Usually in my timezone, the contest begins at midnight. So I have to keep awake and clear if I want to take part in it.

I've tried sleeping awhile before and drinking coffee/redbull. But still it simply didn't help or had some side effects.

If I sleep, I still feel tired during the contest and want to sleep.

If I drink coffee/redbull, not only will I feel tired, but also I will not be able to sleep even AFTER the contest.

In both cases, I simply can not come up with a solution to problems if they require some deeper thinking. And normally I will figure out how to solve them the next morning. I will blame myself for not being clear enough to solve them last night during the contest and become frustrated.

Do you feel the same if you take part in contests at midnight? How do you deal with this problem?