There are some things in life that people will look at you and laugh about. They might find you eating habits unhealthy or your love life a joke. You might have horrible hygiene and say stupid things. But, if you stay up all night and live to tell the tale they’ll usually preface their snide remarks with a moderate acknowledgment of respect, something alone the lines of “I could never do that.”

You might be thinking the same thing, I could never do that, but you’re wrong. The human body needs its sleep but at the same time is surprisingly resilient and stores a whole lot of energy away for future use. It’s not a matter of physically being able to, but of mentally being able to.

First off, you need to be prepared. Don’t spend the entire day running marathons if you plan on staying up all night writing a paper. Eat a decent dinner, but not too much and don’t drink too much alcohol (though the right amount can yield the same results, you’ll find that the next day will be spent sleeping). We’re assuming you have a reason for doing this. If not, why would you bother?

Stay preoccupied. If you have a meeting at 5 in the morning and don’t get home until midnight and decide to not bother sleeping, don’t sit and watch TV while you wait. You’re asking to fall asleep and miss your meeting. Do something mentally active. When you focus and your body and mind are working in tandem you tend to forget how tired you are. Write emails, play a video game, or talk with your girlfriend, but don’t sit and read a book or watch a movie. You will fall asleep.

Diet is key here. Don’t eat a bundle of junkfood before when you’d normally go to sleep. If you do your body will crash and you’ll likely go with it. You’re going to want to have an ample supply of caffeinated beverages, some carbo-loaded snacks (no sugar though) and a decent breakfast on the horizon. It’ll keep you moving but not hibernating.

Take a shower early. If you shower at three instead of four before you leave, it’ll make the last hour or two a lot easier. It’ll wake you up and keep you from accidentally falling asleep and forgetting to shower at all.

Don’t harass your friends or family. Don’t keep other people up to keep you company or call someone in the middle of the night to bug them when you’re bored. The internet’s for that. Find someone as sleep deprived as yourself and commiserate in silence. The slumbering world will thank you for it.

Basically, it’s necessary to remember that your body needs sleep. But, if you trick it into not remembering what it needs, you’re good to go. It’s like boiling a frog in a pot. Slowly turn up the heat and he won’t jump out. Slowly ease into the night and you’ll have no problem staying up past dawn. Just be prepared to collapse the next day around three.