All-Nighter [Archive]

PlaceofDis

Mar 28, 2005, 06:04 AM

Abstract

Mar 28, 2005, 06:06 AM

I used to pull all-nighters once a week, minimum. It was on Wednesday night.

However, if I had to do it twice in a week.....well.....you know what students say: "Sleep is for the weak." ;)

5300cs

Mar 28, 2005, 06:12 AM

I've never pulled an all-nighter, never had to (and glad of it.) I cannot imagine how difficult it would be...

PlaceofDis

Mar 28, 2005, 06:20 AM

I've never pulled an all-nighter, never had to (and glad of it.) I cannot imagine how difficult it would be...

you would be surprised, tonight for example i am not even tired after being up for 23 hours straight

other times it has been terribly hard to just keep my eyes open

i suppose it depends on your mood, health, and drive to get this stuff done

i dont know why im procrastinating here on MR, but eh, ill get my stuff done still (i hope)

Mitthrawnuruodo

Mar 28, 2005, 06:43 AM

All-nighters are noe problem, I do it before every exam, and often when papers are due... ;)

I also, over summer-breaks or other long periods of freetime, tend to go over to a 36 hour rythm, where I stay up for 24 hours and sleep for 12, quite naurally...

redeye be

Mar 28, 2005, 06:58 AM

PlaceofDis

Mar 28, 2005, 07:19 AM

Never did an all nighter for edu purposes.

Numerous Playstation nights. Fun, but hard on the eyes.
I once did a 42 hours party stretch. Preparing, partying and cleaning up. It was a great party (and no synthetic drugs where used ;)). I did sleep 30 hours afterwards (with a few bathroom and drink breaks).

edit: good luck on the papers btw!

thanks, one down, half of one to go! w00t!

and that is quite a stretch there....no naps or anything in that 42 hours? i dont think i could go that long, ill probably crash for a few hours after my classes if i can because i will be running on empty by then

redeye be

Mar 28, 2005, 07:48 AM

no naps, no
i did have some bed-time, but that was with my (then) girlfriend ;).
Maybe this upped my stamina to go on that day/night/day/evening (it was my first time, now it just makes me sleepy :D)

PlaceofDis

Mar 28, 2005, 07:50 AM

no naps, no
i did have some bed-time, but that was with my (then) girlfriend ;).
Maybe this upped my stamina to go on that day/night/day/evening (it was my first time, now it just makes me sleepy :D)

it did probably give you some euphoria and adrenaline that helped keep you going for that long

whew i just finished the two papers, an hour before my first class of the day too! great now i get to go try and stay up for three hours of classes back to back :o

jefhatfield

Mar 28, 2005, 08:05 AM

So it is 5 a.m. here, in an hour or so it will be 24 hours since i slept last, and the weird thing is that i dont feel a little tired as of right now.

i had to stay up, even though im sick, to work on some papers that are due in a few more hours, and im not even done yet, darn it being sick!!!

at least i have yet to give in to tiredness and i think i will be able to finish everything without a problem with some luck!

im glad that this is my last semester as an undergraduate, hopefully when i finally decided on a Grad School i will have some better time management skills too :)

how often and how many all nighters have you pulled before?? im starting to get used to night like this myself....

if one procrastinates in undergraduate school and thus ends up pulling an all nighter, that is ok and you may even do fine from time to time

but with graduate school, time management is the key...remember everybody in a grad school class is used to being the best student in the class...at least in undergraduate school

when you get to grad school, you will see that the students push each other beyond that of the expectations of the class or professor

also, many graduate schools have three grades...A, B, and "take the class over again, usually at great expense"...he he...that type of intimidation certainly beats the procrastination instinct out of anybody if they had it in the first place

graduate school may not make you more employable, in most majors, but it will give you a great work ethic, or if you have a great work ethic, it will certainly boost it that much more

many people will claim that they worked harder in graduate school than in any time in their life

anyway, good luck when you get there

PlaceofDis

Mar 28, 2005, 08:13 AM

if one procrastinates in undergraduate school and thus ends up pulling an all nighter, that is ok and you may even do fine from time to time

but with graduate school, time management is the key...remember everybody in a grad school class is used to being the best student in the class...at least in undergraduate school

when you get to grad school, you will see that the students push each other beyond that of the expectations of the class or professor

also, many graduate schools have three grades...A, B, and "take the class over again, usually at great expense"...he he...that type of intimidation certainly beats the procrastination instinct out of anybody if they had it in the first place

graduate school may not make you more employable, in most majors, but it will give you a great work ethic, or if you have a great work ethic, it will certainly boost it that much more

