Its amazing that so many people have this issue and this bug has not yet been fixed. Anyway here's my (reset when idle) workaround (use at your own risk, may have bugs etc.):
https://pastebin.com/8ypFBjQ0 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Desktop Bugs, which is subscribed to gnome-shell in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1672297 Title: gnome-shell uses lots of memory, and grows over time To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-shell/+bug/1672297/+subscriptions -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs