Staying Awake

Tips for Working While Tired

Enhanced interrogation for home use

Remember, fatigue is just another complicator to working effectively. The intensity of fatigue you are likely to encounter can be effectively overcome almost always. So, you must raise your attention to good studying form or the chance of failure increases, whether from distraction, by rationalizing going to sleep, or anything else that can go wrong. Remember Murphy’s Law.

• Frequently drink glasses of ice water or fragrant herbal tea. The temperature will not only alert you, but also will make you get up to go to the bathroom more often.
• Chew gum, or have sugar-free mints. Don’t have something that will disrupt your digestion aut overnight fast though.
• Light a candle in your room, or take a waft of these substances.
• Make typically sedentary work (like reading a text) be more like kinesthetic work (like cleaning your room). For example, stand up while reading.
• If prudent, complete necessary activities that are kinesthetic (such as household chores) or light on mental effort (such as sending emails) or exceptionally engaging (such as running reloading drills). It is easier to reach a flow state for some activities, and knowing this while tired is important.
• Make your room unusually well-lit, with high-temperature light sources if possible.
• Turn on some background music. Listen to the White Noise Generator app, ~/music/miscellaneous/alpha-wave-study-music.m4a, your Spotify Scaena playlists, STOP SLEEPING, or a foreign language podcast, deciding which based on the intensity of fatigue. For music with lyrics, make sure that you have not heard any of the songs or else you will be distracted by it more than it keeps you alert.
• Change the ambient temperature in the room to the extreme, either extra warm or extra cold. Reflect your dress to accent your desired extreme. Bonus points if the temperature change directly affects your skin, like a fan or an ice pack.
• Consider soaking your clothing in water, and then hand wringing the articles such that they are not dripping wet. Wear these damp clothes with a fan blowing on you for extra stimulation. You should probably use your workout shirts. Also, sit on your backless stool, with a bath towel between you and the stool to protect your chair. On a less extreme end, use a damp towel around your neck, preferably a larger towel that does not easily slip down the nape of your neck onto your back.
• Remind yourself why what you are doing is important.
• Use a timer to keep yourself engaged. As you get more tired, your ability to focus for long periods of time lessens. Contrary to when you are well-rested, you must proactively and explicitly divide your time into blocks of work and blocks of breaks. Consider the Pomodoro technique as a guideline.
• Use the sleep-disrupting blue light from computer technology to your advantage by scheduling computer work towards the later hours. Similarly, change the color schemes of your software to be deliberately bright. Note, do not wear your blue-light blocking glasses if applicable.
• Consider icing some part of your body (stomach, knees, wrists, etc.) using an ice pack. Similarly, consider submerging a foot or two in a bucket of ice water.
• Lean forward in your chair, with both feet flat on the ground or primed to jump underneath your desk. Consider switching to a backless stool so you cannot lean back and relax. Alternatively, lean back in your chair such that you are only on two legs.
• Put some adrenaline in your veins. Apply some minor harm to your body to elicit an autonomic response. Examples include plucking nose hairs, pouring hot water on your skin, slapping yourself à la Captain Sinbad playing David Goggins. Experiment to find the golden mean between too little and too much stimulation.
• Sit up straight and act as though you are well-rested. “Posture check.”
• Use a resistance band tied around your bed structure to hold your torso upright.

They [the runners] were usually well spent. Sometimes they had been gassed; but they all had the invincible determination to carry on. After they had delivered their message, they would lie down in the mud and go to sleep like dogs. The moment the reply was ready, they would lurch to their feet, throwing off their weariness, as though it were a thing to be conquered and despised. I appreciated now, as never before, the lesson of “guts” that I had been taught at Kingston.

—Coningsby Dawson, The Glory of the Trenches

Motivation won’t make you stay up late to work on a project. DISCIPLINE WILL.

—Jocko Willink, Discipline = Freedom

Tips for Nights with Projected <1 Hour of Sleep

• First rule of all-nighters: avoid all-nighters. (They are not good for your health or productivity in the long run.)
• Use a short nap as a tool. It is unclear how long it should be or when it should be. Consider a caffeine nap when deemed appropriate. Also, raise your legs while napping if possible.
• Roughly plan out your night on an hour by hour basis. Plot your tasks on the Thomas Frank Matrix on its two axes, impact and effort. Based on this planning, be prepared to prioritize, discarding items that are not important.
• Try to space out the caffeine consumption rather than taking one giant dose. Also take some fat with your caffeine, such as butter or coconut oil.
• Avoid large heavy meals filled with carbohydrates. Instead go for moderately sized meals of healthy fats and protein. This idea continues throughout the next day, as long as staying up is still a priority (which it probably will be).
• Exercise frequently (as much as every thirty minutes). Keep active in your seat or try to find a place to work standing up. Take time to flex your muscles while sitting to keep the blood flowing.
• Take a cold shower, or get some other form of extreme stimulation.
• Have a partner because all-nighters are always more fun with friends. Also, waves of tiredness hit people at different times.
• Consume an electrolyte solution. You will have not eaten for some time, and you may be urinating more.
• Prioritize completing your work over sleeping every time.
• Remember, you must stay focused.

Tips for Recovering from Nights with <1 Hour of Sleep

• Do not hit the snooze button (it’s a psychological trick and a dream killer).
• Stay hydrated.
• Avoid sugar or other high GI carbohydrates. You may have an increased craving for them, but they will make you tired shortly after consumption.
• Take a half-hour long nap. Take two if time allows and it feels necessary.
• Stay in bright light (either natural or artificial) to maintain wakefulness.
• Eat nutritious food, prioritizing especially proteins and healthy fats. Acceptable carbs are mentioned above.
• Go exercise to wake yourself up.
• Beware of the afternoon slump.
• Get good sleep the night after.
• Do not overload on caffeine.
• Do the tough stuff in the morning because alertness will decrease throughout the day. Save the afternoon for busy work and interesting stuff.
• From your experience, delaying eating helps to maintain your alertness in the morning.
• Consider why you took this all-nighter. Could a similar situation be avoided in the future?

Author: Nathan Somers

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