I'm pulling an all-nighter at work today, and I'm running on a little less than 5.5 hours of sleep. What's the best way to stay productive throughout the night, and then be able to kick ass the next day until 6 pm?
I'm not sure I'll be able to do it! >_
Sarah Hamilton
Feb 1, 10 8:12 pm
Music? Pizza? Eating keeps me awake. As for tomorrow, maybe you'll get to go home early...
postal
Feb 1, 10 8:22 pm
orange juice at 4 in the morning... made my body think i just woke up from a nice long slumber
coffee never worked for me after a certain point, and after a while black tea left me feeling chalky, icky...
oh and sipping water...
and checking archinect for all nighter encouragement, you can do it...
l3wis
Feb 1, 10 8:34 pm
i can only hope so, Sarah!
good idea, postal. OJ.
Ian Smith
Feb 1, 10 8:59 pm
I don't like to eat that much after an all-nighter, it just makes me want to sit down and comfortably digest (i.e. sleep). But then again maybe if I ate a little healthier...
I like some tea, when that gets old lots of water. Shower at your usual time in the morning if you can and go about breakfast as normal... if all else fails, adrenaline IV should do just fine.
ff33ยบ
Feb 1, 10 9:29 pm
5 hr energy
liberty bell
Feb 1, 10 9:48 pm
I hear apples. That and fury.
dlb
Feb 1, 10 10:35 pm
Neil Young - "Rust Never Sleeps"; "Freedom"; "Dead Man"; "Zuma"; "Greatest Hits"
All played loud.
rob(E)
Feb 1, 10 10:45 pm
Bachus D. yep. Bachus D, its this CRAY energy drink you can get at asian food stores...we get ours at the little tokyo mall down from school in DT LA. WMHHAHAHAHAH BACHUS D!!!!!
ethanhunt
Feb 3, 20 4:14 pm
man your campus is boring AF
tuna
Feb 1, 10 10:48 pm
yeah - i had to do one the other day. by 1am - i had to go buy a cold smoothie which probably helped me for another hour. then i had to dim the lights so my eyes wouldn't get too much light in and by 3, i had some wine which helped me last until 6.
i remember some kid from school that tried to do one and had went to the bathroom to take a dump and accidently feel asleep. He could have easily slept on the studio couch that someone bought over several years ago and left it there which never been washed except with beer and dog pee stain.
have fun.
l3wis
Feb 1, 10 11:11 pm
Haha, good recommendations! I've garnered pizza and some brewskis so im good until 2 or 3 I wager.
chupacabra
Feb 1, 10 11:17 pm
Listen to Mastodon.
NLW2
Feb 1, 10 11:28 pm
I recommend AMP as a good energy drink. I've always been discerning with my addictions, and caffeine is no exception. Sure, the shots are alright, and Red Bull and Monster have their merits, but the AMP teas (in black and green) have less sugar and a high quality energy concoction. They're very good for productivity. during finals last semester, I would chug half of it without putting it down, stick it in the fridge, then switch to water for four or five hours as the buzz wore off. then I'd take a fifteen minute power nap to relax my eyes, get up and finish off the drink while working. In the morning I'd grab breakfast and a coffee or espresso, since mixing your caffeine formulas keep you from building up an immunity.
So in essence, start with synthetic, and grab something organic in the morning to ease you into the day. Take power naps when you can afford it, as they'll keep you from getting stupid and making silly decisions. Lots of water and fruits are always good.
citizen
Feb 2, 10 1:07 am
I've always found meth to do wonders.
MAMBO
Feb 2, 10 1:16 am
Sarah Hamilton is completely wrong. COMPLETELY WRONG. Eating does not help to keep you awake. In fact, it does the opposite: it makes you more fatigued and sleepy, since a greater quantity of blood is transfered to the stomach area to aid in digestion. This means less blood to your brain, which causes you to be sleepier. Look it up if you don't believe me. It's not as noticeable when you eat right after you wake up from a long sleep/nap (e.g. breakfast), but the effects are staggering when you are already fatigued to begin with (e.g. dinner). It also depends on the food, but generally, the more you fill yourself up, the more likely you will be to drop dead sleeping.
My answer? Red Bull. It does the trick. Coffee stimulates you, but causes you to crash after the effects wear off. However, there is no crash with Red Bull. There is only a steady decline in alertness, during which you will still have enough energy to down another can to keep your mind sprinting for another few hours. I drank 3 cans of that stuff in one long all-nighter to study for a final exam that I left off until the night before. It did wonders. And that stuff tastes pretty fucking good too.
Long live Red Bull.
