Somewhere along the way, college students decided that staying up until three in the morning with a half-empty Red Bull and an untouched Word document was a personality trait. Let me be clear, it is not. All-nighters are not heroic, they are not productive and they definitely do not make you “built different.” They make you cranky, exhausted and more likely to cry when the printer jams the next morning.
At Northwestern, I have noticed the humble brag of “I pulled an all-nighter” floating around conversations like a badge of honor. It usually comes with dark under-eye bags that could carry groceries and a cup of coffee that looks more like survival gear than a beverage. But here is my question, why do we act like all-nighters are proof of dedication, when in reality, they are proof of bad planning?
The most common defense of all-nighters is, “that is when I get my best work done.” Really? Because I have seen myself at 2:45 a.m., hunched over my laptop, rereading the same sentence fifteen times before giving up and adding “therefore” just to sound smart. That is not brilliance. That is desperation. Research backs this up. Our brains do not perform well on little sleep. So that paper you think is your magnum opus at 4 a.m.? It is probably just a string of semi-coherent paragraphs sprinkled with too many commas.
All-nighters do not just make you tired; they throw your whole week off. Suddenly, you are dozing off in chapel, you are zoning out in class and you are suspiciously quiet in the cafeteria because you are calculating if you have time for a nap before practice. And honestly, naps do not even fix it. You cannot “catch up” on sleep like it is a Netflix series. By the end of the week, you are so behind on rest that even Saturday morning waffles cannot save you.
God gave us rest for a reason – literally, Sabbath is built into creation. Staying up all night long and bragging about it like it is an achievement is the exact opposite of honoring rest. Sometimes the more “hardcore” thing you can do as a student is to close the laptop and go to bed.
So why do we keep torturing ourselves with all-nighters anyway? Do we think it is part of the “college experience?” Movies and TikToks glamorize the idea of cramming with friends, ordering food at midnight and studying until sunrise. But let me tell you – reality looks less like Dead Poets Society and more like someone crying before an exam because you did not retain any knowledge.
And yes, sometimes procrastination gets the best of us. I will admit it, there are nights when that Netflix “next episode” button has more power over me than the most inspiring professor. Please, let us stop pretending all-nighters are the solution. They are more like a band-aid on a bullet hole.
Here is a wild idea: What if we glorified planning ahead instead of sleep deprivation? Imagine a campus where people bragged about finishing assignments early, about sleeping a solid eight hours about actually enjoying their Saturday without a looming sense of doom. That could be us.
Instead of flexing your caffeine tolerance, try flexing your Google Calendar. Instead of posting your 4 a.m. essay grind on Instagram, post a picture of yourself reading for fun at 10 p.m. – and then actually going to bed. Radical, I know.
Look, I am not saying people will never have a late night. College is busy, life happens and sometimes you really do have to crank a project under pressure. But let us stop making all-nighters our personality. Let us stop acting like exhaustion equals dedication. And let us definitely stop pretending that a paper written at 5 a.m. is going to change the world. So, the next time you are tempted to join the “I have not slept in 36 hours” club, maybe consider joining the “I actually feel rested and still passed my classes” club instead. I promise the membership benefits are way better.
