Anyone else having special interests take over?

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I have always wanted to finish a project before sleeping if possible, because the re-start gets wasteful. However, managing a large project requires leaving it each day before burn-out, and it really helps to set things up for an easy resumption.
If your trouble is all computer - centered, the problem is probably the deliberately addictive design of software and social media.

^
Oh yes, I'm sure FB is designed to stop me leaving it. But there's more to it. I find it hard to escape from WP. After posting something I'll often start scouring through the threads to find something to contribute to. I think some of it is that I just like talking about myself and airing my views and perspectives, and there's a lot on social media to trigger that. But even if the broadband is down, I'll then move on to creating complicated projects to get the best out of free programs for editing music or movies, or anything that looks like it might make my computer easier to use. Paradoxically the aim is usually a practical method for making some common operation less time-consuming, and I tend to get there, but there's always exciting new ideas to explore, so I end up spending a long time doing things designed to cut the time down. Rather like Babbage, who set out to make a machine to take the hard work out of calculations, and ended up spending his whole life making those machines better and better. I wouldn't mind, but it's very sedentary work, which can't be healthy if taken to excess, and there's so much more in life that I miss out on.

I get the same thing as you do with wanting to complete a project before sleeping, though in my case it's hard to break off at all, because I can see how inefficient it would be to take a break, and I can usually see that it would be more efficient to just tie up this or that loose end, but a lot of the time it's not so clear cut. I'll decide to push the project a little further and then quit, then I realise I need to make some notes so I can resume more easily, and that takes a while. And all the time my brain keeps getting drawn into the tiniest details, and my work becomes meticulous to an insane degree, and it's very hard to zoom out to the big picture to assess the most efficient use of the time, so I don't. I'm rarely aware of the overview, so in a way I don't know what I'm doing or why I'm doing it, yet by following my impulses I somehow muddle through very well, and end up with a good result, it's just that I've not taken a break. I didn't sleep the other night. I meant to, but I started a computer task, then another, until it was morning.

When I was young, I had a year or so when I only slept three or four times a week, but I did get enough sleep, sometimes going 15 hours. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, unless it makes life inconvenient due to the standard schedules around you. It is getting right down to the details that is the key to pushing the envelope in any endeavour.
However, if you are not focussed on one field, you may be avoiding something you are not ready to tackle, but hoping to find a clue in random information.

I agree, if it does no harm then there's no need to keep any particular bedtime as sacred.

I'm usually very well-focussed on what I'm doing (if background distractions allow), though in the past it's been known for me to not know how to make a start on a big project, and then I pussyfoot around the edges of it at random, occasionally finding some little piece of it that I can fathom, until eventually I'm in a stronger position to begin the project proper. It may be that I'm mostly attempting to build confidence by getting familiar with the required concepts and by satisfying myself that I can make inroads into what was hitherto a daunting black box.

I also used to do this trick with big projects where, when I felt unable to crack on with the thing, I'd instead have a session setting everything up so that I could just walk up to it the next day and approach it more comfortably, and that worked quite well, particularly with music where I'd otherwise find that my artistic side would get pushed aside too much while I was doing the technical part - I'd pick up my guitar to try playing a part, and then I'd realise it was out of tune, and the strings were too old, and the mic wasn't in the right place, etc., and by the time I'd fixed all that, I was no longer in the mood to play.

But I tend not to feel daunted by anything much these days. I seem able to take on pretty much anything, as if my confidence is strong enough to anticipate that if it looks hard, I probably have the strategies to render it possible. The fixation with the computer seems mainly to be associated with an aversion to abandoning any of the tasks I've noticed during the session that I think I might be able to do. I'm rather addicted to challenge and trailblazing - if I happen to notice something new that I've never successfully done before, and can sense a path to achieving it, I feel drawn into having a go.

My bird special interest I had as a kid and now has so thoroughly taken over that my past jobs had to do with birds, and also I get bombarded with bird questions. My Sonic and Pokemon interests got really bad too at points in time. When I was in college I was happy because I spent all my time either going to classes I enjoyed taking, then playing the video games that I loved when I was out of class.

Can anyone tell me why I don't get notifications of replies any longer?