This is your survival guide to the inevitable college all-nighter. Despite your shining start to the semester, you will start to slack, and things will catch up with you. So, before you let your worries run away with your hopes and dreams and you try to grab them in a death clasp as they hurdle together off the cliff of deflated optimism … Read these tips.
- Just don’t do it. I can promise you that even a few hours of sleep will help you do better on your test than spending those last few hours studying. Unless of course you’re pulling an all-nighter to get a project done. Then you’re just screwed.
- What to do now that you’re screwed and not allowed to shut your eyes until lunchtime the next day: start immediately. Don’t mess around with stalling anymore because now you start to think, “I have all night to get it done. I’m going to be up anyway.” That’s the train of thought that got you here.
- Find a quiet spot to begin studying. This quiet spot should not be: your bed, a hammock or anywhere else that seems comfortable or enjoyable. Cramming is not comfortable or enjoyable.
- Plan study breaks for yourself. Yes, you should start immediately (see tip #2), but that doesn’t mean you have to go non-stop. Actually, studies show that studying in hour long blocks and then taking five or ten minute breaks in between will lead to the most effective studying. This is a marathon for your brain, not a sprint. You need to give your brain time to digest everything you just stuffed into it, like that break we all need on Thanksgiving between dinner and dessert.
- Avoid junk food. A sugar rush may help temporarily, but in the end it will just make you crash. Energy drinks will do the same. If you’re going to use a stimulant, make it coffee, but remember to stay hydrated. Dehydration causes a drop in energy and mood (making studying that much harder), and your dehydrated brain has to use more energy than usual to accomplish the same tasks.
- Plan to do a small exercise midway through the night. Some yoga or a light jog will give you that break from studying you need to clear your head and relieve stress. In addition, many studies have linked physical activity to a boost in creativity and to improved plasticity in your brain (making it more capable of reorganizing itself and reworking all the neural connections it has made).
- Let’s face it. We’re millennial college students. When all else fails, find that special something that keeps you going at night and pray to a higher power of your choice that you walk into your test as more than a half-functional zombie the next day.
