All-Nighters

by Trevor Hedberg

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http://www.trevorhedberg.com/writings/tech/all-nighters.pdf

on May 15, 2010

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 Hedberg 1

Table of Contents
What Is an All-Nighter? ..........................................................................................2
Why Avoid an All-Nighter? ....................................................................................2
Physical and Psychological Obstacles ....................................................................5
Stress ........................................................................................................................................ 5
Sleep Deprivation ................................................................................................................. 5
Preparing for an All-Nighter ..................................................................................7
Gathering Materials ............................................................................................................. 7
Required Items ........................................................................................................................ 7
Recommended Items ............................................................................................................... 7
Optional Items ......................................................................................................................... 7
Preparing Your Workspace .............................................................................................. 9
Setting Realistic Expectations ....................................................................................... 10
Pulling an All-Nighter............................................................................................12
Time Management ............................................................................................................ 12
Maximizing Efficiency ...................................................................................................... 13
After 5:00 am ...................................................................................................................... 15
After the All-Nighter Is Over ................................................................................16
Knowing Your Circumstances ....................................................................................... 16
To Sleep or Stay Awake? ................................................................................................. 16
The Following Days ........................................................................................................... 17
Endnotes ..................................................................................................................18
Bibliography ...........................................................................................................20
Appendix A: Checklist of Materials .....................................................................22
Required Items ................................................................................................................... 22
Recommended Items........................................................................................................ 22
Optional Items .................................................................................................................... 22
 Hedberg 2

What Is an All-Nighter?
The term all-nighter is used in a variety of contexts to describe a long night of work done to
complete something important that must be completed the following day. The term can apply to
almost any type of work, but academic work is the focus here. Undergraduates typically perform
three types of tasks when they pull all-nighters: they write papers, study for pending exams, and
prepare presentations. Usually, an all-nighter will only consist of one of these tasks, but
sometimes students perform more than one in a given night.

All-nighters are not this simple, however. A student must complete a substantial amount of work
during the night hours for the term all-nighter to have any real significance. Certainly, a student
who gets on the computer at 11:00 pm, revises a paper draft, prints it, and returns to the
dormitories at 12:15 am has not pulled an all-nighter. Of course, the notion that an all-nighter
requires significant investments of time and energy might seem self-explanatory: how would it
be possible to spend an entire night studying or writing and claim not to have expended much
time or energy?

According to this document, a student has pulled an all-nighter when he or she

1. begins working (i.e., studying, writing, etc.) before 12:00 am. If the student begins
working any later, then the majority of the work will be done in the morning, and the
term all-morninger might be a more appropriate description.
2. works for a minimum of six hours. The time allocated to breaks does not count toward
the time spent working.
3. finishes working at some point after 6:00 am. This criterion assures that the student has
in fact stayed up for the duration of the night to finish working. Although this specific
time might seem arbitrary, the alternative of using the sunrise as the criterion would vary
too widely across different geographic regions to be useful in this definition.
4. prepares something which is due the following day or prepares for something that
occurs the following day. Some might consider any instance that meets the first three
conditions an all-nighter, but this document was not designed for those who wish to
spend an entire night working on academics when it is unnecessary. This document
assumes that an all-nighter is performed under meaningful time constraints.

Why Avoid an All-Nighter?

Some students pull all-nighters with impressive frequency (often multiple times per semester),
but there are few good reasons to resort to an all-nighter. The following is a brief list of why you
should not pull an all-nighter:

Limited time. Although many students think that the hours they gain by not sleeping
give them plenty of time, the 7-8 hours gained is not always enough to do a quality job.
Increased stress. Normally, when you encounter a problem on a paper or do not
understand certain subject matter, you can put the paper or material aside for a day, ask
the professor for help, reread your notes, and reach a reasonable solution gradually.
While pulling an all-nighter, you do not have these luxuries: any problems you can
 Hedberg 3

encounter must be resolved on your own and quickly. Studying for exams and writing
term papers are stressful in themselves because (typically) a substantial portion of your
semester grade depends on how your professor evaluates these items. Performing an all-
nighter to prepare for an exam or finish a paper only increases this anxiety.
Fatigue. The most obvious reason to avoid all-nighters is because you will suffer massive
fatigue due to lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation has pronounced physical and psychological
affects and hinders your ability to function, and continuing to work productively with
your eyes drooping is a daunting task.
Difficult to produce excellent material. Given the additional obstacles to writing a
paper or studying for a test under these circumstances (i.e., the previous three points), it
should not be surprising that students often fail to produce high-quality material during
all-nighters. Students struggle to study or write well when confronting limited time,
heightened stress, and mounting fatigue. Consequently, grades on papers produced during
an all-nighter or tests that follow an all-night study session tend to be lower than a
students normal grades.
Long-lasting effects. No one recovers from an all-nighter in just one night. It will take 2-
3 good nights sleep for you to feel properly refreshed after an all-nighter, and your
circadian rhythm will be hindered for several days.

