I had never understood why anyone would sacrifice sleep because I am a person who values sleep above all else. However, there comes a time in everyone's life when they must forsake the dream world for a night of stressed mayhem. I experienced this last week for the first time during a video competition where I had to stay up for two days straight to film and edit a Thriller sequence. My body had never been exposed to such sleep deprivation prior, so I decided to chronicle the stages of my emotions. If any of you have not already pulled an all-nighter, here is what to expect:
Phase 1: Stress Beyond Belief
Let me set a common scene for you. An assignment is due that you may have procrastinated on. The importance of it was emphasized highly, and your heartbeat begins to race as faster than the approaching deadline. Your hand darts to a paper bag to remedy the hyperventilation. However, it dawns on you that there are still some hours ahead. This is the stage where the phrase "pulling an all-nighter" was born.
Phase 2: Caffeine Overload
It is only an extra 8 hours right? "Not bad at all," answers everyone in this stage. You proceed to travel to the nearest market to stock up on coffee, Redbull, 5 Hour Energy, and all other substances that could prepare you for this night. (However, what they don't mention is that these drinks are deadly bombs in your stomach waiting to attack you at a later stage.)
Phase 3: Creative High
When the clock hits about 2AM, some of your best work appears, or at least what you think it is. Your sleep deprived brain will call you modern day Shakespeare. In actuality, all you have done is written gibberish on a piece of paper.
Phase 4: Apathy
After hours of inactivity, it may be time to throw in the towel. The fatigue starts to kick in, and you have most likely backtracked since the beginning of the night. You deem the assignment as idiotic and could not care less about it.
Phase 5: Emotional Confusion
Though you may not care, it is too late to quit now. Frustration starts to overwhelm your senses. Accompanied with this frustration, is the urge to laugh due to exhaustion, and the urge to cry also due to exhaustion. These extremes can also make you prone to anger, so poor Betty who wronged you last week will get an earful on her answering machine. There is no accurate way to describe the mix of emotions until you have experienced it, but I can tell you that it will weird out anyone that sees your unusual meltdown.
Phase 6: HaLlucINAtIONs
You know that drug stage your friends used to laugh about in 21 JumpStreet?
Expect it.
Staying awake all night puts a significant amount of stress and damage on your brain. To try to recover, the brain tells your body to forcefully shut down into sleep. Thus, you may end up experiencing some dreams in the form of hallucinations while awake in reality.
Phase 7: Internal Death
I hope you remember me saying earlier that you would definitely start to feel the effects of those energy drinks. This phase incorporates a mixture of all of the sickening side effects heard on medication advertisements. That is right, the feelings you experience include: stomachache, blurry vision, headache, nausea, cold sweats, dizziness, etc.
Phase 8: Crash
Whether you have accomplished what you set out to do or not, at this point, it does not really matter. After feeling like your insides are being pulverized into mush, it is time to just kick back and fall into a deep slumber.
All in all, I do not recommend ever pulling all-nighters. It can have severe physical and psychological effects. The sleep deprivation impairs memory and concentration as well as weakens the immune system. Not to mention, energy drinks also have a deteriorating effect on the body due to their high sugar content and ability for addiction. The best thing to do in these stressful situations is to avoid them altogether. Do not procrastinate, and get an adequate amount of rest every night. This way, you will maintain your sanity (maybe).
