Sep
3
How To Pull An All Nighter
Filed Under Career, Health, Improve Efficiency, The Bigger Perspective |
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The All Nighter
We’ve probably all had this experience at one time or another: There is something you need to get done tomorrow and you can’t finish it by tonight. So, being the responsible person that you are, you try to stay up late to get it done. Here’s a couple of very important tips that’ll help you on your next adventure.
The Cause Of The All Nighter
First, realize that if you have to pull an all nighter, you have already screwed up. Somewhere along the line, you had thought you would be finished by tonight, but you haven’t. The plan had not gone as you had anticipated, and now you are paying your dues. Therefore, you should examine your planning errors, as that will be of greater value in the long run. Did you spend too little time planning (or didn’t plan at all)? Did you procrastinate and not follow your plan? Did you not allow enough time for random factors in your plan?
All of these things are situations that come up time and time again in your life. Therefore, it’s important to recognize these inefficiencies and try not to repeat them. You don’t have to do this right this minute, but it should be done as soon as possible while your memories of the events are fresh in your mind. Maybe a quick summary right now, with a more in depth analysis after you’ve finished your stuff and had some sleep. In the long run, a couple of wasted hours every once in a while can add up to substantial amounts of time throughout the course of your life.
The Cost Of The All Nighter
The all nighter is not a way to get more time. That seems to be a common misconception that if you worked over night, then you basically gained those extra hours with no consequences. Nothing could be further from the truth! You will give those hours back by sleeping more the next few days, dozing off at school/work, etc. In fact, from my experience, I would say for every all nighter hour you spend awake that you should have spent sleeping, you need to sleep about 1.1-1.5x as many hours just to get back to the same level of alertness. Not to mention the diminished level of work that you would accomplish during those hours, which will have to be taken out of your other awake time to be made up. Therefore, all nighter hours need to be repaid by 2+ normal hours.
This is not to say there isn’t a place for pulling an all nighter. One hour now could be worth more than two hours tomorrow. For example, there is a final exam in a few hours and you really need the extra couple of hours to study. In this case, doing poorly on the exam may cost you many, many more hours later in terms of retaking the course, speaking with the professor, etc. Or maybe your plane is taking off at 4am and you need to be on board. If you don’t make it, then you’ll have to spend many hours waiting at the airport for the next flight (although if I had a laptop or something else I can do, then it would be partially or wholly mitigated - see Give Me A Little More Time).
Your Motivation For The All Nighter
If your reasons for getting into the all nighter in the first place is because you procrastinated, then the all nigher really isn’t going to help that much. If it’s something you really don’t want to do, no matter how much caffeine you put into your body, or how long you stay up, you are not going to do it. It would be better to fix this problem by addressing the root issue by finding out what you really want. It would be easier to just fail the class or not do the assignment, and start focusing on the things you want right away. Tomorrow, explain to the person in charge that you are not really interested in whatever it is, apologize, and move on. What’s the point of doing a lousy job on something you didn’t want to do anyway?
On the other hand, if your reasons for going into the all nighter is a lack of planning for something you are passionate about, then you are in the right frame of mind. Back in college, when I wanted to live up to my word in finishing a project for my research professor, I very very easily worked from 6pm until 3pm the next day, completing the project in the nick of time. I didn’t even need any coffee or caffeine, and wasn’t really that tired. If you are actually interested in what you are doing and excited about it, you really don’t even notice the time or how tired you are.
If you didn’t want to do it to begin with, even with all the coffee in the world, you’ll be looking for reasons to fall asleep, and you’ll do exactly that. At best, you won’t be able to fall asleep, so you’ll be stuck in a dreamy world where you’re not getting anything done and wish you were sleeping instead.
Tips For Pulling An All Nighter
Motivate Yourself - As stated above, motivation is the most important thing in terms of keeping awake and working on the project. You might as well go to sleep if you don’t want to do it.
Focus On the Task - In NAVY Seals training’s “Hell Week”, where people have to stay up for 5 days with only a few hours of sleep, it was reported that the key to staying awake is by focusing on tasks in the present. Try not to let your mind drift at all. Forget about going to the bathroom, or sleeping, or anything else. There is just you, and the task. If you conquer it, you can get the thing you want most - sleep.