many people will claim that they worked harder in graduate school than in any time in their life

anyway, good luck when you get there

i have a good work ethic, its more that im bored with what i am doing right now and end up putting it off, im majoring in English and minoring in History, and its the same old song and dance in a lot of my classes, you can tell which classes i like because i always put my 110% behind em if not more

i was going to go for an M.A. in English, but i have changed that, i want to get an M.F.A. in Creative Writing because its what im good at and what i enjoy the most, it may be harder to get that PhD after the first round of grad school, but i think i can handle that

creative writing is what i really excel at, its what i have a knack for, even my creative non fiction teacher this semester sees it in our workshops, its easy for me to pick out the strengths and weaknesses of peoples essays, i can easily and naturally tell what needs to improve upon it....

now the trouble is finding a good M.F.A. program that i can get into in ChicagoLand.....

[end rant]

mcadam

Mar 28, 2005, 08:30 AM

im glad that this is my last semester as an undergraduate, hopefully when i finally decided on a Grad School i will have some better time management skills too :)

Speaking out of personal experience - I wouldn't count on it, hehe.. I'm in my 6th year of arcitecture school and assume I'm gonna be doing an all-nighter tonight to gets stuff ready for our crit tomorrow... well, an allmost all-nighter, I allways prefer to get just one hour of sleep.

Now, get of the net and get your paper done. And good luck with it too...

A

jefhatfield

Mar 28, 2005, 08:41 AM

i have a good work ethic, its more that im bored with what i am doing right now and end up putting it off, im majoring in English and minoring in History, and its the same old song and dance in a lot of my classes, you can tell which classes i like because i always put my 110% behind em if not more

i was going to go for an M.A. in English, but i have changed that, i want to get an M.F.A. in Creative Writing because its what im good at and what i enjoy the most, it may be harder to get that PhD after the first round of grad school, but i think i can handle that

creative writing is what i really excel at, its what i have a knack for, even my creative non fiction teacher this semester sees it in our workshops, its easy for me to pick out the strengths and weaknesses of peoples essays, i can easily and naturally tell what needs to improve upon it....

now the trouble is finding a good M.F.A. program that i can get into in ChicagoLand.....

[end rant]

i have the greatest respect for creative writing majors and how hard it is

i ditched being a business major after two years and went into being a creative writing major and then i washed out and ended up finishing in business...mostly because it was easier being a business major and i could do it...not too much math, not too much writing, and not too much reading

with creative writing, you have to have inspiration...and on tap

i just had spurts of creative inspiration from time to time but mostly i could not be consistent with it and that was my downfall...i met so many students who could write twice the material necessary for their degree and read twice the amount of reading scheduled for them by their classes...some of these students spent every spare minute writing or reading...even when they were between semesters

some english students could have started on a paper and ended up with the inspiration for a book which may have ended up being published and selling very well on the open market...i am sure some of our great books and screenplays started out as english assignments in a creative writing class

PlaceofDis

Mar 28, 2005, 08:50 AM

i have the greatest respect for creative writing majors and how hard it is

i ditched being a business major after two years and went into being a creative writing major and then i washed out and ended up finishing in business...mostly because it was easier being a business major and i could do it...not too much math, not too much writing, and not too much reading

with creative writing, you have to have inspiration...and on tap

i just had spurts of creative inspiration from time to time but mostly i could not be consistent with it and that was my downfall...i met so many students who could write twice the material necessary for their degree and read twice the amount of reading scheduled for them by their classes...some of these students spent every spare minute writing or reading...even when they were between semesters

some english students could have started on a paper and ended up with the inspiration for a book which may have ended up being published and selling very well on the open market...i am sure some of our great books and screenplays started out as english assignments in a creative writing class

i write poetry non stop and have been since i was seventeen (now 21) i have amassed somewhere just under 1000 poems in that time
obviously many of them are not even worth the time to read them, but i have definitely honed my skills by writing a poem a day for three years straight

inspiration is not a problem for me, by the time i am done with my three classes this morning i bet i will have written at least two more poems

last friday i wrote three in an hour, and they were decent too, if you want a sample of my work just check out the second link in my sig, i think they are fairly decent poems, especially Spring Warm Cold

i also want to teach though, which is why i want to get my PhD, so i can be a professor at a college/university, i think its a great environment and ive always like explaining things and having discussions, which i guarantee my classroom will be filled with

English is a passion of mine, but creative writing is above it, they go hand in hand and majoring in english has been great because it has helped me understand my own work better, even on these long all nighters :D

Artful Dodger

Mar 28, 2005, 09:34 AM

I did one all-nighter and it was due to my power cord getting pulled out of my iMac at the time (don't ask I wasn't happy after that). I had everything on paper, just had to type it all out but I didn't think to save any of it, yeah all 35 pages for a research paper for a final 70% of my grade. On top of that I don't type fast at all. Well it never happened like that ever again to me, now it's save all the time and typed out days before it's due.

