Sometimes the dreaded all-nighter just can’t be avoided. Maybe you have a new job working night shifts, it’s finals week, or you’re having a sleepover party. Regardless of your reasons, staying up all night is tough.
Human sleep patterns follow natural circadian rhythms. Your circadian rhythms are like internal clocks affecting the way you think, feel, and behave throughout the day. Circadian rhythms are based on the lightness or darkness of your environment.
When your brain perceives darkness outside, your body begins to release a hormone called melatonin. Melatonin makes you drowsy and prepares your body for sleep.
Staying up all night means fighting this natural process, which is not only difficult, but also unhealthy. Sleep deprivation can impact your ability to learn and focus. It can even be dangerous. In 2013, there were at least 72,000 car accidents caused by drowsy driving.
If you must stay up all night, the following tips can help you do it safely.
The easiest way to stay up all night is to reset your internal clock. This can take up to one week, but it’s possible. You may experience serious drowsiness at first, but your body does catch on.
If you’re switching to the night shift, give your body a few days of practice. Your circadian rhythms still rely on light cues, so make sure you’re sleeping in a very dark room during the day. Blackout curtains and eye masks are particularly helpful.
Caffeine is a helpful pick-me-up and can increase your alertness. It helps fight one of the natural substances your body releases to make you drowsy.
Studies have found that moderate doses of caffeine (600 milligrams [mg] or more than four cups of coffee) can improve your ability to think and perform tasks, but high doses (900 mg or more) have the opposite effect. High doses of caffeine can cause symptoms like anxiety and shakiness that make it harder for you to concentrate.
To stay up all night, don’t rely on one big dose of caffeine.
Too much coffee can lead to stomach upset. Instead, try taking several smaller doses throughout the night such as espresso shots, caffeine pills, or caffeinated gum.
Energy drinks contain varying amounts of caffeine, typically the equivalent of one to five cups of coffee. They also contain guarana, an ingredient that also contains caffeine, which makes the total amount of caffeine higher than it appears.
When using energy drinks, it’s difficult to know exactly how much caffeine you’re ingesting, and extremely high doses of caffeine can be toxic. They’re especially dangerous when mixed with drugs or alcohol. In 2011, more than 20,000 people went to the emergency room because of energy drinks.
Taking a series of small naps throughout the night may help you stay alert. Although it’s not equal to a full night’s sleep, short naps can be restorative. Most studies on night-shift workers find that naps reduce sleepiness and improve performance.
Try to catch 15 to 20 minutes of sleep during a break.
If you’re driving through the night, pull into a rest stop for a quick nap.
Daily exercise helps you maintain a healthy sleep schedule, but experts recommend avoiding exercise late at night, if you want to sleep well at night. That’s because your body produces a lot of energy when you exercise, which can keep you awake.
If you’re trying to stay up all night, try 30 to 40 minutes of aerobic exercise. If you don’t want to exercise, try getting up and moving around. Pace back and forth for 10 minutes, take a walk outside, or do a few jumping jacks.
Darkness cues your body to release melatonin, a hormone that makes you feel sleepy. One study found that using bright lights at night and creating darkness during the day can help night-shift workers reset their circadian rhythms.
Find a lamp that can distribute light widely throughout the room. Look for an LED bulb that can simulate sunlight. This should help you stay awake longer.
Your electronic devices, including laptops, tablets, TVs, and phones, emit something called “blue light.
” The blue light emitted from your devices can delay the release of melatonin, the sleep hormone. This can prevent you from becoming sleepy.
To keep yourself awake, use a device that you can interact with. Try playing video games on your computer or tablet. The closer the blue light is to your face, the more awake you will feel.
Taking a cold or lukewarm shower can help wake you up when you start to get tired. If you don’t want to shower, splashing your face with cold water can help. Brushing your teeth can make you feel refreshed.
Staying up all night isn’t good for you and should only be done as a last resort. After staying up all night, you’ll feel very drowsy. Try to make up the sleep the next day.