MAMBO
Feb 2, 10 1:19 am
That being said, other energy drinks might work too. I think I've only tried Red Bull and Monster. Red Bull seemed to work much better for me, and tasted better as well.
Ian Smith
Feb 2, 10 1:42 am
As far as energy drinks go, my personal favorite is Bawls. I have yet to try the G33K B33R variant though...
parkerm
Feb 2, 10 1:52 am
Drink SOOOOO much water, like non stop. If you have to pee constantly, you won't be able to fall asleep all night. Avoid too much coffee b/c you'll just crash and burn. But then at 5am, do a starbucks double espresso shot, like the kind that comes in a can, and it'll get you through the last few hours.
model.bot
Feb 2, 10 1:53 am
I hope you are still hanging in there. I think staying hydrated helps a lot as some people above have mentioned. Good luck!
montagneux
Feb 2, 10 2:15 am
Have any of you all tried istonix?
montagneux
Feb 2, 10 2:29 am
Isotonix, from the story I got, was the original Gatorade. The concept is pretty simple-- it's a formula of vitamins/minerals/alternative-health-BS that contains about the same amount of sugar and salt found in your body, balanced to the body's average pH and is in a micro-fine suspension. It pretty much tricks the body into thinking something is already been digested... so it passes it through the system without attacking it with stomach acid.
This is pretty much what gatorade, red bull and 5-hour energy are.
There's several companies who make vitamins in this form and they're between 50-90 dollars a bottle for 90 doses. However, if you buy 5 hour energy all the time, you're paying three to four times as much. I'm sure you can search around and some housewife/househousband in a home-based MLM would be more than happy to sell you it. But don't get sucked into their crap.
Also, I'm not sure if they have it wherever you are... but try Yerba Mate. It tastes like shit. But it has a wonderful little chemical in it called matiene that's like caffiene but different in a better way. It will get you cranked up.
l3wis
Feb 2, 10 8:40 am
Well, I cheated a little bit and ended up sleeping for 2 hours.
Now I'm regretting it! God, I should have just stayed awake the whole night, I feel like a zombie.
rethinkit
Feb 2, 10 2:39 pm
meditation - and if that fails - NODOZE
xtbl
Feb 2, 10 5:48 pm
will you have some company?
i've found that just having a conversation with someone will keep me awake.
silverlake
Feb 2, 10 7:10 pm
Lots of blow.
poop876
Feb 2, 10 7:16 pm
Sex kept me awake during school...
msudon
Feb 2, 10 10:39 pm
eyedrops! for the extremely hard-core! for the those double/triple runs of all-nighters-you can physically trick your body into thinking you have got shut-eye. I find all-nighters to be hardest on my body, things generally start breaking down around 30 hours of no sleep
for awhile anyways, then your body adjusts and you are fucked.
dsc_arch
Feb 2, 10 10:45 pm
My favorite was "choffee."
2 cups milk, a scoop of Slim Fast, Tb instant coffee, and Hershey's chocolate syrup. shake it up and pound the whole thing.
During thesis it would keep me up for two days at a time.
That and a nice swim in the pacific ocean. But watch those rip tides!
I couldn't do an all nighter now if a gun was pointed at my head.
Now I am in bed by 10PM!
pdigi
Feb 3, 10 1:22 pm
drink a pint of water every hour. you'll have to keep going to the bathroom, but that constant urge to go will keep you up. works for me and it's better than loading up on sugar!
pdigi
Feb 3, 10 1:25 pm
+ also ..
whenever i found myself zoning out, i would get up and do some quick stretches, push ups, or shadow box.
a bit strange, but doing something physical helped me refocus.
zoon
Feb 3, 10 3:24 pm
looks like im gonna pull an all nighter today. i find listening to goood music very helpful. right now philip glass is playing. afterwards comes clint mansell. later on franz ferdinand to pick up a faster pace!
merklee001
Feb 3, 20 5:28 am
This drag me to lot of stress, health issues even feel pressure sometime, stay wake after an all nighter, was something struggling.
White_Snowman
Feb 3, 20 6:15 am
Running on 5.5 hours of sleep is bad enough as it is, but going on that and then trying to stay “productive” until 6pm the next day isn’t going to happen. You can certainly stay awake that long but your work isn’t going to be great. You’d be better off just sleeping and trying to get what you can done.
That being said the best way I’ve found is just to not stop working and don’t sit down. Caffeine’s never really worked for me, just standing up is what got the job done.
Non Sequitur
Feb 3, 20 11:34 am
5hr of sleep is my normal routine even with a 8-6ish work week. I do this 7 days a week without loss of productivity.