In lieu of these considerations, you may wonder what circumstances when it could be beneficial
to pull an all-nighter. Some believe they should be avoided entirely. Dr. Newport claims that all-
nighters are like poison to a successful student and should never be considered a viable
approach for getting things done.1 Why does he take such an extreme stance on all-nighters?

Newport identifies two critical problems with all-nighters. First, a students cognitive ability is
reduced to roughly that of a toaster oven after 2:00 am.2 Second, the long lasting effects of an
all-nighter will ruin a students potential to be productive the following day.3 Although
Newports points are both essentially correct, many still pull all-nighters, often under the belief
that they have no alternative. Newport believes this assumption is incorrect and that all-nighters
in can always be avoided by combating procrastination and using proper time management.4

Personal Experience
Although Newports sentiments may be true most of the time, I do not think all-nighters are
always avoidable. For example, in Spring 2007, I took 18 credit hours, 9 of which were
Literature courses with substantial reading and writing assignments. This course load was made
worse by the varsity tennis season that lasted from the beginning of March until the end of
April. In addition to our normal meets (about two per week), we spent our entire spring break in
California competing against some elite NAIA teams. I pulled 10 all-nighters that semester, and
although I admit that a few of them might have been avoidable, it seems absurd to claim that all
of them were avoidable.

My personal experience might be the exception and not the rule, but consider the more common
case: a student procrastinates on a paper and realizes that he or she only has one night left to
write nearly all of it. What should the student do? Newport might advocate getting an extension
 Hedberg 4

from the professor for this paper, but these almost always result in (sometimes severe) grade
penalties, especially for final projects and term papers. Moreover, if the student has to study for a
test under similar circumstances, postponement is not an option: missing an exam will result in a
zero.

Generally, avoiding procrastination and managing your time will help you avoid all-nighters, but
that knowledge offers no help when you do procrastinate or when there are simply too many
things to complete and too few hours in the day. The notion that all-nighters are always
avoidable is a fantasy: only the most disciplined and fortunate students avoid them altogether.

Avoid pulling an all-nighter whenever you can, but when you cannot, this document will help
you prepare for the long night that awaits.

Important
All-nighters should be avoided because of difficulty of producing high-quality work with limited
time, increased stress, and little sleep. The only circumstance when you should pull an all-nighter
is when you cannot complete the assignment or prepare for the exam on time any other way and
face severe penalties for not completing these tasks on time. Under those circumstances, this
document can help you make the most of a terrible situation.
 Hedberg 5

Physical and Psychological Obstacles

Three obstacles hinder your ability to work unimpeded throughout the night. First, you have
limited time and have to make good decisions about how you use it. Second, you are under
tremendous stress, regardless of what work you are doing. Third, you become fatigued from a
lack of sleep. Managing time can be handled without tremendous difficulty and is discussed in
the Time Management Section. This section focuses on the other two obstacles: stress and sleep
deprivation.

Stress
Stress can have a variety of meanings depending on its context and who is defining it, but for our
purposes, we can think of it as an adaptive reaction to a stimulus that requires a sacrifice of our
physical or mental resources.5 In the context of all-nighters, stress is perceived as negative: you
recognize a new stimulus and perceive it as something that could harm you. For example,
imagine the new stimulus as a term paper that is due the next day. You recognize the harm you
will suffer if it is not completed: a poor grade. Although you may have known about the term
paper for weeks or months, it was not a threat to you back then, and you did not perceive it as a
source of stress. Now that you consider it a threat, you try to adapt to this new stimulus and
avoid the harm by completing the paper.

Unfortunately, handling this stress is not easy. Often, in an effort to cope with stress, people
perform and behave poorly compared to their normal abilities. They typically report difficulty
concentrating, especially on mundane tasks.6 Additionally, people often demonstrate increased
aggressive behavior and greater difficulty sleeping.7 The sleep difficulties will not affect your
performance during an all-nighter (since you will be foregoing sleep anyway), but difficulty
concentrating and irritability could make a considerable difference.

In fact, these two difficulties will often enhance one another. You have trouble concentrating and
misread the directions, causing you to do a portion of your paper incorrectly. When you discover
your mistake, you become frustrated, but this anger only makes it harder to concentrate and
increases the likelihood that you will make another mistake in the future.

