Polyphasic Day 1

Day 1: 2013/8/15

So having stayed up all night, I'll be taking my first nap shortly. It's currently 10am, and I'll probably start the nap at 12 noon. I feel pretty much as I expected to -- I've been up pulling an all-nighter before, and so far the experience is, of course, exactly the same. I'm rather tired, and I feel that my faculties aren't what they should be, but I'm also not doing horribly. I'll log again after my first nap.

Nap 1: 2013/8/15 12:00pm

 It took a little while to fall asleep, and I don't have any memory of dreaming. I had set the alarm for 1/2 hr, and it probably took 5 min or so to sleep. I woke up pretty quickly, though, and don't feel too bad -- slightly better than when I went to bed.

Nap 2: 2013/8/15 1:45pm

I got to attempting the nap about 15 minutes late. I was feeling quite good, actually, awake and functioning (at least to my mind) as if I'd gotten a whole night's sleep the previous night. Regardless of the whys, however, I couldn't sleep. I laid in bed for about 5 minutes before I just couldn't handle the boredom anymore and got up.

Nap 3: 2013/8/15 3:00pm

It took a while to fall asleep again, but I did. Waking up from this nap was one of the hardest times I've had waking up in a while, and I'm guessing it's still going to get worse from here. I felt completely disoriented. In fact, I worried that I had somehow fallen asleep when I shouldn't, and it took a while even realize that an alarm wouldn't have woken me if that had been the case. I feel a little out of sorts, but really not bad, and I have the feeling that it might be like the first nap, where I felt better after I'd been awake for a while.

Nap 4: 2013/8/15 4:30pm

Didn't sleep well again. I expect that I probably did sleep some, but it felt like I was awake the whole time. I did wait the entire time, though.

Nap 5: 2013/8/15 6:00pm

Fell asleep in a reasonable amount of time. Woke up after less than 20 minutes instead of the timed (and alarmed) 30. Still feeling pretty good overall. I'm guessing it's more to do with body resilience and the ability to go for a day without sleep than to any kind of adaptation, yet.

Nap 6: 2013/8/15 9:00pm

I decided to punt on the extra naps and just do the long-term planned ones every 3 hours. The mid-term naps weren't working well, I didn't feel tired like I needed them, and I mostly just sat there. Nothing particularly interesting about this sleep -- still having a difficult time falling asleep, not really feeling well rested, but not feeling awful either. If I had to rate my current 'restfulness' on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is awake but only barely, I'd probably say 6 or so, which is better than I expected. It's also better than some of monophasic nights I've had.

Nap 7: 2013/8/16 12:00am

Still having lots of trouble falling asleep. I should mention that I normally fall asleep within a couple of minutes, so even 5 is a long time. For this nap I felt like I kept drifting in and out of light sleep, but that's all. I did have a couple of minor hallucinations (strange beeping noises) during the nap, too. I'm very surprised that I'm not falling asleep faster. Also, given that it's now past midnight, I'd think I'd be more tired than I am. Currently rating myself around a 4 (hallucinations notwithstanding), but I expect it to improve a little soon (I'm feeling groggiest just after I get up).