The All-Nighter Experiment: What Worked and What Didn't

Interesting post - I'll definitely try out the Pomodoro technique.

Ha I've been practicing "caffeine naps" for years without ever knowing it had a name....or that anybody else did it. Personally I do find them quite effective.

Great write up though! I'll have to give the pomodoro technique a try next time.

Still remember my first IB all-nighter. It was as an SA. We had a call in the morning at 7am. The analyst and I finished our stuff up around 6:30am just as the VP came in. I hoped to grab 30 mins of sleep. Instead he had me go get him breakfast...

Interested to know how doing push-ups and jumping jacks in a BB/EB bullpen would be perceived.

I look at a picture of my now dead grand-parents. Illiterate, broke, miserable peasants who were born in the 1910's. Then I can go on for 3 days without sleep no problem.

interested in doing the bucking bronco..

Lipo 6 is a fat burner haha. I know the reasoning behind it as it has a long lasting effect, but still.

I would also recommend "batching" to go along with the Pomodoro Technique. Depending on the project or projects, try to combine all like tasks into each 25-minute work session. For example all emails during one, excel updates during another, and so on. I realize this isn't always possible, but batching similar tasks by type instead of project or client can help you work faster because you're not constantly changing gears in your thinking process.

I'll add that it's very hard to do this if you don't take the time to plan ahead like @Alistair-Clark recommends.

Interesting post. Until I was in banking I had never pulled an all nighter, and while they weren't that common, they definitely sucked my life force...learning how to deal with them and still be productive is an uncomfortable, yet valuable skill. Love the idea of the Pomodoro technique.

One other trick that I've had massive success with is breathing exercises. I'm personally really curious about training this idea of "mental toughness/resilience" and have done some pretty extreme things just to see how far my body and mind could go and still perform, and it's a lot further that most people think. I learned a bunch of breathing techniques designed to hyperoxgenate your blood from a former SEAL and a coach to Laird Hamilton (think deep but fast breathing), and it's one of the strongest pick me ups I've ever experienced. It won't keep you going forever, but if you couple it with intense bursts of activity, you can be very productive even if you're extremely sleep deprived, without the crash you get with caffeine.

Nice - bookmarked [email protected]. May try the Pomodoro technique for CFA studying...may need to increase the 'study block' times from 25 mins though.

As far the health shakes go, I've found Myoplex to work for me. It's more of a building than a leaning out drink, so maybe there's more in it to help you keep going. Go for a few hours, when I start to feel any sort of tiredness creep up on me, or just get hungry, I drink one of those and I'm good to go.

I've never had to pull an all-nighter at the office (never had a job that warranted it), but I do have to drive for 10ish hours from NYC to Detroit after the wife gets off work, usually around 6-7 PM, putting us in Detroit around 5 am.

Driving is where things get tricky, because you can't do most of the techniques you could otherwise do because you can't just stop and pull over every 30 minutes, especially when driving through PA... not as bad as Montana, but pretty close. And you can't just be partially 'there', because otherwise you're off the side of the road in rural PA and no one is going to know you're there for a month.

Aside from music, and conversation, one thing that helps me stay awake that the wife hates... cold temperatures. I try to keep the inside cold enough to where I'd want to wear a sweater, but don't. Whenever it's warm, it feels all cozy and makes me want to sleep, especially when the heaters are blowing on your eyes, that's one quick way to dry them out and not want them to be open.

I hate doing that drive, and I can't wait until I never have to do it again.
(also, can't fly because of two dogs)

Tried that hour and a half nap thing from your website. Bodybagged myself and slept for 7 hours smh. Everything else is pretty awesome though.

Bucking Bronco doesn't even sound that bad outside of the Addy. 120mg? That's a ridiculous dose, and I'd be skeptical if it'd make much of a difference over 40mg unless you have a tolerance.

Bookmarked and SB-ed. Will share this to my fellows too. Kudos.

What helps is having a short nap during the day. It gives me the power boost I needed when writing my thesis. :)

Done it before in a previous job(not finance, bankers don't have a monopoly on that) In addition to what's mentioned, I've found the best way to deal with it is preparation. Sleep as much as you can, when you can. I would disappear and catch 15-30 minute naps using lunch times,dinner, etc. Also don't use caffeine unless you absolutely need it. Like any other drug your body will adjust to it. You'll get less benefit when you do use it, and even see a drop in energy/focus if you aren't on it.

I did pull maybe 10 true all-nighters in my career. All I can say, looking back at it, is that for the most part they were useless... They are generally generated by MDs who have poor / little management skills or just do not care about juniors (that trend is fading, thankfully).

I don't believe that the quality of the analysis / research is there either - there will be mistakes and the materials will lack necessary iterations to make it valuable.

