How to stay up all night if you really need to

Every person encounters situations that require them to stay up all night. When you are preparing for exams, in a hurry to learn the material, you fly to the other side of the world, waiting for a decision that is vitally important for you, before going to sleep. It's good when a sleepless night is planned. You can prepare for it in advance. More often the situation arises suddenly. It’s difficult to get through it, but it’s possible while remaining cheerful.

Our body's biological clock gives the command to plunge into the power of sleep. Therefore, it is difficult to be alert when you want to fall asleep. You need to deceive the body at those hours of the night when irresistible drowsiness occurs, and this is possible using different actions.

Load up on fast carbohydrates

On a sleepless night, this is precisely the property of fast carbohydrates for which adherents of a healthy diet criticize them: they quickly break down into simple sugars and give a strong, albeit short-term burst of energy. So ignore the advice of grandmothers “don’t eat sweets at night, otherwise you won’t sleep” and stock up on sweets.

Watch your level of fatigue, as energy will leave your body just as quickly: as soon as you feel tired, it’s time to take another bite of the chocolate.

Prepared room

In order not to fall asleep at a crucial moment, you need to turn on the light. It interferes with the production of the hormone melatonin. Sitting on a chair, a floor lamp with bright light is placed next to it. Thanks to the light falling on the face, the brain will begin to actively work.

You sleep better in warmth. You can't sleep in the cold. To do this, ventilate the room so that the air temperature is 18 degrees. The room may have a spartan decor. Armchairs and sofas relax a person. But you are unlikely to fall asleep on a hard chair with a straight back.

Preparing for a sleepless night is 30% of success

To make the most of your night, it’s best to prepare in advance. We will give the right recommendations, and you will prepare your body for the upcoming load, then the night will not only be easier, but also more productive.

Be outside before sunset

It is imperative to be outside before sunset, in direct sunlight. Bright light sets a person up for activity, brings all systems and organs into working order, stimulates the production of hormones that prevent a person from falling asleep. You need to be home before sunset. And in the room, provide bright and adequate lighting, which will stimulate the functioning of the nervous system, inhibit the production of melatonin, preventing drowsiness.

Expert opinion

Joel Adrien

Neuroscientist at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM)

Light of a warm shade does not invigorate a person, but causes drowsiness. Therefore, during a sleepless night, use bright light of cool bluish shades, in the range of 5000-6500 K. After midnight and closer to the morning, you can use warm light in the range of 2700-3500 K.

Take a nap during the day

It's better to get some sleep during the day than to drink liters of coffee and energy drinks on a sleepless night. The body will receive the necessary rest, which will make it possible to spend the night a little more fruitfully. If a person uses daytime sleep to maintain his activity, then at night he will have more vitality to perform necessary tasks.

Some people believe that before a sleepless night you should sleep all day. But that's not what we mean in this case. Some people work night shifts, their schedule is different from normal life. Now we are talking about an unplanned situation when you can’t sleep at night due to unforeseen circumstances. In this case, it is better to sleep in the middle of the day, but no more than 2 hours , so as not to disrupt your normal rhythm of life and daily routine in the future.

Professor Charles Czeisler, a sleep specialist at Harvard, argues that an afternoon nap increases productivity in those who have to work late into the night.

How to use sleep pills

The dosage of anti-drowsiness medications and the method of taking them are determined by the doctor. They are determined by the specific characteristics of the patient’s body and the purpose of the appointment (for treatment, for work). On average, medications for daytime sleepiness last 6–8.5 hours after oral administration. As a rule, take two tablets; after 7–8 hours, the dose can be repeated.

Most psychostimulants are available with a prescription

Most anti-drowsiness tablets are available on prescription. Caffeine can be purchased without a prescription. To prevent side effects, you should carefully read the instructions included in the package.

An invigorating walk or exercise

As soon as you want to sleep at night, you need to get dressed and spend half an hour in the fresh air. It is difficult to go outside; there is an option to breathe by standing on the balcony or loggia. You just need to open the window. At the same time, you should not smoke, it is harmful. And it will be impossible to continue working. A cigarette will invigorate you for a while, but then you will fall asleep, which is difficult to fight.

It’s better to force yourself to look away from the computer every 2 hours. Perform walking around the room and exercises to strengthen the back muscles. Gymnastics for the eyes is a must. Rapid blinking will improve blood circulation in the organ of vision. To strengthen muscle tissue, look from one object to another, rotate the eyeballs left and right.

