Staying awake.

[Aerodynamic]

Music.

I don't think I can go to sleep while listing to Them Crooked Vultures and Soundgarden.

Also try soda, stuff keeps me up, but , my eyes feel like shit in the morning.

 

[Ensiferum]

2 liters of Mountain Dew Voltage combined with 2 shots of 5 hour Energy. Fair warning though, you may not sleep for a week.

 

[TheSeventhLoneWolf]

Will power. And Drawing.

Those keep me awake for days.

 

[Verex]

Play some fast paced FPS and be sure to turn up the audio.

 

[AdamRBi]

Wow, I've been spending the last couple of weeks FIGHTING staying up. Normally, when I'm roped in to something (be it a game, project, or forum discussions) I lose all track of time and have not problem staying up several hours after feeling tired. What seems to work for me is never resting, so long as I'm doing something that stimulated mind and body I can stay up for at least 48 hours before I enter the "Crash" stage.

Like I said though, I love waking up early. It's the best time to get work done. Hard to fight off the thrill of late night though.

 

[Sougo]

A simple and effective way I found of staying awake is to wet your feet with extremely cold water. It knocks the sleepiness right out. Repeat every half to 1 hour and you can stay up as long as you like.

 

[JIst00]

Wow, I feel kinda bad for not comin back till now.

What happened =
I loaded up WoW, stuck my IPOD in and leveled the hell out of my new rogue for afew hours, got a couple of levels under my belt (47 now lol) and finally gave in to sleep at 4am, which was enough. Its now just before 10am, and i'm wide awake for some reason lol. Its a bit of a bummer, but I'll probably nap for a few hours this afternoon and then tonight will be a breeze, and seeing as so many of u guys are either in different timezones, insomina sufferers or creatures of the night, I'll probably see u all alter =P

To answer my own question, this is what helped=

Smoking (ciggarettes),
Loud fast music (not a metal fan, but I got my prefered fast heavy music),
A walk in the cold (this did wonders and I would have stayed up later, but I didnt want to end up in a brawl with some drunken locals and get knifed)
The net, be it wikipedia, elitist jerks or this site (which was the best of the bunch tbh),
JellyBeans and Sugar Sour Strips
A game, my choice was WoW, its a huge time sink and u can lose urself in it, especially wheen leveling and putting up with the tards in the LFG dungeoun finder.

Note: DO NOT CLOCK WATCH it really gets disheartening seeing u still have far to go.

I work nights too. I usually plan my sleep cycles in advance. Im lucky that i can sleep for anything upto 15 hours, But if im stuck, feeling sleepy, I go out for a drive. Usually it wakes me up, and if i get some friends out in the car with me (I have nocturnal friends) then usually i can survive till the allotted sleep times.

Ive been doing nights 18 months now, and Sleep is the hardest part of the whole thing.

Amen to that dude, the sleep thing is the hardest part, we're just not wired up to be nocturnal, and it gets no easier, I've been nocturnal through choice (when i was at college) and through work since 2004. Doing by choice is easy, since I started working nights about 3-4 years back its not so easy. The one blessing is, the older u get, the less sleep u seem to need, for example, the missus is 21 and can sleep for 14 hours straight if she wants to, im 27 and get between 5-6 hours a day on average, sometimes more sometimes less, and I seem to get by on that.

As for driving, I find it very easy to fall asleep in transport and always have, and Ive had some scary night time drives when tired. Nodding off at the wheel is fucking terrifying, especially on a motorway when u cant just pull over and have to wait for the next services, I driving wouldnt work for me personally. And I dont have many friends who stay up at night, they're all daylighetrs (pussies =P) so Im usuallu stuck on my own, or with the missus if she's stayin up with me.

But anyway, thank you for all ur suggestions, was nice to wake up to these responses.

And I'll pass on the car accident/PTSD bit, but I hope u get sorted out dude.

And I'm now gonna watch that anime clip...

 

[JIst00]

I just had a thought that maybe I can scare you as to not fall asleep.

This is the death scenes from an anime called Higurashi no naku koro ni. It contans language and very bloody violence. You have been warned. Watch that anime and you will not want to fall asleep. One because you will be a little scared like I was and two because you will want to know what happends. It's very interestng when you get into it. It will keep you up easily.

Lol, pyschotic, but then i gathered that was, the pointm ur absolutely right though, I want to know what all that was about. Urotsukidoji was around the same level of disturbingness, and i think it was called Perfect Blue (just IMDB'd it, it was) was pretty messed up. Id recommend the second if u havent already seen it. =)

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I don't sit down anywhere comfortable for long. Conversation is certainly one key. Doing something that requires intense thinking helps as well. Just TRY and go to bed right after finishing some Differential Equations homework. Basically, keep the mind engaged in a task and don't get too comfortable. At worst, a drastic change in a sleep schedule would require perhaps 36 hours of being awake.

That said, when I was deployed, I worked on the night shift for months at a time and it often took several weeks before my body fully adjusted to the change. It was simple enough to shift to the habit of sleeping during the day, but inevitably I woke up feeling as though I had taken a nap rather than having gone to sleep for the night. This lead to the strange sensation that the first month in Iraq was all one very, very long day.

 

[Drakmeire]

In all honesty, internet is probably your best option here. Damn hard to fall asleep at the computer.

it may sound gross but try masturbating, it releases several hormones that will make you drowsy... unless your a girl, then your kinda stuck.

edit: Oh wait your married(or your dating), if she is up for it just have sex.

He did say he wanted to stay awake. Your plan may perk him up for a few minutes, but it'll ultimately be short lived and work against him in the long run.

Oh wait I grossly misread all of that I thought he was trying to fall asleep. thats what I get for having four tabs open at the same time.