Anatomy of an All-Nighter

Cramming 12 weeks of calculus or the history of the Western world into 12 hours at night is the ultimate collegiate challenge. Our natural cycles of sleep and wakefulness are governed by nothing less than the circadian rotation of the earth, and overriding these cycles is difficult. "These rhythms exist even in the absence of time cues such as sunlight and clocks," says Charmane Eastman, Ph.D., the director of the Biological Rhythms Research Laboratory at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, in Chicago.

The all-night scholar is also contending with fatigue: Most people going into an all-nighter haven't slept in at least 12 hours, and so their brains are already working less efficiently. According to a study done at the Sleep Research Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, the reactions of a group of college students who had been sleeping five hours a night were 20 percent slower than those of a group that had been getting their proper eight hours of shut-eye.

There's no way to beat the clock completely; no matter what, staying up all night takes its toll on both physical health and mental performance. But an understanding of the body's natural rhythms can help a night owl maximize brain power.

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Labels: college, sleep