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.