Thursday, 31 May 2012

Polyphasic Sleep Schedule - Day 11

I know I wrote at the end of my last log that I wouldn't update till the end of the week but I've had quite an eventful day today and decided that it needed to be written.

Yesterday I wrote that I'd decided to shorten my core sleep from 4.5 hours to 3.5 hours because I figured it felt more natural and I wanted to see if it would help me sleep in the day. Well, today I had my first oversleep. I haver never ever slept through an alarm before, it's just not possible because I'm such a light sleeper, so it was quite a shock to say the least. I got woken up about twenty minutes after the 4.5 hour mark though so no major deal.

However, I've discarded with the 3.5 core sleep idea. I was going to persist through it, but then I looked in the mirror and realized my eyes looked like they were half hanging off. It's incredible that an hour less of sleep doubles the dark circles under my eyes, but to be honest I'd rather have an hour extra sleep than walk around looking like a zombie. So I came up with a new schedule.

Polyphasic sleeping schedules don't have to be set in stone. Personally I think it takes a bit of experimenting with because everyone is different and everyone has a different circadian rhythm. What I'm trying to do is to adjust my current schedule to one that is compatible with my own circadian rhythm and with my own life.

For me 3.5 hours of sleep per night is a no go, not to mention my napping troubles during the day. Instead I've decided to stick with the 4.5 hour schedule but with two major differences:

-First, I'm going to be putting my bed time back by about an hour or two, meaning I'll also be waking up an hour or two earlier. I believe it's easier staying awake when there's light coming from outside, rather than trying to fight my body's natural urge to sleep when it's dark; I've noticed that due to the struggle for consciousness I can't get anything at all done in the early hours of the morning, which goes against the point of doing this experiment at all.

-Second, because I'll be going to bed earlier, having an early night nap would be counterproductive, so I've decided to discard that nap all together and go biphasic. This also means that I'll be sleeping for twice the time during the nap in the middle of the day, meaning I can get to sleep in sufficient time.

My body has already adjusted to only living on 4.5 hours of sleep and to be perfectly honest it feels amazing, much better than when I was sleeping 8-9 hours per day. Add that to the fact that now I'll be sleeping twice a day, which is also the body's natural sleeping state, I reckon I could keep this schedule up forever. As a note though, now that my body's adjusted to 4.5 hours sleep I've decided that come the weekend I'll have the classic sleep-in, consisting of anywhere from 5.25 hours to 7 hours, just because sleeping in is nice. It'll be interesting to say the least though whether or not I'll wake up after 4.5 hours unable to sleep in.

Today I've started with this schedule. I slept from 3:30am to 8:20am meaning to wake up at 7:00am. When I realized how inconvenient it is I changed my schedule and went for a nap at 3:00pm, and that last 45 minutes. I really wondered whether I'd get to sleep and whether laying there would be a waste of time, but it wasn't. I woke up from my alarm after sleeping about twenty minutes, feeling groggy and disoriented, though an hour or so later and it had really perked me up.

I've seen a lot recently about this Zeo sleep monitoring headband thing that monitors your sleeping patterns and decided to see if there was an app on android for it that could be used via the inbuilt accelerometer. I came across a few, deciding to use a trial one. I doubted that it would actually work but I placed my phone under my pillow anyway and when I woke to my alarm I immediately went to check it. This is what it shows:

The high levels of green on either side indicate normal waking activity. The straight levels indicate wakeful rest. The bumps slightly going up either indicate brief movement or REM sleep, the sleep state in which we dream. Towards the last third of the graph you can see the straight line beginning to change to a deeper wobbly pattern. This I believe is stage 1 sleep. I was out for around twenty minutes apparently and had no idea that I'd actually gone. It felt much shorter than it actually was, but after the last ten days of not being able to nap in twenty minute increments it felt glorious.

