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Feature: How to Happily Ever After an All Nighter
As students, pulling all nighters is inevitable. Whether it’s spending the night studying, cramming a requirement, or messaging someone, whatever reason you have, staying up all night is tough.
Especially for young people, while our minds are still developing. Sleep deprivation makes it hard to learn and focus, so we recommend readers to pull a minimal number of all nighters as possible to continue being healthy.
However, everyone who has ever pulled an all nighter knows that staying awake the next day is a difficult feat. Here’s some tips to continue functioning like a proper human being without sleeping the previous night.
1. Stay Hydrated
Since your body uses more water when you are awake, after an all nighter the water in your body is lower than usual. Dehydration also wouldn’t help your already sleepy mood, as according to the National Sleep Foundation, it can make you cranky and sluggish. So, drink up!
2. Move! Move! Move!
Keeping your blood pumping always helps to wake yourself up. A 2016 study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity showed that sitting still will make you sleepier. So if you’re in class, ask to go out and just walk around and do jumping jacks. It will feel absolutely awful, but it would help a ton to wake you up. It’s better than dozing off in class.
3. Get Carried By Caffeine
It’s good to pack a pick-me-up like coffee to school after a night of staying up late. However it’s very important to keep it to short doses, like little sips throughout the day. According to a study in published in PubMed Central, caffeine will do the opposite of what it’s supposed to do and make you sleepier, shakier, and make your stomach upset. That’s why energy drinks aren’t that recommended after all nighters, as your body is already vulnerable with the lack of sleep.
4. Sugar High, We’re Going Down
Sugar highs end faster than you think! Don’t risk it by chomping on carbs and sugar in the morning and being even more sluggish at noon. According to a 2011 study from the journal Neuron, protein-based foods are more effective with keeping you awake. So hold the rice with your eggs and bacon in the morning.
5. Catch Up in the Next Night
It might be tempting to take naps in the day after, but this would confuse your sleep cycle more. You’ll wake up feeling groggier than before you shut your eyes, and it could get you in trouble if you’re caught drooling on your desk during class. Instead, just go to bed early the next night. It’s important to compensate for lost snooze time, and it completely resets and puts your body back to the proper sleep cycle.
All nighters can’t be helped but are still dangerous. Sleep is detrimental to your overall health. The effects of sleep deprivation, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, ranges from symptoms of depression to heart disease and even to just dying. We’re sure that whatever you are doing late at night is important, but what’s also important is your health. Stay up responsibly!
(This article was finished at 1AM). //by Kiara Gabriel
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