Sometimes there’s just no time to fit in a nap when you’re ready to take on an all-nighter. Knowing there isn’t time to spare to get some proper sleep, there are some tactics you can use as alternatives to napping to stay awake.
One idea is to get up and move around. Taking just a short walk will pump oxygen throughout your veins, muscles, and in your brain to make you naturally more energized. A study highlighted in an online article called “Coping with Excessive Sleepiness” described a study in which tired participants could choose to eat a candy bar or take a 10-minute walk. Although many thought the candy bar would provide a quick energy boost, most of those who consumed the food were more tired and had less energy an hour later compared to those who took a walk (increasing energy for 2 hours afterward).
Another trick is to give your eyes a break to avoid fatigue. Continuously staring at a computer screen worsens sleepiness by causing eyestrain, so periodically looking away can ease this and keep you from getting more tired. You can also try eating a healthy snack, such as peanut butter, yogurt, or nuts to get a necessary boost of energy. Some people find it helpful to start a conversation with someone else to wake up their minds when all other techniques fail. Turning up the lights in a room can increase alertness as well.
You may also try switching tasks periodically to stimulate your mind. Monotonous work has been shown to increase tiredness as opposed to frequently changing your activity or surroundings. If you know in advance you’re heading into a long night, you might want to lightly work out beforehand, as exercise has been shown to be more effective at reducing fatigue than some medications. If a nap just won’t fit, these techniques may come in handy to boost you through the studying and lack of sleep that’s ahead.
I actually used a few of these napping alternatives to make it through THON weekend. I would do around a twenty minute walk around the BJC every few hours or so, and I made it a point to eat relatively healthy food all weekend to provide more energy. I’m sure I wouldn’t have made it the thirty hours I was there if I didn’t do these things.
I’ll definitely be thinking of these napping alternatives when I’m someday a dancer for THON! I think that giving dancers the ability to walk around on the floor definitely helps them to stay awake for those 46 hours, as opposed to the stands where I was falling asleep while standing around the 15th hour. As for those long nights, I’ve never been to the point where it was a question of whether or not I would sleep that night (I make sleep a priority), but I definitely keep these in mind for the future if that does happen. Great post!
Some really good advice I know I can become very sleepy at times even when I’ve had a reasonable nights sleep. Sometimes you just need something to wake you up rather than getting more sleep. I definitely find certain things can make me sleepy, such as certain lectures in classes I don’t find very interesting.
I am definitely a person who stays up late to get my work done, and I have done many of these tips to stay awake before. I am a huge fan of randomly walking around campus late at night, so whenever I take a study break I usually grab tea and then head out for a half hour walk. This definitely wakes me up! These are great tips that I’m sure many college students can apply to their late-night studying lives.