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My friend and I stumbled upon this site and concept of polyphasic sleeping through the internet somehow, frankly the internet is such a strange place that I don't even question how or why we find strange things anymore. We have decided to try the Everyman for a FULL ten days. We are currently seniors in college and could use a little more time so we are giving it a shot.
Our class schedules are very close to a full-on working man schedule (even minus all the homework and senior thesis work), so we are adopting the Everyman where we get our core sleep from midnight to three am and our three naps symmetrically at seven am (before class), one pm (while we both have no class), and seven pm (well after classes have stopped). Since we are currently IN school, we have decided to start on a Thursday night so that Friday just feels like a normal "oh shit we have a big project due tomorrow" night. This way, most of the sleep deprivation symptoms will occur during the weekend and early week (which can seem pretty normal anyway).
In order to get ourselves prepared, we each have been starting to take naps during the day while NOT adjusting our normal sleep schedule. Neither of us have actively napped in the past, so making sure that we CAN was the first course of action.
Napping was hard at first. My first and second naps yielded virtually no sleep, but I did think about a tremendous amount of things and actually ended getting a lot done while lying comfortably in bed. However, my most recent naps have been great. While I still don't get a lot of sleep, the extra thought and relaxation really refreshes me and gets me ready to work as soon as I awaken. I am bold enough to say that the twenty minute nap may be twenty minutes I am not working, but it IS the following hours that I am working more efficiently than the normal droll. Hell, even if this experiment fails, I will assuredly try to continue napping at least once a day for that refreshing factor.
Another preparation we made was the alarm system. I have a very cool alarm clock from brookestone that I got for christmas one year. It automatically sets itself if the power goes out (and then comes back on of course) and remembers your previous alarm times. As for the naps, I've installed a very simple program that can set a "20 minutes later alarm" within seconds. The alarm awakens your screen and plays a song or sound of your choice. Nothing wakes me up in a hurry like my computer screen turning on and blaring "Over the Hills and Far Away" by Nightwish, and the only way to get it to stop is to get out of bed and turn it off. I won't be using the computer alarm for the core sleep because turning your computer off is VERY good for it-- computers need sleep too!
Today is Sunday and the experiment starts Thursday. Till then, my friend and I will be attempting to nap regularly. Until then, my fellow polyphasers, a TOAST to you. To you who have tried, whether successful or not, you have made this possible for me and my friend to try. And to this coming 10 day trial (and possibly more) of the Everyman, may you teach us a lesson, whether it be of the perils of sleep deprivation or the blessing of twenty-eight extra hours per week. KANPAI!
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slight change of plans. My friend came up with the amazing idea to move our core to 5AM. The logic behind this is that if our core is at midnight, we will be crashing early in comparison to our roomies and friends who may stay up later than us. With this schedule, we will be the ones staying up later than everyone else so there is no worry about running into complications.
The one downside of this schedule is there is NO forgiveness if we oversleep. With classes and meetings starting as early as 9AM for the two of us, if we oversleep our 8AM wake up call, we are likely to miss our first class or meeting.
However, I'm told there is support in numbers. Between the two of us, I think we can do it!
BTW, just had a nice nap. For a bit, I was up restlessly thinking, yet comfortable in the confines of my warm bed and mind. After a little while, I tried something strange-- I imitated a hypnotist and talked myself to sleep. To my surprise, it worked.
Over the Hills and Far Away is such a great wakeup tune... I don't know, man, it just works.
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started day one by sleeping all my naps. Once at noon, Once at 6-7pm and the final at midnight. I actually fell asleep pretty quick on my midnight one. Felt really good.
1220 or so to 5am is going to be the tough stretch over the course of the sleep exhaustion period. My friend and I hung out and talked and played a card game a little and did homework. We also did quite a few pullups, pushups, situps, and bicep curls. For anyone who is combating falling asleep, a little blood flowing around has a similar effect as a brick of solid sugar without the downer afterwards. We got a lot done! Around 4 or so, he went back to his room and I had just enough time to read a bit from the art book I got for my birthday and give it a little whirl.
Went to bed almost right at 5 and fell fast asleep.
Tiredness: hardly noticeable. I don't usually ever stay up that late unless I'm going all the way and it did NOT feel like it after my midnight nap. Fatigue: None what to speak of. Productivity: Peak Energy: Normal (all these measurements are about as "control" as you get) Mental health: ... ... ... lets just say "normal"
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woke up at 8am right on schedule. Was a little hard to get out of bed, but once I got up and took a shower, I was right as rain. Mmmm, it's raining really hard out.... nice. So yeah... that is a completely normal thing for me. Today felt like getting up on a normal day. Could've been a little adrenalin from being excited to do this experiment, but either way, I couldn't complain.