This graph is not actually as detailed as it should of been seeing as I had it set to core sleep mode instead of nap mode. I have no idea how it's so accurate seeing as I was dead still the whole time, not moving at all. Maybe it picks up my breathing patterns or something. Either way, I'm going to be using this at night too and learning about my own natural circadian rhythm. Apparently if you indicate the cycle in which you want to be awoken it has the ability to automatically set the alarm to wake you up when you're in your lightest stage of sleep during that particular cycle, thereby preventing oversleeping.

Right now it's coming up for 7:45pm and I have to say that that extra nap has woken me quite sufficiently. I've got around another six hours left until my core sleep and I really hope this adjusted schedule will stick, hopefully I'll wake up at the right time in the morning. I think I'll set up multiple alarms just in case. All together I should be back to sleeping my original intended amount of 5.2 hours per day, thereby still earning me at least another 23.5 hours of wake time per week. We shall see.

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Polyphasic Sleep Schedule - Days 8-10

Three days have passed since I last updated this polyphasic sleeping schedule. I've actually surprised myself with how long I've already kept up with it.

Day 8:

I don't remember what happened, I think it was rather uneventful as far a logs go. It resembled Day 7 in terms of sleep-wake quality. I'd say the only thing being a general feeling of sleepiness over the course of the day. Nothing like being zombified though. Also, I remember not being able to sleep at all during the nap times this day.

Day 9:

Yesterday was interesting. I overslept on my core sleep by about twenty minutes tops, but the funny thing is when I woke up I genuinely believed that I'd accidentally overslept by hours. The time dilation is becoming more impressive every day. I failed at failing asleep on the first nap and decided to change my brainwave entertainment feeling like it was hindering my sleep. It's frustrating to say the least that after nine days of half the amount of sleep I'm still apparently not tired enough to sleep during naps. The second nap with the different track worked though and I fell asleep to towards the end before irritatingly being disturbed prematurely by the sound of the pipes flushing away someone's toilet water.

Day 10:

I decided to shorten my core sleep from 4.5 hours to 3.5 hours. This is for two reasons. One is because 4.5 hours is half way through my third cycle and therefore not a natural nor beneficial time to wake up from; 3.5 hours I've noticed is the time I naturally wake up from, from the end of my second cycle. The second reason is because I need to get myself used to power napping, and hopefully depriving myself of further sleep should do this. I have no idea why I'm unable nap.

Just an hour or so less of sleep was enough to put me back to a state similar to day one, except with waking hallucinations every time I closed my eyes. It felt like I'd pulled an all-nighter; I've been quite zombified all day. Whether due to the extra sleep deprivation or to the different music track, I managed to spend what felt like a third of both my naps drifting in and out of Stage 1 sleep. I certainly needed it and definitely feel a lot better. Hopefully with this altered schedule I'll be sleeping properly during naps in a few days.

One thing that's majorly impressing me is how I'll sleep 3.5 hours and it feels equivalent to a full night of eight hours sleep, so much so that over sleeping by twenty minutes felt like I'd accidentally been asleep for nine and a half hours or so. My body is still adjusting and staying up in the early hours of the morning is still difficult, but the thought of going back to a monophonic schedule and wasting all those extra hours revolts me. I feel like I could keep this up permanently, but at the end of the day it boils down to whether I can fall asleep during the day or not. If I'm still doing this after month and yet unable to nap during the days then I'll have to consider giving it up. It's not healthy sleeping so little without sleeping extra in the day. For reference, my eyes look like death. I swear don't feel as tired as I look.

I think I'll wait till the end of the week to next update this, hopefully the adjusted schedule would've taken by then.

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Sunday, 27 May 2012

Polyphasic Sleep Schedule - Day 7

Day 7:

This morning before my core sleep was pretty easy to ride out, the early hours of the morning no longer seeming to zombify me. I did have a couple of waves of nausia mind. After going to sleep at 3:30am, I woke up at 8:00am naturally without the use of my alarm, though I don't think I've ever found it so hard to drag myself out of bed before. I was feeling awake by the end of the first hour though.

