It’s almost that time of year, ladies and gentlemen. In a few short weeks, we will all be heading back up to school to embark on another semester of unhealthy eating and schoolwork up to our ears. The day will come soon enough within the first month or so when you realize there really are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. Have a huge test to study for? Need to write a six-page paper that is due the next morning? The most popular solution to this problem is pulling an all-nighter. Staying up all night to complete school-related work is most definitely not an easy task.
Stage One: Mental and Physical Preparation
It is 6 p.m., and you think about all of the things you need to do before tomorrow morning. After going to class all day, your brain is already fried, and the thought of having a long night ahead of you makes you want to curl up in a ball and hide under your covers. Unfortunately, this huge research paper you have put off for the past few weeks is due tomorrow and it needs to get done. It’s time to suck it up, grab a large coffee, and stock up your backpack with Red Bull and study snacks.
Stage Two: Setting Up Camp
After an hour of trying to motivate yourself to walk out the door, you have finally
Stage Three: Procrastination
The hardest part was walking out the door, right? Wrong. The World Wide Web is now at your fingertips and waiting for you to come play. You do have all night to get your paper done, so what is a little Facebook browsing going to hurt? After doing a solid 20 minutes of FB creeping, you stumble across a text message from your roommate asking when you will be home. Now that you have your phone in your hands, you might as well
Stage Four: Getting Down to Business
After coming to terms with the fact you need to finish your paper before the sun rises, you finally get to work. Your coffee is kicking in, the study playlist is on point, your phone is tucked away, and your paper-typing skills are at a rapid speed. This all-nighter is a piece of cake! Who needs sleep anyways?
Stage Five: The Caffeine Crash
After three hours of staring at your computer screen and sucking down Red Bull like there’s no tomorrow, the caffeine starts to lose its magical effect. Your eyes begin to get heavy, and you may or may not be typing gibberish at this point. The regret of not bringing a pillow and blanket starts to fill your mind. You really do not care if people judge you for taking a little nap. A 15-minute study nap is just what you need to stay alive. You save your word document, close your laptop, and set your head down on top of the desk.
Stage Six: Panic
You awake to the alarming realization that you have created a small puddle of drool on the desk. Your 15-minute nap turned into a two-hour nap, and the morning is approaching real fast. You have three pages left to go, so you buckle down and type away with the little energy you have left inside of you.
After experiencing all six stages of pulling an all-nighter, you have finally completed your paper and are ready to turn it in. Pulling an all-nighter will most likely result in sleep deprivation for the next 24 hours and looking like a zombie, but in the end, all that matters is that your work is complete.
