ugh. that didn't work out at all. Went to bed around 23:30 last night and woke up at 7am. No way is that anywhere near polyphasic. I need to take a look at my diet and water intake and try to readjust to get on a schedule i can manage.
I think one of the things that burned me out last time was the shear volume of work I did and it seemed like I wasn't doing anything fun for a week or two. I don't imagine I do much more fun when I have no sleep schedule, but sleeping is a nice release to the work of every day. Just time that you don't have to think or do, just relax and be. Maybe some more yoga, some more cooking, some new guitar strings, and some playlist mixing will be on-tap for my next round. As for timing, I'm still trying to prepare myself for this. Maybe tonight? Waking up before 7am is particularly rough, and staying up til 3am isn't my cup of tea either.
Ok well, at this point, I think I have enough mindless organization work to keep me busy tomorrow morning, so I'll shoot for 6am and down about 3 bottles of water tonight to try to wake me up tomorrow morning. Oh and I'll try to read some more of the Three Musketeers. If you haven't read it, go pick up a copy (by Alexandre Dumas) or let me know and I'll give you mine when I'm done. It's a great read and it goes quickly. Before you know it, you're sucked in and see things from D'Aragnan's POV. Lots of fighting, drinking, bravery, womanizing, etc.
Ok sleep time, my head hurts. Maybe after I get some dental work tomorrow and start drinking more water I'll feel better. I've got 2-3 cuts on the inside of my mouth that aren't healing well and I think they developed due to the stress of the past couple weeks. Got to find a way to control that.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Back To It!!! Everyman 2.0
Ok so after a couple weeks of tough work and sleep schedule, along with a near-meltdown this past weekend, I think I'm ready for more polyphasic fun. My workload at this point is dictating how much I sleep. I would love to get more, and I thought long and hard about just going back to normal sleeping and cutting some stuff out of my life to make me a more sane individual.
Then I thought about how much I COULD be getting done. That sold me. I'm such a pushover sometimes. Whenever someone suggests something to me that could be really awesome, I tend to be overly optimistic and try to jump right in. Maybe that's a bit of a flaw. meh.
So most importantly, the next however many days will track my crazed second attempt at the everyman sleep cycle.
Salut to shoeboxed.com for driving me to this! We better be very successful, become millionaires, eat at fancy restaurants all the time, own yachts, make really shitty speeches that get broadcast on YouTube only to be pulled days later because your company has that much pull and you suck, etc. etc. etc. This is the life of a successful social-networking website CEO. This is the startup lifestyle. Maybe I'll get that too! um, yeah.
Loopiness is not setting in, that probably just was not that funny. boo. Ok work time! will take nap number one of tonight will be served up in about half-an-hour or so.
Cheers!
Then I thought about how much I COULD be getting done. That sold me. I'm such a pushover sometimes. Whenever someone suggests something to me that could be really awesome, I tend to be overly optimistic and try to jump right in. Maybe that's a bit of a flaw. meh.
So most importantly, the next however many days will track my crazed second attempt at the everyman sleep cycle.
Salut to shoeboxed.com for driving me to this! We better be very successful, become millionaires, eat at fancy restaurants all the time, own yachts, make really shitty speeches that get broadcast on YouTube only to be pulled days later because your company has that much pull and you suck, etc. etc. etc. This is the life of a successful social-networking website CEO. This is the startup lifestyle. Maybe I'll get that too! um, yeah.
Loopiness is not setting in, that probably just was not that funny. boo. Ok work time! will take nap number one of tonight will be served up in about half-an-hour or so.
Cheers!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Days 9-14:The past week
So I completely fell off the face of the earth this past week. I'm almost 100% certain that I am a workaholic. Quick Recap:
Tues. : 4 hours of sleep. Good sleep schedule.
Wed. : 4.5 hours of sleep leading into wednesday. took some good naps.
Thurs: 4 hours of sleep followed by an interview at 8:30am Thursday. I'm at this point completely into a sleep schedule of 3am-~7am.
Thurs. night: hard crash. I've done so much work the past 2 weeks that I think I'm burning out really hard. Napped at 11:20, but my naps have become shortened, to the point where this one was only 10 minutes long. Not enough to recharge. But I just keep waking up early or being interrupted by a phone call or something. Had ONE beer because my stress level varied inversely to my sleep levels. Needed to calm down, and instead ended up mentally breaking down. Came back to my room at midnight and spent an hour mindlessly emptying out my email inbox (it's accumulated over the past week...) Crashed around 1am to sleep and get ready for another interview.
Friday: woke up after 6 hours of sleep. Friday I felt hazy like my burnout on Thursday was still causing some residual meh-ness. Got a lot of work done, went into the shoeboxed office and worked more. Don't remember how Friday night went... ??
Saturday: woke up early (7:30am) after about 6 hours of sleep again. Felt absolutely GREAT that I got to sleep that much. I've been a bit too stressed out lately. I'm coming to the realization that I need more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night. It's fine for a couple days (with strategic naps), but overall it has some bad effects. One guy in the office pointed out that neuron ion channels replenish themselves when we are asleep and there is LITTLE TO NO electrical activity going on - ie: non-REM sleep. So maybe these have been damaged and depleted lately, making me really screwed up.
Ok well, I'm going to keep blogging now after this falling off of the map. My sleep schedule is changing more toward something that resembles normalcy. Probably 6 hours at night augmented by 2-3 naps during the day. I don't need to be pushing the early morning and late night as much as I am right now -- I just need to make my daytime hours more effective I think.
Tomorrow morning: interview at 8:30am. So I'll plan on sleeping from about 1am until 7am. Nap 1 set for ~12pm, nap 2 at ~6pm, and nap 3 at 10 or 11pm. Or something like this. I might try to do more naps closer together, but for 10-15 minutes instead of 30 minutes.
Tues. : 4 hours of sleep. Good sleep schedule.
Wed. : 4.5 hours of sleep leading into wednesday. took some good naps.
Thurs: 4 hours of sleep followed by an interview at 8:30am Thursday. I'm at this point completely into a sleep schedule of 3am-~7am.
Thurs. night: hard crash. I've done so much work the past 2 weeks that I think I'm burning out really hard. Napped at 11:20, but my naps have become shortened, to the point where this one was only 10 minutes long. Not enough to recharge. But I just keep waking up early or being interrupted by a phone call or something. Had ONE beer because my stress level varied inversely to my sleep levels. Needed to calm down, and instead ended up mentally breaking down. Came back to my room at midnight and spent an hour mindlessly emptying out my email inbox (it's accumulated over the past week...) Crashed around 1am to sleep and get ready for another interview.
