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Ask HN: Do other people have days in which they're dumber than usual?

by kidintech on 4/6/20, 5:24 PM with 63 comments

• by solaxun on 4/6/20, 5:57 PM

  Sadly I feel like it's the opposite for me, most days I'm running at half speed, and on a "good" day it's like I have a different brain - I process things more rapidly, I'm more optimistic, I get more done, etc.

  I suspect it's sleep related because I can generally feel how the day is gonna go within 10 minutes of being awake, but the frustrating part is that hours of sleep seems to have little bearing on how refreshed I feel in the morning. There is some correlation there, but not enough to say it's all about the hours.

  It's not sleep apnea or any known sleep disorder either, so please withhold the ensuing deluge of HN faux Dr's and their google-fu diagnoses ;)

  I don't recall this being an issue much in my 20's, maybe this is what aging is like. I've had to resort to just taking advantage of good days and doing as much work as possible, and then on bad days I'll just do mundane work I normally would otherwise not want to do.

  So at least for me - yes having good and bad days is entirely normal.

• by renewiltord on 4/6/20, 6:05 PM

  Yeah. Brain fog. I've traced mine to the following:

  + Stress on uncertain situations

  + Lack of sleep

  + Lack of clarity of 'the next thing to do'

  I can't solve the first, so I try to handle the latter two with the obvious solutions (sleep more, set next task) but also with other methods. I tried different Mg supplements, Caffeine + L-Theanine, -afinils, and Adderall under these circumstances. Adderall turbo'd my performance back up and past, the -afinils worked if sleep was the problem, and the others didn't help at all.

  If you are a disciplined person, then maybe occasional Adderall use will help. I have no dependence issues (use is roughly once / 3 months) but if you have discipline problems, then don't do it, tolerance is easy to build and addiction is possible.

  I am currently attempting CBT strategies. Going to give STOPP a shot.

• by photokandy on 4/6/20, 5:43 PM

  I wouldn't rule out the pandemic being an issue here. These are not _normal_ times, and is an additional stressor. For me stress _definitely_ impacts my ability to think clearly, and the higher the stress (even if not immediately obvious to me), the worse my thinking skills are.

  As another commenter mentioned, migraines can also do this. Not all migraines come with a lot of pain, so that's not always a dead giveaway. But during a migraine, my thoughts are muddy as hell.

• by neltnerb on 4/6/20, 5:49 PM

  Consider CO or CO2 being elevated indoors, which is a real thing. Consider working next to an open window if the climate allows it.

  But it's also often totally random to me, if something is uncomfortable (say my back hurts randomly that day from sleeping funny) it's distracting and makes it harder to focus.

• by PaulHoule on 4/6/20, 5:38 PM

  Yes.

  Also I have times when I just need to step back. For instance I am mostly a hardcore coder but I had to deal with some color and design issues that I felt really foggy when I tried to think about.

  After taking a break (and also reading CSS documentation to fill in gaps in my knowledge) it just hit me that the color pink was the answer to one problem and it was downhill from there except for the CSS property that it took forever to find.

• by luizfzs on 4/6/20, 5:49 PM

  Yes.

  As others have mentioned, taking a step back and trying to have in mind the end goal help me get on track. I also try to break the task in smaller steps, either mentally or on a notepad, where I outline the steps I have in mind.

  I noticed that it usually happens to me when I'm overwhelmed with the task.

• by outime on 4/6/20, 5:44 PM

  Yes, we're not robots, we have inconsistent state, it's ok to not be productive (work-wise) every day of our lives.

• by mojomark on 4/6/20, 5:52 PM

  Yes. I suspect it boils down to body chemistry. When I have caffeine, my recall is quicker and I'm more creative and focussed. Unfortunately, I can't stay caffeinated all day or my eye starts to pulsate and it feels like my heart is racing.

  If I could maintain my caffeine 'high' all day, I'd be much more successful, but it's not worth the health risk. I do alright, financially, in spite of that, but I'd like to accomplish more meaningful work. The comparison of my work between my morning coffee high and afternoon crash is night and day.

  I took Adderall once. I don't know it it was a placebo effect or not, but I knocked out a complicated physical simulation model (that I'd been puting off for months) in about 5 hrs, and to this day I've found very few errors in that model. ...I'm just saying.

• by beckingz on 4/6/20, 6:22 PM

  I usually have dumb days at least once per day, but on my most productive days I can get that up to 2-3 dumb days per day!