Go Easy On The Caffeine - Each little bit you drink now will make your recovery from it that much harder (see How To Recover From Caffeine Addiction) later. Yes, you are already spending your “later hours”, so try to keep that to a minimum. Focus on the two tips above and hopefully you won’t need any caffeine. If you must, drink a minimum amount that’ll keep you awake. Remember that the placebo effect can be pretty strong, so if you just believe that 1/2 cup of coffee will keep you awake for another 12 hours, it probably will.
Don’t Take A Nap - While theoretically, you can be more clear headed after a 20 minute nap, I find that not to really hold up in reality. If you can talk yourself into taking a nap, you can talk yourself into sleeping until past when your project is due. Not to mention that you’ll probably be groggy when you wake up if you don’t do it right.
Get Some Sleep - In contrast to the tip above, it may not be such a bad idea to get some sleep if you have a presentation or test in the morning. By sleep, I mean complete cycles, in about 90 minutes - 2 hour increments. For me, 4 hours equals two sleep cycles, where I’ll wake up quite alertly. In these cases where you need to memorize stuff, sleep helps bury it deeper into your long term memory. After you wake up, continue studying.
Take A Shower - This is generally very refreshing. The pounding water is exciting your sensory impulses, while the heat relaxes you so that you’re not too tense (but not so relaxed that you’ll fall asleep).
Go Out For A Run - Exercise will speed up the heart and increase blood flow and metabolism. This is the same thing as described in How To Recover From Caffeine Addiction
Eat Some Sugars - Fruit Juice, or other sugary stuff, should provide your body with a good source of energy for the short term. Caffeine’s not the only thing that can juice it up!
Let Your Alarm Clock Ring - I’ve found that years of training in jumping out of bed when the alarms rings has created in us a kind of a built in automatic “awake” reaction to the alarm clock. Set the alarm clock to ring at random times in the next few minutes. Go about your work, and that “shock” from the alarm clock can keep you awake for hours.
Turn the temperature down - It’s just damn hard to fall asleep when it’s freezing, so make it really cold. However, it shouldn’t be so cold that it distracts you from working. I find that about 60-70 degrees in your pajamas should do the trick. Of course, adjust that depending on your size and the amount of body hair you have.
When All Else Fails
Remember that whatever it is, you can always not do it. You can fail a test, miss a flight, or disappoint a partner. However, you cannot get another life if you permanently damage your health. Face the consequences and remember to plan better next time - it’s usually not that big of a deal!
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I do not recommend an all nighter unless you have to because of the potential health risk related to the body. An all nighter diminishes your strength, energy, motivation and sleep for the next day so it is best to leave it for the next day if you can. Also not enough sleep will take a toll in the body in the long run and might even make you sick for a few weeks like my aunt because she has lost too much sleep. She needed a few weeks of recovery to be back to normal again.
I’ve only ever had a couple of all nighters in my life and that was with group projects at University. I found them really, really horrible. There’s a certain point in the early morning where I start feeling quite nauseous, I think it may be because I’ve been awake for so long without eating enough food.
I also find the recovery time lasts two or three days, I’ll always be a bit tired and out of balance for ages after.
I wonder if there are any long term health problems with all nighters, I bet there are …
this really helped!! thanks alot! also it worked out great! this didn’t really explain how da heck it’s bad for you though…i doubt it’s THAT bad for you…good night lol
[...] No napping. Some people can power-nap and be okay, but as stated at WhatIThinkAbout.com, if you stop for a quick nap, you run the risk of waking up bright and early the next morning [...]