The best way to combat these aspects of stress is being aware of them and modifying your
behavior. Proofread a little more carefully. Reread confusing passages. When in doubt, double-
check for mistakes. If you still become frustrated, remind yourself that it is normal, and try to
relax. In some cases, a simple mistake can be problematic, but it is far more common that the
mistake requires only some menial revision.

Stress also has a significant impact on the immune system. Prolonged stress makes people more
susceptible to a range of diseases, including the common cold and the flu.8 Taking precautions to
avoid illness is covered in The Following Days Section.

Sleep Deprivation
Everyone needs sleep. With few exceptions, people spend approximately one-third of their lives
asleep. Most adult human beings require 7-8 hours of sleep per day to function optimally.
 Hedberg 6

However, we have a trait that makes us unique among other animals: we have the ability to
ignore circadian signals and to maintain wakefulness for prolonged periods of time despite an
increased pressure to go to sleep.9 In other words, we may feel the same desire to go to sleep as
any other creature, but we are able to suppress this urge and remain awake. Unfortunately, we
cannot do so without a variety of undesirable consequences.

The most significant difficulties with foregoing sleep involve cognitive deficiencies. Alertness
and vigilance decline markedly as we near the time we go to sleep and continue to drop as we go
past this time.10 Considering our everyday experiences, this discovery should come as no
surprise. This decrease in alertness and vigilance reaches a minimum in the early morning hours,
generally between 5:00 am and 8:00 am.11 These hours are the time when it is most difficult to
function.

This minimum is significant because if a person stays awake beyond these hours, alertness and
vigilance increase; it seems that some mechanism in our circadian rhythm triggers our bodies to
enter a more wakeful state regardless of whether we have slept or not.12 Hence, when people
remain awake through these hours, it actually becomes easier for them to stay awake even
though they have not slept at all.

Research has also shown that mood is affected in the same manner as cognitive ability. A person
will become unhappier as the night progresses until it reaches the minimum (typically in between
5:00 am and 8:00 am), and then mood will progressively improve.13

Like stress, sleep deprivation decreases the ability of the immune system to defend against
disease. Specifically, pathogens that the immune system typically dispense appear in greater
numbers while the cells that fight off these infectious cells appear in decreased numbers.14

Important
During your all-nighter, a combination of stress and sleep deprivation may cause you to be
more irritable
less focused
more prone to make mistakes
more vulnerable to illness
These observations reveal why all-nighters should be avoided whenever possible. Moreover,
they reveal why producing excellent work during an all-nighter is very challenging. Research
shows that minimal functional and maximum unhappiness tend to occur between 5:00-8:00 am
before gradually improving.
 Hedberg 7

Preparing for an All-Nighter

You might think that preparing for an all-nighter is unnecessary or even silly. Time is limited,
and you do not want to waste it preparing to do work when you could be doing the work.
Although this concern is understandable, preparing for an all-nighter can actually save time by
enabling you to work faster and reducing the chances of problems further into the night.

Gathering Materials
First, determine what you need to take with you to complete whatever needs completing. If you
are studying for a test, bring your notes and textbooks. If you are writing a paper, bring whatever
secondary sources you are using, a reference guide, and a pen with plenty of ink. Below are the
items you should consider bringing. Consult Figure 1 and Figure 2 for visual references and
Appendix A for an abbreviated checklist.

Required Items
Pencils Make sure you have more than one and plenty of lead.
Pens Bring two, preferably of different colors; essential for revising papers.
Paper You never know when youll need it.
Textbooks Essential for any type of studying.
Reference Books For citing sources.
Flash Drive (or other digital storage device) Saving your data is critical.
Relevant Notes
Any Other Useful Academic Materials
Bottle of Water Going to the drinking fountain every 15 minutes wastes time.
Light, Healthy Snack Something substantive and without much sugar.

Recommended Items
Highlighter Could be a required item; a great aid to taking notes and marking source
quotes.
Laptop Computer Even if you do not mind the library computers, you may work
better on your own machine; be sure to bring the power cords.
MP3 Player, iPod, or other portable music player A welcome companion on the
late-night adventure; be sure to bring headphones.
Index Cards Great for taking notes or making flash cards.
Calculator Essential for anything mathematical.
Stapler In case the library does not have one; make sure it is loaded.

