Family responsibilities over the last few days trumped my nap times, especially yesterday when I had to bring my youngest son with me to the office... try telling your energetic seven year old "Daddy has to turn out all the lights in the room and sleep for 30 minutes... you just sit there and do nothing, ok?" My babysitter informed me at 10p the night before she wouldn't make it, so I planned ahead for the lack of naps by sleeping all night. Although the other things that preceded this had hindered my napping, this effectively broke it. I tried to restart last night with a first nap, and woke up this morning with my sleep timer buried under my back.
I hate that I reached as far as I did only to have a small set of incidents occur together to derail me. But, at least now I do know that I can probably achieve this again if given some support to attempt it. My environment at home turned out to be less supportive of my experiment than I had expected. It's funny... you'd think it'd be the office that was less supportive.
At the end of the first quarter:
Monophasic World - 1
The Nazg - 0
Showing posts with label polyphasic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label polyphasic. Show all posts
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Faltered: Polyphasic, the Events of Week #3
My week at the beach was a great vacation, though it unexpectedly put a temporary halt on my polyphasic pattern halfway through. Now that I'm back home, I'll recover my pattern... but what led to such failure?
Preparing for the drive down to the beach was slightly tricky, in that I needed to plan around my naps. With six people traveling together across two vehicles, I didn't want to impose any more on the others as necessary. We decided to hit the road immediately after my 3:30a nap, which would allow us to make our breakfast stop on the road in time for my 7:30a nap. Assuming a good drive with no traffic hiccups, we'd reach our destination before my 12:30p nap. This plan indeed proceeded without a single hitch, I'm happy to report.
So, at the beach... Saturday through Tuesday, all is good with my naps. Since I'd still not reached the "final state" of the polyphasic pattern, where you wake up alert after each and every nap, I still had the brain fog combined with no low-brain tasks available during the early morning hours, but most nights this was mitigated by all the older kids still being awake. I had my guitar, and could play reasonably quietly out on our patio... with the continuous noise of the surf (which I miss already), this quiet music was no problem for the sleeping family or neighbors. I should also mention that my brother's family (wife, daughter) had also come down for the week, and brought my other brother's daughter. So, ten of us altogether.
On Sunday afternoon, I hit the on-site exercise room, did five miles on the treadmill followed by a decent chest/triceps workout, and noticed no signs about "hours of operation". I took this to mean "open 24x7", so on Monday night, I hit it again but at 10p. Did my five miles, then a few sets of sit-ups, and went back for my 12:30a nap. After the nap, I was quite mentally alert for the entire night up to my 3:30a nap, and then moderately alert between the 3:30a and 7:30a naps. I thought "this is what I need to be doing late at night when we get back home". Note to self: find a way to use my treadmill at home without waking up the house.
Tuesday night began innocently enough. Sun goes down, older kids are cruising around the pool and beach with new acquaintances, the little kids are in the pool... my brother grabs a beer, my wife grabs a beer, so I crack open one of the bottles of red wine I'd brought along. Four hours later, everyone else is asleep except my brother and me, who continue to drink and talk out on the patio. Another four hours, and he calls it a night. By then, I'm nearly finished with a second bottle of wine, so I stay up and finish it by sunrise. I finally hit the bed around 7a, just as nearly everyone else is waking up and preparing to spend the day at a nearby water park.
Left to my own devices, I sleep until noon. Apparently I had no contingency plan to combat two bottles of Muscadine Red from Jules J. Berta Vineyards.
Although I still went down for my remaining daytime naps on Wednesday, I did not wake up well from any of them. So, when the difficult naps came during the night, I slept straight through. Given that it was now Friday, our last full day at the beach, I chose to drop the naps completely and enjoy the uninterrupted day with the family. Saturday was the drive back home, again nap-free. Sunday was a full day of readjusting to being home, and again nap-free.