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Staying up late can be tough on the body, but sometimes it's unavoidable.
Maybe you’re working late, or you might need to stay up for a one-time event like a family trip or a kid's sleepover or even adjust your sleep schedule to accommodate a new night shift assignment. Either way, there are tricks you can use to successfully become a night owl.
Keep in mind that success is relative when it comes to staying up late. The longer you're up, the more your mind and body will feel the effects of sleep deprivation. "Our bodies are programmed to sleep during the night and be awake and alert during the day," said Christopher Drake, PhD, a sleep researcher at the Henry Ford Sleep Disorders Center and an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. "When we try to stay up late and sleep during the day, we are working against our own bodies."
Officer Shane Sevigny can testify to that. During the summer he works the graveyard shift patrol for the Salem Police Department in Salem, Ore.
, which runs from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.
"As you get older, it's harder," said Sevigny, 47. "I have a harder time sleeping during the day. My body clock would like to be sleeping at night. I have experience doing it, but going back and forth is the hardest for me, especially if it's for a short time. I just don't feel rested."
6 Ways to Stay Up Late
If you're pulling a single all-nighter or trying to adjust to a night shift, there are some basic ways you can improve your chances of staying up late.
Nap beforehand. Either sleep a little longer each night before your late night or grab an afternoon nap that day. "One can bank sleep," Drake said. "Prior to your all-nighter, get nine hours of sleep a night for a week and bank some sleep."
Keep busy. People who stay busy while they are sleepy tend to rally, pushing sleepiness aside because they are interested in the new task. That's what helps Sevigny get through the night.
He's happy that his night shifts start on Friday and Saturday, typically the busiest nights for police officers. "If we stay busy, you don't even notice it until you're done with your shift and you're on your way home," he said.
Use caffeine…the right way. Caffeine is an effective aide for staying up late. However, just chugging one big caffeinated beverage at the start of the shift will not help you through the whole evening. "My recommendation is not to utilize a giant Venti Starbucks but to use small doses equally spaced throughout the night shift," Drake said. "That will help maintain alertness throughout the shift but also avoid people having significant sleep disturbance once they are home and ready for bed."
Nap smart at night. Taking a short half-hour nap during a shift can be effective, but some people will feel sluggish afterward. Drake's solution: Drink an 8-ounce cup of coffee, which is about 75 milligrams of caffeine, before your nap.
"Taking a small cup of coffee right before one takes that short nap will eliminate the sleep inertia effect," he said.
Stay in bright light. Light has a powerful effect on your internal clock, and bright light can temporarily fake the body into thinking it's not yet time for bed. "That circadian clock has connections to the eye, and bright light can reset our internal clock," said William Kohler, MD, medical director of the Florida Sleep Institute in Spring Hill, Fla. "That clock is what tells us when we're alert and when we're tired." Stay in extremely well-lit rooms or intermittently use a light box that produces between 2,000 and 10,000 lux.
Prepare for 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. Banking sleep will get you only so far through the night, however. "You can't escape the negative effects of the circadian clock," Drake said. "One is going to be sleepy around 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. because that is the sleepiest time of the day." Be prepared to feel extremely sleepy in the hours just before dawn and use all possible countermeasures to help you stay awake.
Adjusting Your Schedule
Switching to a regular night shift schedule takes more effort. You have to work hard to fool your mind and body, and even then you must expect that it won't be completely successful. Sleeping during the day is fundamentally different from night sleep.
Keeping that in mind, people who need to work night shifts should try these strategies:
Establish a fake day-night cycle. A 2013 study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that night shift nurses were best able to adjust to the schedule if they exposed themselves to extremely bright light during the beginning of their shift and then wore dark glasses after the shift. You can extend this effect by using a sleep mask and earplugs once you're in bed.