WinterMute

Mar 28, 2005, 09:46 AM

Used to do them all the time as part of the studio engineer thing, I lost count of the number of times I'd crawl out of the studio into bright morning sunshine... I miss doing it so much, but I'll still be found editing and mixing stuff at 3 or 4 in the morning at least a couple of times a month, 4 is a bit of a cut-off now, I try to be in bed by 2 if I can help it, the old body can't take that kind of punishment any more.

I once recorded and mixed an entire album in 76 hours, we had about 6 hours sleep in that time, and never left the studio. :eek:

PlaceofDis

Mar 28, 2005, 12:05 PM

hmmm well i looks like staying up was poor planning on my part, i havent worked since last tuesday, and well i had yet to see the schedule for this week because it hadn't been made when i worked last, of course no one likes to call and let me know when the schedule is done....

i have to work at two...till nine....eek :eek:

i guess ill be up for a while yet even though i was dozing a bit in classes, i should get some food before i have to get out of here for work, great this just makes my day....

jefhatfield

Mar 28, 2005, 12:36 PM

i write poetry non stop and have been since i was seventeen (now 21) i have amassed somewhere just under 1000 poems in that time
obviously many of them are not even worth the time to read them, but i have definitely honed my skills by writing a poem a day for three years straight

inspiration is not a problem for me, by the time i am done with my three classes this morning i bet i will have written at least two more poems

last friday i wrote three in an hour, and they were decent too, if you want a sample of my work just check out the second link in my sig, i think they are fairly decent poems, especially Spring Warm Cold

i also want to teach though, which is why i want to get my PhD, so i can be a professor at a college/university, i think its a great environment and ive always like explaining things and having discussions, which i guarantee my classroom will be filled with

English is a passion of mine, but creative writing is above it, they go hand in hand and majoring in english has been great because it has helped me understand my own work better, even on these long all nighters :D

hey i read some of your poems

great stuff

i have an idea...put a short poem at the end of your signature each week or so

PlaceofDis

Mar 28, 2005, 01:28 PM

hey i read some of your poems

great stuff

i have an idea...put a short poem at the end of your signature each week or so

thank you for the compliment, and your idea is a definite possibility with some of my haiku poems

TheStockGuy

Mar 28, 2005, 01:41 PM

I used to stay up all night writing papers or cramming for exams - but that is all behind me now :-) I have my B.S., and MBA and lots of Certification Exam Certificates...

These days, I look at the clock and see it is 2am and think, "I should go to bed 'cause I have to get up in 4 hours..."

Good luck with school! It will be worth it when you are all done!

- TSG

Mr. Durden

Mar 28, 2005, 03:38 PM

I've pulled a few 40+ hour days in my time, but the older I get, the harder it is to recover. I have also found that if I stay up for long stretches like that for more than twice a week or so, I tend to catch a cold or some other minor illness afterwards. Then it takes me about 3 -4 days to get back on track with my sleeping and to feel rested. But, when duty calls, I'm at it again... :D

brap

Mar 28, 2005, 03:44 PM

Doing one tonight :rolleyes:

Nah, I'm catching a coach at 5am - there's no point in sleeping. Prolly get some study done on the way, have a nap between Milton Keynes and Northampton, and have a spot of lunch back home!

frescies

Mar 28, 2005, 03:58 PM

I believe the current world record for sleep deprevation is still held by Randy Gardner... 264 hours. Slept 18 some odd hours afterwords and was fine. Used pinball machines to keep him awake (he had an obsessive passion for them apparently)

topicolo

Mar 28, 2005, 04:51 PM

you know what students say: "Sleep is for the weak." ;)

More like "Sleep is for the week-end"

wdlove

Mar 28, 2005, 08:10 PM

I'm one of those that never pull an all nighter during school. Always felt the it was important to get a good night of sleep.