This has been a major backslide as far as my polyphasic adjustment process, but it has also taught me some things about the pattern and how my body deals with it. I am resuming my nap schedule today, and will be forcibly incorporating the nighttime running to take full advantage of the extra alertness that results just from the bodily high that follows good exercise. I'll still be keeping household chores as backup tasks to do in case I feel drowsy at any points during the nights, but I'm hoping to finally utilize some nighttime alertness for my hacking fun tasks (which was the key goal to start with).
I should also mention that during the vacation week, I allowed myself some regular coffee... another occurrence I can blame on my brother ;-P What I found interesting was that we drank a pot one evening, and I saw no discernible problems with all the naps that followed it. At the least, I expected the caffeine to hinder the very next nap, but it did not. I think perhaps once my body is moderately adjusted to the nap schedule, the caffeine has little effect... maybe it helped me start the original transition, but now I think it's no longer necessary to avoid. So, coffee (wonderful coffee) is back in my diet. But again, I do still think it was helpful to drop the caffeine for the first two weeks of sleep transition.
All in all, my gut feeling is that I'll ultimately settle on some compromise between monophasic sleep and the full polyphasic pattern. I remember reading in Pavlina's later postings during his experiment that he eventually learned to just recognize when his body was prompting him to take a nap, rather than sticking to a hard schedule. Based on that, I think I'll end up doing the same... maybe never letting myself sleep longer than two hours at a stretch, but really only going down for the general short naps when my body prompts me. I was able to feel those promptings throughout week #2, so I can already recognize them.
So, the experiment continues...
Preparing for the drive down to the beach was slightly tricky, in that I needed to plan around my naps. With six people traveling together across two vehicles, I didn't want to impose any more on the others as necessary. We decided to hit the road immediately after my 3:30a nap, which would allow us to make our breakfast stop on the road in time for my 7:30a nap. Assuming a good drive with no traffic hiccups, we'd reach our destination before my 12:30p nap. This plan indeed proceeded without a single hitch, I'm happy to report.
So, at the beach... Saturday through Tuesday, all is good with my naps. Since I'd still not reached the "final state" of the polyphasic pattern, where you wake up alert after each and every nap, I still had the brain fog combined with no low-brain tasks available during the early morning hours, but most nights this was mitigated by all the older kids still being awake. I had my guitar, and could play reasonably quietly out on our patio... with the continuous noise of the surf (which I miss already), this quiet music was no problem for the sleeping family or neighbors. I should also mention that my brother's family (wife, daughter) had also come down for the week, and brought my other brother's daughter. So, ten of us altogether.
On Sunday afternoon, I hit the on-site exercise room, did five miles on the treadmill followed by a decent chest/triceps workout, and noticed no signs about "hours of operation". I took this to mean "open 24x7", so on Monday night, I hit it again but at 10p. Did my five miles, then a few sets of sit-ups, and went back for my 12:30a nap. After the nap, I was quite mentally alert for the entire night up to my 3:30a nap, and then moderately alert between the 3:30a and 7:30a naps. I thought "this is what I need to be doing late at night when we get back home". Note to self: find a way to use my treadmill at home without waking up the house.
Tuesday night began innocently enough. Sun goes down, older kids are cruising around the pool and beach with new acquaintances, the little kids are in the pool... my brother grabs a beer, my wife grabs a beer, so I crack open one of the bottles of red wine I'd brought along. Four hours later, everyone else is asleep except my brother and me, who continue to drink and talk out on the patio. Another four hours, and he calls it a night. By then, I'm nearly finished with a second bottle of wine, so I stay up and finish it by sunrise. I finally hit the bed around 7a, just as nearly everyone else is waking up and preparing to spend the day at a nearby water park.
Left to my own devices, I sleep until noon. Apparently I had no contingency plan to combat two bottles of Muscadine Red from Jules J. Berta Vineyards.
Although I still went down for my remaining daytime naps on Wednesday, I did not wake up well from any of them. So, when the difficult naps came during the night, I slept straight through. Given that it was now Friday, our last full day at the beach, I chose to drop the naps completely and enjoy the uninterrupted day with the family. Saturday was the drive back home, again nap-free. Sunday was a full day of readjusting to being home, and again nap-free.
