Drawbacks of Pulling an All-Nighter to Your Health and Productivity

Jul 01, 2022

Many people tend to postpone important matters until the last minute and do everything at the last minute. In fact, 1 in 5 people are chronic procrastinators, which can make them stressed and unproductive. It's true — when the deadline is breathing down your neck, you don't have many options. You can tell your boss that you've messed up with the task or pull an all-nighter to finish it. If you don't want to put your job at risk, you'll definitely choose the second option.

Frequent sleepless nights are disastrous for your sleep patterns and brain performance for many reasons. Still, it's okay to spend a few nights per year finishing urgent projects or tasks. In turn, if all-nighters are your secret superpower to cope with everything, then we have bad news for you. Dive in to learn all the dangers of all-nighters and get tips on making them less harmful if you don't have a choice but to work all night.

What is an all-nighter, and how is it different from sleep disorders?

Let's look at three different examples. In the first case, you go to bed earlier and perform all sleep-inducing rituals but still stay awake for the whole night, tossing and turning in your bed. It's insomnia - a sleep disorder when you want to sleep, but your body doesn't allow you to rest. In the second case, you have occasionally drunk too much coffee or alcohol before sleep, so you find it complicated to fall asleep and wake up numerous times during the night. It's a sleep disturbance that occurs when you mess up your pre-bed routine.

A woman working at night

In the third situation, you're planning to stay awake for the whole night. You will do everything not to fall asleep (like drinking energy drinks). It's an all-nighter — voluntary unwillingness to sleep due to some circumstances (while preparing for the meeting or finishing a work project). Even though you buy extra time to work by staying awake, your body suffers from this forced sleep deprivation.

After a long day, your brains are drained, but you need to crank out that one final piece – is it worth it? To stay up late also means sacrificing hours on being productive the following day and exhausts your creative thinking abilities. However, you can do many things during long work days to organize your time better.

We have all been there too many times or know people going through this struggle every time they are burning the deep end of the candle to meet deadlines. Studying at night before an exam, conducting a remote consulting job between midnight and 5 am, staying up late to finish a big presentation, working on something urgent after long hours at work... These efforts drain our energy on various levels and make us quickly feel restless and burnt out - aka produce less desirable than we'd like.

Let's discover how all-nighters can harm your well-being and brain performance.

Harmful effects of pulling an all-nighter

The idea that pulling an all-nighter would help you improve your productivity or work performance is unfounded and unrealistic. As intimidating as sounding all right to family, friends, and even yourself, who you might think is the most disciplined person. But if you need to pull an all-nighter, it can be extremely unhealthy. With sleep deprivation, blood pressure often increases. So there's a risk of being glued to the office chair when the all-night computer witching spell, which tempts you with a promise of increased productivity, has passed.

Therefore, an all-nighter should be a last resort option if there is no other alternative. Now let's discover the precise drawbacks of all-nighters for your health, productivity, and sleep routine.

All-nighters make you lethargic

You should know this awful feeling of not having enough sleep. While you should stay awake, your eyes are constantly looking for a place to doze off. Every chair and any flat surface seems like a great place to sleep. In addition, a University of Otago study has found that not enough sleep at night can later cause microsleep during continuous activities. It, in turn, may lead to injuries or even accidents (if you face them while driving).

At first, you may feel ecstatic and energetic after a productive sleepless night. Still, all those feelings disappear as your understanding of reality sets in. The body starts to experience profound tiredness that impacts your sleeping schedule. You'll have trouble concentrating on the things around you and performing basic tasks while unable to remember what just happened. Plus, pulling an all-nighter leads to a messed sleep schedule.

All-nighters worsen your memory and learning skills

If you're pulling all-nighters to study or to prepare for an important meeting with your clients, then you've chosen a completely wrong way. University of California research has proven that total sleep deprivation can affect your brain by creating false memories. In this state, your brain also has difficulty distinguishing truth from fiction and analyzing controversial facts. Plus, since memory consolidation happens during slow-wave sleep, you may not remember most of the things you learned during an all-nighter.

All-nighters can make you obese

If you have ever tried to pull an all-nighter, you should know this ravenous hunger that catches you in the morning. In this state, you can eat a few times bigger portions without blinking an eye. And the chances are that you'll reach for something unhealthy and high in calories. A survey showed that sleep-deprived people tend to choose more unhealthy foods than those who are well-rested. It happens because lack of sleep induces the molecules in your brain responsible for appetite, sparking an irresistible desire to eat tasty foods. Therefore, this uncontrolled drive may lead you to gain extra pounds and, as a result, to obesity.

A man working hard during nighttime

All-nighters weaken your immunity

When you fall asleep, you jump-start your body's defensive process, so it starts fighting diseases and infections. Therefore, if you're prone to skip nighttime sleep, you're more likely to get an infection or virus. Your immunity simply doesn't have enough power to confront them. As for the Mayo Clinic survey, your body releases cytokines proteins during sleep that support your immunity and help you recover faster. Pulling an all-nighter will decrease their production and will make you vulnerable to all kinds of diseases.

