Disclaimer: This article functions under the assumption of a weekday during the school year, or a normal working day.
For me, time began to render into existence at a very young age. Like most kids, I dreaded bedtime, when the joys of the day would slowly grind to a stop, when time would stretch into long nights spent staring at the ceiling, trying my best to fall asleep. (I didn’t figure out you had to close your eyes until much later). Time materialized in small doses of my everyday life: 6 hours of school, 3 hours of whatever lessons for that day, 1 hour of math, 1 hour of piano, and 30 minutes of video games. This was the empirical formula for my day. Any other time I had left over I was left to my own devices, usually devouring books at a rapid pace.
Yet I couldn’t seem to get enough. Much of my day was taken up by what my parents called must-dos, such as going to school, going to lessons, practicing math and piano. Of course, they couldn’t be happier if I happened to miss playing video games that day — that number was there more to limit me than anything else. Seemingly every night, as soon as I began reading my books, I crashed into the brick wall that was 9:30 pm, handcuffed by the shackles of time and the strong arms of my dad as he pulled me up the stairs to go to bed.
It was then that I began to crave more; time to read my books without pause, without having to split a single book into short bursts across a week; time to run around and catch Pokemon without counting down the minutes; time, to do whatever the heck I wanted. I reached for the reserves of time, broke the piggy bank that was night, and found myself with more time than I knew what to do with. I started staying up late, shoving clothes under my door to hide the light that came from inside, reading and playing my games without the franticness and pressure of someone short on time, but the leisurely nature of one who had all the time in the world. Oftentimes, when I had consumed whatever I had wanted to, the brick wall had been shattered irreparably: 9:30 pm turned into 11:00 pm, and then 1:00 am, and then 3:00 am. When I had finished, I realized that my parents — who had always stayed up working after my bedtime — were also asleep; walking around, I felt like a lone king in his castle. The only one left in the world.
Born out of avarice, my habit of delving deep into the time of the night was a secret joy. I had managed to wrest time away from the jaws of fate, breaking free of the shackles that held me so. Looking back in high school, I can only smile bitterly: there is no escaping the 24-hour curse that binds us all. That being said, breaking into the reserves of night can serve as an invaluable chunk of time, for whatever purposes one may need. Unfortunately, with the must-dos of school, work, sports, extracurriculars and more, burning the midnight oil becomes essential to relax,or (even more unfortunately) complete any must-dos that have been left unfinished. Now, staying up late more out of need than greed, I would like to share my personal insights of the art of not sleeping.
********
Up late vs. all-nighter
It is important to notice the difference between simply staying up late vs. actually pulling an all-nighter. In the context of an all-nighter, no sleeping is performed (except for naps). Pulling an all-nighter will put more stress on the body, and have more aftereffects as well. In most cases, all-nighters are used to finish up work — or something of comparable importance. Very rarely is it used for entertainment purposes. In both cases, one will be required to stay awake longer than usual, and push past a little (if not a lot) of fatigue.
An overwhelming majority of the time, one will be staying up late rather than pulling an all-nighter. Staying up late functions as a way to have more time, as well as without the significant burdens on the body. It is, in my personal opinion, the best thing anyone can do — it’s essentially getting more time for free. Staying up late will have an impact proportional to the amount of sleep lacking, yet if executed properly, should not affect the following day significantly. There’s only a certain point in the night where one is forced to make the decision; should I stay up all night or go to sleep?
When should we do what?
As stated before, if the time is being used for entertainment purposes or simply to unwind, staying up late is the way to go. Other times, it is used to finish up tasks that were not completed during the day. In both cases, they should be either short in nature or non-essential. If completing an essential task, it should be short — around 1-3 hours to complete. Otherwise, the time should be spent in a leisurely fashion — relaxing and unwinding or working ahead for the future.
All-nighters should be performed only as a last resort, but they can be incredibly useful tools to generate work, and can be used to finish large tasks. Favored tools of procrastinators, pulling all-nighters has its advantages; when working for a long period of time continuously, the brain functions more efficiently and effectively at this state, without any interruptions or distractions to pull it away from its cause. All-nighters can be used to write essays, compose speeches, finish projects, and cram material.
A hypnogram depicting a sleep cycle from “Rapid Eye Movement Sleep: Regulation and Function”. Cambridge University Press.
Although everyone needs a different amount of sleep, humans can generally function well on 6 hours of sleep. Staying up late also works with 5 and 4 hours of sleep. Personally, I stop myself at 3 hours of sleep. Any less sleep, and I would be better off pulling an all nighter. Sleep is cyclic, working in short patterns. After 1 1/2 hours, the brain passes all the early stages of sleep (NREM sleep), and progresses into REM sleep, which is where most of the recovery function of sleep is activated. Each cycle of REM sleep lasts from 15 minutes – 1 hour long, regenerating cells and reducing fatigue. This is why I recommend pushing through to complete the all-nighter if there is not at least 3 hours of sleep, the activation energy of waking up will not be worth the brief period of sleep that you can get.
I hope that this brief overview of the nighttime wonders encouraged you to go out, and grab some time for yourself. Maybe you’re doing so already by reading this post. No matter the case, now is the time to grab that giant hammer, and smash open the piggy bank that’s the night — after all, what’s the point of those reserves if you don’t use them?
I definitely relate to the “must-do”s aspect of your childhood! I found it pretty interesting how you see staying up late as a tool for getting more time out of the day, since losing sleep time feels like a burden to me. As a chronic non-sleeper, I stay up late to get work done or unwind pretty frequently, but as a result, I tend to be very sleepy in the mornings, even up through first period. If I stayed up particularly late, I might be forced to take a nap, which is even worse since I effectively lose time out of the day. That’s why I think “time for free” really only applies with very small amounts, or if it’s late arrival (what a godsend). Maybe if you have some secret tips for avoiding these kinds of situations, they could help? Also, you said that all-nighters can be used to cram, so do you recommend all-nighters before tests?
What an interesting and unique topic that you seem to have a lot of experience with! I enjoyed your new take on the common high school topic of sleep (rather, the lack thereof) and your knowledge on the topic of deciding whether to pull an all-nighter seems very detailed, which might be a bit concerning. What makes this special is your ability to articulate what is usually a spontaneous decision that doesn’t have much reasoning behind it.
However, I must say that I’m quite a bit confused by your rationale. You write that “working for a long period of time continuously, the brain functions more efficiently and effectively”, but functioning on very little sleep will only make it harder to focus. Even if you are just studying for a test, there are some stages in your sleep that help solidify short term and long term memory. Therefore, it seems much more beneficial to take that step back from cramming for the test and instead cram in a few more hours of sleep.