There is something so serene and calming about the darkness of this late hour. No noise, minimal light apart from the spotlight I have on my desk, and no phone calls - it’s the most perfect environment for me to work in.

What if we did not have to sleep? What if we could all take advantage of this late-night hour without sacrificing it to slumber???

It’s currenlty 4:50 AM on a Monday morning. I spent the majority of my Sunday helping my good friend Liah put up her pictures and mirrors and other artifacts on her walls (using my handyman side and my automatic drill toolkit - it makes me feel like a man!) and then I went for dinner with their family. I was hungover from a rough night on Saturday night (downtown Vancouver has some good spots) so I more or less wasted the entire Sunday not working much at all (apart from one business card design that I finished up). To make up for it, I was tempted to pull off another all-nighter and I’m well into it.

My friends who were over late at night playing Super Mario 3 (yes I still have the old-school grey box console from the early 90’s) left around 1:30 or so, and I started working again. I finished up some PHP/MySQL coding, and read the business/marketing plan for my new client, for whom I am in charge of designing all the marketing material, website, and offer other help in mailing/tracking campaigns.

I wish I did not have to sleep. I wish my human body was optimized so that it does not need the sleep-recharge whatsoever. I know it’s impossible, but imagine the possibilities and the extra productivity I could potentially enjoy!!! “Sleep is overrated.” was a comment by my friend Jimmy Reimer, and he has a great point. Of course, there is the scientific fact that you need sleep to recharge for the next day’s productivity, but if you think about it, you’re lying there and breathing away, not doing much at all.

I might take on this habit of being an occasional night-hawk. Having this one extra night where I power through the entire evening working makes me feel like I gained a free business day to produce upon, and I feel like I’m ahead of the game today. It’s great. Of course, if I do this all-nighter thing too often I’ll get beaten down by it. But once a week should be manageable. I like to have a good blend of professional and social activities in my life, and this is a great way to fit it in. If I had chosen to skip helping my friend, and having dinner, and hanging out, I would have gotten more work done and I could sleep, but you know what? I’d rather not. I had a good time with my friends whom I love very much, AND I still got a tonne of work done overnight! I will head out for breakfast early in the morning to the cafe outside my place. In the morning I will get some more work and reading done, and then I’ll start my meetings with clients if necessary. It’s a great start to a great week. I now realize that I’ve pulled off work-related all-nighters several times over the past few years, through highschool and now through my business.

You may be asking me : “But Jeff, it’s not healthy to do that, and you will not be as productive the next day. Are you sure?” Well, I’m still young and very healthy, and last time I pulled off an all-nighter, I went on the whole day on a 1 hour nap instead of an 8 hour sleep, and I felt just fine. I guess I have enough stamina to handle it, so why not take advantage of it when I still can? When I’m older I won’t be able to.

All-Nighter Guidelines, in case you want to challenge what I’m going through :

1. Have a good cause for it. If you’re going to stay up all night watching stupid videos or playing Halo 3, forget it. It’s not worth it.
2. Be determined and don’t give in half-way. If you give up at 4 in the morning and sleep, it will mess up your sleeping schedule so bad. If you have a day-job that you need to tend to by a fairly early time, it will be so painful to get up for it. DO NOT GIVE IN.
3. Keep yourself busy and focused. When the mind is running on full-throttle, you will feel less sleepy. Keep it up.
4. If you really really really feel tired and you need to rest, do not go to bed - instead, just sleep in your chair as you are with your alarm set. It’s not comfortable but it ensures that you don’t fully fall asleep. Power naps are a great way to keep plummelling.
5. Do NOT abuse caffeine pills or coffee (or ecstacy/speed, availability permitting). Ok, this could vary on individuals. But in my case, caffeine pills caused a dependency of some sort, where I had to constantly keep feeding it to myself to prevent falling asleep. When the caffeine pill or coffee wears out, it gets worse. And too much caffeine is bad for your health - worse than skipping a night of sleep.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 4:07 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.