Hello!
Welcome to my post!
Keeping late nights for either study or work is something everyone has done at one point in time and for me, I had to stay up late solely to read.
My studies kept me up all through the night for many nights at a stretch. I have reduced the length of my late night studies because it affected my health greatly but I still get up at night to study.
WHAT I DO TO STAY UP SO LATE
What really helped me then and what still helps me today is a Proper Schedule of my various activities for the day and for the night.
This is achieved through my constant use of alarms.
I make sure to finish my daily activities early enough so I can get back for a good nap and just to relax my head afterwards.
When that is done I eat during the day and basically try to finish up anything that's bound to hold me up during the night.
My study time begins by 11pm and I make sure to be well rested before the alarm goes off alerting me of my reading schedule.
Once it's time to read, I time myself. I don't try to read everything and anything all at once, I won't learn anything that way instead I take it step by step.
An hour for reading.
An hour for practicing all that I read.
In the past, I'd normally stay up till 5am then nap for an hour before getting up again at 7am but it didn't do any good to my health because I wasn't getting enough sleep.
Now, from 11pm I study till 3am before calling it a night.
I had to drastically reduce the hours because of my health but it hasn't affected my academics and so it's all good.
I sleep from 3am till 6am, my alarm goes off again to alert me of the new day.
And the cycle goes on and on..
Though I was advised to ingest some substances to beat falling asleep while reading I never even gave it a thought.
I'm doing quite well staying up on my own and I don't need extra.
It'll only have adverse effects on my health.
I couldn't take coffee too because of my health and caffeine addiction wouldn't be so good. Though a lot of students sing about the wonders of caffeine and how it's help them improve in their studies.
It's not for me though..
Despite the advantages of staying up at night, it's really tough to be consistent enough that your body gets used to it.
When I started keeping late nights, I'd fall asleep on my books minutes after I started reading and I'd wake up to find out that I slept on my study table.
I used to feel like a fraud sometimes 😂 because I felt like I was just wasting my time if I'm going to end falling asleep after waking up to study.
At other times I used to ignore the alarms especially when I didn't get enough sleep during the day and I happen to finally fall asleep. Once the alarm suddenly rings out loud, I'd reach out, turn it off and go back to sleep.
I'd sleep till it's time to wake up for the new day.
I had to find a way to get focused if I really wanted to do well in my exams.
To do that, I drafted a schedule that's quite flexible to accommodate any new development.
Whenever I failed to study at night I'd make up for it during the day, that way I wouldn't totally miss out.
It's helped me so far though I struggle not to fall asleep on my books some nights and I make sure I don't turn off my blaring alarm.
It's a process and I'm still getting the hang of it.
This is in response to the @HiveLearners weekly contest.
Thank you for reading! 😌