Optional Items
Caffeinated Beverage No more than 12 fluid ounces; a little caffeine can help you, but
too much will lead to a debilitating crash a few hours later.
Candy Bar Having a single candy bar is fine, but avoid excess sugar if possible.
$2 Enough money to grab something from the vending machine.
Tape
 Hedberg 8

Scissors
Permanent Marker
Dry Erase Markers
Hole Puncher

Figure 1: Examples of Required Items

Figure 2: Examples of Recommended Items

 Hedberg 9

Preparing Your Workspace

After gathering necessary materials you need, make a decision about where you are going to
stake out for the next several hours. Depending on who you know and where you live, you might
have many or few options. When working under severe stress, many want to work where they
are most comfortable, but the best environment is the one where you are least distracted. As
Newport says, [T]he most effective place to study is an environment that inspires you to think
intelligently, an environment without unnecessary distractions or temptations for distraction.15
As comfortable and convenient as your dorm room may seem, it features too many distractions: a
television, an Xbox 360, tasty Pop-Tarts, and an enticing bed. Get out of there!

The most significant problem with prioritizing comfort is that we rarely work best in the areas
where we are the most comfortable. I may be most comfortable in my living room, but within
twenty minutes of working, I will be tempted to turn on the television and watch the latest
Sportscenter highlights. I should not be in an environment where that temptation exists.

At an extreme, discomfort can be a distraction, and you may work more efficiently when you are
not uncomfortable. However, being too comfortable can lead to a lack of urgency and false sense
of confidence. You want to feel at least a little distressed if you are pulling an all-nighter: that
distress motivates you to finish whatever tasks remain.

Conduct your all-nighter in a location that minimizes distractions while providing a moderate
level of comfort (i.e., enough that discomfort is not a distraction). In particular, try to find a
location that

is quiet. Noise is a distraction. The less there is, the better.

contains few people, especially your friends. Talking to other people can be distracting,
especially if you are in close proximity to someone you know well. Go somewhere
isolated, and have as little contact with others as possible. Chitchat can wait. (If you are
pulling an all-nighter to complete a group project, this consideration does not apply.)
lacks television and video games. Two of the greatest aids to procrastination ever
created. Steer clear of these. There is plenty of time for them later.
is not a kitchen or caf. After an hour or two, you may get hungry, but do not cut your
work short to eat. Your light snack should be enough to suppress your appetite for a
while. The proper means of integrating meals into your all-nighter is discussed in the
Time Management Section.
is a reasonable temperature. It can be hard to work when you are sweating or shivering.
Additionally, several practical factors may make some locations unusable. Beyond the criteria
listed above, you will want a location that

is open all night. A library that closes at midnight will not help you.
has a usable computer. You may need a word processor.
has a working and accessible internet connection. Regardless of what you are doing,
the internet in an excellent resource for quick research. When time is in short supply, the
ability to type in a few words and get the answers you need is invaluable.
 Hedberg 10

has a working printer. If your professor requires a hard copy of a term paper, be sure
you have somewhere to print it.
offers plenty of workspace. Find a place where you can spread out your materials and
look at them all without difficulty.

Once you have found a location that meets

all (or most) of these requirements, you are Figure 3: Example of Disorganized Workspace
ready to organize your workspace and get
comfortable. This task is usually simple:
spread out your materials in an orderly
fashion and make sure nothing is in your
way. Although this sounds easy, Figure 3
shows it can sometimes be difficult. An
inability to stay organized often reveals
that your workspace is too small, not that
you are messy.

After getting organized and settled, you are

nearly ready to being your all-nighter.
First, however, evaluate your situation and
set some goals.

Setting Realistic Expectations

Motivated students usually want to put forth their best effort toward every assignment. Although
admirable in most cases, this thinking is unacceptable with regard to all-nighters. Because of the
difficulties encountered during the all-nighter, thinking you can produce something exceptional
is unrealistic. (It might be possible to do this if you have done substantial work on the
assignment beforehand, but then you have no real need to pull an all-nighter.)

Instead, focus on what you can do in the time available. Review the minimum requirements of
the assignment and note what you must be completed to meet those requirements. Your goal is
not to do an outstanding job; it is to do an efficient job and meet as many of the basic
requirements as you can. With regard to test preparation, you cannot hope to memorize every
trivial detail in one night. Focus only on the general concepts; any details you can memorize are
a bonus.

