First, since school ended and since I quit my job, my sleep schedule has slowly but surely suffered. Day by day, I've been waking up later little by little. It had gotten to the point where I could go to sleep at midnight and sleep until 11:30am the next day, and still feel tired. Needless to say, for my health and wellbeing (not that catching up on sleep is a bad thing in my opinion, as long as it's in moderation) I decided that it was time to make a change, and the only sure-fire way I knew of was to simply stay up all night.
The second reason I had for staying up all night is because I've been wanting to go for a jog with my boyfriend in the morning before he goes to work. Now, the problem with this is that he wakes up at 5:00am to do his jog before going to work a 12 hour shift at the factory he works at, like the crazy person he is. I thought that it would be a good idea for me to go with him most days, if not every day that he works. With the sleep schedule I am/was on, it would have been impossible for me to join him in his morning exercise. However, because I didn't sleep last night, it enabled me to not only wake him up for once instead of it being the other way around, but to go with him on his morning jog as best as I could.
All this being said, I'm not a newcomer to staying up all night, or 'pulling all-nighters' as I've always heard it said. For the first year and a half of high school I would stay up all night every Sunday like clockwork for the sole purpose of reading. Not even for school, either. I'm talking about books and, most of all, fanfiction (ahh fanfiction, how I miss you sometimes). If I wasn't staying up to read, I was staying up to work on homework that I had left to the last minute (like always) or to give myself some extra study time before an exam.
Over the years, I have picked up some pretty good tips if you need to stay up all night, and would like to share them with you. As I'm so sleep deprived at the moment, it seemed more than appropriate. Without further ado, here are my tips for pulling an all nighter!
1. Don't do it unless you absolutely have to.
This tip is pretty obvious, but I feel like it is important to mention nontheless. When you don't sleep, you're messing with your body, literally. From a scientific point of view, aside from depriving your body of the sleep it needs in order to rest and recharge itself, you are also messing with your circadian rhythm (which is really interesting and worth reading about) and are also affecting your metabolism, appetite, brain, and mood. If humans don't get enough sleep, they die, plain and simple.
Sleep deprivation is different for everyone. For example, a study was done that showed that people who go multiple days without sleeping can begin hallucinating. Personally, I've had small hallucinations after only one night without sleep. It's not a good idea guys, and I only recommend not sleeping if it's a last ditch effort. With that having been said now, I'll continue with my other tips and just assume that you have no choice but to stay up all night for one reason or another.(as an unnecessary aside here, I really recommend reading a book called The Family Who Couldn't Sleep, which is about a family that has a genetic disease that causes them to be unable to fall asleep, which in turn causes early deaths in the family one by one)
2. If you need to stay up overnight, try to avoid driving at all costs the next day.
Driving while sleep deprived is just as bad as driving drunk, there's really no other way to put it. I learned this one the hard way myself, when I stayed up all night once for an exam and then a shift for work shortly afterwords. Not only do I have no memory of driving to or from my exam, but I have no memory of writing the exam itself or any of the conversations I had with people that day. I was so sleep deprived that I literally have a day missing from my memory. Also, even after all my effort, I failed the exam and, consequently, the class. So I recommend that you ask yourself, is/was it really worth it?
3. Do what you have to do to stay awake (caffeine, hot/cold showers, music, motivation)
If you've resigned yourself to staying up all night, make sure that you commit to it. Caffeine is the best option for me, along with making sure I'm eating properly for the situation. My stomach feels very acid-y when I don't sleep, so throughout the following day I try to eat foods with carbs in them to help counteract this feeling of indigestion. Crackers and toast are two of my favourite things to eat when I'm sleep deprived, because they help keep me from feeling sick. If you start to feel nauseous or dizzy, or too much of anything really, then go to sleep.
4. Keep yourself busy.
I always try to write a to-do list, that way throughout the night/following day I'll at least be able to track my progress with what I've been doing and how much I've gotten done. Here's an example of the to-do list I created for myself today, in order to help prevent myself from falling asleep:
Anything that involves standing is probably a good thing to do. If you have to sit, try to sit in such a way that you won't get too comfortable and fall asleep wherever you are. For example, instead of sitting on my bed wrapped in a blanket with a hoodie and slippers on like I would like to be, I'm sitting at the desk making sure that I'm straight backed and therefore less comfortable, and am making sure that I'm more cold than warm. I'm also making sure not to rest my face on my hands or arms, as that's a surefire way to fall asleep.
5. Keep in contact with people.
I'm lucky, because it's Saturday which enables my boyfriend to be able to text a little more often than usual at work. Keeping in touch with someone throughout the day is a good idea, because they can help make sure that you're awake as long as you need to be without falling asleep. Having a short nap might not be worth it in the long run if you've stayed up all night, because it'll make you groggy and more than likely grumpy, too! However, every one is different, and the most important tip I can offer is to...
6. Listen to your body.
At the end of the day, no paper, exam, or deadline is worth your mental health and well being. In my experience, teachers/professors/employers are a lot more understanding about doing things such as giving extensions than you would ever expect. The most important part is to try to manage your time, and if that's not possible then honesty is always the best policy, in my opinion. If you're trying to stay up all night and you begin to feel sick, or begin to feel dizzy, then go to sleep, it's as simple as that. A little sleep can be better than no sleep at all, and I think you'd be amazed on what you can do on an hour or even thirty minutes of sleep compared to none at all when you really need to. Tearing yourself apart mentally and physically and/or causing and unbearable amount of stress for yourself isn't worth it in the long run, no matter how much it may seem like it at the time.
If I think of any more tips, I'll add them, but for now I think that's all. What do you think? Are there any tips that you would like to add? Do you agree or disagree with what I've written? Please let me know.
Thanks for reading!
Bryt
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