You’re sitting in your room with a steaming cup of coffee on your desk, almost finished your essay. You know you’ll probably have to go to bed later than usual, but it shouldn’t take too long to finish. Yet the next thing you know, you can hear birds chirping, the sun is shining through your window, and you realize that you ended up staying awake the entire night. To make matters worse, you have classes today.
College is the time to party, meet new friends, and have the time of your life. At the same time, you’re also majorly stressed and probably broke. When you’re super tired but still have so much work to do, it’s easy to blame your professors or to tell yourself that it’s “just a busy time of year.” But let’s face it, even if that is somewhat true, for most of us it is usually procrastination that leads to things getting way out of hand. We’ve all done it, and although we always say we’re going to stop, we never seem to be able to. This often leads to all-nighters, AKA, a caffeine-fueled tear-fest that students use to finish assignments or study, which usually results in a million different thoughts of dropping out.
It’s easier just to skip whatever classes you have, but that’s probably not the best thing for your GPA. However, trying to stay awake and alert the next day during a long class can be gruelling. When you’re in the middle of midterms with final exams around the corner, it is important to have good study habits and a good night’s sleep. That’s easier said than done, and sometimes we end up sacrificing our sleep to get an assignment done.
So instead of skipping class for a nap, here are some tips to help you get through your class(es) after pulling an all-nighter (or even just when you stayed up late the night before).
- Coffee
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Stating the obvious much? You probably already knew this, but it needed to be said. Let’s face it, coffee may not be the best thing for you, but it is usually the best way to wake yourself up.
- Exercise
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Let’s not write this tip off just yet. It doesn’t necessarily have to be hard exercises or anything – you can just go for a walk or do something easy if you want. Any amount of activity can help you stay awake and forget how tired you are. Now, you can’t do this during a lecture, but you can do it before and after. Plus, if your professor gives you a break, use it to walk around. It will make it a lot easier to stay awake and alert.
- Drink lots of water
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When you’re falling asleep in a lecture, sometimes the best thing you can do to wake yourself up is to take a sip of water. When you’re dehydrated, the flow of oxygen to your brain is impacted. Your heart then has to work harder to pump oxygen to your organs. By drinking water, you will help yourself to wake up and then become more focused.
- Eat
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I’m sure you’ve been told the importance of a nutritious breakfast before starting the day, so I won’t drill you on that. The fact remains that eating something healthy (sorry, but junk or fast food won’t help you stay awake) can help you stay awake and stimulate your brain. If you’re looking for suggestions, foods with high water content (such as apples, oranges, strawberries, and celery) are the best way to go, as they make you the most alert.
- Sit at the front of the class
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You have to be careful with this one because it will not make you less tired or drowsy, but it will make you more aware. Simply knowing your professor can see you will make you less likely to zone out and more aware of whether you are about to fall asleep. If you do notice yourself nodding off, take a long sip of water to reactivate your brain or get up and take a short walk in order to help wake yourself up. It’s better to miss a minute of the lecture because you went to walk than to miss an entire lecture because you fell asleep.
- Omega 3
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Disclaimer: Omega 3 can be a blood thinner, so do not use it without consulting a doctor first.
Omega 3 will not make you less tired, but it will help your brain activity and prevent you from being a total mess. Omega 3 has a lot of health benefits, such as increasing your mental health and decreasing your risk of cancer and heart disease. While it is not designed to help with academics, it does help improve both your focus and brain activity, and is often used as a way to help children cope with ADHD. The best part is it’s safe and great for your health, so even if it doesn’t help you through the day, it will help you in the long run if you take it every day.
- Stress balls
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Simply giving yourself something to do that involves movement is going to help you stay awake. There’s not much you can do during a lecture in terms of movement, but squeezing a stress ball is something you can try that won’t distract the class, and you should be able to do it without taking your attention away from what you’re learning.
Relax when you get a break but be sure to set alarms in case you fall asleep.Even if you only have 5 minutes, using that time to rest your eyes can be effective. You’ll probably still be tired, but at least it is something. Who knows? That little bit of relaxation might just give you what you need to get through the day before you crash.
- Peel your eyes away from your computer
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If you’re anything like me, taking handwritten notes in a three-hour lecture is a no-go, so a laptop is necessary. If you ever get a break from taking notes, shut your laptop screen, divert your eyes from it and try to avoid looking at it whenever it’s not necessary. Staring at your laptop too long may distract you and pull your attention away from your lecture, which you should be putting all that energy into anyway.
It is important to remember that none of these things are a substitute for sleep. Sleep helps your brain activity and can help you do better in school, as well as in other aspects of your life. So make sure you do your best to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. But we all have had those late nights of finishing assignments or studying, so when that happens, you have these tips to fall back on.
I hope my advice is able to help you get through the semester, but mostly, I hope we all (myself included) are able to develop better study habits where my advice is no longer needed. But until then, at least you have these hacks.