Just about everybody has stayed up all night at least once. But about twelve years ago, I pulled exactly 74 waking hours in a row: from 6:30 Tuesday morning to 8:30 Friday morning.
Someone who was leaving the company had grossly understated the amount of work remaining on a large software manual. She had been with the company a long time, and she apparently transferred into our group to burn sick leave and vacation before taking a job with a startup. Looking at what I inherited from her, it would be difficult to make a case that she’d done anything else.
Anyway, I was young, dumb, and you know the rest, and I wanted to be a hero. So I took the book over. Then I committed what I (now) fondly remember as one of my top three or four all-time career blunders: I took the departing employee at her word on how much was left to do, and budgeted the amount of time she said it would take. And then I committed another one: after I realized she’d lied, I decided to be a hero anyway instead of give my boss the real picture. (We became close friends, and when I told her the whole story some years later she choked on her wine, smacked me, and asked if I was “some kind of shithead or something.”)
Well, um, yeah. Not something I’d do today.
Obviously I didn’t set out to stay up three nights in a row. I thought I was pulling a single allnighter, but it still wasn’t looking good on Wednesday morning. So on my way back from taking a shower I decided I’d have to do it that night too, but that really would be it. (And then I thought the same thing on Thursday morning.) And thus developed the 74-hour working session.
I learned two interesting things about the human body during this time:
- It bounces. I started feeling really exhausted about 10:00 Wednesday morning, and really had to push to keep going. But then a funny thing happened: by 2:00 or so that afternoon, I’d recovered to about 70% mental strength, and I stayed there the entire rest of the time. Did you know you’d bounce like that? I’m sure it’s all adrenaline and cortisol and probably horrible for you. It was bizarre feeling essentially fine for so long without sleep.
- It gets it all back, baby. I went to bed at 8:30 that Friday morning and slept until 10:30 that night. I got up and drank a glass of water. Then I went back to bed and slept until 1:30 Saturday afternoon. (Talk about waking up and not knowing what day it is.)
I did finish the book, for what it’s worth.
I never have been a grudge-holding sort of fellow, and I don’t walk around fantasizing about shoving ice cream cones in that woman’s pockets and tying her to an anthill or anything. But I certainly hope she never needs a favor from me, because I’m still not feeling particularly charitable.
You might also like:
- More computer misery, this time fatal
My desktop’s motherboard died in its sleep last night. I was able to get our IT guy at work on the p… - Relaxed
I think this is the first weekend of the year that I haven’t had either a commitment of some sort, o… - Ghosts in the night
“Enter Sandman” came on when I was driving home tonight. I think of the video when I hear it, and in… - Intermittent fasting and sleep
I’m not talking about my fasting regimen a lot, because I don’t want to be tedious. But I’ve realize… - Holiday evening with Oxford friends
Back from an Oxford-Anniston trip pretty early today. Couldn’t ever generate a breakfast/brunch plan…
Staying awake (and accomplishing something) can put you into a surreal state! It happened to me once coming home from overseas (I was up for 36 horus – not as bad as your experience, but mine involved an air emergency – good times.)
Anyway, I did the same thing, crashed! I woke up thinking it was 5 in the afternoon on saturday, it was really 5am sunday morning. I proceeded to call all my friends to tell them I was HOME! And no one would talk to me????
Two years ago I pulled an all-nighter for work – but when my boss saw me in theh same clothes the next morning – they thankfully told me to go home and go to bed.
A 74 hour work session… sheesh!
That’s impressive! I’ve done a good 40 hours or so – fairly recently – but it wasn’t for work. I went cave surveying for about 10 hours and then got called out on a cave rescue at 11pm or so and ran on adrenaline till the next afternoon. I called in exhausted to work on Monday!
The whole thing was just really bizarre. It’s not something I wish to ever do again, but I wouldn’t have learned about “the bounce” otherwise. That might come in handy one day for one reason or another.