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.

Day 18: Night: Finally!

I took a nap at around 8 PM, and guess what? I went directly into REM sleep. It was sooo strange. It was like having some sort of vivid imagining, and then waking up from it.

I woke up about 17 minutes after I fell asleep. I was totally rested.

It's finally working. I'll update more later. Just so you guys know, though. Sleep momentum can ruin this plan. It's important to _not_ oversleep.

Later.

Day 18: Morning

Nothing ruins a good day like sleep momentum. Got up an hour and 20 minutes later than I wanted, and I blame it on sleep momentum. Had I gone to bed when I wanted to instead of trying to be nice to my roommate and going to bed a little earlier, I would have done fine.

Between how he acted last night during my nap, and what happened today, he's not getting anymore grace from me.

Always make sure, if you do this, that you have no roommate, or one that understands the word "considerate," at least to some extent.

Day 17: Starting to work

I'm not feeling quite as crappy staying up anymore. I'm not quite as tired I have been before. This is good.

I've nothing really to talk about today, I just wanted to make sure I'm keeping this updated.

Day 15: A couple of reboots

Totally fell into monophasic this weekend, but I pulled out of it today. I forced myself into the schedule by keeping myself up until the 6 AM nap. I left my egg timer at home (my parents' place). I have a new confidence this time. I intend to maintain this schedule more faithfully. Sleep really does seem like a waste of time. I have enough to do now to fill the time, so I think I'll be able to do it.

Really, that's the hardest part. The mental struggle. If I get bored, I start thinking about sleep. Thinking about sleep gets you really, really tired.

Also, I've been putting together a techno playlist to keep me awake. I hope that will help.

I'm going to attempt my 2 AM nap in my chair, with my headphones on. I think I'll make some sort of audio file that plays nothing for 20 minutes, then plays something to wake me up.

Good grief, the stuff I need to come up with...

The reason I don't just use my normal alarm is that I don't want to wake my roommate. He's been having trouble staying asleep recently. I know how that feels... it sucks.

That's it for now. Until later.

Stage 2: Day 4/12: Morning

Total reboot today.

Slept for 7 hours. It was my own fault. I figure that if I go home this weekend I'll restart on Monday or so, whereas if I don't I'll restart today. My weakest period is my 2 AM nap. I've noticed this. So, I figure if I skip the 2 AM for the next few days, I will be more successful. This oculd be difficult though, since I have a hard time staying awake during part of it.

I need to decide whether or not to go home this weekend. There's a large part of me that wants to get away for a while, bake some bread, etc. However, I do have quite a bit of homework I could get done, and the extra time over the weekend is so nice.

Grrr. Okay, I'll probably just flip a coin or something.

As for the sleep, it's hard. It's getting harder to maintain this schedule. I honestly think it's worth it when I pull it off though.

Well, I'm in class, so I should probably get going.

Stage 3: Day3/11: Morning

Somehow, my egg timer didn't go off for my 2 AM nap. This is curious because I had the timer on the frame of my shelf (timer = magnetic, shelf = metal), and I basically can't reach it without trying to.

When I went to take my 2AM nap, my roommate had the TV on (why he's even up at 2 AM, I don't know). I kind of thought he would either turn it down or off when I was trying to sleep. How wrong I was. So, when my beeper went off, and I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep (problematic), I leaned forward, unplugged the TV, and reset my timer.

Then I woke up at 7ish. I have an 8 AM, so that wasn't all that cool. The first thing I did when I woke up was look at the place where my timer had been. It wasn't there. Then I looked on the floor nearby, not there either. So, I got up, and started to get ready. I looked around my bed more closely and found the timer in my sheets. This means that somehow the timer ended up not just off of the shelf I can barely reach, but down by my waist. Not only that, the timer was stopped at about 6.5 minutes.

I was asleep by then. I don't generally flail (especially that far up with my arms, around the sides, sure, but not like that). The timer was not only moved, but stopped. This all makes me suspicious. Of course, I can't prove anything, but still. I did take away his precious late night TV.

My final nerve has been touched. I get quite upset when people screw with my sleep.

Anywho, this means I've gotten about 5 hours of sleep today. Monophasic in style. *sigh* Okay, yet another set back. I'm just going to have to deal with it and move on. I'll blog later if I have the time and energy.

