I just decided about a month ago to start learning C++ again. Strange as it may sound, and I don't know what it is, just wrapping your head around a new paradigm I guess (the paradigm of programming), but dang, I've been having the most bizarre, strange dreams since I've picked it up again! I'm dead serious. And I know it's c++ because there will be like for loops going through my head while I decide whether or not TABLE_SIZE is defined. Does this happen to anyone else?

Ever since I started writing my own Lisp interpreter my head has been buzzing with s-expressions, even when I'm awake.

I wrote a small Prolog interpreter in Ruby some months ago. Don't do it. Your dreams will be indescribable.

Quote: Original post by aaron_ds
I wrote a small Prolog interpreter in Ruby some months ago. Don't do it. Your dreams will be indescribable.

Oh my God, I remember the Prolog dreams. I once had one where I went on a mission to create a set of predicates to completely describe all aspects of my life.

I didn't have dreams, I had waking nightmares when working with enterprise level Java in my job last year.

Oh hell. Still gives me the shakes and there's nothing more my psychiatrist can do.

I would rather drink petrol or be locked in a lift with Keeley Hawes than write more Java.

I remember having a few code nightmares, as I called them. A few of them were basicly such that all I could see was like a closeup of a white screen filled with C++ that I was working on as I dreaded failing in multiple ways at whatever I was working on. Haven't had any dreems like that in a long time. I think it comes from falling so far into the 'zone' that you weren't quite able to get completly back out.

I remember half waking up answering some question about the win32 API. My brother, who happened to be sharing a room with me at the time (it was Christmas) said something like "What?!", at which point I woke up.

Yeah, programming really messes with your head.

I'm glad to hear that i'm not the only one! I haven't had many coding dreams for years. But I have had a few weird dreams when trying to figure out algorithms. Like basically my dream turns into an optimization problem and it gets very stressful because i MUST find the most optimal way to do a particular task.. such as walking from place to place (in the dream.)

But when i was just learning it was a lot more intense. I'd have dreams about loop iterators and when to increment and how to increment and I'd actually wake up with solutions to the problems i was working on.

If i ever dream specifically about math though, just crunching numbers, I will without a doubt wake up ill. It must be my bodies way of telling me that i'm sick because it has never failed.

Quote: Original post by Shimidly
Does this happen to anyone else?

Yes. [smile]
Dreams, or technically REM sleep, is the brain's way of optimizing or defragging itself. When there's a lot on a mind, the brain will dream more and vividly in order to cope with the added stress. Sometimes the brain is so overloaded that it will dream while awake, which is commonly known as psychosis.

Heh any of you have the the part where you go to bed thinking of a problem then waking up having solved that problem during sleep?

happened to me a few times.

But coding dreams have there been a lot of. Especially during crunch time at work heh =)