Yeah, I’m only 15 and I’ve pulled at least 10 all nighters in the past year for my honors classes, balancing out five hours of dancing plus hours of studying a night. All different techniques have worked for me.. I once got through 27 hours straight with no sleep by drinking two red bulls two rockstars some other random energy drink and five cans a coke. Of course it is NOT HEALTHY, but i’m fine and I got a high B on the honors english exam, and had to dance for about 9 hours that night. It sounds crazy, but it worked. Other times, I would take 20 minute nap intervals and have my book or notes next to me in the middle of the night and randomly wake up and recite them. Again, it worked. I catch up on my sleep throughout the weekends and I progress fine. It’s super hard and stressfull, but the rewards and honors are so worth it. Pull an all nighter, go for it. You don’t wanna be upset and stress more about not finishing than feel that accomplished sensation. Trust me
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wow that helped explain why sometimes my allnighters will work or not work (in regards to the motivation aspect.)
and for those of you with AP classes and/or college finals, etc, i’m sure you understand the need for allnighters.
like rachel, i’m on a dance team. ap classes (well now college courses for me), and dance practice and shows.. an allnighter can be a savior.
i’ve learned that its always better to bust your ass and get the work done. because you can always recover the sleep (although it’ll take longer, yes), but retaking a failed course or earning a B instead of an A is a whole different story. you cant redo school &/or grades. (well you can, i guess..but it doesnt look good.)
also, i dont know if anyone else feels this way, but i always feel so upset and angry when i end up having to do an allnighter cuz i messed up my scheduling or i procrastinated, etc. then this ends up messing with my head and i am too upset to work. but here’s some advice: try taking the emotion out of the situation and see it like a game. yes you fucked up, but you cant change that now, so let it go. you have so many hours left til class, and a certain amount of work to be done. either do the work now, or dont. it wont be the end of the world if you dont complete it.
and yeah, allnighters are quite unhealthy for you, so thats a call you’ll have to make on your own. for me, i’d rather look back on life and be proud of my accomplishments in school and my career than be able to say i have impeccable health.
haha just some of my random thoughts.
actually.. i’m procrastinating from an allnighter i should be doing right now lol.
I do all nighter every night. I go to bed at 4AM and I take 3 hours nap. so I get 2and a half hours of sleep and I take 3 hour nap so I am fine. I do’nt thinkt it is that bad for you. I think it is alright for you. I became sleep deprived I am attempted to sleep my body wants to stay up all night and catch up on sleep on naps after i come home from school. so ican’t control it.
Just because you have to pull an all-nighter doesn’t mean you screwed up. Making time for random factors is understandable, but sometimes these random factors can be long enough to make it impossible for you to study the day before an exam until evening rolls along. Or maybe you’re a parent, and we all understand how busy that life can become in a second. That opening snippet was completely judgemental and ridiculous.
Here I am, procrastinating by reading this post, when I know I’ll be up all night on a client deadline.
I felt compelled to post though, because I don’t think all-nighters are necessarily a sign you screwed up. Some people perform better under pressure. Some people — especially authors/writers — are night owls.
I’ve pulled all-nighters my whole life, starting in 4th grade. I’m now 40, and nothing’s changed. I think you do more damage when you beat yourself up for staying up, just because mainstream society wants you to believe you “screwed up”.
My point is that when I have a limited amount of time to meet a deadline, I am less distracted. I stay focused on the task at hand and clear out all the extraneous stuff that muddies the waters. That doesn’t mean that I’m not thinking about my deadline / project for days before-hand. I am. But then, when the clock looms, I can sit down and bang out my best work. That’s just how it works for me, and it always has. When I try to plan ahead and deliver before a due date, my work is always weaker.
I decided not to berate myself for this, but to accept it as who I am. I’m a night owl, and I don’t mind seeing the sun rise when I’m headed to bed. There’s always time to sleep.
I’ve pulled an all-nighter before, and it wasn’t too bad, but prepare for a deep sleep the next day. the next day when i got home from school, i fell asleep at 4 and my mom was unable to wake me up (without inflicting physical pain) for a few hours. but it was worth it since i got an A on the project. try to make it fun, and music will save you when you just want to hop into your warm bed and sleep. i have to pull an all-nighter tonight because my teacher tweaked the essay prompt, so i have to start all over, and this essay is part of final. and the other part is a serious of questions, which we expected next week but he switched it to two days from now. so i’m stressed to the max but hopefully this all-nighter will get my caught up. good luck to all you sleep deprived people =)
i have pulled a few all nighters and i am only 13. i have no idea why but i found them amazing. the best way to stay up a while is to bring a big bottle of coke or 7up or sprite to your room, constantly drinking it helps you stay awake (sugar) urinate often which helps you move a bit more. and try and watch a really scary film. like the last time i did it i watched final destination 4. scared the crap outta me at the time and i didn’t wanna sleep
then the next day i slept for like 15 hours lol (only pulled all nighter for party) nothing bad happened to me and i loved it ^.^
Interesting concept.