  But actually: Yes. This is totally normal?

• by bedsideserpents on 4/6/20, 5:54 PM

  So I have this too, try googling 'brain fog'.

  I've been trying for years to figure out exactly what causes it. Searching online gives you hundreds of possible causes, for ages I thought it was gluten in my diet, sugar, anxiety causing it, and to some extent I think all of these do affect it.

  Recently though I've noticed that sleep might be causing it, specifically breathing through my mouth when I sleep causes me to have a foggy feeling throughout the day, so I'm working on trying to breathe through my nose for the whole night now.

  Hope this helps!

• by asdfman123 on 4/6/20, 6:19 PM

  I don't have this, but I would suggest on brain fog days you might want to try eating a salad with a lot of leafy greens and getting some exercise in (a twenty minute walk should be sufficient). Also, take Omega-3 pills and vitamin D supplements.

  I'm not claiming this will fix your problem, but it could rule out dietary problems or give you a tool to fight the fog.

  I wonder also if maybe some nights you aren't sleeping as well and just aren't aware of it. It might be worth monitoring your sleep with some kind of wearable too.

• by dragontamer on 4/6/20, 6:36 PM

  Yeah. All the time. You can't expect top tier performance from yourself all days, everyone has an off day every now and then.

  I never figured out why. But ultimately, it doesn't really matter... I imagine that humans are naturally cyclical on the scale of weeks to months.

  Different people have different levels of cycles. Bipolar people are cyclical to the point where they cycle between depression / hyperactivity... but even "normal" people have ups and downs.

  We aren't machines. We work differently at different times.

• by swolchok on 4/6/20, 5:48 PM

  The condition is known as "brain fog". For example: https://www.healthline.com/health/brain-fog#causes

  I've also seen common cold listed as a potential cause, which definitely jibes with my experience.

• by DrAwdeOccarim on 4/6/20, 6:34 PM

  Yes, but mine seemed to be from my CPAP pressure set too high. Seems like overoxygenation is a real issue and it was terrible. Now that I'm back to properly titrated, I've found I gain an edge from 4mg of galantamine supplement from Doublewood Supplements. I've tried other companies, but Doublewood seems to be more potent.

  This compound is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, so it increases acetylcholine in the brian. It is known to help Alzheimer's patients early in the disease to stay sharp. This fact worries me since I am an ApoE4 heterozygote and so the fact that it works for me may mean I have something wrong :/

• by pritovido on 4/6/20, 6:45 PM

  I write down on paper how I feel, the work I do, exercise, food I take, everything.

  That means if one day I am not ok I can rewind and find the culprit very fast, like getting exhausted from doing too hard work the day before.

  In your case, you will be simply forgetting what you did once you sleep. Or you could be simply ill.

  I usually think very clearly and fast. Usually my mind is never foggy unless when I am ill, like an occasional headache(once in a year) or when I get the flu.

  I do not drink coffee nor significant alcohol. Those can make you bog down.

  My mind was boggy when I started working from home in front of a computer years ago. I realized I just needed exercise every day.

• by nojvek on 4/7/20, 5:24 AM

  Lack of sleep, anxiety, the weather, certainty, a number of things can affect mood.

  I find I am the most productive from tue-thu, more productive in the evenings than mornings. I am also more productive in spring and autumn than I am in peak winter and summer.

  Overtime you reflect and look inside yourself and learn how to tune your body.

  I still feel quite more tired nowadays as a dad but ironically I also feel like I get a lot more done. Mileage varies day to day.

  Some days I am just a dumdum and I go home early, play with dog and baby and sleep it off.

  Don’t stress too much. Do what feels good. Take care of yourself first before you take care of your work.

• by cameron_b on 4/6/20, 6:10 PM

  The times I've felt like this have been in conjunction with slow-burn stressful events. I've also felt my body sometimes seem to handle nutrition differently under stress, like I'm keeping the lights on but actually joints and muscles feel terrible if the stress lasts too long.

  This is typically a retrospection thing, and not a revelation that occurs in the midst of the feeling. One day I'll wake up, make a huge breakthrough, feel great, and wonder if I've been asleep for a month. My memory of the period is also fuzzy.

  I think our brains are way more nuanced than we appreciate.

• by azhu on 4/6/20, 9:26 PM

  Happens to me all the time. Your conscious experience is the product of you processing a staggering amount of information from the world, and you're not aware of most of that processing. I would say give therapy a try.