Spending the day after being up all night

If all the methods helped you remain able to work during the night, then it will be difficult to be the same all day long. Sometimes after a sleepless night you have to run to school or work. We will have to do everything possible to make the day active. Recuperation is carried out in different ways. It’s better to wait until the evening to gain strength, trying to stay active.

During the break you need to get some sleep

How to cheer up without coffee

Food will help keep you in good shape during the day, and you should have a snack of fruits or vegetables every 2 hours. It is better to avoid coffee and energy drinks. We drank the norm at night. Excessive caffeine consumption will cause the body to be tense the next night. We drink more water and citrus juice.

Exercising

If you really want to fall asleep at work, then we continue gymnastic exercises during the daytime. They shouldn't be heavy. Otherwise, the body will fail due to stress. Walking around the office, walking around the building with breathing exercises will invigorate you, the consequences of a sleepless night will be light.

Give up alcohol and pills

It's hard not to sleep for a long time. During the day I really want to take a nap. Take a 20-30 minute nap during your lunch break. It is harmful to rest more; it is fraught with lethargy and the inability to concentrate on the tasks at hand. You cannot cheer yourself up with alcoholic drinks. The remedy will not invigorate, but will lead to nervous tension and stress.

Tablets that improve body tone are used as prescribed by a doctor. They can cause harm, the person will become aggressive, and will have difficulty responding adequately to the real situation.

Side effects

Tablet psychostimulants have undesirable side effects. It can be of different types and severity. Side effects include:

state of psychomotor agitation;
trembling of the limbs, up to convulsions;
noise in ears,
dizziness,
the onset of fainting;
headache, migraine attack;
increase in heart rate (heart rate), heart rhythm disturbance;
increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure (blood pressure);
allergic reactions (rash, itching, redness);
gastrointestinal (gastrointestinal) disorders;
increased sweating;
addiction to the drug, perverted (paradoxical) reaction (increased drowsiness).

Buy chewing gum

Keeping chewing gum out of your mouth all day is harmful, but in special cases when you need to spend several hours in a row without sleep, all means are good. The chewing movements themselves are important - they “deceive” the brain, forcing it to maintain activity to digest food. The pancreas also continues to work, increasing the production of insulin, which, in turn, causes a feeling of vigor. And in order to freshen up and not spoil your teeth, it is better to choose chewing gum with a minimum sugar content and menthol flavor.

Overdose

Self-medication, an amateurish approach to taking psychostimulants, their uncontrolled and excessive use - all this is fraught with overdose. The following signs indicate it:

psychomotor agitation;
headache;
allergic reactions;
diarrhea.

In case of overdose, you should immediately stop taking the drug. In most cases this is enough. Sometimes symptomatic treatment may be required, which should be prescribed by a doctor.

Contraindications

Contraindications for taking psychostimulant tablet drugs are associated with the presence of warning symptoms of acute and chronic pathology:

constant high blood pressure;
acute nephritis (kidney inflammation);
rapid blood clotting;
diarrhea syndrome;
chronic heart pathology, including failure;
severe atherosclerosis;
malignant neoplasms;
allergy to the components of the drug,
individual intolerance.

Children under 10 years of age are prohibited from prescribing psychostimulant drugs. The decision should be made with caution in case of epilepsy, in elderly patients, or with the presence of glaucoma.

Don't overeat

After a hearty, large meal, it is doubly difficult not to fall asleep at night. Filling your stomach tightly before bed is already harmful, and even more so if you plan to have a sleepless night at work. Therefore, dinner should be dietary, and most importantly, no chips, fried or fatty foods, flour or sweets.

To keep your body active throughout the night, take a break every 2-3 hours for a small, light snack.

If you eat at night, it is better to give preference to fresh vegetables and fruits, as well as foods rich in protein - eggs and nuts. As a last resort, you can eat a piece of dark chocolate, natural, high cocoa content, without additives or preservatives. It will help you stay alert longer and saturate the body with substances beneficial to the nervous system: glucose, magnesium, fatty acids, flavonoids and B vitamins.

Stretch and take a walk

Of course, few people will be interested in pumping their abs while half asleep. But moving actively will only be beneficial, this way you can get your blood pumping and it will be easier to think. And if you sit in one place for a long time, you can actually fall asleep.

Max Zhurilo advises learning to listen to yourself. And when you realize that stress is at its limit, you need to go and rest. Of course, most often a simple change of activity, fresh air or a little exercise will help. Maxim himself likes to go for a run after the so-called “trail” day, which helps him warm up and clear his thoughts.

The same idea is shared by Evan Williams, founder of the cult Blogger. He himself enjoys sports during the working day. He decided for himself that since he was already active in the first half of the day, he needed to come up with something for the second part of the day to restore productivity.