Particularly the part about 1 all-nighter hour
costing 2 normal hours to recover the sleep debt.
If left to my own devices, I have a ~26 hour sleeping pattern, and find that the best way to reset it is to pull an allnighter if I get badly out of sync, although this messes me up for the next couple of days.
Also, following on the heels of an all-nighter with a massive (100+ mile) bike (pedal, not motor) ride usually works wonders for resetting your internal clock.
hi, i live in london and doing my first all nighter tonite cause i partied to much in my half term holidays that i forgot all about my chemistry work and mathematics exam, its going great so far, im following all your tips….SO HELPFUL thanks =)
i asked my dad about all nighters, cause hes a doctor and he sed there perfectly fine, as long as you dont make it a habit =P
Drink lots of mango juice he sed, drank half a litre already=
xx
Not to be too fussy about the beginning of this article; but I have to agree with some of the other people. Not every all-nighter is a result of a screw-up. There are assignments that take a deceptively long amount of time, there’s illness, and some days each teacher gives you a moderate amount of homework and it just piles up. On the other hand, the tips were really helpful- the alarm clock idea was especially good.
Hey all. Before reading any of these posts I’ve found ways to stay up all night on my own. I am weird, where I don’t pull all nighters to get work done, but I do them so I can just — not sleep. I don’t enjoy sleeping, so I will study all through the night, and ONLY sleep when I HAVE to. I found drinking water constantly helps. Always have a glass of water which you are drinking, and because you are drinking so much, you’ll be on the toilet, moving back and forth from the toilet and your room. Also, yoga helps keep my blood moving, and if I am physically moving, I can’t fall asleep. I found, that taking 10 minute “power naps” do work. You don’t go into REM until after about 20 minutes, so a 10 minute nap will actually refresh you. STAY AWAY FROM CAFFEINE! Drink something more natural — for example…water…haha. Anyways, i’ll be up all night, don’t know about you…have fun
I am 16 years old and of course I have stayed up all night at sleepovers when everyone is hyper and can’t sleep anyways, but I have to do a HUGE essay for my english/ american lit class. The essay is about 20% of my grade, it’s like 150 points! I haven’t even started it and it is due tomorrow. I need to stay up to get this done and if we don’t have it in class when we get there then she will just give us a zero on the WHOLE thing! I don’t know if I can do it. I am going to just take a 20 minute nap and get my brain to relax for a while. Thanks for the tips, I hope I can get this done.
I have pulled an all nighter once… After that I stayed up until 5:30p.m. with no breaks or naps… When I went to sleep that day I was so delarious!
…I’m trying another one tonight…
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“all nighter hours need to be repaid by 2+ normal hours”
This is not true for most people. Like compensating for jetlag, one night of normal sleep will put you right back on track after an all-nighter.
IMHO, the still moments of the night between midnight and 4:30 AM are the best, most peaceful hours of the day. Few phone calls, no roommates, no traffic noise, no birds, no new emails. Just you and the object of your labor. Its like the eye of the diurnal storm.
i am doin 1 right now
Thanks for the tips!
I will put it in effect
thanks for the tips! I’m pulling an all-nighter because of my AP courses, but i think the most important tip of all is to NEVER tell yourself that you are only gonna take a 10 minute nap. it never works for me, i wake up and its morning and nothings accomplished. if you are serious about it, sit at a desk and never go near something comfy like your bed or a sofa.
yup…its 6:30 am in the morn after my 20th allnighter…whoo i just looove university,
ps. i study better during all nighters
Wow, this is a really preachy post. Everybody pulls all-nighters once in a while, which is why I’m writing this at 7 a.m. Not only do I think I’m going to do well on my final today, but I also don’t think that I’ve permanently damaged my system, metabolism, health, sleeping habits, etc.