Don't try to sleep all at once. Many people make the mistake of trying to replicate night sleep during the day. "Most night shift workers will go to sleep within 10 or 15 minutes, but after four hours, their sleep becomes fragmented," Drake said.
"They fall asleep and wake up and fall asleep and wake up. It's probably better to use two sleep periods that last three or four hours. Don't try to stay in bed. Get up and do what you need to do. Run errands. After three or four hours of wakefulness, take another three- or four-hour nap before going back to work."
Avoid alcohol. The idea of a nightcap doesn't work during the day (nor does it work at night). Alcohol may help you fall asleep, but it can cause disturbances that ruin the quality of your sleep.
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Getting ready for bed usually involves a sequence of activities: putting on pajamas, drinking milk, reading a book. For ordinary days, this is an advantage: the body immediately understands that now you are going to bed. If you need to stay awake, these habits are best avoided.
Being slightly hungry will keep you awake, as you are supposed to be active in order to get your own food.
Do not change into pajamas, even if they are very comfortable. Wear something you can't sleep in, like brand new, unworn jeans. Another helper will be shoes with laces. It will not give you the opportunity to "just lie down for five minutes." Unless, of course, you are used to falling asleep in your shoes every Friday.
Avoid sofas and beds If you really want to sleep, you will fall asleep even on a hard chair with nails sticking out in some places. A soft bed will not leave you a single chance to hold out until the morning. Therefore, choose not the most comfortable seats.
Studies have shown that bright light suppresses Suppression of sleepiness and melatonin by bright light exposure during breaks in night work sleepiness. Turn on the overhead light, sconce, table lamp. It is impossible to overdo it in this matter. True, you should not pull this trick at parties: other visitors to a nightclub may be dissatisfied with the lights suddenly turned on.
Find a person with a questionable position on Facebook* and try to convince him. You can sincerely argue or frankly troll, but the effect will be the same: from indignation, you will not only fall asleep - you will not be able to sit still.
Not the most unexpected, but working way. A sleepless night the day before leaves you virtually no chance to be productively awake. Unless, of course, you flew from the future to save John Connor. Therefore, before a strategically important night, sleep as hard as you can.
Caffeine does suppress Sleep and Caffeine drowsiness. True, there are nuances of drinking coffee, depending on how you want to spend the morning. If you drink it too actively, there is a risk that you will be too alert even when it's time to go to bed. If you drink just a little bit of coffee, you will easily fall asleep when the caffeine leaves your bloodstream.
Instead of trying to pinch yourself to stay awake, outsource this activity. Eat a portion of spicy, burning food. It will irritate the mucous membrane in your mouth enough to make you forget about sleep.
On a sleepless night, the very property of fast carbohydrates that adherents of a healthy diet scold them for is useful: they quickly break down into simple sugars and provide a strong, albeit short-term burst of energy. So ignore the advice of grandmothers "do not eat sweets at night, otherwise you will not fall asleep" and stock up on sweets.
Keep an eye on your level of fatigue, as the energy will leave your body just as quickly: as soon as you feel tired, it's time to take another bite from the chocolate bar.
Rinse face and wrists. Cold water is a kind of stress for the body, and therefore it will inevitably cheer up to eliminate discomfort.
According to the research on Chewing can relieve sleepiness in a night of sleep deprivation., chewing will keep you awake. The brain receives a signal that food is on its way to the stomach, and does not allow the body to relax in anticipation of a portion of energy.
In general, you can chew anything, but chewing gum will be a longer-lasting option than food.
Dehydration can make you feel tired Water, Hydration and Health, so listen carefully to your body's signals of thirst. The advice has an added bonus: Have you ever tried to sleep with a full bladder?
Physical activity is invigorating, and if you get up every hour and do 15 squats or push-ups, this will significantly extend the period of wakefulness. But jumping is better to avoid, although communication with the police squad, which the neighbors will call because of the noise, can invigorate better than any squats.