Stage 3: Day 1/9: Evening

Well, I've screwed up my schedule for today. I slept from 12:30 to 3:30. Three hours is not a whole bunch of wasted time, but it made the 6 PM nap very unproductive.

I went to the gym about an hour and a half ago, and I feel really good. However, I'm not tired right now, so I'll be sleeping around 11 tonight. I still feel as though I'm in the true uberman schedule. I expect to have more and more energy per day on this schedule as my body adjusts.

Since I'm going to be hitting the gym at least 3x a week, and I have difficult classes (3 anyways), we'll see how well this uberman schedule handles both physical and mental drains.

I'll probably update either at night or the wee hours. Or both.

Stage 3: Day 1 (Day 9): Morning

Well, I'm well into day 1 of the actual Uberman schedule, with one exception: I miss one nap every day (except, perhaps, weekends). The 10 AM nap.

I'm glad though, I actually got two Pimsleur lessons and one JFBP lesson done last night. I had some significant drowsiness issues during both Computer Organization and History. More during CO though. I assume quite a bit of the drowsiness is because of the low sleep amount during naps thus far. Also, the fact that my body has to adjust.

When I am all the way alert, I feel slightly inhibited mentally. Also, my motor skills are terrible. Good thing I don't have to drive for a while. I hope that my motor skills go back to normal after a few days. And my mental acuity. That's important to me.

I'm actually going to take this coming nap a little early. Either right now (since my roommate's gone at class), or about 1:30. Odds are now, though.

Scheduled Sleep so far today: 40 minutes.
Actual Sleep so far today: about 20 minutes.

Stage 3: Day 1 (Day 9): Wee Hours

It's the wee hours, which means I'm officially in stage 2.

Something strange happened yesterday: I slept during all of my naps. The most unusual part is that I overslept, so I ended up sleeping something like 7.5 hours throughout the whole day.

When my alarm went off a minute ago, I woke up. This normally would come as no surprise to anyone, but I was using that little egg timer, and it doesn't always get me up if I'm tired. Also, I've switched to 20 minutes for my naps. I had noticed that I was waking up (all alert, etc) around ten minutes before my alarm went off, and if I tried to go back to sleep, I got up groggy. Don't get me wrong, I could go back to sleep right now, but it didn't feel bad to get up. That's my point.


I can't wait to use up my newfound 4 hours. I can't believe what I've accomplished already with my extra time. Here's a quick rundown:

• I'm done with my Differential Equations homework through next Wednesday. This includes 2 sections we've not touched on yet.
  
• I'm done with the Stats homework that's due Friday.
• I've done extra problems and reading in Computer Organization (Assembly Language).
• I've done extra reading for History.
• I've gotten all my other homework done.
• I've totally cleaned my room.
• I've actually restarted my Japanese training.

Now, for some of you all this may seem trivial, but I'm usually a "get it done right before it's due" kind of person. Also, in this time, I've watched about 7 hours of movies, and probably 15 hours of TV. Not that I'm proud of wasting that kind of time, but just showing how much you really can get done. For what it's worth, the movies and TV (other than about 3 hours) have all been during times when I felt especially groggy or mentally clouded. This only seems to happen within an hour of nap time now.

Anything else... Well, I'm going to work on Japanese after I'm done posting. Even if I do one or two Pimsleur lessons (or one twice), and an JFBP lesson, that leaves me about 2 hours. Hm, maybe I'll read or something.

Free time... it's so nice.

That reminds me, there is one more added side benefit I wouldn't have thought of. I've gotten way ahead in homework, I have a clean room (my side, anyways), I'm getting to do thing I want to do, even time-consuming things (Oh yeah, I logged about 4 hours in Alpha Centauri yesterday). This has all added up into what is quite possibly the best benefit I could have asked for: Low Stress. I'm prepared for class. Hell, I'm overprepared. I often know ALL of what the teacher is going to cover that day before they cover it (reading is so useful).

Also in all of this, I've found a few little secrets to happiness:

• Keeping stress levels low makes you happier in general.
• Make what you like to do, what you have to do. If you do this, you will enjoy your work, enjoy finishing it, and actually get to it in time, leading to the above point.