First run of classes went well. My two boring ones earlier in the morning. Usually I'm inattentive and stuff, but I was on the ball today. Probably helped that I had some time to organize my notes last night and review a little.
On the way back, my legs felt ever so slightly sore, as if I had just been on a run and didn't stretch. I know this feeling, it's what remains when adrenalin leaves your system. So I was a little high off of wanting to do this experiment, but my awakened state has not left with the adrenalin, so I have high hopes.
I know tonight and tomorrow should be difficult, but I am prepared to face it head on.
Had my first lucid-nap... very surprising so early on. I have always been a strange dreamer, but I really wasn't really expecting something like this so soon. I wouldn't really call it a lucid DREAM, because it wasn't like I was completely immersed, it was very quick and ended suddenly. In the nap, I was eating oatmeal at my desk and I spilled some in my lap and it kinda fell off my leg and onto the floor and at some point I realized that I hadn't really spilled anything and that I was dreaming. I then proceeded to "spill" the rest of the stuff on the floor and then I pulled out a cake from nowhere and give a good "happy birthday to the ground." However, by this point in the dream/nap/thing I had sort of pulled myself out of actually dreaming and more directing and found myself giggling in bed no longer dreaming.
My second nap was nice. I love sleeping. At first, I thought I would lose this love because I wouldn't sleep as much, but one way to look at it is that now I get to fall asleep four times every day.
During my second stretch of classes, I got kinda tired... today was especially boring, but it was starting to shine through. I took my nap at 6 and got up and made myself an artichoke. It was godly. Truly, that vegetable is proof of some higher entity... it's too delicious for words.
6-12 was a sinch. Around 10pm I was totally awake as if it were mid-day. However, around 1130 or so, I really started to need my nap though. I'll say it again and again, a set of pullups or a run or squats or situps or something refreshes me like none other. During the tougher times, these get me through.
my midnight nap was really easy to fall asleep into. The more heavy sleep deprivation symptoms started kicking in after that nap. The haze was really heavy through that night cycle. It was hard to really sit down and concentrate on something without running into some symptom of the sleep-dep haze.
Tomorrow is the big day apparently. Tomorrow is the day when the sleep-dep has reached power level greater than nine thousand and doesn't plan on holding back. Wish me luck, tomorrow looks to be the peak of the mountain trail.
Tiredness: I am tired Fatigue: No muscle fatigue, but the haze has caused a slight loss in my fine motor skills Productivity: Midline. Sleep is my dark passenger, constantly nagging Energy: Still normal. I'm tired, but my energy levels are normal. If I need to do some running or go out and do something, I'm never at any lack of energy to get out and do it Mental health: my sense of time has considerably slowed. This sleep schedule doubles my free time. Logically, my normal sense of time would consider it to be wednesday/thursday when it is only now monday/tuesday. It is also interesting trying to label the 12am-5am a "night" or a "morning" shift... I currently call it the "night" cycle or the "last" cycle. Basically, my mental state is in the sleep-dep "haze". |
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fuuuu-- Today took some real willpower to get out of bed after my core sleep. I had to snooze for 15 minutes. A nice shower and a bowl of cereal set me out the door fit and with some energy, but my god man...
Early classes went amazingly well. I'm actually really well rested and incredibly attentive despite the incredible difficulty getting out of bed I had this morning. I definitely feel like I'm NOT sleep deprived any more. My body is not used to the schedule still (it is still considered irregular to my body's usual1am-9am sleeping cycle), but it is no longer being deprived of the cycles it needs. So once this sets into my internal clock, I think I'll be completely adjusted at that point.
My noon nap was cool. Had another one of those pseudodreams. I felt like I was still awake and trying to get to sleep but was still partially in a dreamlike state, so I could clearly imagine any situation I could imagine. I just remember whatever I was dreaming being rather chaotic, lots of movement and people moving around. But then the lucidity set in and I was just like, no, this is too chaotic. I was in the middle of a busy street in this pseudo dream and I just decided to lie down in the road and sleep. Next thing I remembered was Over the Hills and Far Away.
my post-lunch classes were fantastic. I'd never been more alert and energetic. By that point I knew that I was completely over the sleep dep portion. As naptime approached, I get a little tired. It is the exact same kind of tired I get after a long day in mono-sleep only on a much smaller scale. Essentially, the Everyman has taken the one hulking natural waking up and getting tired and falling asleep schedule and put 4 smaller, sleeker, and meaner badasses in its place. Right now, in day three of the experiment, I've slept approximately 8 of the about 60 hours since the official start of the experiment. Yet I am no longer showing any signs of sleep deprivation.
