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Re:Why thinking hard makes us feel tired by GuB-42 on Thursday August 11, 2022 @09:35PM (#32433880)
> we should get hungry

Personally, it does! Working hard makes me hungry, also tired, but less so if I eat well. I obviously can't overclock my brain as you describe, but there is definitely a link.

Speaking of overclocking, that's what bats do. Flight takes up a lot of energy, so they have evolved systems to deal with all the byproducts, including toxic chemicals. Interestingly, this is also why they have no problem carrying what for us are deadly viruses: overclocking results in cell damage, something that bats are equipped to deal with, but it would also trigger inflammation, so bats have damped their inflammation response, but that would leave them vulnerable to infection, so they evolved a faster immune response that is able to outpace the virus, and when one of these viruses jump to humans, they have time to reproduce a lot before our immune system reacts causing a massive inflammation that ends up doing more damage than the virus itself.

Re:Why thinking hard makes us feel tired by saiya-jin on Friday August 12, 2022 @03:56AM (#32435685)
A slightly different view - when I was doing psychedelic mushrooms few times long time ago, the whole experience feels like serious overclocking my brain. Not only expanding it breadth of perception many times (aka expanded consciousness), but also the unrelenting intensity at highest revs of all of it.

When coming down from the trip (which can take easily 2 hours itself), its always super pleasant and feels very meditative, and at the very end, massive exhaustion sets on. I mean mental exhaustion I luckily can't get to via any other way, even if I pull an intense all-nighter that's nothing compared to it.

Massive headache, feeling of burning out from inside, using every calorie available in bloodstream. Its the only headache for me on which normal weak freely available painkillers (paracetamol and ibuprofen-based) are not enough.

For whatever reason, hunger nor thirst never enters the picture, those emotions are completely blocked up there.

Re:Why thinking hard makes us feel tired by piiswrong on Thursday August 11, 2022 @11:41PM (#32434490)
I wonder if bats get a lot of allergy problems
Re:Why thinking hard makes us feel tired by ta988 on Thursday August 11, 2022 @11:47PM (#32434527)
They get deadly nose infections by fungi... Not a great trade.
Re:Why thinking hard makes us feel tired by shreyshnaccount on Friday August 12, 2022 @12:12AM (#32434642)
I get sleepy when I eat
Re:Why thinking hard makes us feel tired by xnoreq on Friday August 12, 2022 @03:30AM (#32435544)
I once had the same problem. That usually means unhealthy diet and constant eating and lack of exercise that all result in huge insulin spikes and insulin resistance.

Try 16/8 intermittent fasting and a healthier, more balanced diet and walking for a few minutes after meals and you will feel like a new person. After meals you will feel energized and awake.

Re:Why thinking hard makes us feel tired by Brybry on Friday August 12, 2022 @05:27AM (#32436227)
Just a note that there are common conditions like postprandial hypotension[1] (or various other types of hypotension) where what you want is more, smaller meals.

The way a doctor explained it to me is blood rushes to the digestive system after we eat and, while normally bodies compensate for that via increased blood pressure (vasoconstriction and heart rate increase), for some people that process doesn't work well and they get a blood pressure drop instead.

[1] https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/60/10/126...

Re:Why thinking hard makes us feel tired by xnoreq on Friday August 12, 2022 @06:50PM (#32444897)
Good point. To me it doesn't really matter if I do 2 large meals or 5 small ones. With the "constant eating" I meant the duration and not the frequency.
Re:Why thinking hard makes us feel tired by mancerayder on Friday August 12, 2022 @11:00AM (#32439636)
I eat well and do 16/8. By eat well, an example is a heavy salad, arugula, roast chicken, tomatoes, a bit of cheese, mushrooms, and croutons, light dressing. That's a lunch at 1p. By 2pm, I'm ready to slide under my desk for a nap.
Re:Why thinking hard makes us feel tired by wikfwikf on Friday August 12, 2022 @06:08AM (#32436425)
I feel sleepy after meals, but if I go for a brisk walk not long after the meal, I start to feel extremely faint.