All Nighter Tips

[Zipa]

Don't eat or drink ''energy '' food/drinks (monster, red bull ect) they will make you crash hard. Stick to certain fruits and other foods that help you stay awake by releasing energy slowly. Also drink water and avoid tea/coffee for obvious reasons.

http://www.wisegeek.com/which-foods-can-help-me-stay-awake.htm#lbss

Take it from a old MMO veteran who used to pull all nighters so he could be up PvPing with his american buddies.

Also take regular breaks and actually go outside if only for a minute or two, fresh air does wonders for you.
Failing that do what I do every opening day for desert bus, sleep in the day and get up a hour before it starts (1am my time)

Also any of these work to.
http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/09/12/50-natural-ways-to-boost-your-energy/

 

[Chunga the Great]

For the love of god, DON'T lie down thinking "Oh I'll just take a little bit of a rest." You WILL fall asleep. As for staying awake, loud music, especially electronic, will help a lot.

 

[Linakrbcs]

-Coffee with milk and sugar in the early evening. Not later though because for some reason I get really tired for a little while after drinking coffee before the caffeine kicks in.

-Being warm, but not in a soft, sleep-friendly place. I pretty much only pull all-nighters for university projects these days, so I usually sit at my desk on a rather hard wooden chair

-Enough snack food to keep nibbling away. Mostly stuff that can be eaten with one hand and doesn't leave stains on fingers, like dried fruit, Smarties, all kinds of gummy bears.

-Most people have a sort of "dead time" when they get really, really tired, but if they make it past that, they can't go to sleep anymore. Mine is between midnight and one, if I make it past that I can make it though the rest of the night. If you know when yours is, move around a bit at that time, have a shower, cook something.

-Showers help too, especially lukewarm ones

 

[Moderated]

Step one: Have people to talk to, online or off.
Step two: Do something fun, even if it's just talking to those people.
Step three: Don't waste your life all nighting something like black ops two.

 

[triggrhappy94]

If you're preparing for a midnight release, take a nap before.
For your general all nighters, keep the stimuli up. Be aware of what your limit feels like, couches will get you--you start sitting up right, then reclined, then you're asleep.
If you can, get into the "just one more" mindset, it makes a huge difference.
Then there's caffeine, which helps some.

Spoiler: My experience with all-nighters

I've spent a whole night up playing Castle Crashers with a friend saying "just one more level". We eventually reached 4am, stopped for second. We had to get up for a trip in two hours, so we decided to just keep playing.

The only mid-night release I've been to was the one for Skyrim. I knew my brother would want to play too, I didn't want to fight him for time and I wanted to play it first. So I took a nap in the afternoon, picked it up--one of my friends was actually first in line and some how got a promotional foam chainsaw sword from the Gamestop people--then played it until 6am.

I once spent the whole night at a friend's house try to beat one level in Stronghold 2. It took like 5 tries, but building infastructure just for my pesant to get maulded by wolves takes a long time.

 

[Lt._nefarious]

Coffee. And porn breaks... But mostly coffee because you're alert while making it for fear of getting your eyeballs scalded and drinking it keeps you awake because IT BURNS!

Oh and get wet. Not in relation to said porn breaks just dip your hair in freezing water. Trust me, you won't be able to get to sleep with freezing cold hair...

 

[Zyntoxic]

I once accidentally stayed up for 48 hours straight while playing morrowind, then I stayed up another 24 hours just for the hell of it, then I crashed and screwed up my sleep for an entire month. I recall not seeing sunlight for over 3 weeks. ah, good old days...

anw, in my experience, a good enough game will keep you awake without any problems for an entire night, so I guess just keep your self occupied and don't get too comfy, not even on things you'd normally consider highly uncomfortable. trust me, keyboards are perfectly good pillows under certain circumstances...

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Most of all, make sure you're alone.

I keep pulling all-nighters to work on my thesis, with every single instance earning me a comment from one of the folks. I find pre-emptive naps to usually suffice in picking me up for the first half, after which fruit juice keeps me up. Coffee when I'm alone.

 

[Strazdas]

With midnight launches becoming more and more popular, the number of all nighters pulled by gamers is also increasing. I, like many others will be pulling an all nighter tonight for the release of Black Ops 2. What I am interested in knowing is your tips and secrets for staying up all night. Do you drink energy drinks, listen to music, what do you do?

I've had a few naps while watching the cricket today (go Australia!) so I'm hoping that will be enough to get me through the night with a few energy drinks.

Well capcha suggests "frozen peas" but i dont.
While i wont comment about your game of choice or that i would never stay up just to play a game 8 hours faster than other folk ill try to trell you what i do when i want to stay awake.