Before you begin the all-nighter, also consider how long you are willing to endure the lack of
sleep. Are you willing to persist for the entire night, or would you like to quit around 5:00 am?
Do you know for certain? An all-nighter is far from enjoyable and its effects may persist for
several days. Do not subject yourself to it unless you are prepared and willing to deal with the
consequences.
 Hedberg 11

Caution
In concordance with holding realistic expectations, understand that there are limits on what can
be accomplished during an all-nighter. If you have a 20-page research paper due the following
day and only begin working on it the night before at 8:00 pm, you will never be able to write a
high-quality paper with sufficient integrated research. Ask the professor for an extension, even
if it results in a grade deduction. Similarly, do not expect to do well on the following days
exam if you have not attended class in two weeks or finished any of the reading assignments. A
semesters worth of neglect cannot be redeemed in one night, no matter how hard you work
during that night.

Personal Experience
Although I have pulled many all-nighters, I have never once done so in preparation for a final
exam. In my experience, it is not possible to learn a semesters worth of material in one night.
A night of review can help only if you have attended class and kept pace with assignments, but
if you have done those things, you will not need an entire night to review. Hence, I cannot
imagine a situation where pulling an all-nighter to study for a final exam has benefits
proportional to its negative consequences unless you have completely neglected that course.
Studying for exams that cover a smaller scope of material makes more sense, but again,
redeeming 5-7 weeks of neglect in a single night may not be realistic.
 Hedberg 12

Pulling an All-Nighter
Once preparation for the all-nighter is complete, you are ready to sit down and start working.
This section presents advice on how to manage your time and make consistent progress while
overcoming sleep deprivation.

Time Management
All-nighters present you with an interesting dilemma: you want to make the best possible use of
your time, but it is virtually impossible to work for hours on end, even if you are working on
something you enjoy. How often do you take breaks, and how long should they last?

Ssticking to this routine: 50-60 minutes of work followed by a 10-minute break. The goal is to
maintain about a 5:1 ratio between work time and break time. These periodic breaks will prevent
you from becoming bored or demoralized but should not decrease your productivity
significantly. This strategy of working in 50-minute chunks is frequently used by the best
students in the country, and scientific data suggests that studying in these increments facilitates
maximum retention of information.16 Additionally, this strategy provides a schedule for your
work and leaves you free to concentrate on more important things.

Caution
Be sure you do not exceed the 10-minute time limit on your breaks. Break time is when you
will be most prone to talk to other people, smoke a cigarette, check your email, send text
messages, or otherwise get distracted from your work.

Breaks are a good time to conduct a status report. See how much progress you have made in the
last hour, and consider whether it is a satisfactory rate. Breaks are also the ideal time to use the
bathroom, refill your water bottle, eat a snack, and step outside for some fresh air. Although
keeping your breaks brief is important, do not feel rushed while taking them. One of their subtler
effects should be to instill a sense that, despite the stress and the long night ahead, you are not
panicking. Rather, you are calm, and things are under control.

After 4-6 hours of work, you will probably have eaten your snack and gotten a stronger case of
hunger. Presumably, you ate dinner before beginning your all-nighter, but that meal cannot
sustain you for the entire night. At some point, you need to eat another substantial meal. When
you decide to do this, leave your workplace for 60-90 minutes, even if it requires you to pack up
your materials.

Whether you go to a caf or cook yourself something, your meal should be something low in
sugar. Giving your body sugar will result in a brief energy rush followed by a debilitating onset
of fatigue and greater hunger. Instead, give your body something substantive; even fast food is a
better alternative than sugary cereal or candy bars.

If you are cooking your meal, avoid anything that takes longer than 30 minutes to make.
Consider recipes that are substantive but easy to make (e.g., macaroni and cheese, pasta). After
cooking your meal, find a comfortable place to sit and eat.
 Hedberg 13

While you eat your second dinner, evaluate your progress. By this juncture, you should be (at
least) halfway finished with your tasks. If you are less than halfway finished, consider a different
approach to your task. Once you return to your work, you will face the most taxing hours of the
night, and it is unlikely you will be able to match the pace of the previous hours. Therefore, if
you are not halfway finished, you are probably not on pace to finish at all unless you modify
your approach to the tasks.

Caution
After your meal, you may feel strangely tired. Once your body satisfies its hunger, the desire
for sleep will no longer be masked. Wait up to half an hour for your food to digest and for this
exaggerated feeling of tiredness to subside.

Maximizing Efficiency
Your primary goal during an all-nighter is to be efficient. The best way to accomplish this task is
to sprinkle little bits of enjoyment into consistent work. The breaks already accomplish this goal
to some extent. Listening to light music is another means of achieving this balance and one that
is sometimes overlooked.

