All Nighters

Anyone got any words of wisdom to pass onto someone about to begin an all nighter? Apart from "don't do it" etc...

aidan_walsh

Brew a fresh pot at least every hour or so...

simu

Cups of tea will keep you sane, and toasted cheese sandwiches.

Myth

Myth wrote:

Anyone got any words of wisdom to pass onto someone about to begin an all nighter? Apart from "don't do it" etc...

Drinking or studying?

simu

ronoc wrote:

Drinking or studying?

You wouldn't need advice to stay up all night drinking - it must be work.

Studying...exam in the morning!

GuanYin

And now for the science bit.....

The best way to keep your concentration active is to sip brewed coffee or red bull over long periods of time.

Caffiene has been shown to be a significant memory booster (Ryan et al, 2002, Psychological Science). It stimulates the brain cortex by inhibiting adenosine, which results in an increase in dopamine. This in turn increases the intensity of your mental activity. As a result increased alertness and resistance to fatigue are neat side effects of caffeine. The key is to sip the drink though, because peak plasma levels are reached in about 15 minutes and you want to maintain these levels as long as you can.

I used to take a can of redbull into exams with me and sip it over the duration of the exam, but its good for allnighters too. Brewed coffee has a much higher caffeine content than instant, so ideally you want that. Remember though, caffeine is a diuretic and also dehydrates, so drink water between bathroom visits, dehydration will affect your memory and fatigue you faster than anything.

The big problem with all this is that caffeine's effects are short term. You have to keep the plasma levels constent or you'll find the "crash" so bad as to loose much of the benefit of taking it to begin with. Another thing to remember, is because its a dopamine promoter, anyone who has high levels of anxiety or particularly hyper can pass on to pseudo-mania, at which point you won't sit tsill enough to get any work done.

G'luck.

NotMe

Myth wrote:

Anyone got any words of wisdom to pass onto someone about to begin an all nighter? Apart from "don't do it" etc...

Don't put your head down. Even for a second.

aidan_walsh

ronoc wrote:

Drinking or studying?

There is a third option, of course In which case the only advise is be careful and have fun

Lump

I'd advise staying up till about 4am, then going to bed till the time your exam starts.... If you're shattered going into the exam, you'll forget most of the stuff you learn over the night.

John

GuanYin

Lump wrote:

I'd advise staying up till about 4am, then going to bed till the time your exam starts.... If you're shattered going into the exam, you'll forget most of the stuff you learn over the night.

John

Thats a very good point, you need about 2-3 hours at least or you're in danger of shutting down.

Tiriel

Lump wrote:

I'd advise staying up till about 4am, then going to bed till the time your exam starts.... If you're shattered going into the exam, you'll forget most of the stuff you learn over the night.

John

that's good advice hope you take it. oh and about the redbull.. if you mix it with coke it works better for me!! and kind of helps with the taste! also after say each hour get a blank piece of paper and summarise what you've just gone over, in bullet points or something. it helps make sure you are taking in info and not just reading..

good luck!!

impr0v

advice

NotMe

Yeah getting a couple of hours sleep is a good idea. Just make sure you have a loud alarm clock.

impr0v wrote:

advice

He wants to stay awake not fall asleep. Great picture though That's my new wallpaper.

Chad ghostal

What a friend of mine did was to go to bed nice and early and wake up at about 3 or so (for exam at nine) and THEN study with caffiene etc etc..

it worked wonders for him.. he did this alot during college.

it means your still awake(from caffeine), youv had some sleep and when your finished your exam youll drop like a log..

NotMe

Chad ghostal wrote:

What a friend of mine did was to go to bed nice and early and wake up at about 3 or so (for exam at nine) and THEN study with caffiene etc etc..

it worked wonders for him.. he did this alot during college.

it means your still awake(from caffeine), youv had some sleep and when your finished your exam youll drop like a log..

The only problem with this is actually waking up at 3. I don't think I could do it.

Stark

Like syke said, sip caffeine regularly. (small amounts taken regularly are better than larger doses taken less frequently). I would recommend plain coffee over redbull and eat lots of protein to keep your blood sugar steady.

Sleepy

Did a whole lotta these when I was in college. I'd be wary of overdoing it on caffeine, particularly red bull. A few cups of coffee won't hurt but don't overdo it (more than 5/6 mugs of coffee over the night and you'll be a stuttering mess).

Just realised that Myth must be in the middle of his exam at the moment but if anyone else is thinking about pulling an all-nighter I have one very good piece of advice: take a couple of cold showers over the night, maybe one around 2am when you first start feeling tired and another around 5/6am. If you're in an environment where you can't have cold showers at that hour of the night, running the cold tap over your wrists and holding a cold compress against the back of you neck can have similar effects (though not nearly as effective).

I'd also be of the "get at least one hour's sleep" train of thought on the subject.

cajun_tiger

how did the exam go??

blondie83

I've done a few of these, but I always find that I need to get at least 45 mins sleep at some stage during the night. The important thing is to make sure you've had at least 1 cup of coffee before 11 pm - don't leave it any later than that or you won't be able to concentrate by the time 1 in the morning comes! Drink coffee through the night, drink slowly as was said by other posters here. By the time 4am comes around I usually find my eyes physically won't stay open, so I go and get anywhere from 45mins to 2 hours sleep. The ideal amount of sleep b4 an exam would be at least 4 hours, but that never happens for me! You can survive on less, but I think its very important to try to get at least 45 mins or you'll be useless. hope the exam went well!

Stayed up til round half 3, then crashed in my mates gaf. Got followed into my mates flat by some girls, of all the nights...

Exam went well enough by the way, with the lab marks counted as well I should have have passed. Thanks!

Nala

I did an all-nighter recently. Never again.

The previous night, I'd only got 3 hour's sleep, then when I did the all-nighter I let myself have 1 hour's sleep. By about 6am I was so tired and full of caffeine that I was actually delirious. I felt like I was drunk. I also felt like I was going to pass out.

As it turned out, nothing I studied came up, so i failed.

Duffman

syke wrote:

And now for the science bit.....

Brewed coffee has a much higher caffeine content than instant, so ideally you want that. Remember though, caffeine is a diuretic and also dehydrates, so drink water between bathroom visits, dehydration will affect your memory and fatigue you faster than anything.

Instant coffee has a higher caffeine content than other types of coffee. This is because it's made from lower quality beans with higher levels of caffeine, hence the more bitter taste.

About the diurectic effects of caffeine, beverages with caffeine in them will hydrate you like any other beverage despite popular belief.

Caffeine only dehydrates if a very large amount is consumed.

irishgeo

Never ever did all nighter in college. I used to study until about 10pm and get the head down early and be a fresh for the exam. I go in and write so much bull **** on the topic and generally hope i get 2 total questions out of 4 right. It ususally worked apart from the year i didnt go to classes at all and made up sorts of excuses to do my exams.

Failed all but one as my so called classmates cut me out of all the projects i sorta helped in.

Sarky

I stayed up all night yesterday. Or was it Thursday? Hard to remember. The important thing is that I put my shoes on before my pants when I was getting dressed for work this morning.

So I wouldn't really recommend all nighters that much without a checklist before you leave the house.