Today I've felt generally normal, bar the odd wave of sleepiness. I've also noticed that the mood swings I was having earlier in the week leading up to my nap times have pretty much diminished. I really feel like I'm stabilizing.

I managed to have my first nap today at 1:30pm, and for the first time all week during that particular nap I managed to fall into a light sleep. It did, however, leave me feeling alert and awake leading all the way up to my second nap at 9:30pm, meaning that during my second nap I couldn't manage more than an extended micro-sleep.

Either way, I feel pretty pleased with my progress. I'll be incredibly happy when the day finally comes where I fall asleep in both naps throughout the day.

As a side note, I've developed a sort of meditation technique to help me fall to sleep. I'll concentrate on the rate of my breathing, aiming to bring my heartbeat right down. I'll count my breaths all the way up to ten before starting over again, then again, and again. Whilst doing that I'll visualize every breath as a different color and visualize it entering and leaving my body like a cloud. Along with the iso-chronic tones, it's an extraordinarily effective way of clearing my mind of all thoughts, distracting or otherwise.

Back to the original point, due to most the days begining to blur into one I don't think I'm going to be updating this log for at most another week or so. I think I may do a mid-week post though, like on day 10. Until then.

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Saturday, 26 May 2012

Polyphasic Sleep Schedule - Day 6

Day 6:

There's not much new to report today, the days feel like they're beginning to blur into one as the schedule is starting to feel more natural. I would still say that the second day was hardest by far.

Last 'night', I stayed up until 3:30am. I found it considerably easy. I basically spent a couple of hours writing fan fiction, and another couple of hours catching up watching more Heroes. I'm still trying to go easy with the extra activities though, I don't want to burn myself out too quickly.

This morning I had my alarm set for 8:15am, but I actually woke up at the end of my third sleep cycle at 8:00am exactly. Seeing as it's saturday I found it quite difficult to pull myself out of bed. I managed though.

It took me about an hour to get over the morning drunken state this time, which is a considerable amount less than yesterday. I generally felt good most the day, feeling sleepy at times my naps were due. A good sign that my circadian rhythm is resetting itself.

Today I had my naps at 3:40pm and 9:25pm. I know these are an hour or so outside my normal nap times, but the weekend in our house has a different schedule than the weekdays, meaning I still have to figure out what times work better for the weekdays. An hour or two difference either way shouldn't hurt with this schedule.

The first nap I kept drifting in and out of sleep for a few seconds at a time. I've now come to realize that it's basically micro-sleeping but with my eyes closed. My second nap, which I took just now, I fell asleep to again towards the end. I can't really judge for how long I was asleep, probably not longer than five minutes again, but my alarm woke me unexpectedly, me not realizing that I'd actually drifted off.

I really feel like my body is starting to understand and go along with the new changes. I'm really pleased. Personally I thought it'd be harder than this, especially after reading other people's logs. I won't be too quick to judge my progress though, apparently the second week is the hardest. I can't believe tomorrow will be a full week exactly!

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Polyphasic Sleep Schedule - Day 5

Day 5:

This morning staying awake before my core sleep was difficult. An inexplicable wave of tiredness washed over me, which is weird considering how alert I'd been previously feeling during the day. I couldn't focus on anything. It was even so bad that I started having auditory hallucinations, and to top that I was so out of it that I started trying to interact with the voices. I managed to fight it off though. Definitely one of the weirder experiences in my life.

I slept from 3:30am to 8:00am like always. For some reason though, despite how tired I was, I couldn't fall asleep for ages, so when I woke up I have the suspicion that it was middle cycle, stage 3 sleep. I basically felt like hell and almost considered giving up the experiment. I discarded the idea though soon as it formed. I won't give up so easy.

The classic post core sleep drunken feeling that I've gotten so used to lasted for about four hours today. My body stopped aching from lack of sleep a few days ago, leading me to believe that my body itself is for the most part adjusted. I just have difficulty figuring out why it seems such a challenge to move during the inebriated like state after my core sleep.

