Usually I work the closing shifts at work, most of which are around from 1-9pm. This fits into my schedule very well - if I have a day off, I'm usually asleep until one or two in the afternoon since I stay up until about three or four, and in extreme cases, six in the morning. I've kept these hours roughly since senior year of school, so, basically three or four years. Before that I did mostly the same thing and just slept in school. But!

Occasionally I get called in to work an opening shift, and that requires me being awake at 3:30 in the morning. Sometimes I'll take a sleep aid and catch seven or eight hours, but more often than not, since I hold socializing above sleep and most everyone I know is up late, I just..stay up all night and then go in in the morning anyway.

Does anyone else do this? And do you have tips for making it easier outside of, say, cocaine? Right now I'm counting on two red bulls, but I'm pretty sure I'll be fried a couple of hours in.

Still..staying up is completely worth it 90% of the time.

I did that a lot at uni and it was awesome. I always got way more done during the night than during the day - up to and including pouring out 5,000 words of final year project and 3,000 words of coursework in a single night (the final year project eventually got me a first but I suspect 90% of those particular 5,000 words got completely blitzed during an editing spree later on).

I always find that if I try to sleep at 6am I'd wake up ridiculously late so just stayed up all night. Usually starting to feel tried at 7am but getting a second wind between 10am and 3pm before falling asleep in lectures at 4 or 5 (missing Human Computer Interactions lectures didn't seem to do any harm though >_>). Then for the rest of the evening after 6pm or so the sleep deprivation usually wasn't even noticeable.

Usually I just drank a lot of coffee during the day to stay awake and relied on people poking me occasionally to stay awake, but it usually didn't work that well.

Everytime art coursework's due in, 'cos I always seem to leave the final project until the day before instead of doing it over several weeks. I once tried making myself a cup of coffee with part water and part redbull for brewing, then with a couple of sugars. It was disgusting, and would probably have given me a heart attack if I drank it all. Chewing gum works best for, just keep on chewing if you're feeling tired.

Ditto, but with most of my Art AS level. In the end, I had symptoms of stress and insomnia. Yay!
I did discover some amazing films, though, including The Doors (dir. Oliver Stone) and The Magic Christian (Feat. Ringo Starr, Spike Milligan, etc etc) and a couple of other 60s psychedellic movies that BBC2 decided to play late at night. When you are tired to the point of over-alertness, your eyes give up all dreams of blinking ever again and your mind seems to expand past the confines of your skull, your work and ideas become... interesting.
Cue teacher - "Have you been taking drugs?"

Honest answer was no, but I liked how my mind was at 3am on the 4th night in a row of late nights/ all nighters.
I haven't done that in a long while- I don't think since I made Cand and Ste paperWedding Poos, which were sent to them in a frame in a SmashHits! silver envelope.
I think that was around about the same time Wytu and I sent the Editor of the Guardian a letter that started "Dear Bumface Poopypoop" and that was written in a mixture of three languages.

Hmm. Perhaps it is better for society that I get my 7 hours of sleep a night?

I have a few packs of pro plus lying around for if I need to pull all nighters. Tends to keep concentration up. Then again, drinking large amounts of coffee tends to make me feel sick. Also, adrenaline is good for waking you up, I find. Listen to some music.

Spent a week or two last year that were lacking in lectures just not having a sleep cycle. That messes with your head somewhat. Don't recommend it if you have obligations in real world.

Energy drinks and coffee have very little effect on my sleeping habits, or lack thereof. They have that new "5-hour-energy" shot, and I would try it, or an OTC No-Doze type medication, but not when you have to work. Experiment with it? The only thing that has really worked to keep me up I'll tell you about if you call me, as it is of questionable legality (though it's not like, street drugs... yanno...).

You could always just picture me wearing a frilly pink apron and nothing else. That would keep ANYONE awake.