Lacero

Mar 28, 2005, 08:15 PM

homerjward

Mar 28, 2005, 10:07 PM

i never pulled any allnighters in middle school, but one time i did get up at 3 to write a paper for english. i decided i'd be better after a few hours of sleep than before :confused:

however, in my freshman year of high school i've pulled 3. one was making a fairly long ppt then making it into a dvd in idvd. i could have just let it encode/burn overnight, but i had to wait an hour while it did that so i could test it. the other was an allnight imovie/idvd session. then the other was just a paper

Lord Blackadder

Mar 28, 2005, 10:23 PM

I pulled a bunch of all-nighters as an undergrad. I could go a solid 48 hours without sleep. I would feel strangely fine for that time, but once the 48th hour rolled around I would crash bigtime. Coffee and Mountain Dew will only take one so far.

;) :D

Demon Hunter

Mar 28, 2005, 10:42 PM

That's really cool, I want to be an English/CW major too... sometimes my writing just keeps me up, you know those times when you just need to write and you can't go to sleep.

I try to avoid them but I do them pretty often... once you break through that tiredness "wall" it is smooth sailing... that is until you hit the next "wall" which is a lot harder than the first.

DigitallyImported and Monster energy drink are usually my weapons of choice...

brap

Mar 28, 2005, 10:46 PM

I try to avoid them but I do them pretty often... once you break through that tiredness "wall" it is smooth sailing... that is until you hit the next "wall" which is a lot harder than the first.Damn right... although once you get to the 'wall', I find if you sleep for ten or twenty minutes, then do something, you're good to go for another day.

It's all about filling your time, keeping your brain active.
(04.49 - leaving for my coach now!)

ham_man

Mar 28, 2005, 11:02 PM

I am in 9th grade and have pulled 2 all nighters or so. It is OK whilst in process, but having to go to 8 hours of school on 4 hours of sleep isn't all that much fun... :rolleyes:

PlaceofDis

Mar 28, 2005, 11:03 PM

just got in from work, still havent slept, talking to the gf and eating some Taco Bell right now, after that ill probably crash for a good nights rest ;)

ravenvii

Mar 28, 2005, 11:25 PM

I pull an all-nighter 1-2 times per semester. The reasons being papers and cramming, like the rest of 'em.

I plan to attempt a 100-hour waking time soon... Maybe this week, since I don't have any tests or papers due the beginning of next week. I'm thinking I'd start on Thursday morning, then stay awake until Monday afternoon, which will be one hour of class (2pm to 3pm), then bedtime!!! until 9am on Tuesday.

Wondering, is 18 hours of sleep enough to rest off that 100 hours?

mac-er

Mar 28, 2005, 11:31 PM

(and no synthetic drugs where used ;)).

So you used natural drugs? :rolleyes:

cheekyspanky

Mar 29, 2005, 01:19 AM

I pull an all nighter probably once a week..but i think thats more to do with my bad sleeping habits - i keep myself in sync by skipping a day and then having an early night that next evening.

It's 7.19am now..and yup, another all nighter for me, the worst thing is I still managed to do pretty much no coursework in all this time! :(

AmigoMac

Mar 29, 2005, 06:08 AM

sleep? :confused:

I just take a rest and continue... :)

In my University time, I used to work a lot and could be up to 26 hours up / twice a week... that was hard but fun.

PlaceofDis

Mar 29, 2005, 12:15 PM

Raven VII,

power to you if you can and do stay up that long, im sure it will be tough to fill all that time, and hopefully you wont hurt your sleeping cycle too much

good luck, and let us know how it goes :D

Wes

Mar 29, 2005, 02:53 PM

I have never pulled an all-nighter for work's sake. iCal is VERY handy to avoid such things.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_382974.html?menu=news.technology

I hope none of you turn out like that!

Blue Velvet

Mar 29, 2005, 03:01 PM

Aah... the memories of a student all-nighter.

Making that coffee just after midnight, listening to album shows on the radio, that slump in energies and slightly blurred vision around 3:30am followed by the reinvigoration towards dawn, that oddly slightly-high feeling the next day, the dark circles beneath your eyes as you hit that first wall in the middle of the next afternoon...

It may not be best to admit it but I did some of my best student work in all-nighters. The impending pressure of a deadline sure does focus the mind.

jefhatfield

Mar 29, 2005, 06:08 PM

I did an all-nighter once. I did not feel good the next morning, and it takes me several days to resume my sleep patterns. It's simply not worth it. All-nighters suggest to me you don't know how to manage your time.