Today I felt quite sleepy. I found my eyes closing in on themselves accidentally. It wasn't the type of tiredness that hurts like it does during a zombified state, it was easy enough to stay awake. One strange thing though is that despite the sleepiness, I still retained that general feeling of wellbeing. It's a very euphoric type feeling.

Apparently sleeping more frequently yet for lesser hours throughout the day increases levels of dopamine, which is basically like the body's own version of natural cocaine and is responsible for the emotional wellbeing of a person. I've always had low dopamine levels, so the feeling of being genuinely happy and elevated is new to me. Polyphasic sleeping is currently being studied as a form of effective cure for depression. I can personally attest that it works. Oddly.

My first nap of the day was at 2:40pm. I fell unconscious for a few seconds at the most, my high level of anxiety levels due to the idea of being woken certainly didn't help. It was disappointing to say the least seeing how sleepy I'd been feeling all day, and the lack of sleep certainly didn't help raise my energy levels.

My second nap was taken just recently at 10:10pm. I was super tired by this time and was starting to worry how I would make it through till the morning. Turns out I didn't need to worry though because one minute I was thinking about the plot line to Heroes, listening to my iso-chronic tones, and the next thing I know I'm being disturbed by my alarm clock wondering when on earth the music stopped playing, and why I didn't hear it stop playing. (The music track usually finishes about a minute before my alarm is set to go off.)

I fell asleep properly for the first time during a nap! I think I must've dozed off after about fifteen minutes, meaning I reckon I got about five minutes sleep. I know really it's not that much but I feel so incredibly better now. More alert and awake than I've felt all day. Personally those five minutes or however long felt like a miracle. If I hadn't've had my alarm on I'm pretty sure I would've fallen into deep sleep and would've failed to wake up till at least seven in the morning.

I'm still suffering from eye strain from time to time as well. It's not pronounced like it was on the second day though. Also, the dark circles under my eyes are still prominent and I've had to switch to a thicker concealer. Otherwise, not much has changed.

Overall, I feel ten times better on this polyphasic sleeping schedule.

Tomorrow's saturday and I'm begging for a sleep in, saturday usually being the only day of the week I can sleep in till at least 10:00am without being disturbed. My mum won't wake me up at 8:00am this time so I've set my alarm, unfortunately. Apparently occasional sleep ins are acceptable once I'm fully adjusted, but for now I'm gonna avoid them like the plague to prevent myself from messing up the integration of my new circadian cycle. Unfortunately.

I always have been a light sleeper, but extreme sleep deprivation can override even the sound of morning alarms set to maximum volume. Let's hope not.

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Friday, 25 May 2012

Polyphasic Sleep Schedule - Day 4

Day 4:

Today was a good day. This morning before my core sleep I had almost no trouble in staying awake. I wrote quite a productive amount of fan fiction, caught up watching some Heroes, and then did some more research. I feel like I'm adjusting to this new schedule really quick. I'm really beginning to appreciate the extra hours seeing as I'm not feeling too zombified to do anything during those hours anymore.

I went to sleep at 3:30am and woke up accidentally three hours later exactly, feeling like I'd slept a full night. I almost decided to wake up there and then, but then figured it was probably best to stick to the schedule as much as possible, and I fell back to sleep for another hour and a half.

For the first time today I remembered a dream I had during my core sleep. It was something about insects and the end of the world, I think. Also, the time dilation when sleeping is becoming more pronounced. After 4.5 hours of core sleep I felt like I'd slept at least seven hours, not to mention the first three hours before waking felt like five.

I've noticed that the first couple of hours after my core sleep is difficult to wake up from. It basically feels like I've woken up drunk. Very weird indeed. During these first couple of hours I find myself walking into things and stumbling around more often than what should be considered normal. After a tardy shower though that disappears.