Personal Experience
In my experience and those of many friends, instrumental music of some sort (e.g., techno,
trance, orchestrated, instrumental rock) has been considered the best listening choice for all-
nighters. Although melodic and more pleasant than background ambience, songs with lyrics can
be too distracting. The temptation to sing along to songs you know or just echo the words in
your head can pull you away from your work. Moreover, trying to ignore the lyrics sometimes
feels as difficult as trying to ignore a nearby conversation. Instrumental songs lack this element
and can provide relaxation that does not become distracting.

The real key to maintaining efficiency, however, is avoiding distractions. Many of them were
eliminated when you selected a good place to spend the evening (based on these criteria).
However, some distractions will remain, and these are some of the most destructive. Your cell
phones, for example, can become a huge distraction. Either turn it off when you start working or
do not bring it at all. The urge to send a text message, check your voicemail, or make an
unnecessary call can be significant, and all of these activities can waste a lot of time.

Unfortunately, Facebook, depicted in Figure 4, is hard to avoid. The temptation to check email
is also omnipresent. The internet can be a distraction when you do not use it for research. There
is no good way to eliminate this distraction: you will have to avoid it through sheer force of will.
 Hedberg 14

One possible solution to the

internet distraction is what I Figure 4: A Facebook Page
call the dual-computer
method, depicted in Figure
5. As the name suggests, this
method requires two
computers. They need to be
placed near one another, with
each monitor visible from the
same seat. Use one computer
to write your paper, fill in
notes, or polish your
PowerPoint presentation. On
the other computer, open up a
web browser and conduct
your research. This way, you
should spend only a little
time on the internet-
designated computer,
reducing the risk that you Warning
will use it for purposes Do not get on facebook during an all-nighter! Facebook and
unrelated to research. The other internet-related distractions are omnipresent if you have
ability to have research internet access, but you must resist the temptation to use them.
materials and your document You can send messages, join groups, and post links later.
visible simultaneously also
facilitates a faster rate of
integrating source material Figure 5: The Dual-Computer Method
into papers and projects.
 Hedberg 15

After 5:00 am
The low point in cognitive functioning and the peak in the desire for sleep begins (for most
people) at 5:00 am. Concentrating is more difficult, but this vague description does not
accurately capture the experience. Nevertheless, you will know when you hit this barrier, and
you will feel the reduction in your abilities. All you can do is press onward and stay awake. The
5:00 am mark is the only time I consider it appropriate to eat a candy bar or drink a can of Coca-
Cola. You need whatever assistance you can get to push through these hours.

Personal Experience
If you have stayed up the entire night, what happens at 5:00 am could best be described as
hitting a cognitive brick wall. You can feel thoughts falling through your mind, but you are
unable to catch them or filter them in any way. You make more mistakes in your typing, you
suddenly forget the second half of your sentence, and your eyes hurt from staring at the screen.
Staying focused requires all of your effort. This low point can last for 2-3 hours, and staying
focused and avoiding the pull of your need for sleep is no easy feat.

Everyone probably experiences the cognitive wall differently. Luckily, it becomes easier to
overcome with experience. Hopefully, with realistic expectations, you can overcome these hours.

If you survive past 8:00 am and have not concluded your all-nighter, you are surely running out
of time. The good news is that it will become easier to work because your alertness and vigilance
will begin increasing as time passes. This boost could be exactly what you need to conclude your
studies and consider the night a success. If it is not, then consider how much time you have left
and use it the best you can.

Remember, your objective during an all-nighter is to work efficiently. You may not have time to
proofread a paper or polish your presentation notes, but these tasks will only have a minimal
impact on your grade anyway. Address all the major tasks first, and do not give the minor ones a
second thought when time is running short.
 Hedberg 16

After the All-Nighter Is Over

Well, you did it. You survived the all-nighter. You might feel relieved, but your work may not be
over. You may need to give a presentation or take a test, and you probably only have (at most) a
few hours of time between then and now. What should you do with those few hours?

Knowing Your Circumstances

When you complete your all-nighter, immediately assess your situation. If you completed a
paper, when do you need to hand it in? Is it something that can be turned in via email? If you
prepared for an exam, how long before you take it? Your answers to these questions will
determine what you do next.

To Sleep or Stay Awake?

You might think sleeping is the best thing to do because some sleep is better than no sleep, but
this intuition is only true in certain circumstances. Consider staying awake under the following
conditions.

You will not be able to devote 90 minutes to sleeping. The average length of one full
sleep cycle is 90 minutes. Sleeping for less than this interval will not do much to refresh
you because your body will crave additional sleep.
It is after 8:00 am. If you have stayed awake this long, your body is well past the low
point in the alertness and vigilance cycle, and these qualities will only increase as the day
progresses. As a result, you may actually find it difficult to go to sleep, despite feeling
physically fatigued.
You have other tasks to complete. Perhaps you just finished a term paper and now want
to review for a final. Take a break first, but stay awake, and tend to this task.

