing was bullshit.  It seemed counter intuitive.  But I was wrong.  The more in shape you are, the more energy your body produces.  There are plenty of other benefits too, but being able to stay awake when you should be passed out at night is a big plus.

That said, yes, I am tired a lot of the time, and sometimes my brain is only working at 60% capacity (not good for engineering meetings).    But I'd rather be tired half the time, but still have a good relationship and indulged hobbies.  I figure I'll sleep plenty when I pass on, or at least when I retire.

[MegaManJuno]

I haven't (yet) convinced my wife to try gaming with me (afraid she'll become "addicted" given a bout with GB Tetris back in the day ), but I did at least get her to learn Magic: The Gathering. So at least one of my major hobbies she participates in.

Much like DP, I usually average probably 6 hours sleep on weeknights, but sleep in on the weekends. She goes to bed usually between 10PM-11PM, then I game between then and 1AM-2AM. On the plus side, I'm currently on a contract where I can work remote, so I roll out of bed and just walk down the hall to the home office.  Things may change in a month when the contract is up, but we'll see.

[Nightcrawler]

I'm screwed...

COFFEE.  I drink 3-5 cups a day.  This brand.  I find instant has more kick than brewed, personally.

Unfortunately, I don't really like the taste of coffee, and I'm pretty straight edge and don't like the idea of consuming so much caffeine. Iced tea or some high sugar beverage is about it for me. As you might imagine, that doesn't get me very far. I can net about 30 minutes extra! 

A 15-30 minute nap every other day, as soon as I get home.  I use this handy device for timing my naps and waking me up.

I tried this. I practically go straight to stage 4 sleep in 15-20 minutes. I wake up angry and even more groggy. Unfortunately, naps don't seem to work for me either. My wife certainly prefers I don't take any.

And last but perhaps most important, exercise.  Right now in the evenings everyday I walk 2 miles, run 1 mile, and do a shit load of pushups.  Luckily my gf does this with me, having an exercise partner makes it so much easier.  When I was completely out of shape I used to think the whole "exercise gives you more energy" thing was bullshit.  It seemed counter intuitive.  But I was wrong.  The more in shape you are, the more energy your body produces.  There are plenty of other benefits too, but being able to stay awake when you should be passed out at night is a big plus.

I strongly disagree here for me. I've been in very good shape my entire life. Been working out since I was 6 and started wrestling. Along the way, I've been in the kind of shape necessary to scale the tallest free-standing mountain on Earth. Unfortunately too much time in the last few years has been spent on rehabbing medical problems severely hindering my workouts, but I do the best I am physically able to. In any event, I work out after work and I'm ready to pass out when I'm done. Working out is exhausting, not exhilarating for me. Do you work out after dinner or before?

I went to the doctors a few times for blood workup and check for things like iron deficiency that could cause fatigue. They kept giving me a clean bill of health in that area. I think I am simply just one of those people who needs a lot of sleep and I just can't get it within the confines of society's schedule.

One interesting thing of note is that I tend to be a night owl by nature if allowed to be free. If I get an extended break from work on vacation, my sleeping schedule typically naturally migrates to say 12AM-2AM bed time to wake up around 9-10AM. That seems to be my natural cycle. I find that if I get the same amount of sleep at those hours, the results are much different than forcing them between 10PM and 6AM. Unfortunately, no job I've ever been able to land will allow for that. Also, the older I get, the more days I need to be free before I start feeling refreshed again. The weekends aren't even enough anymore. I go weeks without feeling refreshed. I can't imagine it's healthy, but I don't know what I can about it and still pay all the bills.

That said, yes, I am tired a lot of the time, and sometimes my brain is only working at 60% capacity (not good for engineering meetings).    But I'd rather be tired half the time, but still have a good relationship and indulged hobbies.  I figure I'll sleep plenty when I pass on, or at least when I retire.

Sleep deprivation is terrible for an engineer. I am one too. When new ideas and fixing complex problems are the bulk of your work, it's greatly affected by how fresh you are. For me, sometimes it gets so bad that I don't even want to do anything when I am home because I'm too tired and can barely stay awake.


P.S. Oops. Seems we veered the ship way off course. I can split these posts to new topic if continued discussion is desired.

[SargeSmash]

As someone that doesn't sleep well, I don't operate well on that little sleep.  Five or six hours?  I need eight or nine of my crappy sleep just to function properly.

I'm an engineer, too.  And some days, it just sucks.  I'm definitely not always operating at peak efficiency.  It usually takes me until the afternoon to really build up a head of steam, and I'll usually stay a bit later if I'm on a roll.  If I could do like my brother, and zonk out 15 seconds after his head hits the pillow, I'd probably do better.  As it is, it's 30 minutes minimum before I'll go to sleep, and I'll usually wake up a couple of times a night.  (Not to mention the nights where my brain just won't freaking shut down.)

[DankPanties]

I'm pretty straight edge

I don't think of coffee as a drug, personally.  Okay yes it is addictive, that's true.  However, coffee has a large range of nutritional benefits that I won't go into because surely 5 people will jump on me here and say I'm wrong, nature of this forum and all.  I will add though, I do not drink alcohol whatsoever, smoke tobacco, or do any sort of illegal drugs.  So I consider myself straight edge too.  I also don't eat meat, and I'm currently on a no wheat diet.