Friday: woke up after 6 hours of sleep. Friday I felt hazy like my burnout on Thursday was still causing some residual meh-ness. Got a lot of work done, went into the shoeboxed office and worked more. Don't remember how Friday night went... ??
Saturday: woke up early (7:30am) after about 6 hours of sleep again. Felt absolutely GREAT that I got to sleep that much. I've been a bit too stressed out lately. I'm coming to the realization that I need more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night. It's fine for a couple days (with strategic naps), but overall it has some bad effects. One guy in the office pointed out that neuron ion channels replenish themselves when we are asleep and there is LITTLE TO NO electrical activity going on - ie: non-REM sleep. So maybe these have been damaged and depleted lately, making me really screwed up.
Ok well, I'm going to keep blogging now after this falling off of the map. My sleep schedule is changing more toward something that resembles normalcy. Probably 6 hours at night augmented by 2-3 naps during the day. I don't need to be pushing the early morning and late night as much as I am right now -- I just need to make my daytime hours more effective I think.
Tomorrow morning: interview at 8:30am. So I'll plan on sleeping from about 1am until 7am. Nap 1 set for ~12pm, nap 2 at ~6pm, and nap 3 at 10 or 11pm. Or something like this. I might try to do more naps closer together, but for 10-15 minutes instead of 30 minutes.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Night 8: CrAziNeSs & one down
Today was a bit rougher. I think it will take a couple days to get used to low core sleep. But 4 hours last night was promising. I think tonight I will shoot for 3.5. I'm set to sleep in 2 hours, at 2:00 until 5:30. I'll try to do this so that I can take a nap at 9:15 while keeping nap intervals semi-normal.
Today: nap from 9:30-10:00,nap from 14:00-14:30, nap from 20:20-20:40, nap from 22:50-23:10. Not bad, but the 4th nap was not planned. It was just needed. Might be because of how little sleep I got last night and that adjustment. Oh well. PureDoxyK said something about taking naps when you feel tired. I felt tired, and definitely needed another nap. It's looking like polyphasic straight would definitely drive you crazy for a while. As is, I think it'll take me a couple days if not a week or two to adjust and not feel like crashing here and there throughout the day.
New development in office friends' polyphasic sleeping: Justin B crashed hard this weekend. He had a major reboot of 8-10 hours after being on a straight polyphasic schedule for a week. I think he's decided it's just not worth it. This was his second time trying it out. I'll have a bigger update when I talk to him next; due to my crazy schedule of work and sleep and the fact that I'm in the shoeboxed.com office from about 19:00-00:00 on the nights I am here, it might be until the weekend before i get to talk to him. I'm looking forward to interviewing Justin!
Ok time to leave the office and go back to my dorm for work on other projects.
Today: nap from 9:30-10:00,nap from 14:00-14:30, nap from 20:20-20:40, nap from 22:50-23:10. Not bad, but the 4th nap was not planned. It was just needed. Might be because of how little sleep I got last night and that adjustment. Oh well. PureDoxyK said something about taking naps when you feel tired. I felt tired, and definitely needed another nap. It's looking like polyphasic straight would definitely drive you crazy for a while. As is, I think it'll take me a couple days if not a week or two to adjust and not feel like crashing here and there throughout the day.
New development in office friends' polyphasic sleeping: Justin B crashed hard this weekend. He had a major reboot of 8-10 hours after being on a straight polyphasic schedule for a week. I think he's decided it's just not worth it. This was his second time trying it out. I'll have a bigger update when I talk to him next; due to my crazy schedule of work and sleep and the fact that I'm in the shoeboxed.com office from about 19:00-00:00 on the nights I am here, it might be until the weekend before i get to talk to him. I'm looking forward to interviewing Justin!
Ok time to leave the office and go back to my dorm for work on other projects.
Day 8
WOW it's 47 degrees (F) outside! It's starting to get chilly in Durham in the mornings! This is the first time I've majorly noticed this for 2 reasons: 1) I don't have air-conditioning this year in the dorm I'm in, so I've been using the window-open, fan on trick to pull in cold air from the commons room across the hall. 2) I'm up at 6am on schedule!!!!
I think that sleeping up in the loft and having to climb my ass out to turn off the alarm was a perfect pro wake-up procedure. I made one other key change. Instead of making my initial alarm a blaring beeping, I turned on the radio alarm feature of my clock for the first time ever. With NPR talking about the Blackwater controversy right now, I certainly realized that something was going on and I woke up. BUT there was no voice inside my head saying, "YEEEARRRGH GHGHHGASDLASDKLA FFHDAKJFJL AKF"PAW:LS THAT NEEDS TO BE TURNED OFF NOW!" Instead I listened for a second (long enough to realize what I had just done to myself) and then figured since it did hurt my ears a bit I should turn it off. Maybe a slightly lower volume will make me get up and will allow me to listen to the BBC world news and get smart in the mornings too!
Ok, so this could be the first semi-correct Everyman day for me. Last night I had 4 hours of core sleep and I'm a bit groggy for it. Maybe I should chop down quickly to 3 hours to correspond to REM cycles? Since I'm up I think I'll do some research on it ;)
I think that sleeping up in the loft and having to climb my ass out to turn off the alarm was a perfect pro wake-up procedure. I made one other key change. Instead of making my initial alarm a blaring beeping, I turned on the radio alarm feature of my clock for the first time ever. With NPR talking about the Blackwater controversy right now, I certainly realized that something was going on and I woke up. BUT there was no voice inside my head saying, "YEEEARRRGH GHGHHGASDLASDKLA FFHDAKJFJL AKF"PAW:LS THAT NEEDS TO BE TURNED OFF NOW!" Instead I listened for a second (long enough to realize what I had just done to myself) and then figured since it did hurt my ears a bit I should turn it off. Maybe a slightly lower volume will make me get up and will allow me to listen to the BBC world news and get smart in the mornings too!
Ok, so this could be the first semi-correct Everyman day for me. Last night I had 4 hours of core sleep and I'm a bit groggy for it. Maybe I should chop down quickly to 3 hours to correspond to REM cycles? Since I'm up I think I'll do some research on it ;)
Night 7
Alright tonight I'm back on track with trying to get on a solid Everyman sleep schedule. It's been a lot harder than I thought it would be. I was being pretty optimistic to think that in the first week I'd be able to drop straight into it. The naps feel pretty comfortable now, I just need to work on consistency and discipline with core sleeping.Last nap: 10:00-10:30. The naps have this event-horizony feel to them. I tend to lay there thinking about how I am not asleep and trying to drop into sleep. The longer I lay there, the more rationalize it as being ok since I'm at least getting some relaxation time, but I start to doubt pretty seriously that I'll actually fall asleep.
