7 Reasons Developers Work at Night
Published: 2021-08-19 18:14:35

There is an ongoing perception that software developers are guilty of odd behaviors. The source of this perception might have something to do with the fact a lot of software developers seem to prefer working at night.

It's not uncommon to see independent open-source developers starting work in the early evening and going into the wee hours of the morning. As an alternative, some developers will awake really early and start working at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. The emphasis for these folks seems to be on their desire to get work done when the rest of the people around them are at rest.

Since this working at night process seems to be pervasive, it makes sense to take a look at a few reasons why this is happening. With that in mind, let's take a look at seven reasons software developers give for their night owl approach to working.

**1. Working Longer Sessions**

Software developers don’t take kindly to distractions. While the normal office worker will tend to work in one-hour units leaving time to answer calls and email, developers often find that to be counterproductive. For them, it makes more sense to work in larger blocks of time, extending out to as many as 4 to 6 hours a session. They do this because very few programming tasks can be finished in an hour. It normally takes several hours to imagine the required coding and punch the keys to get it done.

**2. Peace and Quiet**

Programming is meticulous work. It requires a level of intense concentration of which most people aren’t even capable. That’s one of the primary reasons that programmers are seen as such unique individuals.

Given the level of intense concentration that is required, the preferred work environment is absent of noise and activity. Unless a programmer is working in a very small company, that’s hard to find. The best solution is to work at night with noise levels decreasing and people are resting, relaxing, and sleeping. That’s how programmers eliminate the possibility of distractions.

**3. Facilitating International Communication**

We no longer work in a world with boundaries. Since programmers and developers are often part of an international development team, they have to make themselves available when their counterparts need to communicate. That often necessitates that a developer working in America do so at night to facilitate being able to communicate with other developers and programmers who might be located in Europe or somewhere in Asia.

**4. Creating the “Sleepy Brain”**

The term “[sleepy brain](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/sleepwake-cycles)” was coined to describe how the brain functions when the individual gets tired. For the most part, the brain loses the ability to multitask as the individual becomes sleepy. That’s actually a good thing for developers because it plays right into their need to focus on one task at a time.

The sleep brain concept also extends to what happens when an individual goes to sleep. As developers doze off, their subconscious tends to focus on the last thing the developer was working on. When the developer awakes, they sometimes do so with a resolution to problems they were thinking about when they went to sleep.

**5. Awakening the Creative Brain**

Developers depend a great deal on their ability to be creative. During the day, the logical left side of the brain tends to take over control. As the day wears on, the left side of the brain tends to get tired faster than the creative right side of the brain. As the left side fades to black, it opens the door for the creative right side to take over.

**6. The Effects of Blue Light**

Since developers tend to work long days in front of a computer screen, they are exposed to high levels of [blue light](https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side). According to researchers, the blue light waves are given off from electronic devices like cell phones, tablets and computers disrupt our circadian rhythm (sleep rhythm). After developers call it quits for the evening, it takes their brains longer to shake off the effects of the blue light. That's one of the reasons that developers tend to go to bed in the wee hours of the morning.

**7. Following Tradition**

In years gone by, computer servers had limited capacity. Since developers and programmers need computing power and unfettered access to the computer system on which they are working, they learned that it was easier and more convenient to work at night. While it's no longer necessary to follow such protocols, developers still carry with them a sense of nostalgia.

**Conclusion**

It would be incorrect to think developers don't get enough sleep. Most of them do in a [comfortable high-tech mattress](www.entrepreneur.com/article/369221). They just tend to sleep at times that ordinary people find odd.