New plan

I've mentioned in this blog before that I had considered the idea of trying to only nap when I was tired, instead of trying to stick to a schedule, something that often doesn't work for me, either because the schedule is difficult, wrong, or gets interrupted by daily life. It would be better to do a semi-free-running form of napping, where I simply take a nap when I am able or I feel like it, rather than trying to tell my body when to nap. The only thing to be wary of would be making sure that I get naps often enough and for the duration that my body needs. For it to be effective, I would have to limit the duration of my naps and have a certain frequency to them, so that I am not just "crashing" when I sleep. I've done well with free-running sleep in the past, this is what I've more or less ended up doing for some time now, when I was able.

The only thing that would be new for me is trying to limit my free sleeping to an optimal duration. I'm not sure what this would be. I am sometimes good with a 15-30 minute nap. Other times, I will naturally sleep for about 80-120 minutes. I've tried doing 20-30 minute naps X number of times a day, and I will often have naps where I don't fall asleep, barely fall asleep, or wake up still tired. I've adapted to napping, but any set schedule has so far seemed to fail. I don't fall asleep that quickly unless I am already dead-tired, and I don't know that this is the ideal state of being for me. Trying to force myself to adapt to a certain schedule didn't work out so well, either. Doing common adaptation tricks like sleeping on the floor just made it more painful, because what little sleep I did get was uncomfortable. I wasn't adapting; I was just not sleeping, and learning to be fine with it. I learned that I could not sleep and still function sufficiently, but this is not maximizing my sleep time, nor is it taking advantage of having a nap schedule with my sleep spread out throughout the day. It was just getting over the pain of sleep deprivation. Was that healthy? I don't know.

It seems like laying down and setting my alarm for 90 minutes works well for me. I take a few minutes to fall asleep, and usually wake up refreshed after that time. I'm considering the idea of sleeping for about 90 minutes, 3 times a day. I've been trying this the last few days, and something about it seems to be working. I have been awake more than 8 hours at a stretch during that time, but I was not experiencing pain of sleep deprivation during this, and I was experiencing some of the positive effects that I sometimes associate with being tired but continuing to go. I felt energetic and less anxious. What causes this state? Is my brain drugging itself because its tired? Am I getting too much adrenaline? I still have some worries about this, but physically and mentally, I feel fine. If nothing else, the longer I try this, the more I adapt to being flexible on my sleep, and sleeping less in general. I don't need 8 hours of sleep a day, and as far as I can see, I am just as healthy without it, and feeling as good as ever.

Anyway, this is the (loosely structured) schedule that I am endeavoring to follow now, and one that I think I can stick to fairly well. Unless it suddenly becomes possible for me to fall asleep instantly and get all my rest in 20 minutes, a 90 minute nap seems to be right for me. I believe it is something that I can easily adapt to, and feel well doing. It is still more optimal than a long chunk of sleep once a day, but it is more sleep than the usual 2 hours that polyphasics get. On an average day, I'd be getting about 4 - 4.5 hours of sleep. It is also less frequent than every 4 hours, so although I would be taking sleep breaks less frequently, I would also lose that annoying feel that I'm always either preparing to sleep or trying to wake myself up that I got with the DaVinci plan. 8 hours both seems like an optimal time for me to go without feeling sleepy, and something that I can easily adapt to my schedule, as I am often out doing things for more than 4 hours at a time, but usually less than 8. I believe that 90 minute chunks of sleep will allow me some flexibility on the 8 hour spacing, as well. It's not such a short time that I will be so reliant on frequency, like "Uberman" sleepers learn to be.

Anyway, I'm hopeful about this endeavor. And happy with the few days that I've been trying it so far. I was able to both be up early and feel rested enough for Christmas and the day after. I'm excited about polyphasing again, and I will try to keep a good log of my experience on this trial, to best ascertain whether this works for me.