For now, there are my 2p.

Stage 2: Day 4 (Day 8): Morning

Last night I didn't get up at 2, I actually got up around 7. Moderate failure.

I'm giving it to the end of the week. If I don't manage to get onto the Uberman schedule by Saturday, I'm only hurting myself (and annoying the shit out of my roommate). Seriously here, I need to get on track. I'm going to take a nap in a few minutes, and I hope I can actually sleep.

Honestly, I think one of my main problems is caffeine. I feel like I need caffeine all the time, but then I can't sleep. This is problematic. The issue is that I want to have the mental clarity to do work (homework, language study, etc), but drink caffeine. I was thinking that a can of pop immediately after I got up would be okay, but now it's looking like that isn't the case.

Looks like I'll be switching to water.

Stage 2: Day 3 (Day 7): Night

First thing I thought I'd clarify: What I've named times.

Morning: 6 AM - 2 PM
Afternoon: 2 PM - 6 PM
Evening: 6 PM - 10 PM
Night: 10 PM - 2 AM
Wee Hours: 2 AM - 6 AM

Okay, now on to the regular post:

Well, it's been a week, and so far I've failed once, and had limited success otherwise. Today: Still in stage 2 for sure. I went to sleep for my 2 AM nap, and got up at 6. This was not planned, but not terrible. I set my alarm for 6, just to be safe, and it's a good thing that I did. Anywho, due to circumstances, I couldn't sleep at exactly 2 and 6 (I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyways), but I got a one hour nap in from 4 to 5. I also slept a little during my 10 PM nap.

I intend to not screw up today. That stakes are a little higher. If I manage to get back up after my 2 AM nap, I have to get up for my 5:30, otherwise I'll miss classes. That would be very bad.

Tomorrow I'll be in Stage 3 if I don't slip up anywhere. I can't wait to be a true polyphasic sleeper. Already the extra time during the wee hours is more than I could have imagined. This wee hours I intend to do some studying of Japanese (a couple of Pimsleur lessons and a JFBP lesson), as well as take a look over my Differential Equations homework.

I'll blog during the wee hours if I'm awake.

Stage 2: Day 2 (Day 6): Afternoon

I encountered my first failure today. In nearly everyone's blog about switching to polyphasic sleep, there comes a point where they sleep well past a half hour. Some of them give up at that point, and some keep going. This morning, I went to sleep at 5:30 for a half hour nap. I got up at noon.

Thoughts and feelings? Well, I feel bad because I slipped, but not terrible about it, since it was bound to happen at some point. The funny thing is that when I got up, I was ubergroggy. Moreso than I was when I slept for 3.5 hours. I also had a headache, and less motivation. Even right now I feel a little... spacy. I felt bad because I missed my favorite part of the day. I love the 6 - 12 portion of the day.

Well, here's how it's going to go: I'm skipping the 2 PM nap (technically, I already have), but I'm going to try to get back on schedule at 6 PM. My roommate is closing at his job tonight, which means I'll probably be alone for my 10 PM and 2 AM naps.

Today was going to be the first day of Stage 3, but I fell through. Stage 3 is going to be rough at first, and the only reason I decided to jump into it without first staying at Stage 2 for a week, was because I transitioned to Stage 2 well ahead of schedule. I wanted to get to Stage 3 on a weekend, in case something like this happened.

One thing: You really do have a lot of time at night. I know something like 2 or 3 hours doesn't seem like much, but when you don't normally have it, you end up wondering what to do. I've concluded that I'm going to get back on the language learning system I was on earlier. It worked, I just ran out of time during the day. Just in case anyone cares: I'm using Japanese for Busy People for the writing and reading study, and Pimsleur (expensive!) Japanese I for the listening, comprehension, and speech study. If I have the motivation and time, I'll move onto the second book, as well as the second Pimsleur Japanese Unit.

Anyways, I can't believe it's 2 PM already. What a wasted day. Hopefully, tomorrow I'm fairly awake and coherent when I'm driving to Eau Claire.

Sleep Yesterday: About 4 hours.
Sleep so far today: Almost 7 hours (2 naps and that slip up)

Stage 2: Day 1 (Day 5)

This is a quick post between classes, so it might be a little truncated.

