Though staying up all night
writing or
coding can be really cool and
productive, and though often you literally have no choice in the matter, making a habit out of depriving yourself of sleep is a really bad idea.
Sleep deprivation causes (among many other really nasty things)
irritability,
forgetfulness,
headache, and a major reduction your ability to
concentrate. Furthermore, it can cause really nasty
depression (trust me, I know).
"That is all well and good," you say, "but by depriving myself of sleep, at the very worst, I can only hurt myself." Not true.
Sleep deprivation can also be dramatically detrimental to your
judgement and ability to make decisions. It's blamed for about 200,00
traffic accidents every year, and it has been noted as a major factor in the accidents with the
Exxon Valdez,
Three Mile Island, and the
Challenger space shuttle.
So if you won't sleep for yourself, at least please don't
drive, operate
oil tankers, manage
nuclear power plants, or be on the teams managing
space shuttles when you're suffering from
sleep deprivation.