Introduction

Hello everyone. My name is Lynn Ultimatihah (no comments please). Now, I don't sleep very much. On a school night I'll generally fall asleep at 11-12 and wake up at 6 or so. On the weekend I'll fall asleep anywhere from 12-3 AM and wake up at 9-11. By the second semester of school, I start pulling all-nighters once a week just to finish my homework. Here are a few tips I've come up with:

1. Coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks, ect
Caffinated drinks are a MUST. It is absolutely impossible for me to stay up past 1 AM without some form of caffeine. Even just a Diet Coke can keep me going till 5 AM at the best of times, but I always need SOMETHING

2. Mints
Mints are not necessary but they REALLY help. The mintier the better. If this is your first late night in a while, I really recommend keeping a roll or two handy because if you start to doze off, which happens easily around 3-4 AM, just popping one in your mouth will give you a minty jolt. I'd assume spicy candy like Hot Tamales would work the same, but I hate spicy thing so I stick to mints. However I don't see how practically singing your tongue would put you to sleep.

3. ABSOLUTELY NO SUGAR. As I said above, Hot Tamales may help but I'm talking about one candy in case you start to doze off. Eating a Snickers bar at 12 AM will just cause you to crash hard by 12:30. Many websites say eating sugar will help but it DOESN'T. I've tried it. For the past three years, I have tried and tried and tried to stay up late on Halloween via Halloween candy and I haven't yet managed to stay up past midnight. Stay away from sugar as much as possible!!!!!!! And all refined carbohydrates, come to think of it

4. Carbohydrates are NOT your body's preferred source of energy
While I'm talking about sugar, I may as well go on about all carbs. The USDA says carbs are your body's preferred source of energy which is NOT TRUE. It is true that if you eat a hamburger with a bun, your body will burn the carbs in the bun before the fat in the hamburger. But then you'll crash 1/2 hour later. Your body burns carbs first to get rid of them. If you drink a glass of wine with that hamburger, your body will burn the alcohol in the wine first, then the carbs, then the fat. What does that say?
Stay away from carbs

5. Fruits, veggies, lean protein. Also try to stay away from fatty foods while staying up late. Saturated fat takes more energy to digest, so you'll feel sleepy while digesting it. Eating food helps a lot, but eat more foods like berries, greens, and chicken and less foods like white bread, lollipops, and hot dogs. Fruit is very good. There are three types of sugar: sucrose, fructose, lactose. Sucrose is found in candy, fructose in fruit, and lactose in dairy. I don't know about lactose, but sucrose gives you a high spike in energy then a huge crash, while fructose keeps energy levels up and steady for several hours at a time. Don't overdo it though; keep mostly to low-sugar fruits.

6. Gum. Some people say chewing gum helps them stay concentrated and alert. I am not one of those people. However I find that chewing gum does help, because i don't want to fall asleep and choke but I don't want to spit it out. Also, any extra movement helps keep your blood flowing, and it's not like you can have gum in your mouth and NOT chew it. Spearmint, peppermint, wintermint, or cinnamon also have the bonus of giving you a minty or spicy jolt.

More later. Bye!