Strange things that can happen when polyphasic sleep works

It's funny what happens when polyphasic sleep starts working how it's supposed to.

Take today for an example. I needed to meet with a professor at twelve thirty. So I was going to sleep for my normal 20 minutes before the meeting. That was all well and good, so I set my cell phone to go off. I fall asleep.

Then I woke up. It felt like I had slept for hours, and I didn't feel groggy at all. My first words were:
"Oh shit!"

I was sure that I had overslept. I grabbed my phone, and realized that there were two minutes left before it went off. It seriously felt like I'd been sleeping for hours.

Days like today I love doing this.

Day 6: Night

This time is totally different. In some ways it's harder, and in some ways it's easier.

I've found an easy way to stay up is to watch TV episodes, but that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Right now it's 1 AM and I really want to sleep. I haven't used my light much in the past 24 hours, and that's a mistake. Speaking of, I ordered that GoLite M2 that I wanted. Hopefully, that will make things easier. I'll just carry it with and use it in the buildings on campus if I have to.

My girlfriend is quite stressed right now. She has to make a program for a research project. She put it off too long, and now she has to stay up late to finish it. The problem is that she's a little... spacey at this time of night. She's not used to being up this late. She has another hour of work she has to do tonight, at least.

This is another problem with the sleeping pattern changes. The girlfriend wants to take the 20 minute naps with me, which seemed okay, but now I've realized just how sensitive I am to her moving around when I'm trying to sleep. It's not her fault or anything, it's normal movement, but I notice it more than usual. I'm losing cognitive abilities between 12 and 4 again. I had them for a few days, but now they're gone. I'm not quite sure what has changed, but it's becoming more difficult to think critically. For example, two days ago I could handle Modern Algebra (we're doing Ring theory) problems in this time period, but now I'm having trouble with Modern Geometry. Modern Geometry is surprisingly difficult for it's "level," but still, I should be a little more competent than I am.

To the good things:

I'm ahead in all my classes, and my grades on homework, quizzes, and exams are good. A little better than before polyphasic (except for Modern Geometry, that sits at the same level).

I have time to start working on projects I've been meaning to start, and continue on projects that I'd had to put aside.

I have more time to exercise.
Bad thing: I have more time to eat.

Well, I'm getting distracted, so I'm gonna go for now. I'll try to post later today or tomorrow.

Day 3: A new year, and a new experiment

Well, actually the experiment is essentially the same, but there are many different factors that are helping significantly.

• More conducive schedule
• It's sooo nice to be able to hit the sleeping times pretty accurately. Nothing is better than sleeping when your body is tired.
• More agreeable roommate
• Guess what? What I'm sleeping, he's quiet! Wow. Also, he's generally not in the room anyways.
• An SO
  
• Well, this is actually more of a problem than a good thing. She's pretty cool about everything, but this isn't the most SO friendly thing in the world. However, she does crash with me for my naps when I need them.
• Effective light use
• I love the people at Apollo Health. I have the GoLite P1, and it's been wonderful. Since I already have Seasonal Affective Disorder, and this time of year I'm the same with 4 hours or 10 hours of sleep, this is really useful. I'm planning on getting an M2 before the end of the year, but for now my P1 is good enough. I've been using it for 5-15 minutes after each nap, and it helped my body adjust more quickly.
• Lowering caffeine
• I love caffeine. I drink an average of 6 cups (liquid measure cups, actually 2 of my mugs full) of coffee and up to 6 cans of pop a day. To make the polyphasic sleep work better, I've lowered it to 3 cups of coffee (again, 1 mug) and 3 or so cans a day. I should lower it farther, but for now, I'll be happy with what I have. It's been helping me to sleep when I need to, and oddly enough, I'm more awake when I get up.
• More stuff to do
• I have more stuff that needs to get done. That helps. I have yet another research project, this one is going to be presented nationally at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in California. Weeee.