As a consumer, this experiment is complete. I am convinced of the benefits and of the ability for this cycle to not kill people. As a scientist, there is still much to think about. Firstly, the experiment is not over until the fat lady sings-- the experiment has to end at some point for some reason or another. The terms upon ending in conjunction with the amount of time spent on the experiment will be a solid foundation for the application of terms like "success" and "failure."
I have no intention of stopping and no current doubts on my ability to succeed.
Tiredness: Less tired than normal Fatigue: Less fatigued than normal Productivity: Above average Energy: Above average Mental health: The time slowing has brought a sense of peace to my usual chaos. People call me crazy for trying such a ridiculous experiment, but for once in my college years, I feel completely sane.
awesome quote: "well, it's day three of the experiment aaand-- I'm kinda hungry. So I guess I'll pour myself another glass of whiskey and, um, yeah. Cheers... Nope. Still hungry."
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hahaha, I am awesome!
last night's midnight alarm went straight into my computer's headphones. In a nutshell, the last time I worked on the computer was earlier in the night and I worked on it with my headphones. When it was finally naptime, I came in, set my alarm, and conked out, not realizing that they were still connected.
NEEDLESS to say, I slept through the alarm. I slept until 6am-- an extra 3 hours. My body didn't complain.
But I feel incredibly groggy. It feels like... Sleeping is like eating. If you eat too much, you feel like shit afterwards. Sure, it feels GREAT to eat like a glutton, but once it's all said and done, you feel slow and tired. Sleeping is TRULY the same. I felt so amazing yesterday because I was getting exactly what I needed and no more. Frankly, I feel like it is time for another nap and I didn't get up all that long ago. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I've felt this way my entire life! When I get up in the morning, I ALWAYS would prefer to stay in bed. The gluttonous spiral. But once I started the Everyman, I lost that feeling of overburdening sloth. I was eating my sleep in healthy increments and healthy proportions.
One night's blunder will not stop me. I will stop using my computer and use my egg timer... yes, the twistie nob that rings like a fucker when it hits zero. It has never let me down in the past and I should have given it the chance. I guess I can be a sucker for new technology sometimes, but simple technologies are just better at doing their job.
((also, please excuse the change in voice on my blog. I tried to have everything in the past tense on the previous entries, but it felt unnatural since I was updating and saving a draft after every nap.))
I fell right asleep in all three of my naps today. It was great. Its 1am now and I'm wide awake after my nap. I'm no longer scared that the extra long sleep would fuck me up, but now that I really think about it, a normal weekend day I might sleep in for an extra 3 hours and it doesn't knock me off a schedule...
morning note: it hasn't knocked me off. I'm better than ever.
Tiredness: A little groggy. Comparable to a monday on monosleep Fatigue: What is this word even here for? Productivity: During the night cycle, I was working almost constantly, generally reading or other "tiring" things. I was not tired. I got so much done. Energy: Great. Had no problems getting out of bed this morning. Mental health: I'm probably going to get rid of this section of the personal review... If my mental health is failing me, I would bet you money that you would notice it in the rest of the article. Please don't go accusing me of being mentally unstable yet, I'm always like this. |
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I spoiled you on yesterday's post, my alarm clock incident has NOT thrown me into a spiral of tiredness. It does NOT wreck the entire week or even the entire day. In fact, it felt kinda good despite the grogginess I felt for the rest of the day. My friend wants to try the "Ben Franklin" approach. That is, he wants to pick a day like saturday and just sleep like all fucking day and then get back on track Sunday. Research shows that it doesn't really matter where you have your sleep schedule, as long as it is normal your body will approve (so long as the schedule is healthy).
Woke up with NO difficulty this morning. Really happy that I didn't have to start over again from day one.
Really, I don't feel much need any more to document each and every nap. I fall asleep easy, I wake up pretty easy, and I get back to work after a quick snack. Makes for a pretty lame blog.
But all in all, not much new to report. If anything, I've noticed more and more that time has slowed down. Today is friday (well its technically friday, but it's kind of thursday night) but this week feels like it has been going on forever. Tomorrow marks the start of the weekend. For research sake, I'm going to keep to the schedule and not do things the "ben franklin" way. I wonder if the weekend will seem longer than the weekdays? Without classes to go to, I may feel pushed by my body to get out more and keep active. This schedule has really pushed my body to want to be moving more. I have no idea why, but I don't ask, I just listen.
