How to Read at Night

I personally love midnight reading. (Is that a thing? I want it to be a thing.) And let's admit it, we all love to read in bed, watching the alarm clock hit 00:00, sneaking out of bed to check if we can see the stars, and trying not to sob to loud when our favorite character dies. No matter how important sleep might be, to us, reading will always top it. But many of you, have become helpless prey to parents and fatigue, so let me share some tips with you.

Sleep

Since I can't really go on the internet and tell teens and adolescents to completely neglect sleep, I suppose I'll give some tips about how not to turn into a walking zombie on the day of your important math test.

1. No matter how tragic, humans need sleep. How much sleep you need depends on the person and on his/her age. For my amount of sleep and the amount of reading time that works with it, I usually turn to math. I need eight to nine hours of sleep (so that's eight hours) and falling asleep takes me about half an hour, maybe 45 minutes. On a normal school day, I have to wake up at 7 o'clock. That means I can read until about half past ten. In the weekends I technically have unlimited time, but I want to wake before ten, so I usually don't go past two o'clock.

2. If you have a test the next day or an exam or any other thing that has to do with school or university or a new job or something important at work: MAKE SURE YOU SLEEP! I know it's tempting and that new release is begging you to be read, but your parents are also begging you not to fail your test. I am also very competitive, which means I would really like to have the highest mark in class. Sorry?

3. Have you ever asked yourself why the librarian at your school looks like a plump? Exactly. I'm not vain, but I like to stay alert. So if you've slept very little for multiple days, it might be a good idea to spend some time regaining energy.

Parents

All of you who've left home long ago, you can skip this part. A blessing, if you ask me. Friends of mine often encounter this problem. I have only got caught once thus far, and was able to talk my way out of it. There are several problems when it comes to being spotted and I have developed strategies for most of them. (I can't guarantee they work with you, obviously.)

eBooks: They are awesome for midnight reading if you have family members who do not support this habit. Why?

1. They give you a source of light to read by. This means that you can extinguish this light easier. With a book and a lamp, you need to push two 'buttons': put the book away and switch off the light.

2. You can put the brightness down. There's a window above my door, and if the light's too bright, I'm dead.

3. They're easy to stuff away. Switch off the screen and shove it under your pillow.

4. If the book's missing from beside table (the one with the bright colors and shiny cover), someone will notice more quickly. eReaders and tablets are flat and mostly black or white, so they're not as easily spotted in the dark.

Tips for eBooks:

1. Make sure your parents are used to it laying on your night table.

2. As I said, make sure it doesn't give off to much light.

3. May sound like a weird one, but if you have a black pyjamma, that's great. If you compare it, you'll see that white objects reflect the light and black absorbs it.

4. If you shove it beneath your pillow and it has a Wi-Fi connection, make sure you put it on the airplane mode. Radiation might induce the odds of getting cancer.

5. Put in the charger early. Plugging it in makes terrible noises. This is how I got caught.

Tips for normal books:

Works best with these lamps

1. A light source like the little light on your table is very bright. I solve it by laying a little book or something (preferably black) on the top and draping a shawl (preferably black and huge) over the side you don't need. It takes some handy work to make it functional and 'training' to take it down fast, but it will hopefully keep the light from slipping under your door or through unwanted windows.

2. Silent page-turning is a must.

3. Under the covers with a flashlight. It's the oldest trick in the universe, but I don't like it. I have long hair that gets stuck in my mouth and it's way to warm and fuzzy there. If you do read under the covers with a flashlight:

a. Put your hair up. I don't want to be responsible for any suffocation incidents.

b. Don't hide your flashlight under your pillow if your mom still does your laundry. Hide it somewhere where no one ever looks, like the old basket with your old stuffed animals in it.

4. Is your bed next to a window? I'm jealous. Get yourself a clothespin and use it to pull your curtains open just a little bit. Huddle into the corner of your bed and read with natural lighting. If your parents come to check on you, just pull away the clothespin and crawl beneath your blankets. (When winter comes and steals your light, you can always return to a different technique.)

Tips for everyone:

1. Be familiar with the sounds of your parents and the time they usually go to bed.
2. Make sure your bedside table is as empty as possible. If you lay down a book/tablet there in the middle of the night and your necklace crashes to the floor, it might wake those with sensitive ears.
3. Fake sleeping. I grin easily in awkward or tense situations. If you do too, you should hold your blankets over your mouth slightly.

#NeverSurrender

Staying awake

My greatest trial. Some books steal away fatigue and all warnings of the human body even before you lay eyes on the second page. Others don't. If you want to finish a book soooo badly, but you feel like sleeping more than anything, here are some tips.

1. Put on music. Am I the only one with a reading playlist? If I have to shake myself awake, though, I prefer listening to a new, loud, fast, nightcore song.

2. Multifandoms. They get me in the mood to read and join yet another fandom.

3. Drinking some water (and if possible throwing some in your face). Scientists apparantly say it doesn't work, but it works for me.

4. Book bloggers. Watch their reviews of the book you're reading (spoiler free obviously), a funny book tag, or just browse through some quotes from Epic Reads. I don't care, but it makes me want to finish the books.

5. Goodreads. Investigate your book. The publication date, the author, the reviews and stars, and the page number.

Books themselves

What books do you read at midnight?

I prefer to read for fun once it gets late. No mandatory reads after 10pm. A fast book is easiest or a book in a series you already love.

What parts of books do you read at night?

I'm not a fast reader, so I have not yet read any book in one sitting. Still, if you can, you might want to read that one sitting at night. It's quieter and the dark gives a nice feel to it.

But if you're pretty slow like me, here is what I do. I don't read any particular pieces during the day or nighttime, except for the endings. Endings are pieces of a book you have to completely absorb. The end is where you fangirl the most, the epilogue is where you sob buckets upon buckets of tears, the last sentence of a series is where you close your eyes and suck in the last part of the story you read for the first time. No one should share this moment. It's mine and I want to sob and mourn in piece.

If I want to finish tonight...

May the force be with you, the odds in your favor, and be brave. (The Harry Potter jokes will come, I promise!)

So I hope I didn't waste your time with these tips and wish you all the best of luck this school year. (If yours started around this time just like mine.)