Weird Question;Do we sleep or work?

[pingc0306]

This has been bothering to me for awhile as well,there's times where i feel that I should not sleep and work. I fee absolutely guilty for sleeping or going to sleep and force myself to keep drawing to get things done and I don't know if this is acceptable because I'm afraid that if i sleep i would lose to someone who's working harder than I am in making their work and I feel that I should not sleep. I wonder if anyone else thinks otherwise, if it's even okay at all?When I mean work i mean on my comic

[miesmud]

I even get that feeling when I have to go to school or have to eat... So yep, I feel your struggles.
Just make sure you don't overwork yourself, I guess, being overworked really sucks you know.

[shazzbaa]

I mean, it's bad to have that thought, because nobody can control the thoughts that they have, and I think a lot of us have felt that way before -- but you have to know that it's not good to do! It'll hurt you and hurt your art, so resist the urge -- don't give into those thoughts that tell you not to sleep!

If you push yourself to your absolute limit, your work will suffer, and your ability to do work will suffer. It will hurt you long-term even more; if you don't take care of your body and mind, then later on you'll be much more restricted in what you're able to do.

An example I heard once and liked a lot: it's like if you're chopping down a tree, and you have a deadline, and you feel like you can't possibly stop to sharpen your axe, because that would be wasting time!! You have to get this tree chopped down!! But if you never stop to sharpen your axe, it will actually take you FOREVER to chop down the tree with a blunt axe, and it might permanently damage your axe. If you let yourself stop, and take care of your axe and sharpen it, then the chopping will go much faster, because you'll be working with a good, sharp tool.

Your body is one of your most important tools, so you have to take care of it. I've seen friends who let themselves be pushed to the limit and later on had wrist/hand pain or mental illnesses that were so severely worsened by overwork that they could only work for short periods of time afterwords. It's a bad idea to do that to yourself!

Some people will do more than you no matter how hard you work; some people could never do as much as you no matter how hard they work. But this isn't a race, and you don't have to beat anyone else! You just have to do a good job and not destroy your body before you've even had a chance to do all the things you're able to do.

[eicue]

For some years I have been a workaholic, and I understand how you feel, but recently I try to keep in mind that life isn't only about creating, you must enjoy living! So, completely unpluging yourself from your comic sometimes is good for your health. Anyway, you will work better if you have enough rest.

[lunaartemisasama]

Ok. I don't know about artists in general but at least for studies when a person sleeps at least 6 hours and read a little of the book (and went to classes lol) will probably do a better test than a person that crammed all night and didn't sleep. So that's it.
If you don't sleep you can collapse and lose more time, I tell you from experience lol, I need to sleep at least 4 hours and that's just in really extreme circunstances, for me 8 hours is a must.
I once attended a seminary of an advertising agency, they said that sometimes when they don't have ideas for a campaign they would just take a stroll, or just go home a relax and the ideas would come the next day when you are refreshed. So that's it

[hushicho]

SLEEP.

If you keep blazing through your energy, you may be able to do that for a while if you're young and healthy. But you won't continue in good health that way for long, and you will burn out so hard. Burnout is really hard to recover from too, and can take a long time. So sleep when you can! Going without adequate sleep should be rare and for emergencies.

[J.Lovelace]

Keep that mindset going and you will be on your best way to burnout and health issues. And your art will suffer with it. And then you'll fall behind even more than just step away from people you compete with. Like, falling from top of stairs.
slam dunks you into bed and tucks in
Sleep.

[ryoko]

As several people above have already mentioned, sleep is important. Don't focus on things like "losing to someone who's working harder" than you. This isn't a race, there are no winners or losers. Everyone works at a different pace and you shouldn't come down hard on yourself because you don't think you're working hard enough. If you don't sleep enough you'll end up just burning yourself out and possibly hating drawing because of it. If you're tired, sleep. It can be very difficult juggling work/art/school, but if you still feel guilty you could try budgeting your time more effectively. Like not watching something on TV and drawing instead, or drawing while you watch. I'll sneak drawing time in while I'm preparing dinner and waiting for it to cook. It might only be 10-15 minutes here and there, but it might make you feel better if you plan out your day the best you can.

[mintycanoodles]

i will never prioritize anything over sleep i love doing it too much

[AnnaLandin]

1. Sleep.
2. SLEEP
3. No seriously, SLEEP.

Take it from someone who HAS done the work-instead-of-sleep thing WAY TOO MANY TIMES, you really, really need your sleep. You won't be losing out to anyone else, and your work will be worse if you don't sleep. Forcing yourself to stay awake when you need to rest is actually genuinely bad for you.

Sleep deprivation can kill you, if it gets bad enough. Your body needs the sleep.

Do not feel guilty about taking breaks and sleeping when you need to. Your work will be there when you wake up. This is not a race; you can finish in your own time, and you will be no better or worse than anyone else.