  What you'll have to do is basically just science on yourself -- make a hypothesis, test it, interpret your findings, and repeat until you know how you work. Therapy is more or less learning how to do that for all the soft emotional stuff in your head and learning how to manage your personal stress.

• by lukeqsee on 4/6/20, 5:52 PM

  Yes.

  For me it correlates to elevated stress either in the moment or the few days (or weeks) before. If I've also not slept well or enough, I notice it faster.

  I no longer consider it a thing to be fixed, but a fact of life. Delivering at 100% of "potential" every day is not really normal, and some of my most productive moments are in days I've consciously accepted I won't accomplish "normal" amounts, and end up solving some unsolved problem because my brain had the space to process it.

  It works out in the end. :-)

• by shmageggy on 4/6/20, 5:52 PM

  Yes. Usually I can attribute it to sleep or hydration or exercise etc, but since you've ruled them out, sometimes I've found it can be due to an unmet emotional need, often loneliness or anxiety (currently dealing with this). It's like the brain just refuses to stick on the thing I want it to. Took me a long time understand this, as emotional awareness isn't the easiest thing for me. Meditation has helped to get in touch with what's going on.

• by helpfulanon on 4/6/20, 6:36 PM

  I had this same issue for years, had seen doctors and a psychologist. Was tested and learned I had ADHD. Meds, coping strategies and general self-awareness helped in a big way.

  But I also had this specific issue on certain days lingering even with ADHD treatment. My doctor suggested I had sleep apnea. Possibly related to sleep habits and possibly a very soft lumpy mattress. My wife and I got a new firm mattress and it really did the trick.

• by t0ughcritic on 4/6/20, 7:11 PM

  Download a symptom tracker or patient care app and record food, sleep and supplements etc for a week. Have it auto correlate what it could be or use the logs to determine what it could be yourself. For me it was sleep, not exercising and Distressed mood that caused me to have such days.

  Try One of these apps(all have free basic functionality afaik) symply, careclinic, or foody if you suspect it’s food related gl.

• by totemandtoken on 4/6/20, 6:11 PM

  It's the inverse for me. I'm pretty stupid most days, but every once in a while I surprise myself with something insightful

• by Wowfunhappy on 4/6/20, 5:38 PM

  Possible it's some form of migraine? I sometimes find my mind is cloudy either before or after I develop a migraine.

• by jonfw on 4/6/20, 5:46 PM

  I often have these days when my mind is pre-occupied. I'm used to having around 40 minutes a day dedicated to my commute, where I relax and turn my conscious mind off (luckily I don't have traffic)

  I've had to start doing other things to get that mediative time back- be it exercise, playing with dogs, gardening, whatever else.

• by ryandvm on 4/6/20, 7:46 PM

  Not particularly dumb-days but I do have days where I am much more effective. Sadly it's the days I take Adderall.

  That said, I do realize that it's just as likely that I only _feel_ more effective. If I had a decent way to measure developer productivity, I'd be a rich man...

• by whateveracct on 4/6/20, 5:41 PM

  Totally. Especially when the sun is out and it's a beautiful day.

• by es7 on 4/6/20, 6:35 PM

  Yes. And some days I feel much sharper than usual.

  For me I think it is routine related. I almost never have 'dumb' days during the work week but they're fairly common for me on the weekend.

• by RickJWagner on 4/7/20, 2:10 AM

  For me, it's the worst on the next day.

  Once in a while, I'll look at some work I did the day before and think "Man, is that stupid. What was I thinking yesterday?"

• by starpilot on 4/6/20, 6:26 PM

  It's more like, I have days when I feel normal that are just breaks in the fog, because I've been depressed for 20 years.

• by ravedave5 on 4/6/20, 6:27 PM

  holy cow yes. The other day I could hardly spit out normal sentences without grasping for easy words. As other have said I think it was related to stress/sleep.

• by rabboRubble on 4/7/20, 3:06 AM

  PMS? That sure does a number on me.

• by lampington on 4/6/20, 11:41 PM

  Yeah, that happens to me too.

• by jmpman on 4/6/20, 6:32 PM

  Possibly sleep apnea?

• by ochronus on 4/6/20, 6:22 PM

  Yes, definitely.

• by Glavnokoman on 4/6/20, 5:46 PM

  all the time!

• by _y5hn on 4/6/20, 5:46 PM

  Changes in Earth's magnetosphere have huge impacts on your minds, so yes.