Last night I ended up getting to sleep about 2:30. Let me tell you, it was HARD to get up out of bed this morning. Seriously, I didn't even notice the first time my alarm went off (let's hear it for the ability to turn off your alarm before you're awake). I did manage to get up after the second time though. It took me about ten minutes of sitting there, to get up the mental capacities to get out of bed (I'm not always quite the morning person. Well, I am, but only after I take my shower). After my shower I still wasn't quite all awake. You know how your eyes feel acidic when your body doesn't think you've slept long enough? Yeah.

Once I finally got working on some homework, I felt better. I'm not really tired right now. I'm alert and attentive, but if I laid down, I'd be out. This is the point I wanted to get to for now. Once I fall asleep every time I nap, I'll be that much closer to true polyphasic sleeping.

I have noticed that, although I'm fine in the analytical basis (Math, CS, etc), I'm starting to lack on the writing and conversational points. This blog isn't so bad, but text-based conversations are getting weird. I'm making all sorts of run on sentences, using far too many parenthesis, spelling things wrong, it's terrible. Granted, I still know what I'm talking about. If we were in a face to face conversation, I would be totally coherent, and they would know what I'm saying, but still.

Well, I have to get ready for class.

Sleep so far: 3.5 Hours.

P.S. Sleep yesterday: I got about 5 minutes of sleep during my 10 PM nap. So, sleep yesterday was still around 5 hours.

Stage 1: Day 4: Evening

Even with the low sleep, I still fail to nap for any significant percentage of the half hour. I get tired, and I lay down, but I just don't fall asleep. Maybe my body needs a little less sleep to adjust to naps. I have operated on 4-5 hours of sleep before, so the 5 hours I got last night was probably enough.

Tonight, I need to stay up until at least 2, possibly 3. If I can manage it, I'm going to take a nap at 10. My roommate is at a concert right now, and I don't know how long that will take. I tend to sleep better when he's not in the room. It's not like he's more distracting or noisy than the general noise around the dorms. I don't know why I sleep worse. I figure once I get into the habit of naps, and my body depends on them, I'll get to sleep no matter what. Hopefully.

The one thing I lack, that I would have liked, is some level of peer pressure. You know, a couple other guys as crazy as me, who want an extra 42 hours a week (out of 168, that's 25% of the week I'll have back). I am starting to notice a few more side effects I wasn't expecting:

• I have absolutely no idea what day it is. And to some extent, what time it is. It's weird, I got up at 2:30 today, and it felt like 6:30. Also, after I take the first nap after classes (the 2:00 one). It feels like a week since I've been to my MWF classes. Honestly, Wednesday morning feels like a long, long time ago.
  
• Alertness/Fatigue levels and patterns. How do I describe this one. I have the most energy about a half hour after a nap. At about hour 2, I hit a small low, kind of like how you normally feel around 4. On the monophasic schedule, at 4, I didn't want to do anything. I get some back, and that's part of the problem, I'm not all that tired when I'm supposed to be sleeping again. I expect this problem to level out.
• Mental Clarity. Right now, I feel at least as clear mentally as I was before. I expect it to dip over the next couple of days, since I'll be transitioning. I hope that after I'm adjusted, I'll have the mental clarity of before, if not more. This is one of those "seems too good to be true" things, where if it isn't, I don't mind. I'll be happy with my normal level of thinking and all that extra time.
• Mood I've been surprisingly calm. Most of you who know me know that I get kind of emotional, and I get depressed. I've been amazingly not depressed, and perhaps happier. Sometimes even giddy. Maybe it's just because of my recent addiction to the Gilmore Girls.
  

Eh, that's enough. If I'm up at two, I'll blog again. If not, oh well. Tomorrow I have a little more taxing day. Both more mentally challenging and over a larger time period. Here's hoping I'm not a zombie.

Stage 1: Day 4: Morning

Well, I got to bed last night at around midnight like I wanted, but due to thinking about things, I didn't get to sleep until 1 or so. So, last night I got 5 hours of sleep. I see this as a good thing. It was hard to get up initially, but, as always, once I got in the shower I felt fine. I'm fairly certain some level of my success comes from the light I use. I got it to help with Seasonal Affective Disorder, but it can help me with this too. Whenever I can, I have it on for 7 minutes or so after I get up every time, 20 in the mornings (right now).