Dmitry Yurchenko also agrees that running is very useful, especially when stress overcomes you. This is a good way to “reboot” and reset. It’s better to run for about thirty minutes than to hang around the office without enthusiasm for three hours.

Find a company to be active

While playing in the company of friends, time will fly by.
Spending a night without sleep with someone you are talking to is much easier and more enjoyable than spending it alone. But even if you can’t find a real company, you can go on a journey through the Internet, visiting, for example, thematic forums and entering into a heated discussion with your opponents. Online disputes and trolling, of course, are not the most noble activities, but activating the brain, increasing blood pressure and adrenaline levels in the blood is a piece of cake for them.

The situation when a child needs to stay awake at night deserves special attention. It is much more difficult for children to force themselves to give up rest, especially if a lot of energy has been spent during the day. But the drowsiness disappears as soon as you get the baby interested in something new or, as an exception, allow something that is forbidden at normal times. For example, play computer games longer or watch cartoons. It is also useful to alternate calm, intellectual activities with active games. The main thing is not to be bored - as soon as the child gets tired of everything, sleep will immediately begin to take over.

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Take a cool shower

Nothing invigorates like cold water.
For some, this method may seem too radical, but nothing invigorates like cold water. In response to a drop in external temperature, the brain triggers a reaction to produce thermal energy, which helps to stay alert and active longer. In addition, just a few minutes under a cool shower tone blood vessels, stimulate blood circulation and enrich the cells of internal organs with oxygen.

The only drawback is that the effect does not last long. Therefore, if the task is to stay awake all night, you will have to stand under a stream of cold water more than once.

Turn on the music

Drive away fatigue and drowsiness with the help of fiery dance rhythms or hard rock.
How to stay awake all night and be alert? Of course, drive away fatigue and drowsiness with the help of fiery dance rhythms or hard rock. At the same time, it is better to listen to music with headphones - this will create additional discomfort that maintains brain activity and will help to avoid problems with neighbors. But calm and soothing melodies can have the opposite effect, forcing you to fall into a sweet sleep, so it’s definitely better to avoid them.

Turn on bright lights

To cheer up, you need to deceive the brain, convincing it that the day is in full swing.
The processes occurring in the human body are regulated by different groups of hormones. Therefore, one effective way to stay awake all night is to reduce the production of the sleep hormone, or melatonin. Towards evening, when the sun sets and it’s time to go to bed, its amount in the body increases sharply, ensuring quick sleep and a quality night’s rest. This means that in order to cheer up, you need to deceive the brain, convincing it that the day is in full swing, and there is no need to activate the production of melatonin. And for this you will need bright lighting, not only in one room, but throughout the entire apartment - the more lamps are on, the greater the chances of getting rid of drowsiness for a long time.

What drinks will cheer you up?

You also need to know what to drink. You can’t stuff yourself with coffee, otherwise you’ll end up with heart problems. Doctors advise stopping drinking the drink after two cups. It is better to drink the daily dose overnight in small portions. The effect of caffeine ends after 1-2 hours, then you will be drawn back to sleep.

Anyone who drinks only clean water stays alert longer. Without coffee, spend the night with green tea. The drink contains a lot of vitamin P and microelements, which make it easier to maintain energy. If you really want to sleep, you can try ginseng tincture. A similar drug that activates mental activity is Eleutherococcus.

A few drops of tincture in tea - and the activity of thought processes will last longer. An infusion of rosemary leaves is a good tonic. It is prepared by infusing for 2 hours. For a tablespoon of leaves you need 400 milliliters of boiling water. One dose consists of half a glass of drink.

The tincture of Schisandra chinensis fruits is taken with water, diluting 20-30 drops in 100 grams. The tincture of the rhizomes of the tall plant increases the tone. Drink 2-3 cups of tea per night, adding 30-40 drops of medicine. Tea with ginger is beneficial for knowledge workers.

What not to do

If you have worked for 20 hours without sleep, it is difficult to get yourself ready for activity. Most tasks should be abandoned. It’s worth completing 2-3 easy tasks, and catching up on the rest when you get enough sleep. Getting behind the wheel after working all night is dangerous. It is difficult to concentrate, especially in a big city, on the road. It is better to hire a taxi and get to work safely.

What happens if you spend the whole night at work? When the situation is planned, you can rest in advance by sleeping more than expected. It is normal for the body to go through the night without sleep once, especially at a young age, but constant lack of sleep will lead to a breakdown of the nervous system, then no drugs will help to return to normal.