My first nap was at 2:30pm like usual. I used the iso-chronic tones to help me drift off to sleep again, and lo and behold results! I drifted in and out of stage 1 sleep until what felt like the penultimate five minutes, and then I had a dream!

I dreamed I was angry with someone and I kicked them, hard. However, the action caused my leg to flinch whilst I was sleeping, thereby waking me. I was probably only dreaming for about half a minute, but a dream is a dream. The flinching should go away once my mind learns to put my body under sleep paralysis more rapidly.

My second nap, which I had at 10:20pm, I didn't manage to dream to, but I was falling in and out of sleep again. I've noticed that with each nap the time I spend falling into sleep increases by a few seconds before suddenly waking again.

I'm still trying to find the optimal time to nap in the evening because unfortunately I have to work around my family. I've noticed that I start to get really grumpy though when I have a nap coming up, it's difficult to wind down with the house so alive.

I haven't really been feeling unusually tired since day 2. I do get light dips of tiredness between certain hours, but that's natural in everyone. Otherwise, it's going good, and I feel great, it's incredible how much more alert I feel in general over the whole day. It's a strange concept because I'm actually sleeping almost half the amount as before.

I can't think of any negative side effects today, bar pre-nap irritability and morning inebriation. I still have awful dark circles under my eyes mind, which is sort of hilarious seeing as I don't feel as tired as I look.

I would say this adjustment phase is like experiencing jetlag, except it feels better. Only day four in and already I feel like it's become habit. I would be devestated to lose the extra hours and general feeling of well-being over the day.

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Thursday, 24 May 2012

Polyphasic Sleep Schedule - Day 3

Day 3:

To anyone who read my log yesterday: I am extremely sorry for the general incoherency of the post. When I was writing it I was dead tired. I don't even know how I got through the entire morning without falling to sleep prematurely. It was torturous. I don't remember getting anything done at all, I think I may have been zombified for at least two hours.

I had my core sleep of 4.5 hours, however, and I actually woke up before my alarm. It'd felt like I'd slept something akin from six to seven hours. It's impressive how pronounced the effects of time dilation are already.

As for naps, I had my first twenty minute nap at 2:30pm but I didn't fall asleep, again. I did experience some insane hypnagogic imagery though, seeing the type of stuff one probably only sees high on hallucinogens.

My second nap was half an hour late at 10:30pm thanks to an inconvenience. Due to the flexibility of this schedule though it's not a major spanner in the works, but I noticed that I suddenly got extremely irritated at the time I would usually be trying to nap.

On the second nap though I was pretty tired and along with what seems to be some more insane hypnagogic imagery, I reckon I may have drifted in and out of stage 1 sleep a few times. Difficult to tell for sure though because for some reason I kept coming to with a start. However, any sleep is progress, and now, unlike last night, I feel dandy as a spring daisy.

Also, I've started using iso-chronic tones to help me wind down quicker during the naps. I've been using a twenty minute track I found on youtube which starts with theta waves and cycles through to delta. I cannot emphasize enough how incredible this is. It stills not just my mind, but my entire body too, and even without managing to fall asleep I feel incredibly well rested after.

Generally, the way I've been feeling over the entire day as a whole could be described as unusually perky. Sort of like being drunk at times though. I was feeling bright and sparky all the way up until about 7:00pm, which is three hours later than the previous day.

The perkiness may or may not be a sign of adjustment to the schedule beginning to take effect. I say may not because I received a good old dose of the happy vitamin D from, abnormally, sitting in the sun today. I also drank equivalent to about twice the amount of water I usually drink to combat the sleep deprived dehydration. Both these may also be reasons why I felt so good.

I've started applying aloe vera gel under my eyes to combat the dark circles. That stuff will cure any skin disorder, and believe me, already after one day of applying it I can notice a pronounced difference. The dark circles are supposed to disappear once adjustment has fully taken place anyway. We'll see.

