I suppose I should have made this thread earlier, but I didnt. I have to stay awake for a charity event at my high school from 8pm-8am which i do every year. In the previous years i would go home and sleep but I cant this time. I have a ISU group assignment that i need to work on saturday from noon until atleast 8 or 9pm. considering I woke up today at 8 am i would be awake for probably over 32 hours give or take. Anyone have any advice or things to not do? will excessive caffine make me “burn out”?
My advice, meant in the kindest possible way, is that it is simply not doable. Staying awake for 30+ hours might be possible for some people, but doing productive work while you are doing so is out of the question.
If possible, I would suggest carving out 3-4 hours to sleep during the middle, which should get you to the end of the assignment with your mind still intact and functioning.
Can you get a couple of hours in now? You can’t go home, but can you take naps at the event?
ITR is right. Congnitive functioning starts to take a nosedive after 18-20 hours of wakefulness. Napping, even cat naps, can help a lot.
Im not tired right now so I wont be able to sleep. i plan on sleeping when i get home around 8:10ish and then sleep until my friend comes to pick me up around noon. I guess i should mention that the isu is our own adaptation of hamlet in video form called… SPACE hamlet (not joking) its kind like a 1950’s B-movie which resembles Ed Wood’s works (plan 9 from outer space anyone?) so its not like i need to do a whole lot of thinking. Sorry, i should have made that clear, but i still need to stay awake.
Edit: no I cant sleep at the event, not even naps. unless I want to get a shaving cream facial when im snoozing.
Well, how old are you? If you are under 25, I would advise a few cups of coffee, and some good conversation. I remember staying up 'till dawn and then staying up for the day a lot at that age. At about 30, I would fall asleep if I stopped moving.
Just keep moving.
Im 17, Coffee is out of the question for convience sake, but I do have some Caffine pills.
3 hours of sleep would be enough to keep me awake the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that when I am up alllll night, then I will toss and turn for a while before I fall asleep, and even then my sleep is restless.
I guess if your friends on Saturday won’t care if you’re nodding your head and unable to focus then go for it, otherwise I kinda agree with ITR, something has to give.
Your problem will come at night-time tonight. At your age, staying up a whole night isn’t so much of a problem as the sun reinvigorates you. But when the sun goes down a second time, then you should look to keep-awake tools.
Quite honestly, knowing how I feel when I’m that tired, this would be a perfectly acceptable trade-off.
The issue, as I see it, isn’t your noon to 8pm shift tomorrow (although that will be difficult), it’s your 8am to 8am shift today. If you can’t catch a 15 minute nap here or there, your best bet is food. Caffeine will not solve your problem; trust me on this. You need food. Don’t eat junk food; but recognize (particularly if you’re a teenage male) that you’ll require regular nutritious meals to keep your energy up. Around midnight when you begin to flag, eat a full meal (real food, not junk food). You may need another meal around 6am.
When you get home, sleep as much as you can, but at least 3 hours. Then you should be able to get through your noon to 8pm shift.
I can not recommend pills to a teenager; that’s just … wrong.
I suppose colas are out, too? That leaves being entertained by what you are doing.
Fe: food
Avoid carbohydrates; no bread, candies or other sweets. Sticks to nuts and nice crunchy vegetables.
I used to do 36 hour stretches in college once in a while - usually when an important lab deadline loomed and then I’d have to go work a full shift in the lab afterwords.
I used to use lots of caffeine - coffee, tea, energy drinks.
The hard part isn’t physically staying awake. The hard part is that you feel miserable and your useful capacity to do work goes to shit. I remember being barely able to bang out even simple sentences on a word processor because my brain just wouldn’t cooperate.
So I do not recommend this plan.
When I was your age, I would regularly go all weekend without sleeping. I’d wake up Friday morning for school and not go to bed again till Sunday night.
Mind you, dancing and drinking and eating cold pizza aren’t things for which you need to be in prime mental condition!
17!? really, dude, I wouldn’t worry about it. I’ve definitely done such things in H.S. & college* although now that I’m old & grey I wouldn’t try it. Just stay mentally active - a good conversation or a good book, get up and move around if you start to feel sluggish, get some brisk night air if possible. Usually at some point in the night there will be a “second wind” - you might get almost over-energized and/or punchy (thinking everything is hilarious). A coke might be good towards the very end if you’re flagging. I don’t recommend caffeine pills.
Oh, and don’t forget to eat. Staying up all night is hungry work.
*Actually these are mostly extremely fond memories, even though there was usually some sort of deadline associated with the experience.
no caffeine, bad bad bad, the energy you gain ends up being demanded back with interest when the drugs wear off.
keep eating and stay active, try to avoid high sugar or other high energy foods and stick with more natural stuff, fruit, meat, veggies.
Leave the charity event at 5 or 6 am and go rack out for 6 hours.
And what sort of charity event lasts the entire night? Thats just weird.
Its a high school tradition. Anyways for those who were wondering what happened that night… heres what happened! we had our dinner at 12am which gave me a little bit of a boost, and I felt fine for a few hours and then around 3 am I took a nose dive. It wasnt until they served popcorn at around 5am that I felt slightly more energtic. Then at around 7:30, the sun was up, i was able to eat a real breakfast (eggos and syrup), and I had the most energy I had for a while.
Then for the assignment, which really was just us filming and drinking beer, then we watched Oscar de la hoya get his ass kicked by Manny pacquiao. I might be hijacking my own thread here but has anyone else order that PPV and was pissed off? the first two fights lasted only 2 rounds each then when the main event came up De la hoya gets murked and they had to call the fight. worst 55 bucks ive ever let my friend spend
Oh god, I also have done a 30 hour paper marathon. I remember wanting to throw up, and nearly passing out at work (yes I went to work when I was done!) I somehow passed the class. Apparently I managed to write out a decent paper. Life is too short for all nighters…get an extension somehow!
I am well over 30, and did this twice last month. Had a very early appointment and had to be there early as possible.
I believe both times I was awake for 39 hours.
Being outsdie in the cold is good, you feel okay, but people will comment on how awful you look. Try to avoid bus’s, especially warm ones as you will have to shake your head to stay awake.
I recommend cold and cold drinks.