Saturday, August 24, 2013

Polyphasic Day 2

Nap 8: 2013/8/16 3:00am

Pavlina mentioned that he had better naps at night if he left a dim light on, so I thought I'd try that and see if I had any better results. I didn't have a dim light handy, though, so I just used the main room light even though it's pretty darn bright. I did sleep a bit better this time, but I don't know if I can attribute that to the light, yet. I fell asleep within a few minutes, but woke up once at exactly 15 mins in with the memory of some dream. I decided to try to sleep for the rest of the time, and fell asleep again quite quickly, sleeping through until the alarm.

I feel pretty tired at the moment, but really only as if I'd gotten myself up at 3am on any night. It doesn't feel as if I missed a night at all.

 Nap 9: 2013/8/16 6:00am 

I slept OK, had dreams. Didn't want to wake up. The previous 3 hours have been the toughest so far, and I came close to falling asleep during normal tasks. I think I'll go back to the hour-and-a-half thing, now that I'm actually feeling deprived and think it could work.

Nap 10: 2013/8/16 7:30am

Still very tired. I started getting cold a little after the above entry, even though it's 74F in here. I put on a flannel shirt.

Nap 11: 2013/8/16 9:00am

I started feeling a little more awake as day started, but took my nap as normal, of course. This is about the third time that I've woken up part way through feeling pretty alert. I went back to sleep until the alarm again. 

Nap 12: 2013/8/16 10:30am

Feeling much better. Even before this nap I was starting to feel like a human being again. Not sure if I'm starting to adapt, if the extra naps are just making me feel better, or if it's more to do with my regular circadian rhythm, but whatever the cause, I feel mucch more alert. I am, once again, surprised by this. My expectation had been for far more zombification and for far longer. At this point, I don't believe I'm over the hump, yet, and this evening will be the toughest time yet, but I guess I'm not sure.

Nap 13: 2013/8/16 12:00pm

Had a little troupble sleeping again. I'm feeling so generally awake that my mind just wasn't ready, I suppose. I'll drop the extra naps again (back to 3 hrs), and maybe bring them back if tonight is like last night.

Nap 14: 2013/8/16 3:10pm

As you can see, I got to this one late. That's the first time I've been late for a nap I intended to take. I did start feeling just a little bit... off at about 2:50, though I don't know if that's adaptation or just regular wear & tear.

Note that I say "off", not "tired". I wasn't feeling tired in the normal way that I usually do so, it was more like the day after sleeping after having pulled an all-nighter the previous night. I'm awake and not exactly tired, but definitely not all hunky dory, either. 

At any rate, I didn't feel like I was going to be able to sleep, but I definitely did. After probably 5 mins or so, I was asleep. I woke up on my own at only about 12 mins in (including the 5 to get to sleep), feeling refreshed (not completely refreshed, just better than before the nap). I decided that wasn't enough and I should go back to sleep, which was again quite easy, and I woke up with the alarm.

I'm not sure what I should do about the waking up mid-nap thing. I'm also not sure about the right length of a nap, or the fact that I don't seem to be dreaming as memorably as other polyphasic sleepers have reported. I definitely want to play around with the length of a nap to see what works best, but I figure it would be good to have some baseline first, and I'm not sure I'm there, yet. I think this evening's sense of well-being will be informative.

Nap 15: 2013/8/16 5:55pm 

Due to a social event I started a little early and shortened to 25 mins. Unfortunately, noise in the house made it difficult to sleep well. I fell asleep OK but was awakened 3 or 4 times and didn't fall back asleep instantly. Still feeling OK overall.

Nap 16: 2013/8/16 9:10pm

Fell asleep fairly quickly and slept fairly well, as far as I can tell. Didn't awaken in the middle, but felt groggy when the alarm went off. Don't have a whole lot to say.

Nap 17: 2013/8/17 12:05am

Starting to feel tired again. I expect at this point that I'll be going into zombie mode each night unless and until my body adapts a bit better.

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