White_Snowman
Feb 3, 20 4:00 pm
Because you’re old
Non Sequitur
Feb 3, 20 4:03 pm
36 is old?
OddArchitect
Feb 3, 20 5:46 pm
What else do you do besides work?
Non Sequitur
Feb 3, 20 6:34 pm
I have hobbies, and a 3y old. Plenty to keep busy with outside of office hours.
OddArchitect
Feb 3, 20 11:02 am
Don't do all nighters. Any employer that requires them is a waste of your time.
Sean Joyner
Feb 3, 20 1:08 pm
Naturally, all-nighters are a bad idea, but when its the absolute last resort (which should be very infrequent), five hour energy used to work for me. Also, having some company, getting some periodic fresh air, a nap before the nightly push (for those who can take short naps and feel refreshed). And probably, for the following day, it will be a matter of mental toughness. It's hard to go against our biology — we need sleep.
( o Y o )
Feb 3, 20 1:11 pm
old school: speedballs
new school: meth
tduds
Feb 3, 20 2:01 pm
I find a shower equals about 3 hours of sleep.
I don't do all nighters any more. I just have insomnia.
I'm pulling an all-nighter at work today, and I'm running on a little less than 5.5 hours of sleep. What's the best way to stay productive throughout the night, and then be able to kick ass the next day until 6 pm?
I'm not sure I'll be able to do it! >_
Music? Pizza? Eating keeps me awake. As for tomorrow, maybe you'll get to go home early...
orange juice at 4 in the morning... made my body think i just woke up from a nice long slumber
coffee never worked for me after a certain point, and after a while black tea left me feeling chalky, icky...
oh and sipping water...
and checking archinect for all nighter encouragement, you can do it...
i can only hope so, Sarah!
good idea, postal. OJ.
I don't like to eat that much after an all-nighter, it just makes me want to sit down and comfortably digest (i.e. sleep). But then again maybe if I ate a little healthier...
I like some tea, when that gets old lots of water. Shower at your usual time in the morning if you can and go about breakfast as normal... if all else fails, adrenaline IV should do just fine.
5 hr energy
I hear apples. That and fury.
Neil Young - "Rust Never Sleeps"; "Freedom"; "Dead Man"; "Zuma"; "Greatest Hits"
All played loud.
Bachus D. yep. Bachus D, its this CRAY energy drink you can get at asian food stores...we get ours at the little tokyo mall down from school in DT LA. WMHHAHAHAHAH BACHUS D!!!!!
man your campus is boring AF
yeah - i had to do one the other day. by 1am - i had to go buy a cold smoothie which probably helped me for another hour. then i had to dim the lights so my eyes wouldn't get too much light in and by 3, i had some wine which helped me last until 6.
i remember some kid from school that tried to do one and had went to the bathroom to take a dump and accidently feel asleep. He could have easily slept on the studio couch that someone bought over several years ago and left it there which never been washed except with beer and dog pee stain.
have fun.
Haha, good recommendations! I've garnered pizza and some brewskis so im good until 2 or 3 I wager.
Listen to Mastodon.
I recommend AMP as a good energy drink. I've always been discerning with my addictions, and caffeine is no exception. Sure, the shots are alright, and Red Bull and Monster have their merits, but the AMP teas (in black and green) have less sugar and a high quality energy concoction. They're very good for productivity. during finals last semester, I would chug half of it without putting it down, stick it in the fridge, then switch to water for four or five hours as the buzz wore off. then I'd take a fifteen minute power nap to relax my eyes, get up and finish off the drink while working. In the morning I'd grab breakfast and a coffee or espresso, since mixing your caffeine formulas keep you from building up an immunity.
So in essence, start with synthetic, and grab something organic in the morning to ease you into the day. Take power naps when you can afford it, as they'll keep you from getting stupid and making silly decisions. Lots of water and fruits are always good.
I've always found meth to do wonders.
Sarah Hamilton is completely wrong. COMPLETELY WRONG. Eating does not help to keep you awake. In fact, it does the opposite: it makes you more fatigued and sleepy, since a greater quantity of blood is transfered to the stomach area to aid in digestion. This means less blood to your brain, which causes you to be sleepier. Look it up if you don't believe me. It's not as noticeable when you eat right after you wake up from a long sleep/nap (e.g. breakfast), but the effects are staggering when you are already fatigued to begin with (e.g. dinner). It also depends on the food, but generally, the more you fill yourself up, the more likely you will be to drop dead sleeping.