This has been a major backslide as far as my polyphasic adjustment process, but it has also taught me some things about the pattern and how my body deals with it. I am resuming my nap schedule today, and will be forcibly incorporating the nighttime running to take full advantage of the extra alertness that results just from the bodily high that follows good exercise. I'll still be keeping household chores as backup tasks to do in case I feel drowsy at any points during the nights, but I'm hoping to finally utilize some nighttime alertness for my hacking fun tasks (which was the key goal to start with).
I should also mention that during the vacation week, I allowed myself some regular coffee... another occurrence I can blame on my brother ;-P What I found interesting was that we drank a pot one evening, and I saw no discernible problems with all the naps that followed it. At the least, I expected the caffeine to hinder the very next nap, but it did not. I think perhaps once my body is moderately adjusted to the nap schedule, the caffeine has little effect... maybe it helped me start the original transition, but now I think it's no longer necessary to avoid. So, coffee (wonderful coffee) is back in my diet. But again, I do still think it was helpful to drop the caffeine for the first two weeks of sleep transition.
All in all, my gut feeling is that I'll ultimately settle on some compromise between monophasic sleep and the full polyphasic pattern. I remember reading in Pavlina's later postings during his experiment that he eventually learned to just recognize when his body was prompting him to take a nap, rather than sticking to a hard schedule. Based on that, I think I'll end up doing the same... maybe never letting myself sleep longer than two hours at a stretch, but really only going down for the general short naps when my body prompts me. I was able to feel those promptings throughout week #2, so I can already recognize them.
So, the experiment continues...
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Update: Polyphasic, Night #12
The past week has seen some triumphs and some failures, though I must concede that I have not yet reached the true polyphasic rhythm. In preparation for an overnight visit from my mother on Thursday, I did an excellent job keeping myself busy all night Wednesday night cleaning the house. Then on Thursday, I let myself miss my 5:30p and 9:30p naps, to get in more visiting time while she was here. The result was a pure crash when I took my 12:30a nap a little early at 11:30p... the next thing I knew, I sprang awake at 600a. I think this may have been the key screwup that has my nighttime difficulties where they are now (as outlined below).
As far as the naps go, for the most part I do fall asleep quickly and easily. I think I am dreaming, at least a little, during most of the daytime naps. However, the nighttime naps are when I crash really hard -- dreamless sleep, and damn hard to make myself get up when the timer goes off. Several nights in the last week saw me sleeping straight through the end of my 12:30a nap and suddenly waking up around 5a or 6a.
My diet has completely reverted back to "normal", except I'm still off caffeine. I think I am indeed noticing my body sleeping harder, but no more restful, since resuming my normal intake of meats and animal-based food (mainly milk). It's been far too easy to eat "normally" when at home, and this was a three-day weekend that just ended. Now that I'm back to the office, perhaps I can make a better effort to resume the mostly fruit diet.
The key obstacle remains staying awake during that 12:30a-4:30a stretch, sticking to only those two naps. Having a plan for how to keep my body up and moving (i.e. list of chores) was all that was necessary the first week, but this second week has found my brain in a state of sleepiness that would simply shove the list aside when it came time to get up from a nap. I anticipate another difficult night like that tonight... I have my TODO list, but the hard part will be getting to my feet when the timer wakes me up.
I have generally been fairly alert between 9:30p and 12:30a naps, and have gotten online work and reading done just fine. So, I do at least have that extra productive time achieved. But to finally reach the polyphasic rhythm, I must improve over the next week on how well I manage myself during the night hours. I'm past the need to be prepared for the hardship... I'm to the point where I need to be disciplined to handle that hardship when faced with it.
As far as the naps go, for the most part I do fall asleep quickly and easily. I think I am dreaming, at least a little, during most of the daytime naps. However, the nighttime naps are when I crash really hard -- dreamless sleep, and damn hard to make myself get up when the timer goes off. Several nights in the last week saw me sleeping straight through the end of my 12:30a nap and suddenly waking up around 5a or 6a.
