What kind of things can I do to stay awake?

Sleep for half your normal amount of sleep – so if you are an 8 hours a night gal then four will do. we have natural sleep cycles that oscillate up and down so if you wake up when you’ve had some of all the types of sleep you should feel ok. Short term only – get back to your normal sleep as soon as possible. Then don’t sleep too much – get into a routine is best

Adderall

Disclaimer: that’s a really bad idea. Don’t do it.

Caffeine pills, making time for exercise, re-adjusting your circadian rhythm, and keeping like-minded company to study with are all workable strategies that I may or may not have used at some point in my frantically paced college career.

@Stinley I normally only get 4 hours of sleep lately. So that might not work very well.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Funny you mention Adderall, that’s what I did all freshman year and I was fucked. Those are some good ideas…

You need your sleep. Staying up cramming all night has been shown to have a worse effect on exam performance than turning up to an exam still drunk from the party the night before.

@Lightlyseared I’m not really cramming at all. I don’t study much because I retain most of what I hear. Basically, all I’m doing is a lot of fucking essays and projects that take up all of my time.

For the record, @KatetheGreat, I totally feel you right now. I’m literally working on two ten page essays simultaneously, and I have at least six more essays of varying length requirements due in the next week or so. Good luck, compatriot.

I understand the pressure @KatetheGreat but @Lightlyseared is right. You have to sleep and get sufficient sleep or you just won’t be able to function properly. Do up a schedule and break the work you have to do into realistic chunks and factor in time to sleep. Even if you do it in a couple of shifts.

I routinely work 60 hour weeks, and am just coming off some very tight deadlines. You need to be organized, minimize distractions, eat regularly and sleep 6 hours a night. You will get so much more work done with rest, and the quality will be better. One thing that is really helpful is to be honest with yourself about what you spend time doing. Getting on fluther and texting people will eat into work time. Shut your phone off and don’t have a bunch of windows open when working.

Eat healthy; your brain works better when rested and well-fed.

Also keep in mind, there is no spoon. Many of the barriers and obstacles that we create are self-imposed and in our brains. Cut out anything that you absolutely don’t have to do; don’t make work for yourself that you don’t need. Studies on multitasking show that when people switch back and forth between tasks, they lose about 15 minutes of productivity with each switch, because your brain has to reorient itself to the task at hand. Work in continuous blocks of time, then take a break to eat or take a walk, and then start something new.

Thank you for all of the ideas!

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I’m pretty much in the same spot. 6 projects and a fuck ton of essays. I will never go for this many credits again.

Don’t they limit the number of courses you can take per semester? Here you can only do 40 (each course is usually 10 CP) unless you get special approval.

They have certain limits, but since I’m committing academic suicide by triple majoring, I have the privilege of taking more classes than everyone else.

You could try and study as much as you can over the day. In the evening start drinking your coffee and energy drinks. Drink as much of these two as you can.
And then get to studying.

Mountain Dew.

Mountain dew works good, also makes you pee a lot.

Apples also work good,

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Get the sleep you need. It is insanely bad for you to try and stay awake over the course of days. Your performance at the finals will show your exhaustion.

Do it naturally. (NSFW) Kick your Endorphins up with hot sex of wild abandon.

Masturbate?

@WillWorkForChocolate Thanks, I will masturbate furiously and compete with my roommate to see who can be the loudest. Hehehehe.

@filmfann and @DrBill No Mountain Dew for me, it has yellow #5 and I can’t drink it.

@blueiiznh Psh, there are no skilled men that know how to have “hot sex of wild abandon” in this god forsaken place.

@KatetheGreat again, another reason for you to abandon where you live. :D

@blueiiznh Hahaha, I’ll just move back to the homeland.

Coffee and doing something that interests you. Hanging out with friends or talking to them on the phone or online always keeps me up.

Eat a good healthy breakfast.

Sounds like you’re pretty fucked.

And apparently not even well enough.

@incendiary_dan Thank you for your positive insight :P

Always happy to help. Keepin’ it real, and such.

Do the kids still say that? I feel old.

Hmmm. I don’t really know. I don’t pay attention. You don’t look that old.