He was averaging 4 hours and 44 minutes of sleep. He’d get up simply hours after falling asleep. His mind was, fairly actually, “buzzing.” And whereas he was on the peak of his profession as a software program developer, Glenn Sanford’s thoughts and physique have been saying: “sufficient.”
Sanford is the founding father of eXp Realty, a multibillion-dollar actual property enterprise, in addition to CEO and founding father of SUCCESS® Enterprises, related to eXp World Holdings. He’s well-known for his progressive method to utilizing AI to construct and streamline enterprise operations, together with SUCCESS Labs™. And now, he’s able to open up for the sake of different builders and creators, particularly younger entrepreneurs unaware of the addictive traits of AI, and the dopamine lure that may include the job.
Sanford isn’t alone. In a 2025 report from Creators 4 Psychological Well being, North American content material creators have been surveyed, and researchers discovered this inhabitants has “important psychological well being challenges that go hand in hand with their roles as content material creators, however the information exhibits they largely lack any important assist.” Particularly, 10% have skilled suicidal ideation, 69% wrestle with monetary instability and 65% really feel obsessive over content material efficiency typically or usually because of their roles. General, 62% have burnout.
As well as, a scientific assessment of current research of software program engineering professionals discovered their well-being was linked to vital work outcomes. Increased well-being amongst software program engineers correlated with higher efficiency, productiveness and creativity, and presumably with decrease turnover and fewer destructive outcomes.
For Sanford, the psychological well being side shortly turned a bodily well being concern, as his physique instructed him to decelerate, and likewise prompted him to dig deeper into the dopamine lure of content material creation.
Why Creators Get Caught in a Dopamine Loop
Sanford says there was a selected excessive he didn’t notice he was looking for—one that might come from “only one extra immediate” into his AI instrument. The survey factors to this as “obsessive checking of put up analytics,” however for Sanford, it was a lifestyle beginning final summer time when he was tasked with the position of growing a private growth neighborhood. In August, with the discharge of ChatGPT-5, he says they have been in a position to construct an “total alternative to Fb” in a few month and have been working towards constructing what he calls the “Netflix of private growth.” However, alongside the way in which, whereas attempting so as to add options and capabilities, errors and points would floor repeatedly. AI operates in such a method that it solely takes a minute or two for the suggestions and the repair. That means of trial and error, adopted by a fast answer to construct stronger options, was the place the dopamine lure originated for Sanford. “The suggestions loop was so fast, I stored wanting to return, [asking], Can I make it do this?”
He’d work on these prompts and resolutions all day late into the night and eventually began noticing that literal mind buzz. “I used to be waking again up considering, I would like to do that. I simply want so as to add this function or this perform,” he recollects. “Although I knew it wasn’t wholesome, it was nearly not possible to cease… only one extra immediate.”
Quickly greater than his head was buzzing—his coronary heart began racing, and he discovered himself experiencing atrial fibrillation, generally often called “A-fib,” a critical situation that may require remedy.
Why Creators Are Notably at Threat
In a world the place AI is built-in throughout most industries, analysis is simply beginning to emerge about the advantages and disadvantages, together with which roles are almost definitely to have a threat of a dopamine lure, psychological well being struggles and “dependancy” to success.
Creators are more and more in danger not simply due to these quick suggestions loops but additionally as a result of it’s a discipline filled with stiff—and fast—competitors. “As a type-A competitor persona, there’s the concept of successful. Getting there earlier than opponents do. Making it. That inner drive,” Sanford says. “If I don’t do that, any individual else will do that and take the lead.”
Tommy Wooden, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics and neuroscience on the College of Washington Faculty of Medication and creator of The Stimulated Thoughts: Future-Proof Your Mind from Dementia and Keep Sharp at Any Age, says the motivation and reward cycle we expertise with dopamine is highly effective.
He explains dopamine is launched once we anticipate a reward, serving to inspire us to do the work we consider will repay. When the reward arrives, dopamine spikes reinforce studying by signaling which actions led to the end result, equivalent to unexpectedly sturdy consumer engagement. However when outcomes are exhausting to foretell, dopamine responses are even stronger. For creators and builders, this unpredictability can gasoline a cycle of regularly chasing the subsequent success, with rising expectations after every win.