Nice to know that you think I’ve failed as a human being for putting the studying off. Your tips are useful though.
am only 12 i am goin to do a all nighter tonight i have done a few already but i get tried and fall asleep most of the time
okay, so here we go!
my first all nighter. i have a huge chem test tomorrow, so im hoping i do well! its fourth period though, so im also hoping im awake until then!
Wish me luck!
This whole thing just seems like a bash on all nighters. All of a sudden it means you screwed up yeah I’m sure thats the case sometimes. I’m doing an all nighter tonight just for the heck of it lol
Yea the whole thing that allnighters are bad is plain bs. I just got done with one and the exam I am studying for is’nt for days. The reason I do it is I would rather make an A+ and be on the Presidents list than get a full nights worth of sleep.
These tips sound really useful. I’ve never pulled an all-nighter before and I was going to tonight, because I have a paper and several other assignments due tomorrow. However, I’ve decided to just go to sleep now and email everything to my teacher once I’ve completed it tomorrow and hope that she accepts it. While I value my grades, I also really value sleep, and if I don’t get any, I can’t seem to focus on anything else. So I know that if I tried to stay up all night doing this, I don’t think I would make it without giving in and going to sleep. Hopefully I can get it all done tomorrow!
Here’s a great article for students on time management, in case you want to avoid spending the whole night in the stacks!
http://bit.ly/cG3n1t
“all nighter hours need to be repaid by 2+ normal hours”
Not me. all nighter hours are repaid by -.5 hours.
example:7pm to 7am. 12 hours= 6 hours sleep repaid
Pulling my first all nighter for the last day of class because of the papers I have to turn in. Can’t wait to sleep tomorrow or shall I say tonight?
Eww, I feel like a loser because I ‘am pulling an all nighter and I’m in Grade 9
I go to art school. In my first semester of university, I pulled an all nighter about 4-5 days a week. I slept a total of about four hours per night (except for Saturdays, which I had work and then after work, I would just crash.) Anyway I got so used to it but I was so terribly sleep deprived that I didn’t notice until after it was all over. Now that I look back, I was pretty much a zombie. After the semester was over, I felt like I hadn’t slept in 3 months (pretty much).
In my second semester of university, I decided I wanted to sleep. So I went to bed at 12 every night (compared to 5 or 6 am) but I totally slacked off at school! In the end, I didn’t really care about marks anymore. I felt so much happier with not-as-good marks PLUS SLEEP!
Anyway, I’m so used to staying up that I don’t particularly need tips anymore. It’s terrible but I tend to eat a lot of sugar because it makes me hyper and it gives me the strength to work through the night. I also listen to music so I don’t feel like I’m the only one awake. :/
As I am writing this, I’m in summer school and I have an assignment due in less than four hours… :/
My first all-nighter for studies and I have to say, right now I feel quite high. I’ll come down on that when I have to sit my exam but I took a nice gap out for Yoga so I feel a mixture of nauseous and extreme content.
I can very much identify with ‘erin’. I can only work under pressure. So far it hasn’t exactly let me down.
Wish all you all-nighter-ees the best in whatever was so important you sacrificed your sleep for it
I’m pulling an all nighter as I type. it’s 4:15 am. and I’m just doing it for fun. it’s summer vacation anyways. lol
hey i dontlike midgets:/!
I just pulled all nighter, all you need is friends that are also awake and a mom that’s willing to make you breakfast at 4:00 AM.