Well, we'll see how mentally active I am this morning. I have Assembly class right away, and History after that. If I manage to pay good attention in both, I'm doing fine.

I plan on napping at 2 and 6 again tonight. I'm going to eventually take a nap at 10 PM too, but probably not tonight. My bed time tonight will hopefully be around 12:45. If I can make it that far. It was a real struggle staying up until midnight last night.

Oh yeah, when I was sleeping, I woke up at 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, and when my alarm went off. I should have gotten up at 5:30, then there would be less fatigue. Getting up every hour isn't as bad as every half hour, and I'm not as tired when I do get up. Hopefully, this is a good thing,

Sleep so far today: 5 hours.

Stage 1: Day 3: Evening

Neither nap was productive today. I got nice and relaxed, yes, but I didn't sleep. I really thought I was going to sleep too, since I slept so poorly last night.

Tonight I'm starting the transition to Stage 2. I'm going to stay up about an hour later every night until I'm only sleeping 2-3 hours of "core sleep." This whole core sleep idea I have gotten from Andrew Nishigay. It's already 10:40, and I plan on stayung up until 12 or so tonight. I have to get up at 6, due to my class schedule. So, no chance at sleeping in.

By the way, if this post looks a bit... odd, I blame Blogger. It's acting strangely.

A side effect so far: I'm exceedingly happy. Nearly giddy. I can't believe it. I'm a depressed person, but I feel energetic and happy.

Another strange thing: I got really, really tired around 10-11 AM. Which is when my nap would be if I could have one then. Luckily, it's Stats, and I'm fairly good at teaching that to myself. I hope I don't fall asleep though, I really don't want to be that rude. So far, I've just been kinda zoned out during that time. It seems as though my body knows this schedule on it's own, and it just wants me to switch to it or not, but just decide! Thus, why I am moving to stage 2 a little earlier (only about 2 days, by the time I get there).

Enough for today.

Stage 1: Day 3: Morning

I slept terribly last night. It's my own fault though. As I said yesterday, I've cut significantly back on caffeine, and I intend to cut off caffeine all together. I probably cut back too much yesterday though. I had a headache this morning that is close to some of the worse headaches I've had.

I kept waking up last night like the night before. Pretty much at the same times too: 2:30 or so, 3:00, 3:30, 4:00, 4:30, 5:00, and 5:30.

At 2:30, I noticed my head hurt, and fell back to sleep. Each time after that I had a harder time going to sleep. It felt like my brain wanted to come out through the left front of my skull (and eye). So when I finally got up around six, I moved slowly, and took two aleve. Of course, they didn't help much. After I took a shower, I started drinking a Pepsi. My headache isn't gone, but it's close. I'm going to head to class pretty soon, and bring a couple cans of pop with me. I really hate withdrawal headaches.

I think after my naps today, I'm going to spray myself with 7 minutes of light. I have this light to deal with Seasonal Affective disorder, and it helps you wake up, along with making your body think it's morning. If this has a negative affect, I'll quit immediately.

I'll update later today, either in the afternoon or evening.

Stage 1: Day 2: Evening

I decided not to do the 11 nap. With the schedule I have, I think it's the best idea if I flat out skip the late morning nap. I won't be able to have that one on MWF due to my classes, and on TR it would be late.

I slept pretty well at the 2 PM nap, better than I have on any of the naps before. I didn't sleep a bit at the 6PM nap. However, I consider today to be a complete success. The reason being that this week is for adjusting my body to having naps in the afternoon. I'm feeling good about this schedule, but I'm starting to worry that I won't have things to do with my time during the adjustment period. I'll need to have things to do that aren't too terribly thought intensive. I'll probably work on the graphics for my new layout for my website.

Well, since I'm not polyphasic yet, I'm going to have to crash in a couple of hours. If I keep getting rested during my naps, I might just start getting to bed later and later, working towards stage 2. Right now, it's 9 o'clock, and I feel like it's 7. I'll probably get to bed at eleven or twelve. I'm still going to get up at 5:50, but I have a little extra time if I slip. I plan on holding this schedule for the rest of the week, or possibly adjust further. I'm assuming that I'll be able to sleep during my naps. The other thing is that I'm probably going to have to cut off the caffeine. Today all I had was two cans of pop. As opposed to yesterday when I had a pot of coffee and a few cans of pop. Today I slept better, I bet those go together.