My answer? Red Bull. It does the trick. Coffee stimulates you, but causes you to crash after the effects wear off. However, there is no crash with Red Bull. There is only a steady decline in alertness, during which you will still have enough energy to down another can to keep your mind sprinting for another few hours. I drank 3 cans of that stuff in one long all-nighter to study for a final exam that I left off until the night before. It did wonders. And that stuff tastes pretty fucking good too.
Long live Red Bull.
That being said, other energy drinks might work too. I think I've only tried Red Bull and Monster. Red Bull seemed to work much better for me, and tasted better as well.
As far as energy drinks go, my personal favorite is Bawls. I have yet to try the G33K B33R variant though...
Drink SOOOOO much water, like non stop. If you have to pee constantly, you won't be able to fall asleep all night. Avoid too much coffee b/c you'll just crash and burn. But then at 5am, do a starbucks double espresso shot, like the kind that comes in a can, and it'll get you through the last few hours.
I hope you are still hanging in there. I think staying hydrated helps a lot as some people above have mentioned. Good luck!
Have any of you all tried istonix?
Isotonix, from the story I got, was the original Gatorade. The concept is pretty simple-- it's a formula of vitamins/minerals/alternative-health-BS that contains about the same amount of sugar and salt found in your body, balanced to the body's average pH and is in a micro-fine suspension. It pretty much tricks the body into thinking something is already been digested... so it passes it through the system without attacking it with stomach acid.
This is pretty much what gatorade, red bull and 5-hour energy are.
There's several companies who make vitamins in this form and they're between 50-90 dollars a bottle for 90 doses. However, if you buy 5 hour energy all the time, you're paying three to four times as much. I'm sure you can search around and some housewife/househousband in a home-based MLM would be more than happy to sell you it. But don't get sucked into their crap.
Also, I'm not sure if they have it wherever you are... but try Yerba Mate. It tastes like shit. But it has a wonderful little chemical in it called matiene that's like caffiene but different in a better way. It will get you cranked up.
Well, I cheated a little bit and ended up sleeping for 2 hours.
Now I'm regretting it! God, I should have just stayed awake the whole night, I feel like a zombie.
meditation - and if that fails - NODOZE
will you have some company?
i've found that just having a conversation with someone will keep me awake.
Lots of blow.
Sex kept me awake during school...
eyedrops! for the extremely hard-core! for the those double/triple runs of all-nighters-you can physically trick your body into thinking you have got shut-eye. I find all-nighters to be hardest on my body, things generally start breaking down around 30 hours of no sleep
for awhile anyways, then your body adjusts and you are fucked.
My favorite was "choffee."
2 cups milk, a scoop of Slim Fast, Tb instant coffee, and Hershey's chocolate syrup. shake it up and pound the whole thing.
During thesis it would keep me up for two days at a time.
That and a nice swim in the pacific ocean. But watch those rip tides!
I couldn't do an all nighter now if a gun was pointed at my head.
Now I am in bed by 10PM!
drink a pint of water every hour. you'll have to keep going to the bathroom, but that constant urge to go will keep you up. works for me and it's better than loading up on sugar!
+ also ..
whenever i found myself zoning out, i would get up and do some quick stretches, push ups, or shadow box.
a bit strange, but doing something physical helped me refocus.
looks like im gonna pull an all nighter today. i find listening to goood music very helpful. right now philip glass is playing. afterwards comes clint mansell. later on franz ferdinand to pick up a faster pace!
This drag me to lot of stress, health issues even feel pressure sometime, stay wake after an all nighter, was something struggling.
Running on 5.5 hours of sleep is bad enough as it is, but going on that and then trying to stay “productive” until 6pm the next day isn’t going to happen. You can certainly stay awake that long but your work isn’t going to be great. You’d be better off just sleeping and trying to get what you can done.
That being said the best way I’ve found is just to not stop working and don’t sit down. Caffeine’s never really worked for me, just standing up is what got the job done.
5hr of sleep is my normal routine even with a 8-6ish work week. I do this 7 days a week without loss of productivity.
Because you’re old
36 is old?
What else do you do besides work?
I have hobbies, and a 3y old. Plenty to keep busy with outside of office hours.
Don't do all nighters. Any employer that requires them is a waste of your time.
Naturally, all-nighters are a bad idea, but when its the absolute last resort (which should be very infrequent), five hour energy used to work for me. Also, having some company, getting some periodic fresh air, a nap before the nightly push (for those who can take short naps and feel refreshed). And probably, for the following day, it will be a matter of mental toughness. It's hard to go against our biology — we need sleep.
old school: speedballs
new school: meth
I find a shower equals about 3 hours of sleep.
I don't do all nighters any more. I just have insomnia.