Some quick thoughts after working nights at a newspaper for the first time:

1. Election night may not be the best night for your first shift. Those results keep trickling in, and the editor keeps putting back the time we'll close-off the paper's final edition.

2. The canteen shuts early, so ensure your bag is stuffed with durable nibbles.

3. Make sure you know which side of the huge building your car is waiting to pick you up. Running around a skyscraper at 3:30am in the rain is not fun.

4. When you do get home, go to bed immediately. Don't be tempted to check your email and surf the web 'just for a minute'.

5. Close your curtains before you go out - it's hard to sleep when the sun's shining directly on you.

6. Buy some earplugs, especially if your room is next to the front door, and if several sets of meter-readers and telephone-repairmen have chosen this morning to shout to each other down the hallway.

7. Try not to dream that you are sat in front of a computer terminal, re-laying out the front page, over and over.