I am not a stranger when it comes to staying up late at night. In fact, I have been doing that right from childhood and my body has gotten used to sleeping very late. I remember how I used to wait for my dad to finish watching late-night network news and once he leaves the sitting room around 11 pm, I take over the TV and start watching movies, but I'm only allowed to do that during weekends or when school is on holiday.
One thing I have realized especially after reading other people's entries on this topic is that everyone has different methods of staying awake that work for them but doesn't work for other people. For example, some people take coffee to stay awake, and others dip their feet in a bucket of water, but all these don't work for me, I still fall asleep in a few hours even after taking coffee.
A lot of people talked about taking afternoon naps (siestas) and yes, that is very effective in helping me to stay awake at night but I actually don't need to do that. In fact, I hardly sleep during the day because of the numerous tasks I do daily, the only day I sleep in the afternoon is on Sunday and I don't know why that always happens, no matter how I try to fight I always doze off on Sundays.
What then works for me?
Like I said earlier, I have gotten used to sleeping very late at night and I don't have any problem staying awake, as long as I'm doing something interesting like playing video games or watching a movie, especially if it's comedy. But if I'm doing something important that's also boring (like reading for an exam), I usually use soft drinks or energy drinks to keep myself awake.
One energy drink that works very well for me is "fearless" (that's what you're seeing in the above picture). There was a day I took fearless and I stayed awake until 5 am, that became a problem because I had to wake up very early in the morning to do something important. When I noticed I wasn't sleepy, I tried to force myself to sleep and I did that for up to an hour but it didn't work, so I just gave up and continued watching movies.
When it's close to the exam period at my university, my friends and I start doing overnight reading (in Nigeria we call it night class). One thing that helps me to sleep easily is if I am lying down on my bed but there are no beds in night class coz it takes place right on the campus in one of the lecture theatres in my faculty. Most times I sleep for only an hour during night class, and sometimes I don't sleep at all, especially after taking fearless energy drink.
Another thing that helps me to stay awake is playing video games. Anytime I'm feeling sleepy and I'm still doing something important (maybe reading for an exam), I take a break and start playing a game on my phone, especially games that are very competitive and require you to pay constant attention (something like call of duty or Apex legends). If I play one or two game matches, I'm back to normal and I can now go back to the important thing I was doing.
Another alternative to video games is movies, especially comedy or horror movies. Laughter is a very good medicine and it helps me to stay awake (I don't know if it's the same for other people). A very good horror movie also does the trick for me, especially if it has lots of jump-scares. I can't fall asleep when watching a horror movie and I even stay awake for a few hours after watching it.
All these things I have mentioned can be boiled down to two main points; energy drinks and my phone. Those two things are more than enough to keep me awake even all through the night without sleeping for even a second (I have done that a couple of times). In addition to those things, my body has also adapted to staying up very late at night and If I actually sleep longer than 8 hours, I start feeling sick the next morning.
Thanks for reading
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Edited with Canva