All-nighters affect your heart health

Another harmful effect of pulling an all-nighter is that your heart doesn't get its well-deserved rest. Typically, after working hard for the whole day, it winds down during sleep. When your body enters NREM sleep stages, your heart rate and blood pressure decrease, allowing your most essential organ to recover.

In turn, a Massachusetts General Hospital study claims that all-nighters and other people who sleep less than 5 hours have a 20% higher risk of getting a heart attack. What's more, European Heart Journal research has uncovered that insufficient sleep also increases your chances of developing coronary heart disease by 48%. So it's worth thinking over again — are your all-nighters worth it?

All-nighters can lead to diabetes

Modern diets with lots of sugar and simple carbs are already enough to raise your risk of getting diabetes. Though, by skipping your nighttime's sleep, you only worsen the situation. Johns Hopkins University survey says that sleep deprivation links to developing insulin resistance and glucose homeostasis. In other words, by pulling all-nighters too often, you increase your chance of getting type 2 diabetes even further.

A man working at night

All-nighters make you way less productive

Most people who choose not to sleep at night do it to achieve quick results in a particular task. Though, not many of them know that all-nighters actually decrease productivity and worsen cognitive performance. According to the University of Turku study, sleep deprivation drastically decreases your alertness and visuospatial attention and reduces your reaction speed.

In addition, after an all-nighter, you may find it hard to perceive new information. Your decision-making skills also worsen, especially in complex cognitive tasks. For example, it'd be a poor decision not to sleep before a presentation because sleep deprivation also negatively affects your expressive language ability.

All-nighters induce joint and muscle pain

Another negative consequence of staying awake at night is that it can lead to seemingly unreasonable pain afterward. Arthritis & Rheumatology journal press release reveals that non-restorative sleep links to the higher risk of developing widespread pain, especially in older people. It happens because sleep deprivation causes inflammation, and thus, contributes to painful feelings and even can induce arthritis. So if you want to avoid unpleasant sensations for the whole next day, it's better to prefer sleep instead of a restless night of preparation.

Indeed, all-nighters aren't the best way to show off your skills and perform better during an important event. Still, sometimes there's too much at stake, so you don't have any other choice but to pull an all-nighter. Our practical suggestions will help you survive an all-nighter most effectively and quickly restore your sleep patterns afterward.

A man pulling an all-nighter to cope with all tasks

Tips and tricks on how to survive an all-nighter:

Surround yourself with bright lights. Bright light and blue lights from devices suppress melatonin production in your body, which will help you stay awake without too strong a desire to fall asleep.
Take energy-boosting supplements. Instead of drinking energy drinks that are tough on your heart, you can reach for minerals and herbal supplements to boost your energy. B-group vitamins may help you release more energy, while guarana and ginseng may decrease sleepiness and increase your attention.
If you're hungry, reach for healthy snacks. Eating hearty meals or sugary and high-calorie snacks in the middle of the night may make you sluggish and sleepy, so you won't accomplish your night goal nor get good sleep. So we recommend you choose protein or fiber-rich snacks low in sugar like greek yogurt, cereal bar, or nuts to provide your body with pure energy.
Take breaks to move around. Sitting the whole night long behind your desk won't do good to your neck and energy. Thus, take short breaks to walk around your room or do a few exercises to disperse the blood and provide your brain with oxygen.
Verify your work. You could never compare the accuracy of nighttime work to those you've done after a decent sleep. That's why it'd be good to check the results a few times. Take a look at your presentation afterward, inspect your research conclusions, and review the work for errors. Thus, you'll make sure you've done everything right.
Use every minute of your all-nighter wisely. If you've finished your assignments and there is some time until morning, use this time wisely. Take a nap or sleep for an hour — it's better than having no sleep at all.
Resist a temptation to sleep during the day. Yeah, we know how hard it might be — to not fall asleep after an all-nighter. But if you want to restore your sleep patterns, endure until evening. Then you'll be able to get to your bed a few hours earlier and finally get a deserved rest.
Never try to pull all-nighters twice in a row. Even one all-nighter can drastically decrease your productivity and negatively affect your health. So just imagine how disastrous two sleepless nights in a row could be. So don't repeat them more than one time in a month (if possible).
Don't reach for too much coffee during the day. Your willingness to drink more coffee could be a few times stronger after an all-nighter. Still, consuming too much of it, especially in the evening, may give you a deceptive sense of energy and interrupt your natural desire to sleep.
Try not to fall into the all-nighter trap again. Well, the best way to avoid the negative consequences of all-nighters is simple. Plan your most urgent tasks and distribute your time, so you don't have to spend the whole night finishing work projects. These seven time-management strategies may help you complete everything in time without spending sleepless nights.