Effects of Pulling an All Nighter

Undeadfred · 13-03-2014 10:50pm #1

Ironic that this is being posted in After Hours. Am i rite? ;D

2 nights ago i pulled an all nighter to get my assigments done for college. I got loads of work done and it didn't seem to have any detrimental effects on me the next day. In fact, I felt better than i usually would!

It was a Tuesday night and that day i was feeling quite tired all day. I had planned this so throughout the day i was reconsidering doing it since i was so tired. I decided to go for it just to see If i could do it, what would happen and generally just to test it out.
Once i got home that evening i had two cups of tea and started working. It was probably the tea, but i felt so grand once i sat down to start working; not nearly as tired as i was earlier that day.
The night went on and i had a few cups of coffee to keep me going and got most of my work done. Come the morning I felt strange and quite surreal but other than that i was absolutely fine. Went into college, went to my lectures and i felt great!
I only started to crash around 4pm and got home by 7 and went straight to sleep. Slept 11 hours that night.

Apparently feeling good after pulling an all nighter is chemical thing to do with the body - short term Euphoria.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/mortarboard/2012/oct/09/students-beware-sleep-deprivation

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/03/22/pulling-an-all-nighter/

http://greatist.com/happiness/all-night-just-how-bad-are-all-nighters

There are some effects in these articles though that i disagree with. I found the opposite of some of them. For example decision making. The articles say that pulling an all nighter impairs you're decision making the next day, however i found i was very decisive the next day (I'm a very indecisive person).
I also felt a lot more focused and determined the next day, as well as less distracted by others around me (this could be the decreased awareness).

All of these articles are written in a tone implying all nighters are bad and should be avoided, but personally i don't see the downside of them.
Obviously pulling several all nighters in one week is a bad idea and this would definitely lead to the brain damage they're talking about, but staying up all night once a week or once every two weeks surely won't cause any long term brain damage.

Anyone else pull all nighters on a regular basis? What're people's opinions on them?
comment and discuss...

dxhound2005 · 13-03-2014 10:53pm

Was one of your assignments Discuss the effects of Pulling an All Nighter?

shopaholic01 · 13-03-2014 10:54pm

I thought this was about drink or sex.

Undeadfred · 13-03-2014 10:54pm

Haha no I'm just incredibly enthusiastic about this topic right now. It's incredibly intriguing. Really want this to become a weekly occurance. Need that sleepless high...

orangesoda · 13-03-2014 10:54pm

That post nearly put me to sleep

SCOOP 64 · 13-03-2014 10:55pm

I wouldn't try I if i was a truck or coach driver though.

GenieOz · 13-03-2014 10:56pm

I've done this for years on end, worked 6pm to 6am and went into college from 9-2 3 days in a row. 2 hours of sleep at a time, it's really not that tough

Stavros Murphy · 13-03-2014 10:57pm

Student in misidentifying "working hard" thread. Ohh the innocence.

Arthur Beesley · 13-03-2014 11:01pm

I used to pull all nighters back in the day for Leaving Cert and college exams. Couple of hours a night for a week or more. That was more than 15 years ago, now I'm tired the next morning if I'm not in bed with light out by 23:00.

Undeadfred · 13-03-2014 11:01pm

GenieOz wrote: »

I've done this for years on end, worked 6pm to 6am and went into college from 9-2 3 days in a row. 2 hours of sleep at a time, it's really not that tough

3 days in a row? How the hell did you do that? Surely you would collapse after 3 sleepless nights

GenieOz · 13-03-2014 11:06pm

Undeadfred wrote: »

3 days in a row? How the hell did you do that? Surely you would collapse after 3 sleepless nights

No no, I got 4 hours of sleep every 24 hours. 2 before college and 2 again after college and before work. Not technically an all nighter I guess

PizzamanIRL · 13-03-2014 11:07pm

I'm gonna have to pull an all nighter to read all that.

13-03-2014 11:09pm

Undeadfred wrote: »

There are some effects in these articles though that i disagree with. I found the opposite of some of them. For example decision making. The articles say that pulling an all nighter impairs you're decision making the next day, however i found i was very decisive the next day (I'm a very indecisive person).
I also felt a lot more focused and determined the next day, as well as less distracted by others around me (this could be the decreased awareness).

The key word there is felt. Your perception of your abilities to make those decisions and of their quality may very well have been impaired without you realising it in your altered state.

I've done all nighters and felt 'fine' until about 1 the next day. I've always been asleep by 7 and slept about 10-12 hours before I felt back to normal. I say I felt 'fine' because I was functioning, but I had that out-of-it, surreal feeling, and I almost walked in front of a truck travelling at speed but was stopped by a stranger beside me. Seriously, I nearly killed myself because I didn't judge the distance or speed correctly.

So be careful, you might feel in full possession of your faculties, but you're probably much less aware of your surroundings and your risk perception is flawed and that puts you in actual physical danger.