Then BOOM, I wake up when my nap is supposed to be over (sometimes before the alarm) and I feel great, like I've been sleeping for a while. Very much like time stretches out infinitely long only to then snap into normalness again.
"There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that provides the difficulties."
- Douglas AdamsThat is exactly how to approach napping. If you don't get it, try polyphasic napping. You can't worry about whether you will hit the ground or not (read: whether or not you will fall asleep), you've just got to not worry about it and do it. Idk maybe I'm rambling again.
Tonight's projected sleep plan: 2:00-6:00 core sleep. This should provide sufficient sleep time. Further, since I am back to sleeping in the loft (absolutely awesome, though I think one of the shims is loose again...) it should be easy to toss myself down to turn off the alarm then stumble to my towel and jump into the shower. Hopefully this will wake me up!
Oh, as for the picture, that's me with a deep-fried Milky Way bar. Sounds gross, but somehow it tasted really good. and sent me into a food coma for about the next 3 hours. I *heart* the NC state fair. I must be sleep deprived to use the *s like that. uh oh.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Day 7
One Week! (Am I on the wrong day?... maybe...) Nope! after checking it out, I realize that I am in fact on the correct day. It has been one long week of failing miserably with the Everyman sleep schedule.
This week I'll try to do better. By the end of week 2 I plan to have a set of factors for success boiled down. Drinking massive amounts of water will be near the top of that list.
Today I woke up at 11am, 3 hours after my 8am target time. I think that napping during the day makes me awake enough that a core sleep time will be attainable. If I'm too tired going into it, there's no will power to pull me out of bed. Got to work on this.
I'm going to lay down for a nap right now (17:15) in hopes of waking up and getting back on a good schedule. I'll probably take another nap around 22:00 and then shoot for a 2 or 3am core sleep time.
Since I've obviously slept through alarms on the futon, there's no reason to persist in staying on it and not using my nice queen-sized loft. So I think I will go ahead and make my bed (it's had no sheets on it since fall break, whoops!) and start sleeping in it again.
Shit now it's 5:20 and I haven't started my nap yet. It's time.l
This week I'll try to do better. By the end of week 2 I plan to have a set of factors for success boiled down. Drinking massive amounts of water will be near the top of that list.
Today I woke up at 11am, 3 hours after my 8am target time. I think that napping during the day makes me awake enough that a core sleep time will be attainable. If I'm too tired going into it, there's no will power to pull me out of bed. Got to work on this.
I'm going to lay down for a nap right now (17:15) in hopes of waking up and getting back on a good schedule. I'll probably take another nap around 22:00 and then shoot for a 2 or 3am core sleep time.
Since I've obviously slept through alarms on the futon, there's no reason to persist in staying on it and not using my nice queen-sized loft. So I think I will go ahead and make my bed (it's had no sheets on it since fall break, whoops!) and start sleeping in it again.
Shit now it's 5:20 and I haven't started my nap yet. It's time.l
Night 6
I snapped this gem at the NC state fair earlier today. I've seen these shirts before, but never in groups. Looks like the kid on the left has been chowin' down on a few too many Jesus Peanut Butter Cups....I ended up caving in and laying down for a nap at 21:45. Planned on 30 minutes, but I was in my girlfriend's bed and ended up just sleeping until 2:00am. Whoops. My sleep schedule is officially fucked. I've now been up for an hour and a half since then and I'm debating how I should get back onto Everyman. I had a promising run there for a couple days. I think the drinking last night really did me in, not to mention my Thursday night reboot. I still don't feel all that well, so I think I'll probably pass out soon and then tomorrow start napping properly again.
Ok I'm tired and I hurt. I don't know why, maybe it was sleeping on the floor last night. Blah.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Day 6
Last night was one of the MOST FUN TIMES of my life. Got to eat some Panang curry, which took me back to the summer trip in Thailand (we also had spicy coconut soup - amazing). Then went to the ZTA semiformal hosted at: Pizza Palace! I couldn't believe we chose that locale, but it ended up being a suprisingly fun and cost-effective location. Never would have guessed.
Alums are back in town since it's homecoming weekend. One of them began boxing with me and demanded to know why we never slept together last year... um, my "official" response was that I didn't want any STDs...
While last night was great, I also did not stay on sleep schedule. I was 100% accurate in predicting that my pitiful reboot Thursday night would segue into a weekend of old and bad sleeping habits. Last night I slept from about 2:00 to 8:00. 6 hours, and most pathetic is that I did a bad job of napping today. This was most likely due to the copious quantity of alcohol I consumed last night. Alcohol is better than cigarettes when trying to maintain a sleep schedule, but awful in bulk.
No nap from 10:00 (when I actually got to bed) until 16:40. Napped in my car in the parking lot of the mall from then until 17:00. BTW this afternoon the state fair was a lot of fun. crazy people, crazy carnival games that I did not play, and some fried milky way bars & frozen chocolate bananas on top of it all.
So now I am about 4 hours away from my last nap and debating whether to take a mini nap and try to get back on schedule or whether I should just screw it until tomorrow since I have more alumni friends in town that I kind of wanted to hang out with tonight. Tobacco, alcohol, food, and friends are the major factors involved with getting onto a good sleep schedule. None of them mix all that well with Everyman sleep. Boo hiss. I'll trim my lifestyle selectively.
Might nap, might not. I'll blog about the verdict when I wake up/go to sleep next.
Alums are back in town since it's homecoming weekend. One of them began boxing with me and demanded to know why we never slept together last year... um, my "official" response was that I didn't want any STDs...
While last night was great, I also did not stay on sleep schedule. I was 100% accurate in predicting that my pitiful reboot Thursday night would segue into a weekend of old and bad sleeping habits. Last night I slept from about 2:00 to 8:00. 6 hours, and most pathetic is that I did a bad job of napping today. This was most likely due to the copious quantity of alcohol I consumed last night. Alcohol is better than cigarettes when trying to maintain a sleep schedule, but awful in bulk.
No nap from 10:00 (when I actually got to bed) until 16:40. Napped in my car in the parking lot of the mall from then until 17:00. BTW this afternoon the state fair was a lot of fun. crazy people, crazy carnival games that I did not play, and some fried milky way bars & frozen chocolate bananas on top of it all.
So now I am about 4 hours away from my last nap and debating whether to take a mini nap and try to get back on schedule or whether I should just screw it until tomorrow since I have more alumni friends in town that I kind of wanted to hang out with tonight. Tobacco, alcohol, food, and friends are the major factors involved with getting onto a good sleep schedule. None of them mix all that well with Everyman sleep. Boo hiss. I'll trim my lifestyle selectively.