My diet has completely reverted back to "normal", except I'm still off caffeine. I think I am indeed noticing my body sleeping harder, but no more restful, since resuming my normal intake of meats and animal-based food (mainly milk). It's been far too easy to eat "normally" when at home, and this was a three-day weekend that just ended. Now that I'm back to the office, perhaps I can make a better effort to resume the mostly fruit diet.
The key obstacle remains staying awake during that 12:30a-4:30a stretch, sticking to only those two naps. Having a plan for how to keep my body up and moving (i.e. list of chores) was all that was necessary the first week, but this second week has found my brain in a state of sleepiness that would simply shove the list aside when it came time to get up from a nap. I anticipate another difficult night like that tonight... I have my TODO list, but the hard part will be getting to my feet when the timer wakes me up.
I have generally been fairly alert between 9:30p and 12:30a naps, and have gotten online work and reading done just fine. So, I do at least have that extra productive time achieved. But to finally reach the polyphasic rhythm, I must improve over the next week on how well I manage myself during the night hours. I'm past the need to be prepared for the hardship... I'm to the point where I need to be disciplined to handle that hardship when faced with it.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Update: Polyphasic, Night #5
So, tonight begins my 5th night following the polyphasic sleep pattern I'd mapped out. Staying awake between naps during the overnight hours is definitely proving to be the hardest part. My brain is in enough of a fog during those hours that I come really close to dozing off, thinking "it's perfectly normal to doze off when I feel this sleepy"... i.e. I'm forgetting about my experiment! To help combat this, I decided to make a list in the middle of the day of tasks for my night time... that way I have some clear focus to guide me during the night fog. First on tonight's list -- blog a status update :-P
I've been able to stick to my planned nap schedule fairly well, with only a couple of instances where my nap start time came late due to other circumstances around me, such as starting my 5:30p nap at 6:00p due to family dinner. My initial naps over the weekend generally were such that I did fall asleep even if I didn't dream, but during the last two days I'm finding it more difficult to fall asleep during my daytime naps. When I start a nap, it seems like I'm not going to reach sleep at all, like I'm sitting with my eyes closed for 15 minutes thinking "I'm not asleep yet"... then suddenly the timer goes off, and I realize I did finally fall asleep, though I did not reach dream sleep. The night time naps are different, in that I do fall asleep fast, but still no dreams. The only exception was today's 12:15p lunchtime nap, where I fell asleep fairly quickly and woke up exactly 20 minutes into it. Also exceptional about this nap was that I was not groggy or foggy at all after waking, and was more clear-headed through the afternoon than I have been since I started this last Friday. I had thought perhaps I'd moved closer to the sleep transition, but then my 5:30p and 9:30p naps were dreamless and I slept up to the timer alarm. I'm fairly groggy while writing this, though focusing on this is helping clear the fog... although, it's still difficult to keep my burning eyes open to read what I'm writing.
One alteration to my original plan that I started this morning was to set my timer to 40 minutes, whereas it was originally 30 minutes. I had thought that perhaps another 10 minutes of sleep time might allow me to reach dream sleep, especially since lately it seemed like it's taken longer for me to initially fall asleep. I plan to continue this, especially after today's lunchtime nap showed me that I'll most likely wake up myself after around 20 minutes of good sleep, timer or no timer.
Regarding my peripheral changes I'd mentioned making in order to help my chance of success, I easily made the switch to the herbal coffee. I'd brewed a 75/25 coffee/herbal mix on Friday after dinner, just to see what difference in taste I could perceive with only 1/4 herbal, and the taste was fine... I could taste some difference, but it certainly still tasted like coffee. So, on Saturday morning, I brewed pure herbal. The Java blend that I got tastes to me like other semi-flavored coffees I've tried before, so the "this ain't coffee" reaction that I'd feared did not occur. I brewed pure herbal again Sunday and Monday, and didn't feel any need for coffee at all today. I did have a hint of a headache on Saturday afternoon, which I could almost attribute to caffeine withdrawal, but since I've not had one since, I'm not sure that's the case... it might have just been due to the initial sleep deprivation that my body was first having to deal with on Saturday.
