That's really something i don't understand. After 5 hours of intense work i'm unable to code or think anything. I may be able to do many 4 hours work periods if i'm resting inbetween, but i can't do it multiple days in a row, otherwise i simply start slowing down and take bad decisions.

The best decisions i take are usually in the morning after a good night of sleep, and the problems i've been struggling for the evening simply seem a lot easier.

Even in week-end hackathons, the rookie's mistake is to not get enough sleep in the friday evening, create bugs during saturday, and end up completely unable to work on sunday.

Whenever i coach team, i usually tell them not to run the wrong race. If you're running a marathon, don't run at maximum pace because you'll never make it to the end.