Might nap, might not. I'll blog about the verdict when I wake up/go to sleep next.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Day 5
Julian, this next nap will be dedicated to you. The last one I took was on the floor about 8 feet to your left since you took the backroom sleep location and people were on the futon. You should really think about trying to nap for 30 minutes at a time!I'm trying to pull it back together. After a poor night of sleeping pattern (slept 7.5 hours... ugh) I'm trying hard to get back on track. But this weekend doesn't look too promising. I took a 16:15-16:40 nap and woke up feeling non-hazy (very niice!!).
However, tonight I have my girlfriend's semiformal to go to... this will involve dinner, pregame, and dancing/party somewhere. Drinking does not mix well w/ polyphasic sleeping and neither do long commitments that don't fit nap schedules. So, I think I will be using some help from a Thai energy drink (M-150) to skip my evening nap tonight. I'll probably also be really bad and break schedule tonight again.
TOMORROW IS THE STATE FAIR!
I Feel kinda bad, because last week we agreed that WeeklyMeeting.DevTeam will be Saturdays at 14:00, but I had already promised my girlfriend that I would go with and her friends. And it will be great. I'll just get caught back up tomorrow night upon returning. I'm looking forward to trying fried coke, a 2006 Texas State Fair shiner. And I want to see some pigs and tractor pulls. Damn, I guess I have lived in NC for 20 years now...
Ok for the tekkies, Tee just sent me a *sweet* link to a great web development site. Maybe I'll devote some of my extra time gained with Everyman to reading this like a bible. Oh, Tee also managed to coin a new term last night:
Implusion: using a true statement to incorrectly support a false statement. An Impluder, one who impludes, is always characterized by a general sense of douchebaggery.
And that's the word of the week! So long from Shoeboxed.com!
Reboot 2
Bad, bad news. Last night I was planning on 2:30-7 core sleep. Upon waking up at 7, I promptly turned off both my alarms semi-subconsciously, then went back to sleep. Only by luck did I wake up at 10:00 just in time for my class. It may just be golf, but it's still a class.
I was hazy too. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep. But then again I also realized that by going back to sleep, I'd make it worse. Stuck in this catch-22, I thought the best option was probably to just lay there for a while. But a sense of responsibility got the better of me and I jumped up, tossed on a hat (for the first time in months), and ran to my car for golf. I do NOT like not showering in the morning, mainly because my hair sticks out in all directions and is pretty long.
Dammit. It's as if I slept through my entire first waking cycle of the day. I was planning on a nap right before golf, yeah I know it's only a couple hours into the day, but that would set me through ~4pm when I would have time to take one again.
Effects of sleeping so long: Right now (2 hours later) I'm just starting to feel not groggy and hazy. This sucks because not only did I waste an extra 3 hours on sleeping, but I also have spent the past 2 hours not being able to think. PureDoxyK had it completely right about messing with core sleep leaving you feeling weird all day. It hasn't completely worn off, but I have no choice but to get shit done. If missing naps is supposed to be worse, I am terrified to the point of overnapping now.
Causes of sleeping so long
Last night was a Thursday night. For people who don't remember college, this is an AWESOME night to go out on, mainly because no one really cares about Friday classes/work and there are a lot of good specials, like Big Beers at Satisfaction for 4 bucks. Every Thursday without fail. Brilliant. For weird sleep schedules, social habits are bad -- such as drinking and smoking. I hate to admit it, but I've been an on-and-off nicotine subscriber for the past 2-3 years. Not in large doses, but enough to make me wish I had a cigarette from time to time. Last night was one of those times. Since I've been reading about how Everyman is more forgiving than straight polyphasic or uberman, I figured what the heck, with 2-3 hours before core sleep, why not have a drink or have a cigarette?
I passed on the drink because I was working and realized that a Big Beer at 00:00 would knock me out. But I did have half of a cigarette. I'm pretty sure that my body processing that crap along with maybe not having quite enough water is what made me feel awful upon waking up this morning. That led to a total reboot of 7.5 hours of sleep. This is almost really embarrassing, enough to make me want to skip all of today's naps. But that's NOT a good plan.
This episode may facilitate kicking the habit. That's really what this experiment is all about -- being able to learn my bodily functioning to the point that I can predict it, make clear decisions, and stay in charge of what goes on in my day-to-day life. Getting rid of tobacco is very necessary. Beer, not so much. But tobacco is no good and I know that.
Ok time to pick up the pieces. More to come soon.
I was hazy too. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep. But then again I also realized that by going back to sleep, I'd make it worse. Stuck in this catch-22, I thought the best option was probably to just lay there for a while. But a sense of responsibility got the better of me and I jumped up, tossed on a hat (for the first time in months), and ran to my car for golf. I do NOT like not showering in the morning, mainly because my hair sticks out in all directions and is pretty long.
Dammit. It's as if I slept through my entire first waking cycle of the day. I was planning on a nap right before golf, yeah I know it's only a couple hours into the day, but that would set me through ~4pm when I would have time to take one again.
Effects of sleeping so long: Right now (2 hours later) I'm just starting to feel not groggy and hazy. This sucks because not only did I waste an extra 3 hours on sleeping, but I also have spent the past 2 hours not being able to think. PureDoxyK had it completely right about messing with core sleep leaving you feeling weird all day. It hasn't completely worn off, but I have no choice but to get shit done. If missing naps is supposed to be worse, I am terrified to the point of overnapping now.
Causes of sleeping so long
Last night was a Thursday night. For people who don't remember college, this is an AWESOME night to go out on, mainly because no one really cares about Friday classes/work and there are a lot of good specials, like Big Beers at Satisfaction for 4 bucks. Every Thursday without fail. Brilliant. For weird sleep schedules, social habits are bad -- such as drinking and smoking. I hate to admit it, but I've been an on-and-off nicotine subscriber for the past 2-3 years. Not in large doses, but enough to make me wish I had a cigarette from time to time. Last night was one of those times. Since I've been reading about how Everyman is more forgiving than straight polyphasic or uberman, I figured what the heck, with 2-3 hours before core sleep, why not have a drink or have a cigarette?
I passed on the drink because I was working and realized that a Big Beer at 00:00 would knock me out. But I did have half of a cigarette. I'm pretty sure that my body processing that crap along with maybe not having quite enough water is what made me feel awful upon waking up this morning. That led to a total reboot of 7.5 hours of sleep. This is almost really embarrassing, enough to make me want to skip all of today's naps. But that's NOT a good plan.