[nixxusnibelheim]

From experience when I had a weekly schedule with my webcomic since it was my first time I wanted everything perfect, meaning every week I spend atleast 2 days without sleeping, not because I needed to but because I wanted to (for almost 2 months).
It was a blurry line between having pleasure to work over your own health, it was all good and all but after 4 weeks, I started to feel that something was wrong with my health and I knew if I kept pushing like that even though it wasn't as hard as other peoples, I knew it wasn't good.

So even though it isn't good, I will say to still nourish this mentality. You saying "If I sleep I would lose to someone who's working harder" means you are competitive guy which is a great mentality if you are looking to improve and achieve greatness. You have to keep pushing while also knowing your mental and physical needs and limits.
Work smarter and harder haha ! (Keep in mind when you feel guilty that sleeping helps a lot with your creativity.)

[indagold]

well if you want to kill yourself or drive yourself mad you don't need to sleep. Hallucinations, memory loss and fatigue are just the fun addition to getting 2 hours sleep each night.

[Shanny8]

Sleep allows you the time for your batteries to recharge. Sleep also allows you body to heal when you are sick. Lack of sleep affects the mind as well as the body- you dont make the best decisions when you have lack of sleep.

[Devika]

Lots of great points made in this thread. Here's pretty much the same in some stricter word-packaging, because some people need that and maybe you're one of them. I definitely am. (; If you're not, just skip this post.

Being tired is your body telling you that its batteries are low. You know how your phone, laptop, or electric toothbrush gets really sluggish at low battery levels? Or how any battery-powered machine gets really slow and frankly kinda useless with an almost empty battery? It's exactly the same thing with your body. Let's be honest: How great do you think that the work you do while being sleep-deprived is? Spoiler: Not good.

There's been a lot of research into sleep, tiredness, work efficiency, and injury rates. Driving tired is just as dangerous as driving drunk. Sleep deprivation leads to both physical and mental illnesses (and how productive will you be then? Another spoiler: Not at all.). Workplace injuries skyrocket with overworked and tired personnel.

And what about the country of ganbari, work-till-midnight, work-till-you're-sick-and-then-some-more, Japan? Take this from a Japanologist: The companies promoting this work/life-style aren't more efficient. We're still humans, not machines. A tired employee is not an efficient employee. The employees in those companies just end up sitting there, thinking "I'm so tired", "I want to sleep", "I don't feel like doing this but I should", instead of just doing those things... Which they could, had they been allowed to sleep.

TL;DR: If you want to get shit done, not sleeping is the most idiotic thing you could possibly do.

Oh and another thing: Just like there's a minimum of sleep necessary to function, past a certain number of hours' sleep you don't feel more rested anymore, but you get stuck feeling sluggish all the time instead. Where this point is varies a lot between individuals, and is also dependent on age and lifestyle, but the breaking point seems to be around 8-9h for many. Furthermore, sleeping at the same time of day each day helps your body stay alert during the day and being ready to sleep at night. Therefore, pulling irregular all-nighters and then crashing in the following days is monumentally unhelpful.

In other words, sleep efficiently => work efficiently => feel happier.

[starbeams]

I went through a period of not sleeping for more than 3-4 hours and working instead. I got pretty sick and pretty much went insane for a while, but to top it all off, I sprained my ring finger. I couldn't work at ALL for almost 4 months and that finger only just gained back it's full mobility. It was the worst mistake I have ever made in my life as an artist. Only now, almost 1 and a half years later, can I draw with the same degree of detail as before.
See, your body repairs damage during sleep and 4 hours ain't enough. Has to be around 8 hours. For a creative I'd recommend more like 9 hours, because you are spending more time resting your brain, which is using a lot of energy. Trust the voice of experience on this one.

[Shanny8]

Def say sleep. Because I do work a FT gig and spend about an hour getting home, I may spend about 3 hours at most per weeknight working on my comic. I sleep in a little later on the weekends so that my body & mind gets a little more rest. The only time my sleep is thrown off is when I do 3-4 day cons- I def need a lot of sleep afterwards...

[NickRowler]

I think what you need to do is better manage your time. Like say that you need to be in bed at a certain time and to not be drawing after mid-night or whatever. I am saying this as someone with insomnia. If you do not get enough sleep, it will mess with you. I remember once I was so sleep deprived that I started getting head aches, stumbling a lot, and even starting seeing things. DO NOT GET TO THAT POINT.

[LCT_m_a_d]

I had this problem transitioning from the art industry to the tech field. I believe the colloquial term is known as "imposter syndrome". The thinking that others are more deserving/qualified than our role or practice, thus requiring us to work twice as much and rest half the amount. It's pretty common in fact in the business world and no shame in having this thought. However...

I learned this lesson the hard way. There is NO benefit to this, noneskies. It's tempting to see it as makeup time but you will end up not happy with your art, throwing away the best years of your life, introduce health problems (I've had some horror stories), and always asking yourself "why" for no reason.

Personal wellbeing and your family/social life should always come first trust me!