I didn't hate the experience actually - All night-nighters gave me a sense of achievement / importance at the time and definitely makes for good stories between fellow Analysts that we still talk about almost 10 years later...

Anyone else feel they are most productive at night? Not in the sense of an all-nighter after being awake all day, but let's say you slept in during the day and even got an afternoon nap in. I love working at night, especially in the summer where I can work outside and the breeze alone keeps you alert

Is your website on Weebly? The pics look familiar...

Pound coffee in a short span of time - like, 3 stiff cups in 20 minutes. Gives you the shakes, and you can't fall asleep when you try.
Try to make it so you don't notice passage of time - like in a crappy casino, all the lights up, no clocks, no windows, white noise.

Two crappiest things about all-nighters weren't sleep dep - it was being successful meant you got more of them, and the next day there usually wasn't anything pressing so you wasted the day feeling like crap and eating everything in sight

1. Caffeine + L-Theanine: alert without the jitters.
2. Racetam: I prefer Oxi, but Ani or Phenyl will work here. May want to work in some Choline for this to avoid a headache.
3. Theacrine: better than caffeine. Less jittery, smoother, longer focus. Also, no tolerance buildup despite working on same receptors.
4. Frequent breaks: keeps the mind sharp.

Posts like these are why I'm still on WSO... +1

I've used caffeine naps extensively to great success, though I do have to overcome a slight initial brain fog after I wake up.

Side note: For the nights that you aren't up all night but have less-than-ideal time to sleep, I'd recommend waking on your sleep cycle (~90 min). I heard many things about this, experimented with it, and have since always planned my sleep. I find it's much better to wake up after 3 hours vs. 4 hours. I usually budget in an additional 10 minutes into my alarm for the time to fall asleep.

My advice would be to bank your money and get out when you can, because it's bullshit and puts you on track to burnout.

or just sit at your desk and do the work

I've never tried a caffeine nap, but I've done quite a lot of all-nighters whilst I've been writing up my thesis - you never know when your muse will strike!

The best strategy I've found has been to mix the energy drink with something else like Irn-bru and finish it over a longer period of time. If I'm already exhausted pre all-nighter then I have lucozade as well.

I certainly feel a lot more tired when I don't listen to music, but it can't be too exciting so I like soft classical or jazz, but like breaks where I'll have a listen to anything from cool and the gang to the prodigy!

Mentally speaking, surviving an all-nighter is mostly a case of stop feeling sorry for yourself and JFDI !!

I should add, I appear to be the only adult human alive that doesn't like coffee so mainlining espresso isn't an option for me.

Amazing post, big props for self-experimentation. Have only done all-nighters at uni and during the International Baccalaureate days. All great tips, I would add that making sure your vitamin B intake is appropriate during your everyday life is critical if you have an intense lifestyle and work. I know a lot of people that have burnt out at varying stages since high school up until now at work, and you will be way better off if you do it in moderation preemptively rather than as an emergency measure. Will try out that 1980s technique.

How prevalent would you say Adderal is in consulting?

Thanks for sharing some of your field experiments with us. I've typically relied on generous amounts of coffee but still run into a wall after a few hours. I'll be using the Focus @ Will channel and Pomodoro Technique for CFA studying.

LOL! im going to wheel in my bowflex. If im going to workout at the office I want to hit all compound lifts

From experience with military service in a combat arms high tempo environment/unit , there is no substitute for sleep.

I rarely if ever will do an all nighter. I will sleep for very short periods, turn my phone into a bomb of alarms etc but rarely go entire day without sleep. The judgement, quality of work and cognitive loss are just too great. You can do maybe one day of this before you are exponentially degraded then you become useless.

In finance I try to mimic same habits. We had an executive officer come over from 1st Ranger BN and tried to do 2 days of no sleep, after day one it was noticeable. In a high tempo field problem he just crapped the bed and made terrible calls, it was to point I would disregard his transmissions over the radio. He crashed mid day 2 and was relieved.

Ideal sleep amount is 4 hours but you can operate for extended period of slight degraded abilities with 2 daily. Without REM sleep you just become a cluster because you brain can't decompress and any analytical skills will go down the tubes.

I would recommend to do breaks after 45 minutes, when concentration really drops. Keeping the 5 minutes breaks, but, instead of 15 or 30 minutes breaks every 1 -2 hours, do sleep 90 minutes in the middle of the night to get through one complete sleep cycle. Taking some caffeine and exercising 5 minutes when waking up allows you to go back to work efficiently.

Needless to say all-nighters are really bad for both physical and mental health.

-- Former Senior Banker -- author of ibeyeopener.blogspot.com

You guys should try P5P, loaded with coenzyme B6, can combat depression (if needed) but more importantly helps with brain functions and increases focus, that is the experience I have had with it at least.

My go to is Alpha Brain and tons of water. Small, high protein meals are the best too.