This episode may facilitate kicking the habit. That's really what this experiment is all about -- being able to learn my bodily functioning to the point that I can predict it, make clear decisions, and stay in charge of what goes on in my day-to-day life. Getting rid of tobacco is very necessary. Beer, not so much. But tobacco is no good and I know that.
Ok time to pick up the pieces. More to come soon.
Night 4: Stupidman
Tee and Matt J have admitted to being a part of a polyphasic variation movement. This is new and very groundbreaking. They've coined their sleep patterns the "stupidman" sleep cycle.
The stupidman sleeper doesn't go to sleep until he is TOTALLY SATISFIED with what he's accomplished during the day. Maybe he falls asleep in the process of trying to accomplish this. Matt J says this happens pretty often. He's woken up several mornings with his laptop opened up on his bed. He gets depressed when he sees this; it's worse than normal waking up.
Tee usually wakes up 4-6 hours after falling asleep with a feeling of despair about not finishing what he's done. What do these guys think of polyphasic sleeping and the everyman cycle?
"It takes too much committment and thought, for a stupid man. It's pretty self explanatory: the stupidman sleeper says he'll begin the everyman cycle -- tomorrow." Tee and Matt J collaborated on that one. Brilliant.
Tee explains his most recent sleep cycle: "went to 4 oclock bed 9am." Obviously this is a very efficient method of retaining full mental capacities for extended periods of time.
Idiots. They'll be everyman converts soon.
As to my night schedule: nap from 22:00-22:30. Woke up a bit pissed that someone called me mid-nap and woke me briefly. But I got over it and now I'm being productive! Planning on a core sleep time of 2:30-7
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Power of Nap
Tomas: "I just dreamt about somebody trashtalking polyphasic sleep." Rob: "It must have been very vivid"
(we were talking about it while he was sleeping.....)
Tomas and I just agreed that a polyphasic nap is DRASTICALLY different from a normal one. I've noticed going through most of a nap with the conscious thought in my head, "I'm just laying here, why am I not asleep yet??" only to wake up 5 minutes later and think, "DAMN, I was just passed out for a solid 30 minutes and now I feel great....".
I guess this is what happens when you drop into REM very efficiently. Craziness. I think once I've learned to let go a bit more when I nap, I'll have some great lucid dreams!
Day 4
Agenda: Woke up (7am -- overslept again...), worked on editing paper. Submitted this morning, went to FIP conference intro. Did homework during. Was really tired through class (10:05-11:20). Crashed for a *sweet* nap at 11:30 on the Teer couches. Note to self: one of the resources that must be made available with a campus map is editable locations of good sleeping spots. Because Teer is a great one. I may start sleeping there exclusively. Lord knows I haven't made my bed yet since fall break because I've been living on my futon. Maybe once I get into a good schedule pattern I'll start using the bed again. But not now.
Did great all day, felt like I needed another nap around 16:00 pushed it to 17:00(30m). Went to the Shoequarters and passed out on our nice little sleep chair. It's glorious. Now I'm up and coding quite happily! I think I'll plan on another nap around 22:00. Ok busy with work, so I'll deal w/ that and not make a really long post right now. busy, busy, busy!
From PureDoxyK:
"Messing with the core-times is bad, in that it will make you feel generally unrested all day. But messing with a nap is a big no-no, because it makes you feel like somebody drove a bus into your frontal lobe, parked it there and had a clambake. *gag*"
Thanks Tomas for pointing that out. I would have to agree.
Justin seems to be doing well, so does Tomas.
Tomas: "they've been going pretty well. it sucks to miss a nap, because you don't feel tired then but then you crash. it messes you up for your core sleep because you're so tired even though you don't realize it."
Well put, agreed. I think I'll be at the shoe-office until about 2am tonight! maybe a break for dinner, but I should get some major work done after being in a time-warp the last couple days.
Not Quite There, or More Excuses
I was planning on a 6am wake-up in order to get a shit-tonne done this morning. That didn't QUITE happen. But the good news is that I cut my core sleep from 5.5 to 5 hours! the 1.5 hour jump wasn't there, but this is a good indicator that consistency is a much better path to take.Off to finish up a draft of my BME magazine article (engineers should NOT have to write like this... 2000 words coherently on a topic is more than I'm really capable of - in a week no less!) then maybe a bit of the photonics conference if there's time. Oh that thing on the left? That's a precancerous cell image as seen from the adjacent cell's perspective! Doesn't it look warm and friendly and inviting? Beware, it'll attack at any moment now...
Life is too busy all the time to be short! I really just need a weekend where I can clear my head and enjoy the everyman cycle while catching up on the things I want to do. Too bad I didn't stick with the last blog I had -- it had the very apt title of "overworked and underpaid".
Maybe I'll sneak in a nap in place of yoga this afternoon, I've got a couple absences I can burn in there.
Night 3
I woke up feeling like I've been in a time warp. Nap from 23:20-00:00. It was much needed, although I think it was a bit long for a polyphasic nap. Once I got over about half an hour, my body was expecting at least a couple hours' hibernation. Core sleep comes at 2am tonight though, and I will be attempting to shake things up even more -- after announcing a plan to start at 5.5 hours per night and every couple days decrease that amount in half-hour increments, the uber-college schedule has forced me to modify. I'll attempt (rather desperately) to sleep 2-6 tonight with the intention of finishing edits on an article due friday before attending a conference starting at 8am. Talk about productivity. Or maybe just a bunch of talk about nothing...
I'm really trying to avoid looking like this guy in the future! But who knows, maybe one day when I'm 64 and no one still needs or feeds me, I'll doze off in a chair and someone will snap a picture like this one. I actually kinda dig the beard & eyebrow combo.
Back to work for a bit -- it seems like the couple of days right after fall break are non-stop work. Don't know why, but this design course has some ridiculous expectations and not much consistent organization. I bet we get to lab tomorrow (having prepared last-minute for our presentations) only to find no projector. Actually I now recall that we have a conference room reserved, but I don't understand how since the school has a Massive photonics conference starting up tomorrow. The guy who's famous for the cloaking device (Dave Smith) will be a celebrity at this thing, and rumour has it that Sir John Pendry will be here! Don't worry, if you don't get as excited as me, it's because you're normal. All this sleep deprivation is going to my head...
maybe I'll call it:
polysomosis - a condition resulting from abnormal sleep patterns. Most commonly characterized by red eyes, disheveled hair, and a general inability to make sense of the world.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Day 3
Last night I slept for 5.5 hours. A little bit long, but as I explained in the last post I'll be gradually shifting to a 3 hour core sleep schedule.
