How to Pull an All-Nighter the Right Way

By Kaitlin Hurtado on July 19, 2017

At the beginning of the year, or at the beginning of every semester, you promise yourself to stay on top of every reading and to keep up with studying as the term progresses. Unfortunately, study plans have the tendency to fall through — you can tell yourself to push off reading for one night only to find yourself two weeks behind in readings the next time you look at the syllabus.

When it comes time for a big exam, your bad studying habits could have paved a direct path to an all-nighter (or two). All-nighters are both physically and mentally exhausting, and you should take steps to ensure that your all-nighter(s) are as productive and painless as possible.

Make a strategy 

The two main things you need to think about when planning out your all-nighter are how much time you have to study and how much of the course content you know or don’t know. Write out concepts you already know you have down and do not need to spend a lot (or any) time on. List out the concepts you still struggle with and rank them from the most understood to the least understood.

Plan to spend more time on the concepts you struggle with the most and less time on the ones you struggle less with. Giving limited time to different concepts will help you keep a pace for the night and also make sure that you won’t spend all night on one concept. If you still find yourself not fully grasping a concept when the time you planned for it is up, make a note for yourself to get back to it when you finish another concept early later on or at the end of the study session.

Enlist help 

People either excel at studying with a group or get distracted. Depending on which type of person you are, inviting someone to take part in the all-nighter with you may be a good strategic move, especially those who have an understanding of the concepts you are studying for. If it’s a classmate, you can go to each other for questions the minute they come up and also share studying materials that each of you has made. If they really are studying for the same exam as you, it’s a good idea to scope out the type of student they are before inviting them to the study session.

If you already know that they leech off people for work and constantly ask questions instead of trying to figure it out for themselves, you are better off pulling the all-nighter solo and not suffering through a night of constant questions that will take a lot of time out of your own personal studying. If you know they keep up with the class and are actually committed to studying during the all-nighter, another brain wouldn’t hurt.

You don’t always have to invite people that are in the class you are taking; you can also invite friends. However, be aware that friends can be a lot more distracting and be cautious of who you are inviting to study with you. If needed, bring out the headphones that you should always have packed and tune out their attempts at distraction.

Take breaks 

One of the biggest mistakes one can make when trying to pull an all-nighter is not taking any breaks. If your mind can barely handle an hour-long lecture in the middle of the day, how can it possibly handle hours of studying at a time where you are usually in deep sleep? Set an alarm on your phone to schedule breaks. If you know you can barely keep your attention on something for 10 minutes, go for shorter intervals between breaks. A good default time is 30 minutes, or you can schedule it around the concepts you plan to study.

Image via pixabay.com

If you plan on taking several breaks, they should be kept relatively short. Get up, stretch, and refill your water bottle. Watch one quick YouTube video. If you do plan on taking a longer break to eat, set a timer so you don’t get carried away and lose track of time.

Take a nap, but keep them short at 20 minutes or less. Always set an alarm or several. Being with a study buddy is also helpful (and near essential for heavy sleepers) for making sure that you actually wake up and return to studying. However, if you are one to take forever to fall asleep or know you never will get up after a nap, skip out on the nap and drink some caffeine as a last resort and keep the dosage small.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format