How do you say “Burn the midnight oil” in German?

The English idiom 'burn the midnight oil' originates from the era when staying up late required burning oil lamps to work or study. While poetic and widely used, German does not retain this lighting imagery. Translating it literally as 'das Mitternachtsöl verbrennen' is an immediate giveaway of machine translation or non-native phrasing.

Instead, native German speakers turn to industrial imagery: 'eine Nachtschicht einlegen' (literally 'to put in a night shift'). Even though it borrows from factory work schedules, students, academics, and office workers regularly use it informally to describe working late into the evening or through the night. If someone wants to emphasize the physical toll of staying awake all night, 'sich die Nacht um die Ohren schlagen' is another highly idiomatic alternative.