Up at 8am, felt very energetic. Got some work done, did some abs. Drank water. Golf at 10:20, by the end I was a bit more tired. Had a smaller lunch, basically a salad bar @ HT with bean salad, corn, and chicken. By noon I was definitely ready for my nap. Slept from 12:30-1:00 and woke up feeling rather well.
Went to the lab I work at and put in about 3 hours of solid work. Note to self: writing and editing papers SUCKS! Now I understand why I am an engineer. We don't have to deal with that crap in school. I had an optics test at 4:30, and was really apprehensive the past couple days as to how I would do with the sleep schedule maybe taking a toll on my mental abilities. But suprisingly, I didn't feel the fog that I sometimes get the day of a test when I really try to be well rested and relaxed! I don't know why, but the test went fine and by 6pm I was ready for another power nap.
Another piece of advice: do NOT eat McDonalds and drink chocolate milk right before a nap. That is a bad, bad combo. Maybe it was the fact that I just passed out on a couch in the student union next to the McDonalds and got 2 phone calls during my nap -- I woke up feeling a bit groggy and dehydrated and still had that minor headache that I usually get by the end of tests. No big deal, just a nuissance.
So now I am ready for my evening work chunk! ...just about. I've got a ton to get done, namely 3 assignments for my biomedical design course that are due tomorrow and then this article draft needs to get finished tonight so I can give people a day to edit for Friday. All this, and tomorrow marks the start of the Photonics conference on campus that I really should make an effort to walk around at. If I have time.
My hope is that with a nap right now before some solid work, I will be able to take my core nap tonight and wake up bight and early to get more done. With any luck the next 2 days will be a telltale sign whether Everyman is a beneficial change for this man.
Up at 8am, felt very energetic. Got some work done, did some abs. Drank water. Golf at 10:20, by the end I was a bit more tired. Had a smaller lunch, basically a salad bar @ HT with bean salad, corn, and chicken. By noon I was definitely ready for my nap. Slept from 12:30-1:00 and woke up feeling rather well.
Went to the lab I work at and put in about 3 hours of solid work. Note to self: writing and editing papers SUCKS! Now I understand why I am an engineer. We don't have to deal with that crap in school. I had an optics test at 4:30, and was really apprehensive the past couple days as to how I would do with the sleep schedule maybe taking a toll on my mental abilities. But suprisingly, I didn't feel the fog that I sometimes get the day of a test when I really try to be well rested and relaxed! I don't know why, but the test went fine and by 6pm I was ready for another power nap.
Another piece of advice: do NOT eat McDonalds and drink chocolate milk right before a nap. That is a bad, bad combo. Maybe it was the fact that I just passed out on a couch in the student union next to the McDonalds and got 2 phone calls during my nap -- I woke up feeling a bit groggy and dehydrated and still had that minor headache that I usually get by the end of tests. No big deal, just a nuissance.
So now I am ready for my evening work chunk! ...just about. I've got a ton to get done, namely 3 assignments for my biomedical design course that are due tomorrow and then this article draft needs to get finished tonight so I can give people a day to edit for Friday. All this, and tomorrow marks the start of the Photonics conference on campus that I really should make an effort to walk around at. If I have time.
My hope is that with a nap right now before some solid work, I will be able to take my core nap tonight and wake up bight and early to get more done. With any luck the next 2 days will be a telltale sign whether Everyman is a beneficial change for this man.
Issues with Core Sleep
Over the past couple months, I've gotten used to a variation of 5-10 hours of sleep per night. I know this sounds like pretty extreme fluctuation. Usually it doesn't change that much from night-to-night though. I tend more to go through a week-long period where I sleep about 9-11 hours each night and then maybe a week where I sleep about 6-7 hours a night. This uncovers yet another motivation for everyman/polyphasic sleeping:
I want to be on a standard schedule where I know how much sleep I need and can count on filling the rest of the time with work.
I'm sick of needing to study the morning of a test and not being able to wake up before 11am! Anyway... The fact that my sleep schedule is fairly constant from day-to-day but varies over weeks/months suggests that little shifts by half an hour to an hour are really easy to deal with, but large shifts just don't pan out well.
Maybe this is why the past 2 nights I haven't been able to fall into a 3-hour core sleep cycle. I wake up just fine when my alarm goes off (drinking enough water before I go to sleep helps, because then I have to pee and that gives me a reason to get out of bed!). But with only 3 hours of sleep, I feel much different than I do when I get 8 hours of sleep. I'm much less conscious at first, I feel hazed, dizzy, headachey, physically jittery, etc.
As soon as I start thinking, my first thought has been: go back to bed! Second thought: Don't do it! Third thought: Ok, just set an alarm for a couple more hours or so. This will be a good compromise.
That last voice in my head has won out the past 2 nights. I've never been able to pull all-nighters effectively or get by on close to no sleep (this doesn't include party nights and recovery the next day...) in a way that allows me to work the next day. Maybe I just need to shift slowly.
The Everyman is supposed to be a great transition into the uberman polyphasic cycle; maybe a slow gradient of sleep changes will produce the best results as far as A) getting me into the cycle, B) making sure I can maintain it, C)keeping me mentally sane and not hating myself for screwing with my sleeping.
Last night's plan: 2:30-6
Actual sleep: 2:30-6 6-7 7-8
Each little increment there represents a time that I set and alarm, got up, rationalized, and crashed out on the futon again.
But I feel pretty good right now, and that was an aggregate of 5.5 hours last night. Not bad when I slept ~9 each night last week. From here, I'll trim about a half hour every 2 days for the next week or so. With luck, I'll be down to the core of 3 hours per night and solidly napping through the day!
I want to be on a standard schedule where I know how much sleep I need and can count on filling the rest of the time with work.
I'm sick of needing to study the morning of a test and not being able to wake up before 11am! Anyway... The fact that my sleep schedule is fairly constant from day-to-day but varies over weeks/months suggests that little shifts by half an hour to an hour are really easy to deal with, but large shifts just don't pan out well.
Maybe this is why the past 2 nights I haven't been able to fall into a 3-hour core sleep cycle. I wake up just fine when my alarm goes off (drinking enough water before I go to sleep helps, because then I have to pee and that gives me a reason to get out of bed!). But with only 3 hours of sleep, I feel much different than I do when I get 8 hours of sleep. I'm much less conscious at first, I feel hazed, dizzy, headachey, physically jittery, etc.
As soon as I start thinking, my first thought has been: go back to bed! Second thought: Don't do it! Third thought: Ok, just set an alarm for a couple more hours or so. This will be a good compromise.