Elana Hoffman, PhD, a medical psychologist, explains this half as “shifting goalposts,” wherein you continually want extra and greater enter to get the identical “hit” simply as you’ll a drug. “The hazard comes when an individual is pushed by the dopamine and loses monitor of the worth within the work,” she says. She is particularly involved about youthful creators as a result of they’ve grown up on screens and may have already got a necessity for rapid gratification whereas battling delayed rewards. “If they’re noticing that they’re having a tough time specializing in issues that don’t contain the dopamine hit of screens, if they’re needing extra reinforcement to really feel the identical influence, if they’re continually craving the dopamine hit—that could be an indication,” she says.
Preserving the ‘Creativity’ in ‘Creator’
AI helps to degree the enjoying discipline for creators. Tara Lynn Townes, CEO and founding father of Bullying Buddy Consulting, didn’t have a technical background however discovered that she too may develop an app. For her, this was empowering. “Each ounce of the app is calculated, from the design to the infrastructure to constructing it out. There are such a lot of totally different phases. They have been all superb and intriguing, however they undoubtedly created irritating instances,” she says. “Then there’s good old school beta testing—what they name ‘breaking the app’ within the technical world. That course of by itself is taxing since you need it to work, and it’s not working. Then you definately uncover one thing else. They name them ‘bugs.’” This course of led to overwhelm and burnout for her too.
She worries that builders will get caught within the “repetitive cycle: being excited, being motivated and creating one thing you imagined, then seeing it come to fruition…All human beings search validation—particularly youthful ones.” Her recommendation to them? “That frustration in itself is actual, so attempt to stay at baseline and preserve it constructive and thrilling. Don’t do it as a chore—view it as one thing you’re creating, like an artwork challenge.”
Recognizing the Threat and Reward—and Searching for Restoration
Sanford was jolted from this cycle when he was presenting his concepts to his CEO, and some folks seen him appearing “manic.” He was speaking quick and remembers “folks couldn’t get a phrase in edgewise” as his obsession turned obvious. As well as, his a number of visits to the emergency room with coronary heart points have been wake-up calls that he had “pushed it too far.”
As soon as he began realizing the extent of the difficulty, he went by means of a interval the place he couldn’t even have a look at a pc with out feeling his diaphragm tightening up. With the assistance (coincidentally) of AI, he began designing a greater life for himself—one with magnesium and blue mild glasses, extra train and a few strolling breaks.
Wooden calls this “diversifying inputs,” together with getting stimulation from studying a brand new ability, enjoying a sport or spending time with associates. He additionally emphasizes the position of relaxation.
“Once we’re sleep disadvantaged or harassed, our dopamine signaling adjustments in order that we develop into extra centered on ‘now’ rewards quite than ‘later’ rewards. In consequence, we default to behaviors that we all know reliably present us with motivation and hits of dopamine,” Wooden says.
When the Work Nonetheless Has to Get Achieved
As content material creators will inform you, the work nonetheless has to get executed. That is the place Wooden recommends regaining management by means of day by day construction. For instance, Sanford now limits his time coding to 3 to 4 hours per day, a stark distinction from the 12 to 16 hours he was placing in earlier than.
“In case your work depends on efficiency metrics that inherently have some variability and uncertainty, one solution to preserve a component of management is to verify your days have some construction to them. This may additionally assist to lower stress. Take into consideration chunking the day into outlined blocks of labor with true breaks in between,” Wooden says. Breaks could be so simple as watching a hilarious quick, altering location or doing breathwork.
Sanford additionally shares that folks ought to think about what number of instances of their life they’ve it in them to do a giant construct like this and what the ramifications could be. In case you’ve already executed it, do you actually need to do it once more? The bodily and psychological toll may not be price it.
There’s a “sure worth to be paid” for fulfillment in any discipline, Sanford says. “I technically ‘made it.’ It’s not like I must do something to ‘make it.’ However there’s all the time a chunk of you that claims, Can I do it once more? Perhaps it’s best to say, Not this time.” As an alternative of placing himself in disaster mode once more, he says his future focus might be organising the subsequent era to do it in a extra manageable method.
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