Do you work out after dinner or before?

I eat dinner before.  Simply because I don't like being hungry while exercising.  Also after exercise and showering, I want to be ready to just relax, not have to make dinner.  It's unfortunate exercise doesn't give you NC more energy (over time).  I feel like shit if I miss a day of not doing it.

I think I am simply just one of those people who needs a lot of sleep

That's how my gf is too.  If she doesn't get 9-10 hours a night she's quite irritable.  I honestly believe it's a matter of conditioning yourself.  That said, my daughter is a night owl like me and will stay up all night if I let her.  So maybe it's genetic after all.

That seems to be my natural cycle.

The few times I've gone unemployed for months, I ended up getting up at 4PM and going to bed around 6AM.  I suppose naturally I am a damn vampire.

Sleep deprivation is terrible for an engineer. I am one too.

I am not an engineer, I am an IT tech guy, but sometimes I get dragged into engineering meetings, and have to engineer my own hardware/software solutions for problems.  So I guess 10% of the time I'm an engineer.

it gets so bad that I don't even want to do anything when I am home because I'm too tired and can barely stay awake

As someone that doesn't sleep well, I don't operate well on that little sleep.  Five or six hours?  I need eight or nine of my crappy sleep just to function properly.

To both of you; If you're averaging 8 hours a night, I wonder if you're not getting proper sleep while you ARE sleeping.  Have you ever had a sleep study done?  Perhaps you are suffering from some sort of apnea or something.  I would recommend a polysomnography ASAP men!

Seems we veered the ship way off course.

I'll take her back into the brink:

So last night in FFXII I took out my first level V mark.  The Antlion in the Lhusu Mines.  It turns out after you kill it, you find out indeed that one of the mine keys WAS dropped to Phon Coast below.  But you are given a different key as a reward.  So the thing is, there are multiple keys to different parts of the mine.  It makes much more sense now.  After that, I went back to Mt Bur-Omisace and absolutely slaughtered Judge Bergan.  Feeling like a badass, I attempted to take out Zeromus in the Stone Of The Condemner sidequest within the Stilshrine of Miriam.  And, well, Zeromus kicked my teeth in.  So I picked those up with broken fingers and decided to head on up to the Salika Woods.  If all goes as planned, I will sink much time into this masterpiece JRPG this weekend.   

[LostTemplar]

I'm probably similar to DP. The first thing I like to sacrifice is sleep because I think it's a waste of time. Based on experience I can say that with about 8 hours of sleep I'm perfect, with about 6 hours I have no problems over the day, and anything below that starts to become a detriment to my concentration & energy. I'm not really working out, so it's might be that it's genetic. I also sleep like a stone, or so my girlfriend tells me.

That said, I also concur with the notion that it's definitely the wrong person if you have to quit any hobbies you like. I can basically play whatever I like without my girlfriend complaining, and some genres (survival horror, platformers, ...) we can even enjoy together. Sometimes she also plays on her own, especially on the DS.

[Panzer88]

I don't think of coffee as a drug, personally.  Okay yes it is addictive, that's true.  However, coffee has a large range of nutritional benefits that I won't go into

So does marajana, cocaine, wine, etc.

Im not saying it's the same thing, but if you drink coffee or soda daily and you think you aren't dependant, you're kidding yourself. Try to go a month without any products with caffeine.

[SargeSmash]

Withdrawal from caffeine isn't nearly as bad, but it does have side effects, usually those that revolve around headaches.  I know I'm "addicted", in the sense that I need at least a little caffeine before it hits noon, or I'm going to have a dull headache for the rest of the day.

[Azkadellia]

I've been through caffeine withdrawal. It's not fun. I had a constant headache for a few days, only finding relief from taking Tylenol.

[DankPanties]

if you drink coffee or soda daily and you think you aren't dependant, you're kidding yourself. Try to go a month without any products with caffeine.

Really?  So that must be why I previously said:

Okay yes it is addictive, that's true.

Dude, you like totally pointlessly pointed out what I had already pointed out.

Great job!

[Gideon Zhi]

I drink coffee twice a week! And I'm okay with that. Sometimes three times, depending. But even then three is a rarity.

[BRPXQZME]

Ei! wie schmeckt der Coffee süße, lieblicher als tausend Küsse, milder als Muskatenwein.

Coffee, Coffee muss ich haben, und wenn jemand mich will laben, ach, so schenkt mir Coffee ein!

[LostTemplar]

I don't like the taste of coffee. Caffeine doesn't help me very much anyway, in the end it usually makes me more tired than I was before.

[Gideon Zhi]

I don't like the taste of coffee.

I'll be the first to admit that it's very much an acquired taste. I only started drinking coffee a year and a half ago or so, and it took some time, but I grew to appreciate the flavor. Of course, at the time I was only restricted to drinking water and (occasionally) tea, and coffee was a novel flavor that I never really liked prior but was allowed to consume, so I tried it and got used to it :p

[DankPanties]

Yes coffee is one of those "acquired tastes".

You know, like beer or roguelikes.

But there are as many flavors and brews of coffee as there are wines.  There's surely one out there for everyone.  I'll freely admit that the instant coffee I prefer tastes like battery acid.  I only drink it 'cause it's got the biggest caffeine kick I've come across.  It'll put hair on the hair on your chest.