Ask HN: So you've just pulled an all nighter, how do you get through the day?
I'm running on approximately 3 hours of sleep. My hands are shaky. If I sit still for too long I run the risk of falling back asleep. I've done all nighters before so I have my routine and tools to fall back on, I'm just curious how other hackers do it.
Coffee? Teas? Energy drinks? Sleep?
55 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 107 ms ] threadthen just try and last it out till evening and have an early night.
if you go to sleep in the afternoon and dont get yourself up within a few hours then it completely screws my pattern for a few days.
When they looked at their internal organs, they were mush.
Sleep is important.
This type of experiment is quite common. http://www.bing.com/search?q=%22sleep+deprivation%22+rats+ex...
They use different methods to keep the rats awake. Some say the rats died after 3 weeks, some 40 days... It's pretty much a scientific fact by this point that prolonged sleep deprivation ultimately leads to death.
Caffeine is a double-edged sword. It'll keep you going for a short period of time followed by a crash. Either drink A LOT of it throughout the day or don't drink it at all.
Vitamin B can help in my experience.
Go to bed.
Essentially, "jjs" is right. You may as well go to sleep, because you will as productive as if you were.
So, how do you waste the day in the least damaging way? I think the key issue is - Find chores you can do with minimum thinking. When I have been in this situation (yes, yes... I should have not... been there, done that) I found myself unable to make anything creative, but still pretty able to knock off tasks that I had previously planned and prioritized. Write those emails you were planning (and triple read them, don't want to embarrass yourself or offend anyone), perform that refactoring you had identified but you were much in a hurry to actually code, start filling the TPS reports due next Friday.
Also, you might want to take a 20 minute nap after lunch. You will still feel crappy, but it will boost your attention span for the rest of the afternoon.
And please avoid driving altogether!
Another trick I've found is don't hit the coffee or energy drinks until you absolutely need to, you're going to crash anyhow, and drinking stimulants too soon will only make that happen quicker.
Don't lengthen your working hours, optimize them.
No this will make it a lot worse.
> Sleep? your best bet - but plan carefully to avoid mucking up your sleep patterns.
If you must stay awake orange juice, water and regular walks (outside, fresh air) are the key.
If you must have caffeine then drink tea. Coffee is too high in caffeine and energy drinks have the same problem but with added sugar - which will fuck you up.
Natural sugar from fruit juice is a better way to get sugar in your system (which is important because you will be deficient of it)
Moderate exercise (swimming, jogging, cycling, weight lifting) are also good because it gets adrenaline going in your body.
I spent a long time working out methods for working long hours: I finished my final year thesis in a 52hr straight through work session using the above methods. With energy drinks / coffee you'll struggle to hit 48hrs at best :D EDIT: it got a good mark too so it was a good move.
As I mentioned here in the past; for my finals exams I spent the best part of 2 weeks on an average of 4hrs sleep a day without feeling particularly tired throughout using these methods.
But it's not good for you long term.
Oh, regular food is good too. Have a medium sized but greasy breakfast.
AVOID :: Speed, coke, crystal meth . They all make you irritable and have all the usual downsides like:
:: Prison, overdosing, tainted supply, instant loss of job, addiction, loss of self respect, suicidal impulses.
:: Some last far too long (pure speed, Meth) and others too short (Cocaine). People who take those types of drugs (truckers, air-force pilots) have bounded scenarios and repeatable experiences.
Early bed the following night!
Then you're doing something wrong. The way you manage your time? The way you approach your subject? The way you organize your work? The way you set priorities?
An all-nighter is not a badge of honor. It's a sign of poor work habits earlier in the cycle. Find the cause of your need to do all-nighters, eliminate it, and don't do them any more. (And probably get twice as much work done during the day.)
Sometimes, you get so in the zone, so productive, so excited by what you're doing, that you simply don't want to stop.
When that happens, you can get more done during one night of coding, than you might have got done in the past few weeks.
Keep doing all nighters when you feel like you're hitting your peak productivity and don't want to stop.
Next day get some exercise, eat+drink.
When I said I had done them before, I was referring back to college before I had learned time management.
This late night was not my fault. Our dev server went down and so I could not begin work on the project until IT had it back up later on Sunday. We were shooting to get this project into QA today but that unfortunately didn't happen.
Though I have to say that staying up all night for any reason other than partying is dumb.
But when the real accomplishment is missing and drowsiness creeps upon me, I take regular 5 minute walks at the corporate campus (a really nice green spot in the middle of the city), and have some 10-15 minutes powernaps. (I never drink coffee/cola)
I don't drink caffeine, but here's what's worked for me: 1) Nap several times during the day, if you can, even 20 mins is enough. 2) Drink lots of water, eat some food- I hear bananas are good. 3) Avoid making any important decisions today 4) Keep moving around and listen to some music
And most importantly, get to sleep early enough tonight to account for the fact that you've now got 5 or so hours of sleep debt. I doubt you're going to go to bed and sleep 13 hrs, but even planning to sleep 10 or 11 hours tonight will help your schedule a lot through the rest of the week.