I've done so-so on the fruit diet. I didn't have much fruit available already at home over the weekend, so my typical diet prevailed. I don't think it had any problematic effects though. I got back to the fruit on Monday, purchasing apples and bananas on the way to the office. I added strawberries and grapes to the batch today. This fruit-all-day approach is starting to leave me craving other foods during the day, so I'm considering adding my plain-turkey-on-whole-wheat sandwich back, which has always been my stable lunch item for a long time now.
Assuming no big breakthoughs, I'll wait until probably Sunday to post my next update. A big thanks to all my PHP buds that have been checking in on my progress and encouraging me... it definitely helps!
I've been able to stick to my planned nap schedule fairly well, with only a couple of instances where my nap start time came late due to other circumstances around me, such as starting my 5:30p nap at 6:00p due to family dinner. My initial naps over the weekend generally were such that I did fall asleep even if I didn't dream, but during the last two days I'm finding it more difficult to fall asleep during my daytime naps. When I start a nap, it seems like I'm not going to reach sleep at all, like I'm sitting with my eyes closed for 15 minutes thinking "I'm not asleep yet"... then suddenly the timer goes off, and I realize I did finally fall asleep, though I did not reach dream sleep. The night time naps are different, in that I do fall asleep fast, but still no dreams. The only exception was today's 12:15p lunchtime nap, where I fell asleep fairly quickly and woke up exactly 20 minutes into it. Also exceptional about this nap was that I was not groggy or foggy at all after waking, and was more clear-headed through the afternoon than I have been since I started this last Friday. I had thought perhaps I'd moved closer to the sleep transition, but then my 5:30p and 9:30p naps were dreamless and I slept up to the timer alarm. I'm fairly groggy while writing this, though focusing on this is helping clear the fog... although, it's still difficult to keep my burning eyes open to read what I'm writing.
One alteration to my original plan that I started this morning was to set my timer to 40 minutes, whereas it was originally 30 minutes. I had thought that perhaps another 10 minutes of sleep time might allow me to reach dream sleep, especially since lately it seemed like it's taken longer for me to initially fall asleep. I plan to continue this, especially after today's lunchtime nap showed me that I'll most likely wake up myself after around 20 minutes of good sleep, timer or no timer.
Regarding my peripheral changes I'd mentioned making in order to help my chance of success, I easily made the switch to the herbal coffee. I'd brewed a 75/25 coffee/herbal mix on Friday after dinner, just to see what difference in taste I could perceive with only 1/4 herbal, and the taste was fine... I could taste some difference, but it certainly still tasted like coffee. So, on Saturday morning, I brewed pure herbal. The Java blend that I got tastes to me like other semi-flavored coffees I've tried before, so the "this ain't coffee" reaction that I'd feared did not occur. I brewed pure herbal again Sunday and Monday, and didn't feel any need for coffee at all today. I did have a hint of a headache on Saturday afternoon, which I could almost attribute to caffeine withdrawal, but since I've not had one since, I'm not sure that's the case... it might have just been due to the initial sleep deprivation that my body was first having to deal with on Saturday.
I've done so-so on the fruit diet. I didn't have much fruit available already at home over the weekend, so my typical diet prevailed. I don't think it had any problematic effects though. I got back to the fruit on Monday, purchasing apples and bananas on the way to the office. I added strawberries and grapes to the batch today. This fruit-all-day approach is starting to leave me craving other foods during the day, so I'm considering adding my plain-turkey-on-whole-wheat sandwich back, which has always been my stable lunch item for a long time now.
Assuming no big breakthoughs, I'll wait until probably Sunday to post my next update. A big thanks to all my PHP buds that have been checking in on my progress and encouraging me... it definitely helps!
Friday, May 16, 2008
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)