In other circumstances, sleep is probably the best option. In fact, if you have prepared an exam or
presentation, those few hours of sleep may be vital: you do not want to be nearly brain dead
when you are taking an exam or speaking in front of a large group. Similarly, you may want to
rest and then give your term paper a quick proofread before you turn it in to your professor.

Warning
Be sure you set your alarm after an all-nighter and that it is loud! It is hard to imagine a worse
fate than staying up all night studying for an exam only to oversleep and miss it. You have
worked too hard to let such a thing happen.

Caution
Regardless of whether you stay awake or sleep for a few hours, you should expect a crash in
between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm, the other dip in the circadian cycle. Hopefully, you do not have
any commitments that evening and can go to bed early.
 Hedberg 17

The Following Days

It will take 2-3 nights of good sleep to recover from an all-nighter. During that time, you will be
more vulnerable to illness than you normally would and less energized overall. You can bolster
your immune system with vitamins and added precautions (e.g., washing hands). The energy will
come back gradually and get a bit better each day, assuming you do not follow an all-nighter
with more late nights. Eventually, you will be back to normal, and then, if your experiences have
not been too unbearable, you might be ready for another all-nighter.

Warning
Never attempt to pull back-to-back all-nighters! Even if you can stay awake long enough to give
it a try, your cognitive functioning will be almost nonexistent. You will not be able to perform
even basic tasks, and writing a paper or studying for an exam in that state would be the ultimate
exercise in futility. Get some sleep instead!
 Hedberg 18

Endnotes
1. Cal Newport, How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets for Success from the
Countrys Top Students (New York: Broadway Books, 2005), 124.

2. Ibid., 122.

3. Ibid., 123.

4. Ibid., 123-124.

5. Angela Liegey Dougall and Andrew Baum, From Stress, Coping, and Immune
Function, in Handbook of Psychology: Volume 3: Biological Psychology, ed. Michela
Gallagher and Randy J. Nelson (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003), 441.

6. Ibid., 445.

7. T. L. Conway and others, Occupational stress and variation in cigarette, coffee, and
alcohol consumption, Journal of Health and Social Behavior 22 (1981): 155-165; N. E.
Grunberg and A. Braum, From Biological commonalities of stress and substance abuse, in
Coping and substance abuse, ed. S. Shiffman and T. A. Wills (Orlando: Academic Press, 1985),
25-62.

8. S. Cohen and others, Types of stressors that increase susceptibility to the common
cold in healthy adults, Health Psychology 17 (1998): 214-223; A. A. Stone and others,
Development of the common cold symptoms following experimental rhinovirus infection is
related to prior stressful life events, Behavioral Medicine 18 (1992): 115-120.

9. Federica Latta and Eve Van Cauter, From Sleep and Biological Clocks, in
Handbook of Psychology: Volume 3: Biological Psychology, ed. Michela Gallagher and Randy J.
Nelson (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003), 363.

10. J. Carrier and T. H. Monk, Circadian rhythms of performance: New trends,

Chronobiology International 17 (2000), 719-732; M. P. Johnson and others, Short-term
memory, alertness and performance: A reappraisal of their relationship to body temperature,
Journal of Sleep Research 1 (1992): 24-29; R. Leproult and others, Sleepiness, performance,
and neuroendocrine function during sleep deprivation: Effects of exposure to bright light and
exercise, Journal of Biological Rhythms 12 (1997): 245-258; T. H. Monk and others, Circadian
rhythms in human performance and mood under constant conditions, Journal of Sleep Research
6 (1997): 9-18.

11. D. J. Dijk, J. F. Duffy, and C. A. Czeisler, Circadian and sleep/wake dependent

aspects of subjective alertness and cognitive performance, Journal of Sleep Research 1 (1992):
112-117; M. Gillberg, G. Kecklund, and T. Akerstedt, Relations between performance and
subjective ratings of sleepiness during a night awake, Sleep 17 (1994): 236-241; Leprault and
others, Sleepiness; Monk and others, Circadian rhythms.
 Hedberg 19

12. E. Van Cauter and F. W. Turek, From Roles of sleep-wake and dark-light cycles in
the control of endocrine, metabolic, cardiovascular and cognitive function, in Handbook of
Physiology: Volume 4. Coping with the Environment: Neural and Endocrine Mechanisms, ed. B.
S. McEwen (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001): 313-330.

