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Fsob
PostPosted: 2012/09/06 19:02    Post subject:
Good information for everyday sleeping, as well as marathon sessions.

All signs do point to it being less than 20 hours though. Not really a big marathon. As someone who has insomnia quite frequently though, thanks a ton for all this.
GDPR#2621198
PostPosted: 2012/09/05 21:13    Post subject: GDPR#2621198
GDPR#2621198
Zierlyn
PostPosted: 2012/09/05 20:17    Post subject:
Hrm. Interesting post... Good advice regarding eating healthy and exercising/moving, but there's a couple things I'd add.

First of all, interesting fact about the body producing melatonin is that it doesn't necessarily need to be light in your eyes. Having fluorescent lights shining on any bare skin, including your legs under your desk is enough to get your body to produce melatonin and sorta fool your body into thinking it's daytime. Yes, installing lights UNDER your desk will help you stay awake.

Having done gaming marathons before, there is a definite "hump"/"second wind" phenomenon (which might be counteracted by the lighting, not sure) that occurs around 3-4am until dawn, depending on when you normally sleep. I'd personally take a small hit of caffeine around 3am to make it through. The warning about a caffeine crash is valid, but as long as the sun is up once it hits, it gets a lot easier to manage.

Eye exercises should be mentioned as well. Taking a minute every once in a while to focus on something farther away, out the window or on the other side of the room, alternating back and forth can keep the elasticity going in your eyes and help prevent them from drying out.

As for Anti's story about the marathon study session... bad move, my friend. It's not so much a matter of memory retention and sleep deprivation, it's that memories are consolidated and made permanent during the sleep cycle. The best way to study for an exam is to review throughout the day, taking regular breaks, then getting a full night's sleep. Doing a superficial overview then getting a solid night's sleep can sometimes be better than staying up all night doing an in-depth review... Especially if you had previously learned everything before (ie. have been keeping up with class material throughout).

By staying awake the whole time, essentially everything you studied for your first exam was interfering with your ability to retain any new information for your next exams, because your brain wasn't able to do its normal trash collection during sleep to make room for new stuff.


The research paper I wrote on memory consolidation and sleep for my neuroscience class is one of the biggest things causing me regret for not being able to follow through with my Psychology degree. The whole process is really, really fascinating. It's an alternating process throughout the night that strengthens important memories and sifts out all the useless unimportant stuff that happened throughout the day. Back and forth, refining itself throughout the night, kind of like how a sculptor would work his way down to smaller and smaller chisels.

Yeah. went off on a tangent.
Lysogen
PostPosted: 2012/09/05 17:27    Post subject:
Quote:
Steer clear of caffeine and sugar!


Initially I had posted in here a picture of an owl looking shocked (as owls tend to) with the simple caption "WAT", but then I figured people would take me seriously, so instead you guys get this great story.

So my last semester of college, I had some pretty nasty finals that were all back-to-back-to-back. I had quantum chemistry followed by biochemistry followed by logic followed by psychology, all within a three day span. I was extremely lucky that quant was first, but I'll get to that in a second.

In college I pulled all-nighters quite often, most times before big tests in subjects that I wasn't too confident in but had enough material to be able to study (think genetics, not American lit). I felt that I was pretty seasoned as an all-nighter-puller, so my plan when approaching my final finals was to do three successive all-nighters.

I went to the store, I stocked up on energy drinks, caffeine pills, and random snacks, and went to camp out my dorm's study room with a buddy. We also stopped by a friend's place and picked up a good deal of Adderall.

We must have spent 12 hours in that study room, going over our notes and books. When the morning came, we walked to the dining hall, grabbed some breakfast (all while reviewing note cards) and went to our classroom.

My friend didn't do so well on the test, mainly because he's a pretty lousy test taker, but I got a pretty solid A. Afterward, he proceeded to take a nap while I repeated this whole process, by myself, another two times.

I did moderately well on my biochem final, but I did quite poorly on my psych final and nearly failed logic because of my grade on that final. I ran out of steam halfway through this marathon study week and, when all of my tests were done, I slept for a solid 14 hours.

I still remember the feeling of being awake for 60+ hours, not only of how disgusting I felt and how wrong everything seemed to be, but how out of it I was and, truthfully, what a hugely terrible idea the whole thing ended up being.

I guess I'm weird, though, because the whole experience didn't really "scare me off" caffeine, or staying up late, or anything like that. If anything, it taught me the value of a good night's sleep, and the effect of sleep deprivation on memory retention.

So my advice for staying up all night leveling? If you normally drink a lot of caffeine, you obviously can't just avoid it and expect to be able to stay awake. Moderating your caffeine intake is a wise idea, but eating the right macros and staying active are probably the two biggest factors in being able to fight the urge to slumber.

Also, fuck it, here's the owl:

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Millya
PostPosted: 2012/09/05 12:43    Post subject: Gaming Marathons The Healthy Way
Hey Fsob and Supp, this is relevant to your interests:

http://www.cannotbetamed.com/2012/09/05/gaming-marathons-the-healthy-way/