Describe a time when you stayed up very late

I'd like to talk about the night before my thesis deadline at university, which I spent entirely awake. I had worked on the thesis for months, but, like many students, I left the final part until the last moment, and with twenty-four hours to go, I still had about a third of it to write.

I started at about eight in the evening, making a big pot of tea and clearing my desk. For the first few hours, I felt quite productive, and I wrote nearly two thousand words. But around two in the morning, I began to feel tired, and my eyes kept closing. I tried a few tricks to keep myself awake: I opened the window to let in the cold air, did some stretching, and put on a playlist of loud music. At four, I ate a bowl of cereal, just to have something to do. I completely lost track of time. When I checked my phone again, the first birds were singing outside, and it was already light.

I finished the last paragraph at around seven in the morning, formatted the document and printed it at a nearby copy shop when it opened. Then I handed it in with just an hour to spare.

The next day, I felt awful. My head ached, I couldn't concentrate, and I fell asleep on the bus on the way home. I slept for fourteen hours straight afterwards. I don't regret finishing the thesis, but I promised myself I'd never leave anything that late again. Burning the midnight oil may work once, but it's not a sustainable way of living.