It it normal to feel more tired when doing certain tasks?

[NoddingHacker]

When I get good sleep with good mask therapy, I can write code all day. But when due to various reasons my mask usage is not that great, I find I can only program during the early morning. From 1 PM and onwards I just cannot be productive anymore.

I can however watch educational YT videos or podcasts. But as soon as I will try to bring up my IDE (something you use to write code with) I find myself yawning, closing my eyelids, and feeling my head get heavier. This makes me play video games most of the day, which I don't like. I don't even enjoy video games that much anymore since I play them so much. But I can't bring myself to work/study after the early morning.


My question is: is it normal to for certain tasks to "trigger" your fatigue more than others? I mean, if my head feels heavy when I start to code at 3PM, wouldn't it make sense for me to want to sleep through all the gaming I would do from 3 to 9 PM?

[mesenteria]

We are all different.  I used to experience no daytime tiredness or sleepiness.  Then I developed atrial fibrillation near the end of a daily run.  Long story shortened, I had a diagnosis of severe sleep apnea.  I went on PAP therapy, successfully, but was also placed on a statin, heart rate control medication, and on a blood thinner.  Suddenly I found myself inordinately sleepy if I happened to watch some TV with the missus just after lunch.  And after supper...same thing, I wanted to slide off the couch. Otherwise, at the computer, puttering, conversing, driving...never, ever...have sleepiness. Just in front of the TV. So, it's situational...at least for me, probably also for you.

So, different circumstances affect how we cope, how much energy we have, how much our cognitive function wanes.  Poor sleep piles up pretty darned quickly if it runs for a few days.  Other stressors can sap motivation, too.  Relationship problems, financial ones....they all take their toll.

[SarcasticDave94]

I'd say yes it can and does. My specific set of circumstances leave me a bit tired always anyway. Before virus lockdown, I could only grocery shop for about 20 minutes. My tiredness is variable and inconsistent in how and when it affects me. It is chronic in that it's a long standing health related issue.

Yours is uniquely yours in how it occurs, but I think it's quite common in apnea patients to have these symptoms at times. Suffering from apnea damages health in ways the medical field isn't even certain of all the things affected.