how often do you pull all-nighters?

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

I'm pulling my first one of the semester (already into the 4th week; what took me so long?). For the previous two semesters I was pulling at minimum one a week. I took early morning Calc classes and we had a test or quiz every Thursday morning. Then there's times like midterms and finals when you map out your week and realize you won't have time to sleep, so you arrange it so that you can get 1-2 hours a night for the entire week. Just curious if I'm the only psychotic who pulls them on a regular basis. Any others out there? 

Edited January 30, 2014 by Gnome Chomsky

[pears]

I try to choose between early morning and late night, depending on how I feel and what's due. In the worst crunch times last semester, I tried to keep it down to 2 days a week. I'm one of those types who has to plan everything with self-imposed due dates, e.g., reaching the 10th page of a 25 page paper by so-many-days before it's due.

 

That said, my classes thus far have made planning ahead very easy, and I know my own work habits (and weaknesses) really well, so I know when to push myself and when to call it a night. I often err on the side of pushing because I can be a total slug if I don't put the boot in my own rear end, but I try to piece apart assignments throughout a day and the whole week to minimize all-nighters. I'm an old fart and/or princess about sleep most days.

[Zissoupy]

I pull 2-3 a week. No joke. It's miserable. I can't believe I work this hard to be this poor.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

The worst is when you have two nights in a row where you have so much to do that you know you can hardly sleep. You know you can't possibly pull a double all-nighter so you get like 2 hours each night. Those suck. By the end of that 2nd day you're so relieved to fall into your bed. 

 

Another important factor for me is when in the day the thing I need to do is. For example, if the exam is in the AM, I prefer to not sleep the night before. Even a 1-hour nap at 6-7 am can screw you up. However, if the exam is in the PM, I definitely try to squeeze an hour or so in. 

Edited January 30, 2014 by Gnome Chomsky

[microarray]

I don't know how you guys do it. I can't do all nighters at all.. not sure if it's because of my age (29) or what. I think the closest i get to all nighters is getting 5-6 hours of sleep from staying up late/getting up early to finish an assignment.

 

 

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

I don't know how you guys do it. I can't do all nighters at all.. not sure if it's because of my age (29) or what. I think the closest i get to all nighters is getting 5-6 hours of sleep from staying up late/getting up early to finish an assignment.

 

I'm 28 and I do it all the time. I got used to it in the military. We'd take shifts guarding the tent. But I used to pull all-nighters as a kid too. I never get more than 5-6 hours a night. I get that on the weekends. During the week I get 2-5 hours a night with the occasional all-nighter sprinkled in. 

[Usmivka]

I never did before grad school...now, occasionally, but chronic sleep depreivation is more of a problem. The worst is when you stop noticing how much slower and dumber you are acting and it becomes the new normal.

[St Andrews Lynx]

Never. Firstly because I don't think I could, secondly because I really don't want to.

 

Not doing all-nighters forces me to plan my workload out well in advance. That means I have to start tasks the several days before they are due, and maybe wake up a little earlier to tackle them if I'm falling behind. For exams? Well, I'm fine with getting a good night's sleep - even if I'm under-prepared - and settling for a B+. For me, a rested (under-prepared) brain is always better than a sleep-deprived (prepared) one.

[DeafAudi]

This topic terrifies me. I NEED sleep. lol.

[shortstack51]

I don't do all-nighters very often. My program can be flexible about due dates (mostly in the case of final seminar papers), and I would rather risk a professor's potential wrath by asking for an extension than risking mental/physical health. I guess that's one of the perks of having only 2 or 3 graded assignments a semester, though. (We have about 500 pages of reading a week but  I get that done by pacing myself and reading on the train.) I average about 6-7 hours of sleep a night after work/class. However, my job grading papers has yet to start this semester, so that number may drop...

[toasterazzi]

Almost never. I occasionally wind up only getting like 4 hours of sleep, but I try to avoid the no sleep whatsoever deal. 

[spectastic]

I used to do it maybe 2 or 3 times a month. more than that during busier semesters. I don't plan on doing it again though. I need my 8 hours, and I envy those who only need 6. I wish I could compress all that sleep into like 5 minutes; run a cooling coil through my brain to prevent spontaneous combustion. That would be super duper.

[LittleDarlings]

During undergrad I never did, I need my sleep! Haha 

I stayed up until 4 one time reading for a class but I didn't have class until like 11 so I don't know if that counts. 

I don't think I have the ability to pull an all nighter, coffee does nothing for me so I would be dead.  

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

During undergrad I never did, I need my sleep! Haha 

I stayed up until 4 one time reading for a class but I didn't have class until like 11 so I don't know if that counts. 

