burned the candle at both ends

Verb

burn the candle at both ends (third-person singular simple present burns the candle at both ends, present participle burning the candle at both ends, simple past and past participle burned the candle at both ends or burnt the candle at both ends)

1. (idiomatic) To work hard night and day; to sleep late and wake up early; to overwork or overexert oneself.
   • Von Gerhard's face was unsmiling. “So,” he said, slowly. “You burn the candle at both ends. All day you write, is it not so? And at night you come home to write still more? Ach, Kindchen!—Na, we shall change all that. […]1911, Edna Ferber, chapter 8, in Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed
2. (dated, idiomatic) To waste or expend resources twice over; to be doubly profligate.
   • The dividends […] were divided from capital and not from profit—for, in truth, the concern never earned a penny in the sense in which the term profit is commonly employed. […] The pipe-making concern burned the candle at both ends, and burned it steadily; […]1866 May, “Large and Small Companies”, in The Bankers’ Magazine […], volume 26, pages 530–1