I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea to stay up the night before, but I think it would be better to cognitively restructure your thoughts to get to the root of the problem. Read these boards for some solutions and see what works best for you. I really don’t like the idea of purposely jacking with your sleep without getting to the cause of your sleep problems–your thoughts. Probably if you want sleep properly I think you should go for Derma Sleep Patch to be applied on specified body part. It is drug free. I think their site name is dermasleep com
All the best.

I have a similar problem, in fact just this past Saturday night going into a Sunday epee tournament.

Everybody’s different in terms of sleep, so what you’re suggesting isn’t probably dangerous, but it might not be good for you – and it might not help you the way you want. It shouldn’t hurt to try it, though – how often would you be doing this if you decided it helps?

Part of the issue can be psychological – I, like you, am pretty well convinced that I need a full regular night’s sleep, but once I’m competing, it doesn’t seem to matter – sometimes I’ll do well on a poor sleep (Sunday this happened), but I find I focus on the times I do badly to convince myself of the connection.

it’ll mess up your body clock…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

and i’m not convinced it’ll work… but each is their own…