That last voice in my head has won out the past 2 nights. I've never been able to pull all-nighters effectively or get by on close to no sleep (this doesn't include party nights and recovery the next day...) in a way that allows me to work the next day. Maybe I just need to shift slowly.
The Everyman is supposed to be a great transition into the uberman polyphasic cycle; maybe a slow gradient of sleep changes will produce the best results as far as A) getting me into the cycle, B) making sure I can maintain it, C)keeping me mentally sane and not hating myself for screwing with my sleeping.
Last night's plan: 2:30-6
Actual sleep: 2:30-6 6-7 7-8
Each little increment there represents a time that I set and alarm, got up, rationalized, and crashed out on the futon again.
But I feel pretty good right now, and that was an aggregate of 5.5 hours last night. Not bad when I slept ~9 each night last week. From here, I'll trim about a half hour every 2 days for the next week or so. With luck, I'll be down to the core of 3 hours per night and solidly napping through the day!
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Night 2
I took a 10-15 minute nap around 20:00. Felt GREAT.
But unfortunately it wasn't completely satisfying. I wanted another one almost immediately, but instead got up and walked around for a bit. A couple of chocolate squares later and a litre of water and I was ready for a couple more hours of work.
Now it's 23:30 and I think it's time for another little nap. Tonight I'll be shifting to a definite 3-6 core sleep schedule.
NEWS FROM POLYPHASIC FRIENDS:
Tomas (fellow developer at Shoeboxed) skipped 2 naps yesterday and overslept his core sleep by an hour. Right now I believe he's passed out.
Tee has now admitted that, like half of the development team, he's ready to try it out. With any luck, we'll have a group of overachieving college kids tossing in 20-hour work DAYS. On the downside, we'll also have to add 3 more couches in the office for napping... :P
Naptime!
But unfortunately it wasn't completely satisfying. I wanted another one almost immediately, but instead got up and walked around for a bit. A couple of chocolate squares later and a litre of water and I was ready for a couple more hours of work.
Now it's 23:30 and I think it's time for another little nap. Tonight I'll be shifting to a definite 3-6 core sleep schedule.
NEWS FROM POLYPHASIC FRIENDS:
Tomas (fellow developer at Shoeboxed) skipped 2 naps yesterday and overslept his core sleep by an hour. Right now I believe he's passed out.
Tee has now admitted that, like half of the development team, he's ready to try it out. With any luck, we'll have a group of overachieving college kids tossing in 20-hour work DAYS. On the downside, we'll also have to add 3 more couches in the office for napping... :P
Naptime!
Day 2
I felt quite groggy when I woke up today (10:00) -- I think too much sleep. By noon I was craving a nap. I need to do some research on it, but I think I've heard of this phenomenon before and it makes sense -- when you get too much sleep all you want to do is sleep more. Got to break the habit/addiction!
I took a nap from 15:30-16:00 and woke up feeling GREAT! Maybe it was the nap, maybe it was because I woke up in my girlfriend's room next to the A/C (mine has no A/C and it's soooooo hot right now...) :-D. I haven't seen her in a couple days because of fall break, so I was WIDE awake at the end of my nap!
Next nap set for 8:30! I really need to get into a steady schedule of naps so i'm not just counting ahead 4.5 hours each time I write to plan the next one...
I took a nap from 15:30-16:00 and woke up feeling GREAT! Maybe it was the nap, maybe it was because I woke up in my girlfriend's room next to the A/C (mine has no A/C and it's soooooo hot right now...) :-D. I haven't seen her in a couple days because of fall break, so I was WIDE awake at the end of my nap!
Next nap set for 8:30! I really need to get into a steady schedule of naps so i'm not just counting ahead 4.5 hours each time I write to plan the next one...
Reboot
I've run into one of the biggest potential threats to this project's success: Laziness.
PureDoxyK warns about it in her post on reasons why NOT to be a polyphaser. Whoops. Looks like I'll have my work cut out for me.
Last night I turned off at 2:00 with the intention of waking up at 5:00. I've been a swimmer for the past 12 years or so, and for the past 8 at least did mornings at ~5-6 every weekday. So this isn't too big a problem. But I like sleep a lot. I've learned over the past two years that having a roommate awake and working when I need to get up for practice (6:00) means that at least one light will be on, and that REALLY helps with getting my lazy ass out of bed.
So my light was on when I went to sleep. Since it's fall break I was at home and mom thought that the light under the door meant I was still awake. She came on in to talk to me, and seeing me passed out decided it'd be the sweet thing to do to turn the light off! I really can't fault her for it -- she loves me a lot!
But this did mean that at 5AM when I woke up and went to the bathroom (on schedule!) without turning my lights on, everything was dark when I walked back in and so I rationalized to myself that there would be nothing wrong with just laying back down for another 3-hour cycle.
DAMN! I slept til 10am, giving myself a fresh 8 hours of sleep. Maybe this was needed after careless sleep deprivation the past week or so. I ran across a blog last night that described sleeping through an alarm or checkpoint as "rebooting", similar to a computer wiping out it's RAM and restarting.
So I guess last night will count as a reboot. It sets me back a bit, but I don't know what from....
I'm still looking for a good way to publish a journal log separate from my ramblings! any thoughts?
PureDoxyK warns about it in her post on reasons why NOT to be a polyphaser. Whoops. Looks like I'll have my work cut out for me.
Last night I turned off at 2:00 with the intention of waking up at 5:00. I've been a swimmer for the past 12 years or so, and for the past 8 at least did mornings at ~5-6 every weekday. So this isn't too big a problem. But I like sleep a lot. I've learned over the past two years that having a roommate awake and working when I need to get up for practice (6:00) means that at least one light will be on, and that REALLY helps with getting my lazy ass out of bed.
So my light was on when I went to sleep. Since it's fall break I was at home and mom thought that the light under the door meant I was still awake. She came on in to talk to me, and seeing me passed out decided it'd be the sweet thing to do to turn the light off! I really can't fault her for it -- she loves me a lot!
But this did mean that at 5AM when I woke up and went to the bathroom (on schedule!) without turning my lights on, everything was dark when I walked back in and so I rationalized to myself that there would be nothing wrong with just laying back down for another 3-hour cycle.
DAMN! I slept til 10am, giving myself a fresh 8 hours of sleep. Maybe this was needed after careless sleep deprivation the past week or so. I ran across a blog last night that described sleeping through an alarm or checkpoint as "rebooting", similar to a computer wiping out it's RAM and restarting.
So I guess last night will count as a reboot. It sets me back a bit, but I don't know what from....