Tiredness: Mild tiredness Fatigue: anti-fatigue... my body wants to be moving more than I am having it recently Productivity: I've been doing non-productive things a little bit more today, but I've been very productive at them Energy: Great. Had no problems getting out of bed this morning. Mental health: Upon further thought, I'll keep this section. If this time slowing thing has increased vigor on the weekends, it is absolutely possible that without discipline I could lose motivation to be productive so prolifically. Basically, I'm worried that I may get bored on the weekends. Who knows? I'll think about it when I get there. |
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Sorry for the interim post. I just wanted to say that I feel freaking fantastic. My alarm mishap has not hindered me in any way.
Another amazing thing I heard was that my friend was at a philosophy seminar type thing and he introduced himself as a polyphasic sleeper. Absolutely no one in the room believed that he could survive healthily on only 3-4 hours of sleep. There was tons of commotion and uproar for a moment until one of the older professors stood up and spoke. He had been sitting in the back of the room, watching and smiling with some inner knowledge older people tend to have. When he spoke, he silenced the room by saying that my friend was not only telling the truth, but that he as well is a polyphasic sleeper and has been for over three years straight. Or at least that's the story I'm told.
Just more evidence screaming in my face that this is real. I still don't believe it sometimes. I'll be sitting there at 4 in the morning reading the yiddish new testament simply because I WANT to and thinking, "this is too fucking cool to actually be real and/or too good to be actually be good for me." But every time I jump into bed or jump out of bed, my body reassures me. This is healthy.
Thinking about it that way, it's kind of more evolutionarily sound... If a hunter-gatherer were to sleep for eight hours straight, they would likely be eaten. A farmer with a house, however... Moral of the story is that we humans are more adaptable than we may think. We are weak, for sure, but we are flexible. Like trees. Mmm trees are awesome. Actually I guess not really like trees because trees are really strong. Whatev-yo
Everything comes with a price though. One muses over equivalent exchange and laws of conservation of energy and drawbacks versus benefits. The drawbacks? Without the naps, you get tired. For a work-through-lunch day or going to a rock concert, the rest of the evening could be hard (although I've pretty much proven by accident that it's easy to recover). But with so much time on my hands, I couldn't see needing to work through lunch. The equivalent exchange? Efficiency. My food reference sums it up when I say eating less food more times per day is more efficient for our digestive systems and that our sleep systems appear to act in the same accord. Conservation of energy? Ok, you got me there, I'm sleeping less but I have more energy than normal. Science ain't perfect, never will be. But we can only try.
I'll continue this blog to possibly help others along their way, but my original need to look at it scientifically is almost entirely gone. My cutoff date for science is 10 days. If I can make it 10 days (which will be easy at this rate), then I will be convinced beyond any measure of a doubt that this is healthy... for ME. I can't speak of anyone other than myself since this is a test with one subject and a "control" group that really is just the same subject's past. Not a very good experiment.
silly quote: "Dumbledore casted his stand-without-effort spell and erected himself proper. He then proceeded to tell a joke about death, perplexing some and just plain scaring most of the kids."
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like benjamin franklin apparently did, my friend's professor sleeps in on a weekend day. Like him, we are going to try it. I slept in an extra 3 hours. It was amazing. Hopefully my naps go well. We will find out.
Yeah, naps went well, but the holiday weekend held a surprise. One may not think it, but I actually do have a life and actually went to a party for once. Missed my midnight nap and was so intoxicated that I slept for 5 hours until 6am. I've never done that before. Usually when I fall asleep, I'm dead. Instead, I think I slept just long enough to cleanse my system of the poison and then I got up. Dunno if I say this was caused by my sleeping schedule or just because of the booze... I have no idea.
Either way, I worried a little bit about being completely buttfucked out of the schedule. I was wrong. Still happily in the schedule. I'm convinced it is because of the naps during the day. Taking them is just so good. So good. I love my naps.
Tomorrow/today is monday and a week ago I was doing this for the first time. I've kept pretty well with it, but I've had my blunders so far. Let's see what happens this week so I can give a bit more of a clean set of data. One way or the next, I'm incredibly impressed at the flexibility of my body. Even with parties and skips and misses, I remain completely well rested with an average sleep time of about 5 hours per night. My usual average is about 9, so I'd say this week has been a complete success.
Again, a toast. Like a middle school-boy, here is a toast to my one week anniversary with my new infatuation. I really like it and I'm sticking with it for better or for worse. More on that when it develops, but so far my mistress has been very generous to me.
Kanpai!
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