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At what point should you not sleep and pull an all nighter?

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movie_club

Junior Member
I have to "get up" in two hours. I am going skiing, but can sleep in the car...should i even try and get some rest at this point GAF? I cant decide.
 

Papa

Banned
Sew said:
Two hours sleep is infinitely better than none.

Based on personal experience, I disagree. I felt absolutely dreadful after 2 hours sleep. Just do an all nighter.
 
Sew said:
Two hours sleep is infinitely better than none.

Not if you have to rely on yourself to get up. Its so easy to fall back alseep without even realizing it.

I would just stick it out. After you start skiiing you'll get a big second wind.
 

Sew

Member
matt404au said:
Based on personal experience, I disagree. I felt absolutely dreadful after 2 hours sleep. Just do an all nighter.
I know what you mean, I'd generally be inclined to stay up too. But your eyes, your brain and your general health all benefit from the shut-eye, even if you do wake up feeling crappy.
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Depends if you're a heavy sleeper and have to wake yourself up. Sometimes not even the alarm clock would wake me up after 1-2 hours of sleep. So I would pull an all nighter and then sleep at work. The good old days...
 

Christine

Member
Four hours is my minimum. I'd stay up, especially if you can sleep in the car.

If you have the knack, turn off the lights, lay down and close your eyes, but don't sleep. It's not as good as sleep but it's better than nothing.
 

Shirokun

Member
2 hours is enough for one REM cycle. If you can fall asleep quickly, do it. Otherwise avoid if you don't want to be more tired than you are.
 
Sew said:
Two hours sleep is infinitely better than none.

I agree in most cases. One of the best things I can do for myself in a similar situation is to make sure I go to sleep before the sun comes up. Even if I only get two hours of sleep, it seems to help. It's a psychological thing.
 

iNvid02

Member
just do it

but remember to get back into your regular sleep schedule afterwards or it will be chaos.

simple trick of resetting your sleep cycle is to not eat for the 12-16hrs leading up to the time you want to wake up (e.g. i want to wake at 10am, i wont eat anything after 7-8pm night before). Then wake up at 10am and have a good breakfast and your back, its awesome
 

Chris R

Member
Having done plenty of all nighters here is my experience. Sleep with more than 2 hours left. If you trust your alarm and can fall asleep quickly a power nap of 30-45 mins is so awesome though. College was so much fun :(
 

MechaX

Member
Personally I'm an advocate of the "even if it's two hours, some sleep is better than no sleep". The last time I recalled doing that, I spent the entire night talking to a lady friend and had to go to my longest day of class that morning (talking 7:50am to 5:00pm). After two hours of sleep, I was pretty much on beast mode all that day. Of course, I essentially and utterly crashed the moment I got home, but it works.
 

Meesh

Member
movie_club said:
I have to "get up" in two hours. I am going skiing, but can sleep in the car...should i even try and get some rest at this point GAF? I cant decide.
Depends if this trip is met with the promise of vigorous road head. Get up now, or get it up in two hours?
movie_club said:
:lol going with girlfriends family...
this could complicate things...
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Stay up. The sleep after skiing will be amazing. I pulled an all nighter before going paintballing and slept like a baby afterwards.
 
Evilink said:
Depends if this trip is met with the promise of vigorous road head. Get up now, or get it up in two hours?

this could complicate things...

No way! That just adds to the rush of getting caught!
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
If I get less than 3 or 4 hours of sleep I always wake up feeling worse than I ever had following an all-nighter.
 

MIMIC

Banned
All-nighters suck. When you're supposed to be active, you're literally fighting to stay awake.

From experience, even just a 30 minute nap helps.
 
I need at least 3 hours to start considering it. If you're willing to go through the horrendous process of waking yourself up fully after less than necessary sleep then you could go for less.
 
If you can not get at least 2 hours, it is best to stay up, reading or resting, but idle. Then double your caloric intake that day. I'm an insomniac borderline case and that's what every doctor I have asked has said.

Whoever said 2 hours is infinitely better than none is incorrect, I'm afraid.
 
This is my insanely under-qualified opinion, but I seem to remember learning in Biology that (aside from a full-night's sleep being very important) it's preferable to wake up at a peak, rather than a valley in this chart:

sleeppatterns.gif


I remember that first peek coming at around 1.5 hours, so I guess aim for that? Keep in mind, and this is from the same site I got that graph from:

The need for sleep varies from person to person. Some people need at least 9 hours of sleep while others feel fine on less than 7. If you’re feeling sleepy during the day, you may not be getting enough sleep. After several nights of getting less sleep than you need, your body builds up a ‘sleep debt’ that you have to ‘repay’ by sleeping longer than usual.
So yeah, it's definitely not something you should be doing consecutively. But again, we studied very little about circadian rhythms in that class, so I could be wrong.
 
Starcraft 2 has killed my sleeping schedule recently. Thank god it has been fucked ever since college. I usually get at most 6 hrs of sleep on work nights. Been closer to 3-4 for the last week or so though.
 

Stat Flow

He gonna cry in the car
Here's my golden rule:

If it's less than 3.5 hours, pull an all nighter. If I have something to do, I can usually get some kind of rush of semi-adrenaline and get through my day and feel shitty afterwards. If I go to sleep when i'm really tired and get interrupted/waken with only 1-3 hours of sleep, I will feel absolutely SHITTY. Like, my eyes and body hurt like all fuck and my chances of doing something are almost 0.
 