It's day three, and I've had my first REM cycle. Actually, I think I've had more, but this is the first one that I could feel. I slept at midnight, and couldn't tell if I had or not, so I reset my timer (STUPID), and laid there for a couple minutes and decided I needed to get up. Upon getting up, I felt like it was noon (it was after midnight). This is awesome. Three days, and I'm on it. I've learned that, in fact, once you've done it your body figures it out faster.

Tricks to readjusting:

• Find a schedule and stick to it.
• If you schedule doesn't support it, sorry. Better luck next year.
• Set the timer for 20 minutes. Get up when it goes off. Even if you haven't slept.
• If you do this faithfully (you'll be tired), your body figures out that when it can sleep, it should sleep. So, you sleep. Again, it never really felt like I slept. I'm not as sensitive to it as I was last year. However, I've been feeling more rested getting up than when I go back to sleep and get up. This is consistent with last year.
• Light is good.
• If you don't have an awesome SAD light from Apollo Health (I promise I make no commission and don't work there), just blast yourself with light for the first half hour (at least) after you get up. Once you've done this for a few days, your body gets the idea.
• Darkness is good.
• When you are going to sleep, have it be dark. This gives your body cues as to when it should be sleeping. Also, this is consistent with how you are supposed to sleep. Sleep when it's dark, awake when it's light.
• Keep it quiet
• As I said earlier, people give you weird looks and treat you differently. I haven't told anyone, and I don't expect the people who used to read this to think to look back to it. It's been a year since I posted, they don't remember. This is the opposite of my advice if you're starting. You need someone to help you stick to it when you're first starting, but when you're restarting after a long break, just keep it to yourself until you're on it successfully.

Otherwise, have fun!

Well, I spend way too much time blogging when I'm on this sleep, so I'm gonna head out. I'll update every couple of days as I think of it.

Day 30: Postmortem

Today is the final day of my official experiment testing this polyphasic sleeping schedule.

Here are a few things I've learned about polyphasic sleep:

• You really do have to be crazy to attempt this.
• No one will understand why, very few will tolerate it, and many will actually be offended by it. It's like people think "I do it this way, so should everybody else." Honestly, I've had people who call themselves liberal and accepting tell me that it's stupid to do this. Beware. This will tell you who your friends really are.
• Keeping your wits about you is difficult.
• I generally am a pretty nice person. Even if something bothers me I'll keep it to myself. When it got to be 2 or 3 AM until about 9 AM, things would really piss me off. Little things. When you're up this long, your mind gets to stretch. Also, it was as if I felt like this was my time, and if anyone else was up, they were violating me. But if they were sleeping, they are weak and lazy. Yeah, bad mentality.
• There is a lot of time in a day. Seriously.
• I've often felt like I wish there was one more day during the week to get stuff done. I essentially had it. Craziness. If you have nothing to do you either start thinking too much or getting tired (during the wee hours). Have something meaningful to do.
  
• Find what you're good at when you're tired.
• At 3 AM, I can calculate solutions to differential equations, I can write an assembly program, I can configure a router. Don't ask me to write a paper or something creative. In fact, don't ask me for something coherent. Yeah. Find what you're good at late at night, and save those tasks for then.
• Sleep momentum is evil.
• Once you get sleeping, it's hard to wake up. If you can tell you've slept, get up. Do not stay in bed. Period. If you do, you'll fall back asleep (probably without an alarm), and you might not get up for a few hours. When you do get up, you'll be tired and groggy. Again, sleep momentum is evil.
• It is entirely possible to "take days off"
• Most people call it rebooting, but I've noticed that a day off here and there is possible. Once you've developed the ability to take a 15-20 minute REM nap, you can take an 8 hour "nap" every few days if you want to. Granted, you won't be the "uberman" and I have no idea how it affects your ability scores, etc., but you _can_ do it with limited grogginess.
• Everything the other blogs say about this is true (aka: Read about what other people have done)
• Ask me if you want to, I'll respond. Email me at codeslicingmonkey:at:gmail:dot:com. Read all you can. If you don't think you can handle the mental and physical stress, don't do it. I have to admit, it's fun though.
  
