Polyphasic Day 8

Day 8: 2013/8/22

So today was the day I could finally get more structured again. I did pretty good, but was 15 mins late once. At 1am, I'm feeling very tired again, but not yet as bad as the last few days. I'm going to try still doing every 3 hours, but extending naps to 45 mins instead of 25. Theoretically that will give me 2 cycles per nap. We'll see if it helps.

I'm finding that I'm eating more than I did before; I get hungry during my new waking hours. And given that I'm not really being any more active (most of my new hours are at the computer), that means I'm probably gaining weight. I'll have to check that. Clearly, if you're going to do this you'll need some kind of weight reduction concept in place. I plan to start lifting (not sure which day, though), so maybe that will help. I have a set of adjustable-weight dumbbells at home that I'll use.

Dreams: Many people have mentioned heightened ability to dream -- including lucid dreaming -- while polysleeping. I thought I'd throw in a more thorough description of my own experiences thus far. First, let me start with how I was before I started the experiment. While I have certainly had some very vivid, realistic, and "enlightening" dreams that I remember quite well, they hadn't been recent. For the past 10 years or so, if I dreamed, I usually didn't remember it. Even when I did remember, it was only for a short time and then it was gone.

Since starting polyphasic sleeping, I have noticed increased incidence of dreaming, a propensity to dream while still awake, increased perception of being awake while actually being asleep (or maybe the opposite?), and increased sense of confusion upon awakening.

Incidence of dreaming: Of course, this means incidence of >remembered< dreaming. I still don't often remember my dreams for very long, but virtually every nap, now, I realize that I had been dreaming at some point, even if I don't remember any of it.

Dreaming while awake: This has been limited, so far, to dreaming just before falling asleep. I'm clearly awake and can will myself to roll over or whatever, and yet I'm talking (without moving my lips) to someone that isn't there, or imagining I'm somewhere else, or otherwise hallucinating.

Perception of being awake: Combined with the above, it makes recording how much sleep I've gotten rather troublesome. Sometimes I'm really awake but dreaming (I can make myself turn over) and sometimes I'm really asleep but think I'm awake (if I try to turn over, I either imagine that I did so, but didn't really, or the request simply gets ignored and I forget about it a few moments later).

Confusion: Likely due to the extra dreaming and altered perceptions. At this point, when I wake, I almost always have to do the "where >am< I" routine. I certainly didn't have to do this before polysleeping.

Later edit: when I took my 3am nap, I apparently woke up to the alarm, turned it off, and then went back to sleep, all without remembering any of it. I woke up at 5am. I had been feeling pretty darned tired, but I'm now moving the alarm to elsewhere in the room, just in case.