Loki

Count of Concision
Sew said:
Two hours sleep is infinitely better than none.

See, I never felt that way. I always felt worse if I slept < 3.5 hours than if I pulled an all-nighter, at least back when I was in my teens and early-mid 20's. If you stay up, you'll catch your second wind around noon of the next day, but sleeping 2 or 3 hours is just a cocktease and messes with your system.

Stat Flow said:
Here's my golden rule:

If it's less than 3.5 hours, pull an all nighter. If I have something to do, I can usually get some kind of rush of semi-adrenaline and get through my day and feel shitty afterwards. If I go to sleep when i'm really tired and get interrupted/waken with only 1-3 hours of sleep, I will feel absolutely SHITTY.

Exactly.
 
3 hours is my desperate minimum.

Went to see BRMC in Frankfurt and got home at 230. Had to go to work at 700. That was a long day.
 
I take FOREVER to fall asleep and feel CRAPPY waking up, and even WORSE having to wake up after only 2 hours. If I can't get a solid 3 hours of real sleep (not just laying there waiting for the sleep to kick in) I just pull an all nighter. The adrenaline boost keeps me going until the point where I crash (hopefully in my house, on my bed) and sleep like a baby the next night.
 

Stat Flow

He gonna cry in the car
The best feeling is when you do make it through the day after making an all nighter and fall the fuck OUT.

When you take that 2-3 hours of sleep, not only is it shitty to wake up but after you get that semi adrenaline, when you're done your day, it's not as satisfying.
 
I almost pull all-nighters out regularly during university. It's a bad habit I've fallen into, but you kind of get used to them. Moreso than the fatigue, I hate the loss of body temperature associated with it. Shit gets cold.

Of course, if you actually have the choice, always go for sleep. You'll feel like shit waking up, but it'll still make a big different later on. Whereas the all-nighter will make you feel better initially (since there's no painful wakeup) but you'll likely die in the ass later on in the day.
 

Pochacco

asking dangerous questions
2 hours is good. As is 1 hour.
3-4 hours, based on personal experience, makes you feel shittier than 0 hours though.
 

Salazar

Member
_Alkaline_ said:
I almost pull all-nighters out regularly during university.

Worst exam I ever had. Fall of the Roman Republic. Started at 9:00 am. I had no sleep whatsoever. Drank some beer. Didn't shower in the morning. Walked to uni and got there with 20 minutes before the start. Thumping headache. Couldn't remember who the triumvirate were.
 
awesomeapproved said:
If you can not get at least 2 hours, it is best to stay up, reading or resting, but idle. Then double your caloric intake that day. I'm an insomniac borderline case and that's what every doctor I have asked has said.

Whoever said 2 hours is infinitely better than none is incorrect, I'm afraid.

With all due respect, this is the correct answer. The peak/valley thing is correct too, but nearly impossible to time as sometimes we don't know whether we're awake, asleep, or in that netherworld between.

Sleep is so difficult for me. I've had luck with melatonin, and other things.

But if you can do anything to raise your level of activity slowly, your body will thank you. Especially as you age. I say this despite the fact that many hardcore runners get out early, like right after waking. This could never work for me. I need gradual, slow increases in movement, complexity of thoughts and challenges, ultimately leading me to work or to not being a zombie on the weekends. I even have one of those lamps that lights the room slowly. That stuff works, it really does.
 

Stat Flow

He gonna cry in the car
Pochacco said:
2 hours is good. As is 1 hour.
3-4 hours, based on personal experience, makes you feel shittier than 0 hours though.

How is this possible? Are you saying 1/2 is better than 3/4?
 

Darklord

Banned
Stat Flow said:
How is this possible? Are you saying 1/2 is better than 3/4?

I've heard you don't go into a deep sleep until 2 hours+ so when you wake up after 3 or 4 it's pulling you out of the deep sleep rather than a nap so you feel really tired. I dunno, I might be completely wrong.
 

830920

Member
As long as you're able to get up, any amount of sleep is better than nothing, at least in my experience. I work shifts and often get little to no sleep the night before starting morning shift and even just an hour of sleep will keep you more alert during the end of the work day.
 
I would just not sleep. It takes a while before I can even fall asleep, so two measly hours isn't gonna cut it.

I usually sleep around 6/7 hours a night. I went to sleep around 3 AM yesterday, but unfortunately I woke up at 7, and couldn't get back to sleep. Considering I'd set my alarm at 9 so I could start studying, I ultimately was forced to give up and get up. :(
 

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
iNvidious01 said:
just do it

but remember to get back into your regular sleep schedule afterwards or it will be chaos.

simple trick of resetting your sleep cycle is to not eat for the 12-16hrs leading up to the time you want to wake up (e.g. i want to wake at 10am, i wont eat anything after 7-8pm night before). Then wake up at 10am and have a good breakfast and your back, its awesome
I've heard that before. How true is it? I need to reset my rhythm back so I'd try this. Can I drink tea, water of other non sugar drinks? Or is it a complete fast?
 
I do it all the time, and I don't have a single problem getting back into my regular sleep schedule. Of course, my regular sleep schedule is from 1 am to 6 am daily, so that's really not much better.
 
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