• Physical recovery is slower than normal.
• If you're a body builder, don't do it. If you're a high-intensity athlete, don't do it. If you're sick, don't do it. If you have a weak immune system, don't do it. You get the idea.
• When you need to get up GET UP!
• I cannot stress this enough. The most important part (other than getting to sleep when you need to) is getting up when you need to. If you don't, you'll regret it.
• Keep a blog, have friends keep you honest.
• Tell your friends you're doing this. Keep a blog, even if it's a private one only your friends can see. It's a good place to talk about what you feel like, and if you've been succeeding.
  
• Don't beat yourself up.
• So you overslept? Who cares? Just get back on the wagon. Don't feel bad about it. Beating yourself up causes the number one problem you'll have: Thinking too much while you're trying to get to sleep.
• Don't try to sleep
• Thinking "Go to sleep, relax, go to sleep, stop thinking" really doesn't work for me. If I think about sleeping, I don't. Honestly, the best thing that worked for me was just imagining snuggling up with (who I want to be) my SO. That usually got me in a pleasant mood and emptied my mind well.
• Learn what it feels like to sleep
• or better yet, find out what it feels like to wake up. When I had REM naps, it felt like I'd just imagined something, and I hadn't slept. I could feel myself "snap" back to consciousness, but I never felt like I've slept. Once you've got that down, the whole thing is pretty easy.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll be on and off this schedule for the rest of the semester (most likely), so I'll update as I think of things.

Day 24: Wee Hours

I've skipped my 2 AM nap, since it's the one where I usually screw up. I am exceedingly tired right now, especially since I've had a headache all day. It's gone now, but it was tiring and kept me from sleeping during my 10 PM nap. I'm only awake right now due to coffee.

Mmmm. Coffee.

I felt a little of the effects of polyphasic sleep to the body today. I'm sure this won't surprise anyone, but when you are on the polyphasic sleep schedule, your body doesn't recover nearly as quickly as your mind does. Specific things that have happened include getting sick, although I can't really blame polyphasic sleep for the sickness, I do blame it for the slow recovery. I generally recover quite quickly. Also, I don't recover from weight lifting very quickly at all. On Thursday, I pushed myself far harder than I should have. I actually couldn't sit up or lift anything at all later in the day. Normally, I would be able to recover by Sunday, but I didn't. I went down, ran, did about 1/2 of my normal workout and I couldn't stop sweating or being dead tired. My mind clouded, and I quit because I know that trying to do these things when tired or lacking concentration causes injuries. This was quite strange, as my "normal" workout isn't all that terribly strenuous.

Mentally, I've been doing quite well, with a few exceptions. First, when I had that headache, I couldn't think for the life of me. I ended up making two mistakes multiplying polynomials. I caught them right away, but I never should have made them in the first place.

Second, I lack motivation on the low points. I still get quite tired when I'm not doing anything for an extended period, or when I would "normally" be sleeping. Sadly, the not doing anything includes sitting in class. Yeah, not good. Anywho, when I'm tired or have low energy, I don't really want to do anything at all. I mean, watching a movie seems like work. Yeah, that's also not good.

Third, other people. Honestly, I think I know what it must feel like socially to be homosexual. I've not told my parents about this (if any of you do, I'll kill you. I will also know who you are, I'm tracking this site :-) ), if I told them they would freak out. Whenever I tell someone, they assume I'm crazy or stupid. I never disagree on the crazy part, but people treat you differently. They can't understand why you would want to do something differently. Every friend I've told has thought I'm nuts for some amount of time, bar two. My RA thought it was cool, but would never do it himself (understandable), also a friend of mine named Richard (who I do math homework with). He just thought it was interesting. Nothing much scares math majors. We do problems that would make normal people cry.

Really, if you are going to try this, I advise you to think about your health, your habits, your willpower, your sanity, and your social concern. The only reason I can do this right now is that I don't really care what most people think about me. If other math majors or guys in my hall think I'm nuts and tell their friends about this crazy guy, I don't care. Also, I'm attempting to improve myself dramatically by the end of this semester, and this is the only way I can do everything I want to do.

