Living the College Life: Should I Pull an All-Nighter?

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Jake Liefer likes the pressure of last-minute work. When faced with a deadline, he often becomes a highly capable academic machine, cranking out quality material that earns him good grades.

It's a strategy many students swear by, and when the grades back up their efforts, it's tough to argue with them. But any student's reliance on last-minute efficiency faces its toughest test when the assignments are huge"such as a semester-long project or a 12-page paper.

The "last-minute," in these cases, can often extend to a grueling all-night, high-stress affair. Sometime around 1 or 2 a.m., the realization sets in that it's going to be a very late night, and that maybe some coffee or a few cans of Coke are in order.

An all-nighter is on the horizon, and rare is the student who can handle one unscathed.

"By the time 4 or 5 a.m. rolls around, you're like "Why can't I do this?" says Jake. "You end up staring at a computer screen for 30 minutes, trying to find the answer to a problem. You're a walking zombie."

Jake pulled all-nighters three or four times in the spring of his sophomore year and regrets it. "You think, If I would have started an hour or two earlier. . . .'" Of course, it's even better to start a day or two earlier"or a week or two earlier.

Jake found some relief in one class, in which a professor set a midnight deadline for assignments. The strategy worked well"students who waited until the last minute at least finished their work at a reasonable time.

With a paper due every Friday during her first semester at Yale University, Yassmin Sadeghi  ended up regularly pulling all-nighters. It didn't take her long to realize that she had to find a better way. By the time spring semester rolled around, she took control of her academics, cut down on procrastinating, and improved her time management. "The papers I wrote pulling all-nighters were really not works I was too proud of," says Yassmin. "And I always felt I could have done a much better job had I written the paper or studied for the test during the day, as opposed to at 5 a.m., while I was nodding off.

"If you have a manageable amount of work and you set aside time to do it during the day, you should not have to pull an all-nighter . . . but if worst comes to worst, grab several cups of
coffee and get to work."

Grace Choe recalls pulling a few all-nighters"and getting good grades in those classes"in high school, when the work load was no doubt lighter. It's been a different story in college: "Ever since I came to SC, I am a wreck when I do an all-nighter," she says. In the spring of her junior year, she says she pulled about three of them, each time because she had procrastinated. "Not surprisingly, I got a really bad grade on those projects, but for the tests that I split up into three days [of studying], doing semi-all-nighters, I got a much better grade."

Adam Ritton recalls going into the final exam in a course on the modern Western world with a solid B. But he wanted a B+. He pushed himself through an all-nighter to get the higher grade . . . and succeeded. But then he had four more finals to take.

"I was so tired and worn out from all that studying that I winged the next four exams without so much as looking at my books," he recalls. "Will I ever pull an all-nighter again? Probably, but I hope not, because they kill."

For those deciding whether to stay up all night, there is a middle ground that can be taken occasionally: Study hard, late into the night"say until 2 or 3 a.m."then get maybe four of five hours of sleep, followed by an early-morning study session.

Others suggest looking at the big picture: How much is it worth it to get a slightly higher grade"especially if it means you might sleepwalk through the rest of your classes the following day?

Students disagree on the merits of going to class in that zombielike state. While some professors may appreciate a student's effort to show up during high-stress midterm weeks, others might prefer an apologetic e-mail explaining the unique circumstances while the student catches up on desperately needed rest.

Kristen Watts of the University of Texas at Austin  takes a more pragmatic approach to all-nighters. She's aware that some students swear by them while others swear at them. Her strategy? They're no big deal, as long as the rest of your life is in order. "I've come to realize that balance is the name of the game," she says. "So long as you generally have a balanced lifestyle of ample doses of sleep, regular exercise, and a healthy diet, then once in a while, the infamous all-nighter will not do you in," she says. That's not to say that she highly recommends them: "Do realize that the next day when you're rambling senselessly to your professor as you hand in that paper, you may not sound so intelligible, and you may not feel so hot."