Hi there🖐️🖐️!! It's awesome to have you read my first ever article on Hashnode. Today, we'll be looking at a topic that is not really spoken of in the software development world: health.

As developers, the ability to think critically, figure things out quickly and multitask is probably the most important skills one could have. But being able to do all these effectively depend a great deal on one's state of mind, so, being in the perfect state of mind should be at the right top of our list of priorities🌞.

Challenges✨

Here is a list of health problems we are exposed to as developers, by nature of our jobs.

1. Sleep Deprivation

We'd agree that the nighttime is the most productive time for developers as we'd have the chance to focus, enjoying the peacefulness and solitude the night provides. But, the brain requires the right amount of sleep at night for it to perform optimally the next day.

Science has proven that at nights, the brain goes through a rejuvenating process, helping the body to prepare for the day ahead. So, lack of sleep means a bad next day.

Also, chronic sleeplessness often leads to anxiety, inability to focus and dizziness, eventually leading to burnouts. I'm sure you don't want that for yourself!!😉😉

2. Sedentary Lifestyle

Any activity that results in inactivity of the main parts of the body for a long period of time can be termed sedentary. Examples of sedentary activity includes lying down watching TV, siting down playing video games, reading a book, or even coding. As long as this activities are carried out daily, it becomes an habit which can be very dangerous.

Studies have shown that men who watch television for more than 23 hours a week have a 64 percent higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than men who only watch 11 hours of television a week.

This goes a long way to prove that sitting too long in front of the computer screen can be dangerous to our health as developers.

Also, siting too long at our coding spaces can also cause chronic neck and back pains which is also not good. But is there a way out, read on and find out.🚀🚀

3. Obesity

This might not be a very popular issue amongst developers but it would be misleading to say that developers are not prone to the dangers of obesity.

The sedentary nature of the software development job makes it easy for us to add more weight which, if not properly checked can cause obesity. The category of developers this might be more of an issue to are freelance developers who are more inclined to working from the comfort of their homes.

Tips to improve your health

1. Know that you're not a machine and your health matters😤😤

2. Take intermittent breaks:

3. Sleep well:

4. Set up your workspace with comfort as a priority, not beauty.