I'm still looking for a good way to publish a journal log separate from my ramblings! any thoughts?
Night 1
I don't think I got into details of my sleep plan in the last post.
I'm planning on an "Everyman" sleep schedule, which will involve a 2-4 hour long sleep period at night and then 3-4 naps lasting about 20-30 minutes during my day. Kind of an elegant scheme of traditional sleep deprivation and power naps.
Log:
Day 1 - 10/8/07
- decided to do give Everyman sleeping a try. (17:00 EST)
- Afternoon Nap: 17:12-17:35
- leave office, head home feeling quite energized ~ 19:30
- feeling tired; instead of napping I have a cup of tea ~ 21:00
Day 2 - 10/9/07
- feeling sleepy -- I wish I had taken that nap about 2 hours ago... (00:31)
That's it for now. I need to find an effective way to journal and chart this experiment on a calendar. Any suggestions?
I'm planning on an "Everyman" sleep schedule, which will involve a 2-4 hour long sleep period at night and then 3-4 naps lasting about 20-30 minutes during my day. Kind of an elegant scheme of traditional sleep deprivation and power naps.
Log:
Day 1 - 10/8/07
- decided to do give Everyman sleeping a try. (17:00 EST)
- Afternoon Nap: 17:12-17:35
- leave office, head home feeling quite energized ~ 19:30
- feeling tired; instead of napping I have a cup of tea ~ 21:00
Day 2 - 10/9/07
- feeling sleepy -- I wish I had taken that nap about 2 hours ago... (00:31)
That's it for now. I need to find an effective way to journal and chart this experiment on a calendar. Any suggestions?
Monday, October 8, 2007
Intro to Polyphasic Sleeping
Hello World!
I'm a college senior, 21 years of age. Last week I walked into the office of the internet startup where I work as a web developer and ran into a friend & coworker who was just about to lay down for a 30-minute nap.
Last year I got hooked on Steve Pavlina's personal development website, especially the stuff that he wrote about his insane college schedule (I'll save the college productivity posts for another time). I ran across the concept of polyphasic sleeping and was captivated.
Polyphasic sleeping in a nutshell is the practice of taking many small naps around the clock and only spending an aggregate 2-6 hours of time actually asleep during the course of your 24 hour day. Some people only 6 hours a night but end up having a lot of trouble with productivity and staying alert during the time they are awake. This system of sleep supposedly lets you feel more energetic without needing the extra zzzz's...
Ok enough of a sidetrack for now -- if you want more information on polyphasic sleeping, check out Steve Pavlina's stuff or else start at Wikipedia. Another famous blogger who chronicles her encounters with polyphasic sleep patterns is PureDoxyK.
So back to my friend passed out at work for a 30-minute nap. It turns out that he was in fact starting up a new trial period of polyphasic sleeping along with his prior roommate. Last year he made it 10 days into this crazy sleep schedule before the experiment fell apart. I was very intrigued that other people knew about this and were interested in trying it, and almost agreed on the spot to do it.
Only problem is that I'm an engineer, with a schedule that is SUPER busy and would be pretty unforgiving if the whole sleep schedule went to hell and cost me a couple of days in recovery time. This is a realistic possibility. So I figured I'd watch his progress and see how things went.
Three days later, I saw a couple other coworkers (btw almost all of us are college students) napping. I didn't think much of it, since we're an internet startup where students are putting in long hours and sometimes just need to crash for pick-me-up naps. But then I heard that they were starting a polyphasic sleep schedule, too! This was too much for me. I HAD to find a way to accomodate this phenomenon into my schedule and give it a shot, before I graduate. Because we all know once college is over, you're no longer young or fired up about crazy ideas like this... ok maybe that really isn't true. But now is the time!
I've decided to adopt a version of the "Everyman" sleep cycle. For now, look it up on wikipedia or check out PureDoxyK for the details.
I really don't know how long this is going to last -- maybe a couple days, maybe a couple years. I'm going to give it a crack in a very very concerted effort to regain some time during my day. I've just got too much to do in the standard 16-18 hour day and if I can figure out a way to stay awake and alert longer, I'm willing to try almost anything...
Here's to the Everyman sleep experiment!
I'm a college senior, 21 years of age. Last week I walked into the office of the internet startup where I work as a web developer and ran into a friend & coworker who was just about to lay down for a 30-minute nap.
Last year I got hooked on Steve Pavlina's personal development website, especially the stuff that he wrote about his insane college schedule (I'll save the college productivity posts for another time). I ran across the concept of polyphasic sleeping and was captivated.
Polyphasic sleeping in a nutshell is the practice of taking many small naps around the clock and only spending an aggregate 2-6 hours of time actually asleep during the course of your 24 hour day. Some people only 6 hours a night but end up having a lot of trouble with productivity and staying alert during the time they are awake. This system of sleep supposedly lets you feel more energetic without needing the extra zzzz's...
Ok enough of a sidetrack for now -- if you want more information on polyphasic sleeping, check out Steve Pavlina's stuff or else start at Wikipedia. Another famous blogger who chronicles her encounters with polyphasic sleep patterns is PureDoxyK.
So back to my friend passed out at work for a 30-minute nap. It turns out that he was in fact starting up a new trial period of polyphasic sleeping along with his prior roommate. Last year he made it 10 days into this crazy sleep schedule before the experiment fell apart. I was very intrigued that other people knew about this and were interested in trying it, and almost agreed on the spot to do it.
Only problem is that I'm an engineer, with a schedule that is SUPER busy and would be pretty unforgiving if the whole sleep schedule went to hell and cost me a couple of days in recovery time. This is a realistic possibility. So I figured I'd watch his progress and see how things went.
Three days later, I saw a couple other coworkers (btw almost all of us are college students) napping. I didn't think much of it, since we're an internet startup where students are putting in long hours and sometimes just need to crash for pick-me-up naps. But then I heard that they were starting a polyphasic sleep schedule, too! This was too much for me. I HAD to find a way to accomodate this phenomenon into my schedule and give it a shot, before I graduate. Because we all know once college is over, you're no longer young or fired up about crazy ideas like this... ok maybe that really isn't true. But now is the time!
I've decided to adopt a version of the "Everyman" sleep cycle. For now, look it up on wikipedia or check out PureDoxyK for the details.
I really don't know how long this is going to last -- maybe a couple days, maybe a couple years. I'm going to give it a crack in a very very concerted effort to regain some time during my day. I've just got too much to do in the standard 16-18 hour day and if I can figure out a way to stay awake and alert longer, I'm willing to try almost anything...
Here's to the Everyman sleep experiment!
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