1. Candies. As lnog as your chewing you wont fall asleep. and high sugar content raises awareness.
2. Some people sue coffe, as i dont i cant give you personal experience, but chemically it shoudl help you stay awake.
3. Movies. a good movie wont let you fall asleep.
4. Gaming. as long as your playing games you wont fall asleep as long as the games arent boring. I suggest somthing fast paced ( i know after pulling a 52 hours non sleep i was playing silent hill 3 and i would be fine while playing and dozing off while in cutscenes, was fun trying to will myself stay awake while the big bad boss is claiming he will kill me).
5. Excitement. You are waiting for a new game. go read up on it. you get excited and wont fall asleep.
6. Now this is part of preparation, but sleep well beforehand. it helps a lot.
7. Water. water on your face scares the sleeps away. it may sound silly, but going to wet your face every 30 minutes can do wonders.
i would never use energy drinks and dont suggest anyone else to.

For the love of god, DON'T lie down thinking "Oh I'll just take a little bit of a rest." You WILL fall asleep. As for staying awake, loud music, especially electronic, will help a lot.

electronic music helps with one thing and one thing only: going insane.

 

[Bat Vader]

I suppose listening to music could help you stay up. I think writing helps as well. It does for me anyway. When I first started staying up all night that is what I did. Now I stay up at night and sleep in the day.

 

[Loonyyy]

Don't do it, it's dumb. Seriously. If you've got a sleep cycle going, don't fuck with it. It can take days to reestablish a good cycle, unless you can give up a day completely, and keep yourself awake whilst on the peak of exhaustion. Using caffiene for it is DUMB. DO NOT DO THIS. Caffiene, soft drinks etc should NOT be used recreationally to stay awake. I've just come off a major caffiene dependency, and if you want exhaustion, chest pains, twitches, and a host of other unpleasantness, you're going the right way.

If you need help to stay up, you shouldn't stay up. Your body is tired and it wants you to go to sleep. So sleep. If you can stay up, whatever, I'm not going to tell you otherwise. I can keep playing without falling asleep, but I've got perpetually screwed sleep cycles from night shifts, and all-nighters on assignments for university. It's nothing to be proud of, and you will regret it later.

If you've got no good reason to stay up (Like something time dependant, like a party, or a LAN), then you really shouldn't, it's just really, really silly. You get an extra 8 hours of gaming, but the next day you either crash and lose 12+ hours, or you act like a zombie if you can't crash, until you get the chance to sleep, and you'll probably oversleep in that case as well.

If you've got a vaguely good reason, like a LAN, get some sleep the day before.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Well cigarettes, monster BFG cans, and the occasional orange pill helped me through college, but the healthiest way would be to get plenty of sleep before hand, take breaks to eat, drink things that have natural glucose sugar so you don't crash, and when you start to get tired do some exercising.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

With midnight launches becoming more and more popular, the number of all nighters pulled by gamers is also increasing. I, like many others will be pulling an all nighter tonight for the release of Black Ops 2. What I am interested in knowing is your tips and secrets for staying up all night. Do you drink energy drinks, listen to music, what do you do?

I've had a few naps while watching the cricket today (go Australia!) so I'm hoping that will be enough to get me through the night with a few energy drinks.





Before anyone says "Shouldn't you be going to school?" No, I am on holidays.

Honestly, you're better off just sleeping 'til like 4-5am and just gaming all day, you'll be more awake/aware, and in a shooter, that can mean the difference between annoyance and fun.

I have no intention of stopping you, but I've been gaming for a LONG time, and out of the two options of gaming ALLL DAY LONG, or pulling an all nighter, then crashing, there's a signifigant difference in fun value, and if you play from 4am to midnight or say even til 1-2am the next night, you get a lot more time than starting at midnight and playing til around 10am-noon and crashing cuz your body and brain are severely overtired...

I mean I've gamed for over 70 hours straight before, of course I was also a chronic insomnia sufferer at the time, I almost never slept anyway, but that's a bit different...

 

[Woodsey]

Don't play lying down. If anything, play in a slightly uncomfortable position. Otherwise, you will fall asleep.

While coffee can help in the early stages, drinking it in the morning will just make you awake enough to feel how tired you are. Do not drink coffee once the sun is up.

You may find yourself sucking at the game once you get tired enough. This is normal, and an expected consequence of not sleeping.

Eating protein and sugar can help you stay up. I recommend beef jerky.

... Nothing like having an enjoyable gaming experience, is there?

OT: Don't, if you have to go through the crap listed above. What the hell is the point?