PizzamanIRL · 13-03-2014 11:10pm

orangesoda wrote: »

That post nearly put me to sleep

Heh, 'daysleeper' thanked this. Someone's going to screen shot that and post it. Watch.

dmc17 · 13-03-2014 11:10pm

Undeadfred wrote: »

3 days in a row? How the hell did you do that? Surely you would collapse after 3 sleepless nights

GenieOz wrote: »

No no, I got 4 hours of sleep every 24 hours. 2 before college and 2 again after college and before work. Not technically an all nighter I guess

Lightweight!

DEFTLEFTHAND · 13-03-2014 11:17pm

The world record is 11 days 24 minutes if anyone wants to take that on. :pac:
Use of stimulants was prohibited in the study.

My longest would be about 44-46 hours, so not even 2 full days.

Gael23 · 13-03-2014 11:29pm

I stayed up until 7am at a party not so long ago. I wasnt drinking that muxh but I felt like death the next day after 2 hours sleep

hatrickpatrick · 13-03-2014 11:38pm

Sleep deprivation is a known trigger for mania. In bipolar people, it can be used (although of course nobody recommends it) to switch from a depression phase into a euphoric phase.

I'm not ashamed to admit that in the past when I've had bipolar episodes I've used this trick frequently. I know mania isn't supposed to be healthy and all, but let's face it, when your options are between mania and feeling completely empty, it's by far the lesser of two evils.

I've actually read a lot of studies which suggest that depression itself is in fact a sleep disorder - depression is caused by sleep problems rather than the other way around. People who are prone to depression skip some stages of sleep that ordinary people have, and spend far too long in REM sleep when compared to non depressed people.
It's a very interesting area.

I actually did this myself on Monday night, I had a performance exam on Tuesday and was feeling like sh!te, once I'd pulled the all nighter I felt like I was literally king of the world and I went in and absolutely nailed my performance

The Backwards Man · 13-03-2014 11:40pm

My brain only functions during daylight hours.

pragmatic1 · 13-03-2014 11:46pm

I often pull all-nighters due to bouts of insomnia. Hate them. They make me feel cranky, weird, nauseous and definitely not working with full mental capacities. Sleep is highly underrated.

jamo2oo9 · 13-03-2014 11:51pm

I only do all-nighters if I'm drunk or in bed with 8/10 or higher wimmin

Gran Hermano · 13-03-2014 11:55pm

Tennis elbow or a different RSI ?

GY A1 · 14-03-2014 12:34am

wont be an all nighter reading this thread

thegreatgonzo · 14-03-2014 12:55am

Undeadfred wrote: »

Ironic that this is being posted in After Hours. Am i rite? ;D

2 nights ago i pulled an all nighter to get my assigments done for college. I got loads of work done and it didn't seem to have any detrimental effects on me the next day. In fact, I felt better than i usually would!

QUOTE]

But were you typing all work and no sleep makes Undeadfred a dull boy over and over and over?

wandatowell · 14-03-2014 12:58am

On occasions I work shift work and after finishing up a 4 day shift I usually get home around 9am. If I dont get the head down and sleep I can stay awake for the day but I will crash the day after.

Takes me a full day to recover.

Sir Arthur Daley · 14-03-2014 1:00am

wandatowell wrote: »

Takes me a full day to recover.

Im the same, pay for it.

One thing the body cant fight is physical tiredness.

J_E · 14-03-2014 1:03am

Apparently feeling good after pulling an all nighter is chemical thing to do with the body - short term Euphoria.

Well, it's mainly your circadian rhythm, your body clock that detects day and night, and you feel that 'second wind' because you'd normally be waking at that time.

I do not mess with sleep deprivation though. At best, I feel a little clammy and minor headaches. At worst, my personality is different, I sometimes have aural hallucinations, I'm irritable, feel completely spaced out. The opening scene in Fight Club about sleep deprivation pretty much sums up that feeling of not really being in the world.

If you're ever in that "should I/shouldn't I sleep" moment, just do it. Even 3-4 hours is much better than nothing, despite the grogginess initially.

AndonHandon · 14-03-2014 1:22am

Sleep deprivation leads to an extremely unhealthy livestyle; more likely to eat poorly and not likely to be as alert and attentive which obviously has massive drawbacks in ordinary life.

I did one all nighter once to do a college assignment. Had that lift as it came to 9am, I went to college in a bit of a daze. It felt like I was stuck in my thoughts and the outside world was muffled. I got home around 3pm and crashed on the couch with a dull, throbbing head. Did nothing the rest of the day, just dozed on the couch.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy · 14-03-2014 1:47am

I've worked 24 hour shifts in the past, it's known as a ghostie. From 7am until 7am the following day. There was a cafe just outside the job, so I'd have a full Irish and two cans of red bull and stay up easily enough til 8 or 9pm that night so long as I kept moving!

shopaholic01 · 14-03-2014 1:49am

Duracell Bunny wrote: »

I've worked 24 hour shifts in the past, it's known as a ghostie. From 7am until 7am the following day. There was a cafe just outside the job, so I'd have a full Irish and two cans of red bull and stay up easily enough til 8 or 9pm that night so long as I kept moving!

Easy for you, you're the Duracell Bunny.

Holsten · 14-03-2014 1:51am

I do it sometimes and I'm like a zombie whenever I do it.

Go through periods of alertness throughout the day but eventually crash and burn around 8 or 9.

Effects of Pulling an All Nighter

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