Let’s set the scene. Finals week, everyone’s walking around campus like zombies, everyone’s moody – quickly going from happy to angry in .4 seconds. Nobody can talk to anyone without someone snapping at someone else because they have a lot of studying to do or because they’re stressed about their “million” tests and papers coming up.
I’ve been there. I’m a senior at Longwood; of course I’ve been there. I’ve waited until the last minute to write a paper and have stayed up all night studying for a Calculus final because I hadn’t studied enough during the semester or because I just didn’t understand the material. We’re all to blame for students staying up and pulling all-nighters. I’m not blaming professors. Don’t get me wrong, I’m blaming all of us. I know students think that their professors are out to get them because everything for every class is due within the same two days. I’m an English major. There are plenty of times where I honestly thought all of the professors gathered together and talked about when they should have due dates. One semester,
I had four papers due on Monday and three papers due on Tuesday and a test on Thursday. Nothing else is due for over a month in most of these classes and all of your assignments seem to be due at the same time.
When I write all of my readings and assignments into my planner at the beginning of the semester, the first thing I do is highlight everything that’s due for each class. If you flip through my planner this semester, you’ll notice the redundancy: There are three weeks of the month with nothing due, then all of a sudden I have papers and tests all due within a day or two of each other. I’ve learned to plan my time according to the amount of homework that I have on top of the extracurricular activities that I’m a part of.
In order to have enough time to work, do homework, go to class, go to meetings throughout the week, and still get enough sleep to function, I have to plan. I plan when I sleep, when I eat and when I read for classes. If I didn’t do that, I would be pulling all-nighters all the time and I have neither the time nor the patience to do that anymore.
The stress that all-nighters put on your mind and body doesn’t seem apparent when it’s happening, but take it from someone who knows, it’s rough. My sophomore year, I pulled three all- nighters in a row where I’d been awake so long, I couldn’t sleep more than 30 minutes when I did try to go to sleep during the day. I pulled six muscles in my back because of the stress I was causing my body. I didn’t know that I was doing this until I went to move and I couldn’t. I could barely walk without crying, and studying was definitely out of the question. I couldn’t focus on anything but the pain. The doctors gave me medicine to help, but all they did was make me want to sleep. I finally got all my stuff done for my classes and I got A's in all of them, but was it worth a doctor bill, medicine and six pulled muscles? No. I couldn’t have probably gotten A’s or B’s without the all-nighters, but I didn’t want to take that chance at the time. I would take that chance now, as a senior. I would study harder throughout the semester or start my papers earlier if it meant that I’d get a full night’s sleep and my body wouldn’t give out on me just when I need it most.
It’s easy to look back and say that you wouldn’t have done this or that, but it’s hard to make those decisions while you’re in the circumstance. The biggest problem with all-nighters now is that hardly anyone pulls them without the help of Adderall or other ADD medication. People spend money to stay awake, and the medicine people buy from one another causes different types of stress on the body, especially if you’re not prescribed the medicine and don’t actually need it. You can stay awake on your own, but when your body tells you to sleep, just sleep. Take an hour nap in the middle of studying because you’ll never remember what you’re studying anyway if you’re so focused on being tired and not the course material.
Lack of sleep can cause more harm than good in the long run so make sure to plan accordingly
Having a lot of assignments due around the same time can be stressful, so manage time wisely
