Pulling a (Relatively) Healthy All-Nighter + Pros and Cons

Hey guys,

I hope your holidays went very well, and here we are, starting a new semester with positive attitudes to improve your weaknesses from the first semester. So, in this blog post, I wanna discuss a controversial topic - pulling all-nighters. I haven't done many of them throughout the past semester, but the ones that I have, have been very productive, and not too energy draining.

1. At least 2 days before examination
If you realize that you really need to sacrifice some precious sleep-time before your exam, do it at least 48 hours in advance so you won't have a messed up sleep cycle by the time your exam comes. Make sure to nap before the actual all-nighter. Usually, of course, all-nighters are the last resort for procrastinators, but it may be useful if you feel like you need to put in good 5-8 hours of studying.

2. Set up the atmosphere
Some of you live at home, and some of you live on campus, where the library is within reach. However, the key for setting up an appropriate atmosphere for an all-nighter is preparing the following things:
- snacks (proteins are best)
- lots of water + caffeine (if you'd like)
- comfortable temperature
- specific plans for the study time
- full-charged devices; or have charges or yourself
- some physical activity during study breaks (walk around; jump, etc.)
- have all materials gathered
- other things (ex. computer brightness level adjustment)

3. Study Actively
Because you might still feel sleepy, try to awaken yourself with some active studying: whiteboard activities, mnemonics creation, content-related animations, and games, etc. This will keep you awake, and you'll absorb lots of info from such an effective study methodology.

4. Catch up on sleep
Make sure you are choosing the right day for your all-nighter. It will be best if the next day is not busy, and you can dedicate some extra time to sleep. For improving long-term consequences from pulling an all-nighter, either try your best to wait until the evening to fall asleep, or take a short, daytime nap, but be ready to fall asleep by the evening, at your usual time.


Pros:
- little to no distractions
- most productive time of day for most people is evening - night
- 5-8 hours of productive studying
- very minimal consequences, if done properly

Cons:
- messed up sleep cycle and other health issues, if done improperly
- may be too sleepy if it's not your most productive time of day
- you might have other circumstances that might limit you from having a successful all-nighter (sibling in a room; library closed at night; etc.)

don't drink that much coffee ;)