1 Nighter BEST

After an all-nighter, you absolutely should not be behind the wheel, says Rosekind. According to the CDC, staying awake for 18 hours can cause a similar level of impairment to having a blood alcohol content of 0.05%. When you increase the time to 24 hours, that number jumps up to a blood alcohol content of 0.10%.

1 Nighter

Although you may feel fine, your brain function is impaired. Combine this with the monotony of driving, and Rosekind warns that you may end up falling asleep on the road. Pulling an all-nighter is no easy task, and recovering from one may be just as difficult. If you want to get some restful shut-eye after an all-nighter, check out our mattresses for more quality sleep, and less counting sheep.

When a person stays awake, their cortisol levels, the stress hormone, increase, keeping them awake and alert all through the night. While the circadian rhythm, the internal clock that controls sleep-wake cycles, should suppress cortisol and release melatonin to help the body wind down, pulling an all-nighter may impact this process.

Sleep experts never condone forgoing a night of sleep for another activity. But, there may be times you find yourself in situations where you have no other choice but to pull an all-nighter. New parents, students, or those with demanding jobs may need to go down this path now and again. If you absolutely must stay up through the night, these ideas may help it feel a little less painful.

The experts and the science are in agreement: All-nighters are best avoided, or, if unavoidable, a last resort. SleepFoundation.org, an informational site related to the National Sleep Foundation, offers a few tips if you absolutely have to stay up:

Many of us experience sleep deprivation at some point in our lives due to jet lag, pulling an all-nighter to complete a project, or even doing shift work, working overnights or inconsistent hours. Our exploratory study shows that even in young, healthy individuals, missing one night of sleep increases the level of tau in blood suggesting that over time, such sleep deprivation could possibly have detrimental effects."

It follows, naturally and mushily, that I am weary of the modes by which these cultures express themselves: the blurb, the list, the digest, the one-off, the one-nighter, the quick-hit, the quick joke. These modes of communication designed for easy consumption and cursory examination, these modes that leave me pale and anemic. That is also trite to say, but there is this anemia, which is altogether real. I increasingly resent these modes of expression, and worse, I resent them toothlessly, because they are increasingly standard. I try to avoid toothless resentments. They, too, can leave a person thin, full of wizened, bitter blood. 041b061a72