My schedule will be interesting though, especially since I have a weight training class this semester, and what I've read says that polyphasic sleep is more rejuvenating mentally than physically. We'll see how this goes. Any support (not money here people, words of encouragement) would be appreciated.

Stage 1: Day 2: Morning

Last night, I went to bed around 10:15, which is a little early for me. I know that as this experiment continues, I'll have to cut off all energy changing products, but for now I am indeed still addicted to caffeine. This causes me to have to take sleeping pills at night. I took one last night. Every time I take one, I sleep for almost exactly 8 hours, and get up. I never awaken without someone else waking me.

Not last night.

Last night I woke up at 2:30. Completely awake. Yes, that was about 4 hours of sleep. I attempted to go back to sleep, but continued to wake up every half hour. The strange thing was, I would remember a dream after every time I awoke. Is my body and mind already adjusting to the schedule? Or did I just have a strange night of sleep? I don't know, but this morning I'm full of energy.

Today, I intend to nap at 11, 2, and 6.

More updates on energy levels and sleep later today.

Stage 1: Day 1: Afternoon

Well, today I began the experiment. I am quickly finding out why people often go straight into the Uberman schedule. As most things are much easier the first day, I still intend to follow the schedule I laid out yesterday.

At 2 PM I attempted to take a nap. I'm not terribly quick to sleep, but I still have optimism for this experiment. I probably only slept for 5 minutes before the alarm went off, but I still feel amazingly better than I did before I slept.

I intend to attempt to sleep again at six. Perhaps I'll be able to that time. Who knows?

Other than that, there is very little to report right now.

Welcome, and an explanation.

This blog is to catalogue the daily events of mine as I progress through the transition to Polyphasic sleep. If the effects of this schedule are too traumatic, I will be dropping the experiment, and closing the blog.

Now that that's out of the way, here's what I have learned:

Of the Polyphasic schedules I've heard of, I've seen two that seemed to work for some people for any length of time (more than three months). The first is the standard "Uberman" sleep schedule, which I would prefer to adopt, but I'll understand if I can't handle the stress. The Uberman schedule is simply a 15-30 minute nap (depending on your sources) every 4 hours. Even at the .5 hour, it's only 3 hours of sleep a day. Lots of extra time. The other schedule is a modified one: a 2-3 hour "core" sleep sometime in the early morning, and 2-4 naps throughout the rest of the day. This lands the tally at more like 4 - 6 hours of sleep.

On a "normal" day last semester, I would get 6 hours of sleep. So, 2.5-3.0 hours of total sleep would afford me quite a bit more time. Especially when you count the fact that I spent quite a bit of time in bed "trying to go to sleep," which is basically me thinking too hard.

Here's my plan for this experiment:

• Stage 1: Adjust
• Instead of the normal "Switch it now!" schedule people normally do, I'm planning on starting the naps first. This does two things:
• I don't have the massive amounts of sleep deprivation at first
• My body gets used to sleeping for 20 minutes during the day
• Naps: 20 Minutes
• Do this for one week
• Stage 2: Sleep Deprivation 1
• Cut out all but 3 hours of sleep. Effectively switching to the non-Uberman method. This would be the Uberman method, except with the core sleep in place of a nap.
• Do this for 1-2 week(s) or until a few days after fully adjusted.
  
• Stage 3: Sleep Deprivation 2
• Now switch all the way to the uberman schedule. Basically, I'd take the core sleep and just nap instead.
• Do for at least 3 weeks.
  
• If it fails, go back to Stage 2, and try to continue there.
• If it succeeds, continue indefinitely, or until the summer.

Now that I'm done abusing bullet points, I'm going to add a caveat. If this experiment does too much non-temporary damage to my grades, I'm abandoning it. I don't care how far along I am. If there is some sort of project or something that interferes with the adjustment period, I'll start over when I can. If classes are too hard to allow for the required limited mental capacities, I'll drop it for the semester/permanently.

I'm going to start Stage 1 tomorrow. I will attempt to blog every day.