My guide to...

Pulling an all-nighter

- First things first: Avoid whenever possible. I cannot stress this point enough. In my case, it's kind of the pot calling the kettle black, but I'm trying to save you all from my fate.

- Have some munchies nearby. You will get hungry at some point, so have food close so you don't wander off and get distracted.

- Wear comfortable clothes. Nothing is more irritating than a belt buckle digging into your stomach at 3am.

- If the local water makes your coffee taste gross, add 1/3 a packet of Hazlenut flavoured hot chocolate mix to it. It will improve it.

- Take a 5 minute break now and then. Get up and stretch. Switch CDs.

- Have quiet music going. The silence can get to you after awhile.

- At the beginning of the night, make up an outline for what you have to do.

- Have a bottle of water or two handy. 7 cups of coffee may seem like a good idea at first, but by about 5am, you will be jittery, and probably more drained than you would if you had none. Don't have more than 4 cups of coffee or soft drinks over the course of the night.

- If you absolutely must get some sleep, do not sleep for more than an hour. An hour long nap should refresh you a little, but any more than that and you will just feel groggy and extra sleep deprived.

- If you have an early class in the morning, have a can of Red Bull, Tab, or any other energy drink ready to keep you going after you get to class.

- Go to bed early the following night, and make sure you get a solid 8-9.5 hours of sleep. Get up at your normal time. Don't justify sleeping in as 'catching up'. More than 9.5 hours will leave you feeling groggy and exhausted when you wake up, and it will just throw your body's clock farther out of whack.

-If you're wearing contacts, take them out, especially if you're working with a computer. Your eyes will get sore.

- Make sure you set an alarm for the time that you would usually plan to wake up. Just in case you fall asleep on your work. (Make sure you check your face for pen(cil) smudges before you leave the house.)

- If you're planning on going to school early to print whatever it was that you spent all night typing, make sure you know what time the printing center opens. Because if it opens at the same time as your class starts, you are SCREWED! (The more I think about it, the more I think that I have until the end of the day today to hand my essay in. If that's the case, I'm going to go home and revise a little more. But I have to stay here in the Computer Common and print a copy just in case. Which will suck, because it will cost me money. But I can't get the printer at home to turn on. I don't even know if it's plugged into anything. Dangit.)