13. Latta and Van Cauter, Sleep and Biological Clocks, 365; Monk and others,
Circadian rhythms.

14. Popular Psychology: An Encyclopedia, s.v. Sleep and Dreaming.

15. Newport, How to Win, 79.

16. Cal Newport, How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies
Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less (New York: Broadway Books,
2007), 55-57; Newport, How to Win, 58-59.
 Hedberg 20

Bibliography
Carrier, J., and T. H. Monk. Circadian rhythms of performance: New trends. Chronobiology
International 17 (2000), 719-732.

Cohen, S., E. Frank, W. J. Doyle, D. P. Skoner, B. S. Rabin, and J. M. Gawltney, Jr. Types of
stressors that increase susceptibility to the common cold in healthy adults. Health
Psychology 17 (1998): 214-223.

Conway, T. L., R. R. Vickers, H. W. Weid, and R. Rabe. Occupational stress and variation in
cigarette, coffee, and alcohol consumption. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 22
(1981): 155-165.

Dijk, D. J., J. F. Duffy, and C. A. Czeisler. Circadian and sleep/wake dependent aspects of
subjective alertness and cognitive performance. Journal of Sleep Research 1 (1992):
112-117.

Dougall, Angela Liegey, and Andrew Baum. From Stress, Coping, and Immune Function. In
Handbook of Psychology: Volume 3: Biological Psychology, edited by Michela Gallagher
and Randy J. Nelson, 441-455. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003.

Gillberg, M., G. Kecklund, and T. Akerstedt, Relations between performance and subjective
ratings of sleepiness during a night awake, Sleep 17 (1994): 236-241.

Johnson, M. P., J. F. Duffy, D. J. Dijk, J. M. Ronda, C. M. Dyal, and C. A. Czeisler. Short-term

memory, alertness and performance: A reappraisal of their relationship to body
temperature. Journal of Sleep Research 1 (1992): 24-29.

Latta, Federica, and Eve Van Cauter. From Sleep and Biological Clocks. In Handbook of
Psychology: Volume 3: Biological Psychology, edited by Michela Gallagher and Randy J.
Nelson, 355-376. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003.

Leproult, R., O. Van Reeth, M. M. Byrne, J. Sturis, and E. Van Cauter. Sleepiness,
performance, and neuroendocrine function during sleep deprivation: Effects of exposure
to bright light and exercise. Journal of Biological Rhythms 12 (1997): 245-258.

Monk, T. H., D. J. Buysse, C. F. Reynolds, S. L. Berga, D. B. Jarrett, A. E. Begley, and D. J.

Kupfer. Circadian rhythms in human performance and mood under constant conditions.
Journal of Sleep Research 6 (1997): 9-18.

Newport, Cal. How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real
College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less. New York: Broadway Books,
2007.

---. How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets from the Countrys Top Students. New York:
Broadway Books, 2005.
 Hedberg 21

Grunberg, N. E., and A. Braum. From Biological commonalities of stress and substance abuse.
in Coping and substance abuse, edited by S. Shiffman and T. A. Wills, 25-62. Orlando:
Academic Press, 1985.

Stone, A. A., D. H. Bovbjerg, J. M. Neale, A. Napoli, H. Valdimarsdottir, D. Cox, F. G. Hayden,

and J. M. Gawltney. Development of the common cold symptoms following
experimental rhinovirus infection is related to prior stressful life events. Behavioral
Medicine 18 (1992): 115-120.

Van Cauter, E., and F. W. Turek. From Roles of sleep-wake and dark-light cycles in the control
of endocrine, metabolic, cardiovascular and cognitive function. In Handbook of
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Mechanisms, edited by B. S. McEwen, 313-330. New York: Oxford University Press,
2001.
 Hedberg 22

Appendix A: Checklist of Materials

Required Items
Pencils (with lead)
Pens
Paper
Textbooks
Reference Books (e.g.,
MLA Handbook)
Flash Drive (or other digital
storage device)
Any Relevant Notes
Any Other Useful
Academic Materials
Bottle of Water
Light, Healthy Snack

Recommended Items
Highlighter
Laptop Computer (with
power cords)
MP3 Player, iPod, or other
portable music player (with
headphones)
Index Cards
Calculator
Stapler (loaded)

Optional Items
Caffeinated Beverage (no more than 12 oz.)
Candy Bar (only one)
Money (for the vending machines)
Tape
Scissors
Sharpie Permanent Marker
Dry Erase Markers
Hole Puncher