Surely there are puzzles that make you forget about everything in the world. For some, these are puzzles, for others - a new level of computer games. If you choose a movie or game, it is better that they are new to you and that you have to carefully follow the twists and turns of the plot.
A sleepless night is a great time to practice multitasking. Switch between different tasks to avoid switching to automatic work mode.
What methods do you use? Share in the comments.
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Is it possible to stay up all night without harm to your health and what, apart from a few cups of coffee, will help you stay awake? Share the answers to these questions and help prepare for a sleepless night
Contents
Sleep is necessary for health: even one sleepless night can negatively affect the body.
If you do not sleep for more than 17 hours in a row [1], the reaction rate will decrease by 50% and the brain will not work at full capacity. In addition, due to increased sleepiness, the risk of an accident will increase.
In 1963, researcher William Dement and test subject Randy Gardner set up an experiment to find out how long a person could stay awake. Their record is 11 days and 25 minutes (by 2022 it is still unbeaten) [2]. During the experiment, Randy's mood fluctuated, he had hallucinations, he could not speak clearly, he forgot facts and got confused in his memories. This effect was from 11 days without sleep, but even one sleepless night can lead to health consequences.
Without sleep, the brain cannot “refresh”: fluid from the spine does not flow into it, which “washes away” toxins, some of which cause Alzheimer's disease [3]. And this is not the only harmful effect of sleep deprivation: a study in Sweden showed that just one sleepless night increased the risk of damage to brain cells by 20% [4].
The reasons can be different: accumulated deadlines at work, shift schedule, upcoming exams or a night event. Recently, psychologists have noticed a new reason for refusing healthy sleep - procrastination. In English, it is called Revenge Bedtime Procrastination - "procrastination, taking revenge on sleep patterns" [5]. This is the name given to situations when a person refuses sleep in favor of leisure: doing a hobby, flipping through a feed on social networks or watching TV shows. However, for this, no additional prescriptions that do not allow you to fall asleep are required.
But sometimes work or school makes us neglect sleep. We tell you how to do business at night, minimizing the risk to health.
Our brain reacts to the change of day and night, and when it's dark, we automatically fall asleep. This is how the internal biological clock works [6]. To drive away drowsiness and increase vigilance, provide yourself with a bright source of light (and it is desirable that it be not yellow, but white).
In dim lighting, you will only want to sleep more, and your concentration will drop.
Physical activity usually helps you fall asleep at night, but if you do sports 1-2 hours before bedtime, you will only cheer up [7]. Do a little exercise: jump, stretch or stretch. Do this every time you want to go to bed.
Staring at a computer screen for a long time can strain your eyes and cause dryness that will make you sleep more. Try sometimes to take your eyes off the monitor: for example, go for tea or coffee or do a warm-up for the eyes.
Dehydration reduces blood flow to the brain, resulting in a feeling of fatigue and increased sleepiness [8]. To avoid this, place a bottle of water near your workspace and drink when your mouth feels dry.
One of the most obvious ways, but it works. Studies have shown that if the human body has more than 600 milligrams of caffeine per day (that's about four mugs), it will be able to cope with tasks faster and more efficiently.
But be careful: large doses (from 900 mg) have the opposite effect. You will become more anxious and unable to concentrate [9].
Energy drinks also contain caffeine, but their use can be dangerous. One drink is equal to about five mugs of coffee. In addition, energy drinks contain guarana, which also contains caffeine. It is quite difficult to calculate the exact dose, and you can overdo it: your head will start to hurt and feel dizzy, nervousness and anxiety will appear.
A cold or cool shower will help you feel refreshed and tired. If you don't have time for it, you can rinse your face and neck with cold water and brush your teeth to freshen up.
Short sleep will help you relieve accumulated fatigue and increase your own productivity [10]. Set yourself several alarms so you don't oversleep. If you sleep for more than 20 minutes, you will most likely snap yourself out of deep sleep and feel more overwhelmed than you were before.