I've had like no ill effects today. Only a headache earlier, but nothing like yesterday. Almost no lightheadedness, no feeling sick, barely feeling tired, and reduced hunger from the fact I've increased my daily intake of food. Also, my eyes no longer feel like sandpaper. F yes.

Just another four hours until my core sleep is due. I'm feeling good at the moment so I think I may just get through this morning in one piece. Peace. i.i

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Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Polyphasic Sleep Schedule - Day 2

Day 2:

This morning at 8:00am when I woke up after 4.5 hours sleep I looked in the mirror and noticed ugly dark circles under my eyes. Thank god for concealer, the last thing I need is having to explain to mum that I'm staying up till god knows what time in the morning.

I still didn't manage to fall to sleep at the designated nap times in the day but thanks to being super tired I zoned out into a hypnagogic state almost immediately as my head hit the pillow. I reckon a day or two more and I'll be falling asleep at the right times during the day.

I was feeling relatively normal until about 4:00pm, then I started to feel really tired. Another thing is that whenever I'm hungry I feel sick, and I've been hungry probably something like twice as much than what is normal.

I've gone into quite a few short zombie states throughout the day. That's not exactly unusual for me anyway, but I was seriously out of it at times. I also noticed that for a split second I went into a very dark place emotionally, somewhere I haven't been for months. I almost didn't realize it, it was so brief. I need to be careful of this.

As the day wore on I began to feel lightheaded like yesterday and actually accidentally smacked myself in the face with a door from losing my bearings for a split second.

I've just tried having my second nap of the day and unlike yesterday at this time I feel majorly tired. For reference, my eyes feel like sandpaper glued together. And I'm so incredibly hungry, I've now a secret stash of cereal under my bed for the early mornings.

Just another four hours and forty-five minutes till I can sleep. I will stick through this. God save me.

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Monday, 21 May 2012

Polyphasic Sleep Schedule - Day 1

I've decided to experiment with a Polyphasic sleeping cycle. Basically, without going too much into detail, it means that if I split my sleep into scientifically proven periods of time over the whole day, like naps, rather than sleeping all in one go I could theoretically sleep as little as two hours per day and have no ill effects for it, well, after the supposed initial transition period that is.

I've decided to do the Everyman 3 cycle. This means I'll sleep 4.5 hours every night, and in conjunction with that have two 20 minute naps separated throughout the day. Altogether I'll be sleeping an average of 5.2 hours per day. I figured this was perfect, not too easy, not too hard. It should gain me around three hours extra time per day.

The transition phase is the hard part. I'll be going through some major sleep deprivation that'll last from anywhere around two weeks to two months whilst my body is adjusting, so this will be like a mini daily diary on my progress.

Day 1:

I've been up since 8:00am. I went to bed at around 3:30am the 'night' before falling asleep almost instantaneously due to being so tired. Overcoming boredom was the hardest though. Reading is difficult when you're tired, so I ended up procrastinating my time away on social networking sites really. I almost gave up from boredom alone.

I saw it though, however. My first 20 minute nap was due at 2:30pm but I couldn't fall asleep and the alarm went off before I could even relax. I guess it's only normal, my body's not used to sleeping at such an obscure time.

My second 20 minute nap time was just recently at 10:00pm. I was more tired by this time so I managed to slip into a hypnagogic state, but I still couldn't fall asleep, despite almost being on the edge. However, I did feel more refreshed afterwards.

General sleep deprivation symptoms over the course of the day include: Headache, light-headedness, zoning out, neck strain, dry eyes, sensory overload, being hungrier than normal.

It's now 11:00pm and I've got around another 4.5 hours before I can turn in for my core sleep. After that light relaxation of a nap earlier I reckon it shouldn't be as hard as it was last night. Plus, I'm gonna be using the time this time to write more fanfic. I'm feeling surprisingly good and optimistic.

Note: I've been in a generally positive mood all day, so no irritability signs... Yet.

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