Ask the Sleep Doctor: Is it Safe to Re-Calibrate My Body Clock for the Short-Term? (For Example, to Prepare for an All-Nighter Study Session)

Here's an interesting question from a resourceful student/athlete:

Q:

Dear  Dr. Breus,

I had a quick question that I was hoping I could get your advice on! :)

I'm a 20 year old male.  It's Wednesday now, and next Saturday night I will be attending the final session of a fitness and self protection course I signed up to at college. According to friends of mine who had done the course before, the final session is akin to basic training for army recruits. Apparently from Saturday night to Sunday lunch time they don't let you sleep, but make you run a marathon, do thousands of push-ups, sit-ups and other draining tasks.

What I was thinking of doing was perhaps changing my sleeping pattern so my body will effectively not be missing out on sleep. Let's say I stayed up tomorrow night (Thursday night), slept all of Friday, stayed up all Friday night, and slept all Saturday - come Saturday night my body will expect to be awake and it won't be as grueling – right? Would this be effective? Is this enough time for my body to adjust or would I just be making things worse?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

Brett

A:

This is actually not a bad idea. I would say it is worth trying but I would avoid driving anywhere when you are doing this experiment as your reflexes will be slower than normal.

Comments

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Dr. Brues- It is necessary to have healthy sleep with regular pauses, gaps at decent intervals. it doesnot work if you sleep one day and awake next day

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how much sleep is essential for a normal human being per day ????