for most college majors i can think of, doing some homework after class, the next day, and then maybe right before class should do the trick

and i assumed the author of this thread crammed and had bad management skills in high school and college

but now that i know he is a creative writing major, and having done that as well as having been a amateur recording musician, i understand that long stretches, when the inspiration hits, is actually quite a normal way to get things done...maybe not always the best and most productive method, but sometimes producing exciting results

some people like to deprive themselves of sleep, or use drugs, alcohol, coffee, fasting, or some other method to enter an altered state to change perception and hopefully create something new

while it is not always the best thing for one's health or mental well being, it is quite common for creative types to pull all nighters

i used to be totally convinced i had to be miserable and have a choatic life in order to write a good song or short story...now that i am older, i realize that i do my BEST work when i am happy and well rested...sure, that's not as romantic but at least for me, it's the best way

mpw

Mar 29, 2005, 06:24 PM

Aah... the memories...slightly blurred vision around 3:30am followed by the reinvigoration towards dawn, that oddly slightly-high feeling the next day, the dark circles beneath your eyes as you hit that first wall in the middle of the next afternoon...

I've got fond memories of some all-nighters I've had and agree with the blurred vision and following day high. I remember being out of sync with everyone else the next day when they're just waking up and your still up looking for curry at 7am. Only once have I hit a wall the following day when I fell asleep at work while stock taking in a newsagent, a customer woke me while I was lent against the magazine racks! The night before I'd gambled a months wages ~£1,000 and a friends motorbike on an arm wrestle a a party the first time I drank.
Longest waking period was 57hours and I didn't really have any moment when I felt tired during it and ended with a normal 7hrs in bed and was fine the following day.
Mid-teens through to mid twenties I survived on about 3hrs a night by choice, now I'm a Dad and struggle getting 5hrs.

5300cs

Mar 29, 2005, 07:59 PM

I went to an art school (double major: graphic design and illustration) and as project's deadlines approached, the computer labs filled up. The school actually let the labs stay open 24 hours and people starting pulling all-nighters in there. It was really difficult getting a free machine as people would come in around 8am on weekends :eek:

Wish I had had my Pismo back then instead of a Toshiba :rolleyes:

jimjiminyjim

Mar 29, 2005, 11:00 PM

Well, I'm reading this thread instead of finishing a paper that will probably take me less than two hours to finish. It's on an indefinite extension, which is killer, because if I don't have a deadline, my motivation level is at.... well, not quite zero, but pretty close. And it's an incredibly boring history paper where I'm spewing out facts but not interpreting or offering my own opinion. blah.

revenuee

Mar 29, 2005, 11:07 PM

usually pulling an all-nighter once a week

i sleep on average 3 or 4 hours a night when i do sleep and then crash for 12 - 18 every two weeks or so

i go anywhere between 36 and 52 without sleep on some days <-- i do take caffeine pills though --- i wouldn't be able to drive if i didn't

i don't like doing it

i know i'll be doing one every week next year with my new job at the paper ... Photo stays the longest since we don't know what sizes we are working with till the end

i'm told the assistant editor stays till 2 am and then can go home ... but since i'm the one in charge, i gotta stay till it's done .. usually 4 or 5 am ... but 7 am very often -- good thing i've been training for this all my life ... LOL

To the guy trying to do 100 hours without sleep?

WHY? just to see if you can do it? <-- thats a bad reason

if i could sleep longer i sure as hell would

my poorest sleep was

8 days -- 45 minutes - 1 hour of sleep a night -- but i had A LOT of work to do

sushi

Mar 29, 2005, 11:26 PM

how often and how many all nighters have you pulled before?? im starting to get used to night like this myself....
Pulled them all the time. EE and CS labs. At the time, we didn't have PCs...just mainframes and minis which were located in computer resource centers. Most CS folks I know worked late at night when the computers were free and you got your results back faster.

Sushi

Mr. Anderson

Mar 29, 2005, 11:38 PM

its been quite some time since I had to...I did one a several years ago at a conference/trade show to get everything set up and all the brochures printed, etc.

It gets harder to do as you get older, that's for sure - when I was in school I use to do it often while working in the computer lab to get something to work....

D

revenuee

Mar 30, 2005, 01:50 AM

Pulled them all the time. EE and CS labs. At the time, we didn't have PCs...just mainframes and minis which were located in computer resource centers. Most CS folks I know worked late at night when the computers were free and you got your results back faster.

Sushi

oddly enough --- you are more likely to get a computer in the Multimedia lab in the day then night since those kids like to work at night

nah ... thats only before assignments really <-- this week all the 4th years are doing their thesis assignments

i have final cut pro at home ... but i like working in the lab at night cause my computer isn't fast enough for RT effects -- i like having that option ... especially when you are on a tight schedule and you want to see the effects right away -- plus i don't have DVD authoring capabilites ... and i've definitly been falling in love with that option too <-- looks like it's time for some new equipment --- powerbook here i come