Im 10 years old and I can’t wait for 5th grade. Pulling an all nighter for fun because my 16 year old brother is. Hung over his girlfriend or something, lol. took a redbull and feeling great. ive done all nighters before and it doesn’t affect my health. No, i did not “screw up”. Don’t really like that youre telling me i am. alot of people get a natural high from being awake at 4:39 when its reallypeaceful. the alarm trick was cool though…
am pulling an all nighter now.. I think yea, u somehow screwed up (LOL) if u have to stay up all night to do ur work instead of sleeping..but, for weird pple like me, it doesnt matter what time i start studying, 10am, 12pm, or 3pm, i couldnt really concentrate as well as i do in the night..but that also doesnt mean im concentrating on my work 100% too..i’m here slacking around, no?..but i just find it easier to do my work in the night compared to daytime (:
Honestly. About 4 am in the morning…masturbate or have sex. Then…right before you orgasm…stop. For guys this works especially well because you will have blue balls all day…which hurt like hell and will keep you up, energized, and pumped full of testosterone all day. Do it..it works like crazy.
Hi all,
Some interesting posts there, and it’s nice to come across other people who do the same as I do. I pull all-nighters quite often. I am a journalist and screenwriter, working as a journalist during the day and doing my screenwriting at night. I find I do all my best work overnight and, more often than not, I find that when I lay down to go to sleep I’ll get a story idea in my head that I can’t help but run through as I try to sleep. I try to fight it and go to sleep but it’s pretty impossible. That’s what has happened tonight:
Went to bed at 23:30 and watched a movie while drifting off. Then I got an idea that I wanted to get down, which had me up until just after 06:00. At that point I knew there was no point in going to bed (from experience getting a sleep at that point for between one and two hours before having to get up for work makes me feel much worse than if I just stay up). It’s 08:10 now and I have to leave for work in about 10 minutes. Tired now, and could sleep easily, but I’ll not be finished work until 17:00 or so. A few freelance jobs to get down when I get home, so I would imagine it’ll be a few hours later that I’ll drop off.
One thing, though… I do love the sleep that I get at the end of the day after an all-nighter. Sofa dozes are the best. Lay down to watch something to television and just conk out. Wake up a few hourts later and straight to bed.
Heey!
These tip’s are shit, like no offence or anything. Pulling an all nighter isn’t that big of a deal. i do it all the time when i am with my friends at sleepover’s. It’s not like it’s the biggest event of the year! And NO i did not plan to, so it wasn’t a so called ” screw up” SUCKERS
um yours are all gay it is not the biggest thing of the year and just get over it you don’t have to plan the whole thing
suck my balls
Fuck, all you guys are fags!
Use all really need to get a life. Pulling an all nighter isn’t a big fucking deal i do it all the fucking time. And you dont need to fucking plan either. I just go and rock up at my friends place, and dont eve sleep at night. like this one time i was at my boyfriends house and we were just up all night having sex. Do you think we planned that? NO! doy ou think it was a ” screw up ” ? NO!
So use can all go and get fucked!
Bitch’s.
lol.
I have worked on many projects with tight deadlines – and pulling an all nighter has been essential on several occasions. Having a nice brew of coffee on the side while I work always helps.
The only downside to pulling an all-nighter is that the following day my concentration and energy levels are low.
Great article, thanks!
last night i was determind to have a early night, i went to bed by 9 just got all comfy when my friend rang me, i was on the phone to him for almost two hours and it woke me up. after the phone call the hours started ticking by whilst i was in bed trying to sleep, 1am, 2am, 3am, its now 4.15am and i have to be up for school at 6am so i am not going to sleep.. for the simple fact that i wont wake up, and i really do need to get my attendence level quite high this year as i have had alot of time off in recent years due to depression. im trying to drink as much coffee as possible but we haven’t got much left, probley abou 3 cups worth? but hopefully tea and dr pepper when i get to school will do the job
i will update when i get home from school if i have the energy x
I am doing one now, have an exam at 10am this morning!
At my high school, all nighters are practically mandatory. We get at LEAST 5 hours of homework a night, and considering we are at school from 7-5 (clubs, sports, etc) and we have extra-/co-curricular activities, there just isn’t time for sleep.
I’m on my 2nd all nighter in a row. I need to be at school tomorrow from 7 to 5 and from 6 to 1 I have work. SCREWED.
