20 Hour Days, Here I Come !!!

Thanks to seeing Travis' post earlier this week, I discovered this oddity called "polyphasic sleep". After reading Steve Pavlina's entire journey he blogged back in 2005 and the success he found, I can't help but give this a shot. The only thing higher than "more time!!" on my "want want want" list is "hit the lottery" :-P

In comparing Steve's lifestyle with my own (based on other postings on his excellent personal growth blog), I see some changes that I think will help my attempt: become an early riser, get off coffee, and go as raw-vegan as I can manage. It only took me one "practice session" to become a predictable early riser, so my response to the alarm clock should help me avoid any oversleeping. I love my daily coffee... those who know me will tell you I'll take good coffee over great beer every time. But since I like my coffee as a beverage, not "need" it as a caffeine crutch, I think making the transition to herbal coffee over the next week should not be terribly difficult. The raw-vegan transition would certainly be the most difficult, if I was going all the way. I think my body's response to my diet will improve significantly just from trying to eat as much raw fruit daily as I can. So, I'll be sticking with apples and bananas mainly for my daily breakfast/lunch/snack times, though I'll fall back to "normal dinner" at home with my family. Again, this diet change should only produce good results for my bodily health, and the lower intake of animal-based products should help my sleepability. I just need to figure out how to add some minimal amount of veggies to it, since there are none that I like to eat ;-P

My daily schedule will require me to space my naps about 3 - 5 hours apart, in a way that gives me my six 30-minute naps:
- 7:15a: nap at office, before work starts at 8:00a
- 12:15p: nap at office, during lunch hour
- 5:30p: nap at home after arriving from work
- 9:30p: nap after family time, when family goes to bed
- 12:30a: nap in the middle of the night, while everyone else is asleep
- 3:30a: another nap while everyone is asleep

This schedule should still work ok for my rather tame weekends also.

Based on Steve's experience, staying awake between nighttime naps was the most difficult. He initially used this for reading time, but as much as I love to read, it will indeed make me drowsy. Instead, I figure that I can use this time for simple household chores during my transition (when least alert), and then start to include exercise time. Once I reach a point where I'm very mentally alert during those hours, I think I can start doing some code work... I think I'd better keep my reading time for the sunshine hours.

Now, I'm nowhere near the writer that Steve is, so I won't be doing a daily chronicle of this. But I will make some attempt to check in to report my progress, highlighting any problems and perhaps describing how I'm feeling. Assuming I get through the transition during the next two weeks, I'll be in perfect form for getting the most out of the third week -- my vacation at the beach!