I don't think I have the ability to pull an all nighter, coffee does nothing for me so I would be dead.  

 

So your craziest moment in college was staying up till 4 reading for a class you didn't have til 11? Talk about living life in the fast lane. 

[LittleDarlings]

So your craziest moment in college was staying up till 4 reading for a class you didn't have til 11? Talk about living life in the fast lane.

What can I say... I'm a BAMF:)

Not my craziest moment but it was my "all nighter" moment

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

What can I say... I'm a BAMF:)

Not my craziest moment but it was my "all nighter" moment

 

4 am isn't an all nighter when you still get a full night sleep. 

[LittleDarlings]

4 am isn't an all nighter when you still get a full night sleep.

I woke up at 8 to study more now does that count more?

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

I woke up at 8 to study more now does that count more?

 

Fine. I'll allow it. 

[gingin6789]

I do pretty well at all-nighters, but I would definitely have more of them when I didn't have a roommate.  I started at a community college, so I was a commuter student.  So many all-nighters during those three years!!  When I transferred to a four-year school to finish my bachelors degree, I didn't have a roommate, and the university told me I had to move in with someone or buy out the second half of my room.  So ... I bought out the other half of my dorm room with some of my savings because I had to start my GPA over again and knew I probably couldn't study well into the night if a roommate were there.  That semester was AWESOME for all-nighters!

 

For the next year, I had the greatest roommate ever who slept like a rock.  People could be yelling right there in the room and she wouldn't wake up.  Nevertheless, I was paranoid about waking her, so there were far fewer all-nighters during that time.  Those were also my two toughest semesters of undergrad!!!  

 

So, I guess I love pulling all nighters when I don't have a roommate ... all-nighters just give me a whole new kind of energy, and I just feel so productive.  I am much more hopeless when I have to pull myself out of bed early in the morning!!  

[MadtownJacket]

Used to pull them quite often during undergraduate.  Now I pull about 1 every week at my full-time job.

[DeleteMePlease]

I envy you. I cannot concentrate at all when I don't get enough sleep.
My usual day is something like this: college (classes and research) from 10 to 6 and then I usually study at least until 10. Of course, there are also evenings I spend with my girlfriend or friends. That always depends on my current workload. 

 

Often, I also do a lot of work that was left over from the weekdays on my Saturdays and Sundays. However, this resulted in my social life more or less vanishing

[aberrant]

When I was an undergrad, there are only two conditions that I would pull all-nighters -- midterms for biochemistry and running experiments overnight. Otherwise, I insist to have a minimum 3 hours of sleep.

 

Now that I'm in grad school, I try not to pull all-nighters. I almost pull all-nighter twice (one was two days ago) just because of experiments. Pulling all-nigher for graduate level courses as a grad student, to me, is unnecessary.

[NuclearFlea]

I have never pulled one and I have a 3.85 gpa in my math major.  Lack of sleep causes me to lose focus and I might as well be sleeping for how little I can do while sleepy.  I just make sure I get some sleep and if I have a lot to do I wake up early to do it. 

[Queen of Kale]

Never. Firstly because I don't think I could, secondly because I really don't want to.

 

Not doing all-nighters forces me to plan my workload out well in advance. That means I have to start tasks the several days before they are due, and maybe wake up a little earlier to tackle them if I'm falling behind. For exams? Well, I'm fine with getting a good night's sleep - even if I'm under-prepared - and settling for a B+. For me, a rested (under-prepared) brain is always better than a sleep-deprived (prepared) one.

I completely agree.  I have never pulled an all-nighter because my brain is basically useless after 8pm.  

 

Now, I do have to stay up all night to run experiments but that is completely unavoidable in my field and doesn't require taking a test the next day.  I'd much rather sleep the night before a test than study all night.  

 

I do, on the other hand, usually wake up a little earlier (maybe 5am) to study for a few extra hours the morning before a test.  That way I'm still rested but my brain is fully awake and information-saturated when I sit for my exam.  I know it wouldn't work for everyone, but it's the system that works for me.  Also, my plan comes with delicious breakfast food bribery.

[MsDarjeeling]

I don't know how you guys do it. I can't do all nighters at all.. not sure if it's because of my age (29) or what. I think the closest i get to all nighters is getting 5-6 hours of sleep from staying up late/getting up early to finish an assignment.

 

I'm with microarray.  I just don't do all nighters.  When I'm tired, I sleep and don't care what is still lingering on my to do list.  The 5-6hr option still lets me function and not be cranky to everyone around me.