Great post! I did many all-nighters before and noticed they were messing my health up, so I rather invested into good planning and avoided commitments I disliked - now I am a normal person again!
hehe im 11 (12 in 5 days =P) anyways i never sleep, always all nighters, so ya, your pretty much screwd if you try to beat me ^_^
Well, I’m pulling an all-nighter because my group decided they didn’t want to to their share of the project in my high school history class, and figured they would let me know they weren’t going to do it the day before it is due. So, I’m getting their grade while they sleep comfortably.
I used to pull at least one a week, culminating in about 65 hours straight of being awake. (That was a long time ago in high school, I have since made it through 4 years of college with only a handful of them… here’s to time management skills) This is the schedule I used to follow: strong tea at midnight. Coffee and a high-protein low-sugar snack at 2am. A moderate meal at 4 with more coffee or tea if needed. Don’t eat enough to really get full or the blood will go to your stomach and you will get tired. Hearty breakfast at 7, include as many of the food groups as you can. As others have stated, keep the room very cold and move around frequently. Listen to a song you like every now and then to keep your spirits up. I would also suggest taking vitamins and drinking echinacea tea. Both do wonders for the immune system, which in turn helps you recover.
The last few I have pulled were without any caffeine whatsoever and I really do think this is the way to go. Drink some juice, eat some nuts… you’ll be fine. If you do choose to drink caffeine, do it moderately and don’t start too early. I know it’s tempting to drink a cup of coffee at 10pm to get started but save that boost for when you need it later. Cups of coffee have decreasing marginal utility during an all-nighter… an econ joke for those of you studying econ.
Really though you should be aware of the toll all of this will take on your body- it is really bad for you. I used to drink so much red bull every day I could shotgun it and nap, no joke. As a result (years later) I have chronic stomach problems and have had to cut out caffeine completely. The funny thing is, since quitting it I haven’t fallen asleep in a single class. I think caffeine actually makes you MORE tired, so it’s really worth the temporary discomfort of withdrawal symptoms to quit. Just don’t try to give it up the night before your big paper is due.
Also, if you have a mac computer google search “self control app” and download it, your productivity will skyrocket. (You select a list of websites to block for up to one day. My list includes facebook, hulu etc. Do not block your email as you may need it to contact a professor or back up your work. You can’t even get to them if you use a different browser or restart your computer. It’s brilliant.)
Also remember that there isn’t really any pride in pulling all nighters. I see some comments on here that really remind me of myself when I was younger and I’d like to point out that staying up all night does not make you tough or special. There are kids who get 8 hours of sleep every night, are varsity athletes, presidents of clubs and still get better grades than you do. It’s called time management. Pull an all-nighter now and then if you absolutely have to, it happens. Just don’t think that doing it all the time validates your existence. Remember that I’m saying this as somebody who used to do exactly that. I’m certainly paying for it now.
i know u may not be able to but friends r EXTREMLY good motvation so have 1 or 2 over(or talk on msn /face book) and when i doubt play GH make u fell like a rock star and needing to hit the wright note makes u keep awake
Hey. Im 12 and im in 7th grade. This is ver helpful but for some reason energy drinks never help me. If you are brave and you truely want to get enough energy to make it all the way through the night just try eating cofee beans. Or multitask. Everyone knows homework and studying is boring. So try homework+music+television=no possible way for your brain to even process the thought of sleep. I have school from 7-3 then i have basketball from 5-7 and in between that i have drama club meeting twice a week plus i have four brothers ans two sister and im the oldest and three of the boys are in diapers so whether i stay up all night because of homework a screaming infant or studying all you need is to multytask and yes turn tge temperature down. It super helps. Also pulling an all nighter does not mean you screwed up im pulling one right now. Sometimes i even do it for fun. And the bull shit about not doing the work you didnt have any interest in what kind of world would we be living in if no one had to do anything that they didnt want to. In life ypu have to do thi gs you dont want to do.
maybe if you’re reading this, then you shouldn’t really know what an all-nighter is all about. how about getting off this site and ACTUALLY WORK?!
i just want to pull an all nighter so i can fall assleep in my boyfriend’s arms forthe first time but idk how to make myself tired enough and stay pretty at the same time! do you think an all nighter is helpful?
Don’t worry, my health is an acceptable loss for pulling an all-nighter.
