How to pull an all nighter for exam season (or midterms)
I wouldn’t normally advise pulling all nighters, but sometimes, you just gotta do one to pass a midterm or an exam. Since I’ve done so many, I thought I’d share my tips on how to pull all nighters successfully. Here’s when and how to do it properly.
A couple rules you should follow:
Do not pull an all nighter the day of the midterm - you risk falling asleep and missing your midterm and you need a good 7-8 hrs of sleep to function at your best. The latest you should pull an all nighter is leading up to the day before your midterm eg, if your midterm is on Friday, pulling an all nighter Wednesday night to Thursday morning is acceptable. This ensures that you even if you do fall asleep on Thursday, you won’t miss your midterm.
Make sure you have lots of carbohydrate sources available. Foods like bread, pasta, and rice will keep you going throughout the night. WARNING: make sure you don’t eat a heavy dinner, and instead eat till you’re around 60-70% full. Large dinners make you sleepy and increase the chances of you falling asleep. I would advise to eat something light every 2-3 hours or 3-4 hours
Take a nap in the late afternoon right before you study. Taking a nap at around 6pm or 7pm and waking up around 8 or 9 pm will make you less likely to go back to bed at 11pm or 12pm. It also sets you up to stay awake longer.
Make a list of concepts or practice problems you need to get through. The point of an all nighter is to get through as much material as possible. Making a list of concepts/practice problems ensure that you aren’t wasting your time.
Coffee and Exercise. These two things will make it that much easier to stay awake, so alternate between drinking sips of coffee and doing a couple push-ups here and there will keep your brain active and prevent it from shutting down.
If you do feel like your brain isn’t retaining anymore information and that it’s slowing down, it’s OK to head to bed. This is your body’s way of telling you that it is at its limit and it’ll be more productive than forcing yourself to stay awake if you go to sleep. Truthfully, half of my attempted all nighters end in me going to bed around 4-5 am, and that’s ok. When you start you might only be able to go up to 3-4 am or 2-3 am and that’s fine.