Fourth, moments of depression and paranoia. I get a little depressed on my own, but with this schedule I've had a lot of time to think. Especially when I'm tired and not thinking clearly. I've posted some strange stuff on one of my other blogs (No, I'm not linking it. No, it's not in my profile. No, *gasp* it's not a Blogger blog). As long as you can keep your thoughts to yourself, and you don't normally go super-depressed (cut yourself, make bombs, etc), this part is livable.
If I add any more, it won't qualify as a few.

Really though, most of the time, my mental clarity is high, and my spirits are up. I actually usually feel better than I did when I was monophasic. There is one thing though: my roommate is really, REALLY getting tired of my naps. I don't know why, though. They're never very long, and I make a point of letting him watch TV and leave lights on. I try to be as accommodating as possible. Once did I flip out and unplug the TV (the plug is right next to my bed), but it was 2 AM, he had an 8 the next morning. I expected my "me" time. I've also been as silent as humanly possible while still awake when he sleeps. Oh well, if it really bothers him, I'm sure he'll say something. ;p

I need to make more coffee.

For fear of rambling, I'll stop my post here.

Day 23: Required Update

Okay, for the past few days, I've been sleeping more. A couple hours at a time, and just as frequently. This is because I was sick. I'm pretty much over it now, so I plan on getting back on track. I still haven't found the best method to get back on schedule. Would it be complete deprivation for some 48 hours, then start napping, or start the schedule whenever? I dunno.

I have a lot more programming I have to do this semester now. I've taken on a research project, so I actually have a reason to stay up these days. As you all know, programming will keep you up for hours on end. If you think I'm joking, you've never even entered larval mode of hackerdom.

Meh, I should finish cleaning my room. I recently set up my "router" (a complete computer set up with ipcop), so things got moved around. Since I was moving things around, I reorganized and gave myself more space again. Woohoo.

Later.

Day 20: Night

Time for a longer post.

Here are the most important things I've discovered recently:

• Just because it didn't feel like I slept, doesn't mean I didn't.
• These REM periods don't feel like normal sleep. It really feels like you're nodding off. You have this phase of dreaming, then snap, you start hearing the stuff around you again. At that point, get up. Even if your alarm hasn't gone off.
• When you get up, GET UP!
• This is the main problem I was having earlier. When you wake up from these REM periods, you don't feel like you've slept. At least, I haven't. I'd think I just missed my opportunity to sleep, and I'd try to sleep harder. Often I would get to sleep, but then it would be normal sleep. Then, when my alarm would go off, I would be groggy. Or I would just sleep through it. Yeah, that's bad.

Otherwise, I'm doing better. I now know that I've slept when I awaken. I know my "polyphasic sleep" pattern is a 16 +- 2 minute nap. I get up when I feel like I've just started hearing things again. I loooove the time. I'm finally learning Japanese. I'm usually in a great mood now. Everything is going fairly well.

Tomorrow is the _One Day_ I cannot miss classes. I probably wouldn't do too terribly if I missed Intro to Computer Organization, but I have a quiz in History (9.5 AM), and I don't know how many quizzes I'll have in this class. I need to do some more studying tonight, since he'll be quizzing us on things he's never covered (*sigh*).

I've not been using my light as often as I should. I think I'll use it after my 2AM and 6AM naps today.

Food is becoming an issue. I get really hungry late at night since I'm up so often. I've been having Subway, but that's waaaay too much money. For now, I'm using ramen, but we all know how long ramen takes to get old. I've not eaten at all, which is fine, but it makes getting breakfast uber important. It's not terribly easy to get breakfast on Tuesday and Thursday, due to my schedule.

For those of you crazy enough to try this: Be careful. Watch your eating, attitude, and mental acuity. If you feel drowsy, don't drive. You're on very few hours of sleep. Most of the time you'll feel fine, once you've adjusted. But when you hit those occasional lows, don't do anything dangerous.

That's about it for now.