ITS 3:07 AND I HAVE SCHOOL TODAY!!! SHOULD I DO AN ALL NIGHTER OR JUST GO TO SLEEP? HEEEEEEELLLLLLLLPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
shut up
I’m trying to pull an all nighter, its kinda hard bu im awake now and I hope to make it, im not 100% sher if I should, I have work at 5pm to 8pm which isnt to bad but theres not really a howl lot around me to keep me up, theres enough, but than again its hard u know? Id say Mountain Dew is the only thing to keep me up but that wont last long, wish me luck lol
Just pop a adderall
With 16 math lessons to finish, and a 42 page packet, from being sick for 4 days, I think I will try one tonight. It’s 10 p.m I think I’ll try to stay up until 5 a.m… Ah well, I never want to do this again. But hey, I want to see if I can pull it off~
Ha. got a whole chapter of science junk and an English report due tomorrow she kept switchin the due dates so now I gotta pull one 3: I pulled an all nighter a few days and I about died halfway thru…..thanks for the tips. I think I’ll make it thru just fine this time :3
Just pulled an all-nighter the other night. Everything was fine until about 7:00 am, when I usually wake up. Its like a wave just hit me and I was so tempted to go to bed. I decided to get someone to drop my now finished work off at school and slept in the whole day. Best decision.
Pulling an all-nighter is ok so long as you make sure to catch up on your sleep afterwards(there has been some research to suggest that ‘bank-sleeping’ does actually work).
I did multiple all-nighters during the summer,and it reAlly Isn’t a big deal, but this time it’s a bigger deal cuz I have school tomorrow. Once I somehow continued to write as I fell asleep for like 10 seconds, when I woke up, the words, “toy panel wall string” were written on my paper. You can imagine it freaked me out, so I’ll see how it plays out tomorrow. My dad went back to college, and is studying or doing homework. I’m just waiting for him to go to sleep so I can do a crapload of homework. I’m sticking to exercise/water tonight, and chocolate tomorrow. I’m choosing chocolate because it has sugar AND caffiene.
me and my friend are staying up all night and we need to know how to stay awake we have tryed a lot of websites but nothing helps we have already tryed the ice and water in the bucket and we are hyper but not for long how can you help us we need help please
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Ok, I’m pulling an all nighter and this did NOT motivate me. I want tips on how to stay awake while trying to finish my assignment - I don’t need you to be my mom and tell me that I shouldn’t have procrastinated and that doing this is a bad idea. 75% of this article is therefore a waste to read. Also your tips suck.
i’m doing an all nighter right now just for the hell of it. i’m hardly ever tired, because i tell myself i’m not. this is my second in a row hahaha i slept about 5 hours earlier but i’m not tired, although whenever i stand up i get really dizzy and nearly black out :/ i just don’t want to sleep
This is going to be my third attempt at an all-nighter this week. I’ve failed three times in a row! I better get through this one….. Wish me luck!
umm. I don’t recall ever doing an all-nighters on purpose. But i do remember waking up early in the morning to finish my study Guide for Physiology class and we had a test that morning. and i had a high B on the Test that most of my peers failed. but i did NOT study. i just completed the SG that morning..
SO my point is. i work well in the morning. i just set my Alarm clock to 4:30AM. I have classes tomorrow and will like to complete some work. …
also, (u can stop reading this now). I’m a Virgo so I’m mentally organized. and i end up procrastinating not because i don’t plan, but because i over-plan. i noticed i enjoy multitasking. it keeps me busy and prevents me from getting bored of my tasks.
Here is something my great-grandma told me (in a dream) “Get up, Get dressed. Just do what you have to do and get it over with.. so you can have time for other things”
Here is what i always say “Fear is an illusion, it doesn’t actually exist. It is created by one” —— some ppl are so afraid of failing that that’s what you do.. FAIL!!
so take the initiative and do the BEST you can do.. and never beat yourself up over any Failure. think of it as “a stepping stone stone to success” - Oprah.
XOXOOX bye. - Bombshell
it was the question on a croossword puzzle i dont need an all nighter or a job for that matter