Progress?

Wednesday night, I was not in the mood to sleep. Didn't get to sleep until the pre-dawn hours, slept about 3-4 hours and wasn't groggy when I got up, but wasn't really in the mood to do anything. I went to school and had an uneventful day. I got about a half-hour nap in the car, slept for just a few minutes of that, but it felt good. I was really tired by the time I got home, but still didn't feel like sleeping until about 10 PM. I was thinking about my nightly nap and wondered if the solution to my difficulties in waking between 12 - 6 AM was to just nap earlier until I was more adjusted to waking during the night. So I decided to try to nap from 10 - 11 PM. I fell asleep around 10:30, and woke up at 6 AM. I'm going to blame this in part on sleeping in my bed. Habits usually have a place, and if you return to that place, the habit comes back. Monophasic sleep is a habit that comes with going to sleep in the bed at night. So, I need to try to improve the pallet and try that again. Additionally, I blame not having my cellphone. It was charging at this time, and I didn't bother to go unplug it and set the alarm. I thought my alarm clock's obnoxiously loud nap alarm would do it. However, I find that I've been conditioned to turn that one off without waking up, and there's about a 25% or greater chance that I will just do this at any given time. I'm less likely to do it if there's either a light on in the room or it's daytime, but this can definitely happen anytime I set the alarm for night. So, I'll make two adjustments tonight: cellphone alarm and not sleeping in bed. I'll continue these until I'm conditioned to wake at night.

On the other hand, I'm definitely making some progress in that I can consistently wake up at 6 AM. I woke up feeling refreshed and decent and productive, even though it was still dark out. In the past, I've often had some trouble waking up at 6 AM, and it was especially painful during the winter when it was still dark during this time. So, I'm at least getting better at getting up early in the day, and even though it was almost dawn at 6, I did wake up in the dark without a problem and without grogginess or depression. If nothing else, I've accomplished that. If I don't succeed at polyphasic, maybe I can at least be a scheduled and non-failing monophaser who can be productive during the day. I'm still confident that I can adapt to waking myself up in the middle of the night, though.

Waking up

This blog now has a new title.

There's not much to say about my progress on adapting to my chosen schedule. It seems that I'm still wanting to take the core sleep. The last two nights, when I woke up from my 11 PM nap, without really thinking about it, I laid down and proceeded to take another nap, waking up around 3 - 3:30 AM. I've been sleeping the best at my 5 AM nap, which makes sense, as I'm most accustomed to being asleep then. I also wake up feeling more refreshed from it, as it puts me waking up at about dawn. I've had trouble sleeping during my evening nap, although it's not getting darker at that time of day. I've been tired at 11 AM both days, and slept well then, aside from disturbances.

Now for something a bit more interesting. I've found that changing my sleeping time to a stricter schedule that I actually like has been a systemic change for me, and I'm starting to do better with doing other things on schedule around my naps as well. I've tried to come up with a regimen of stuff to do when I wake up, to give me something to look forward to doing when waking up, and to help me get adjusted to being awake at those times and making productive use of the hours.

Before going to sleep, I brush my teeth. I've been doing that more with polyphasic, as I don't put it off 'til "bedtime." If I'm not tired before my 11 PM nap, I exercise a bit and then try to relax and put myself in the mood to sleep. When I wake up, I go wash my face, have a meal, snack, or at least something to drink, and try to go right to work doing something. As an extra incentive to get up from my night and morning naps, I've contemplated doing my internet time then instead of in the evening, or maybe working on a project I'm really looking forward to finishing.

I'm still doing well as far as tiredness and energy levels go. About average. I wake up feeling really good from some naps, from others, I have grogginess. I think I'm seeing an improvement in productivity, but I still have a lot to do. My mood has been even. I still have bouts of anxiety, but I think sleeping at regular intervals, and having a schedule that assures that I at least lay down and try to sleep, has done something to improve my depression so far. I woke up with anxiety at about 3 AM the last two nights (which is why my sleeps didn't last longer than that). I keep thinking that it's because of the work I have to do, but it probably has more to do with my attitude. I know people who handle more and do better with it. I'm hoping to find a way to let the anxiety go, and I hope to eventually experience more of the mood-enhancement that most polyphasic practitioners claim to feel.

Adjustments

I'm either going to have to figure out a better time to do the core sleep, or stick with shorter naps. It's still a problem for me to get up and stay up from the core sleep without feeling really tired. Last night, I woke up from it and was so tired and sore and down that I didn't feel like doing anything, so I just took another nap shortly after waking. I think part of the problem might be staying in bed. It could also be that, even though I think I'm inclined to be polyphasic, I'm still not getting the most out of my naps because I haven't been doing it for long and am still wavering on finding the best schedule for me. The solution is to pick something and stick with it for a few weeks and see how it suits me.

I have three options:

1) put the core sleep at a different time, maybe dawn, so that waking up from it isn't so hard,

2) stick with the schedule that I made up (with the help of my best friend) that sounded good to me, napping 4 times a day for one hour,

3) go with something that's considered tried & true, like Uberman.

I'm reluctant to do #3 because I know I have days when I'm guaranteed to miss a nap, and on other days, I have a frustrating lack of control over my schedule that will probably make me miss a lot of my naps. If I were a free person living alone and setting my own schedule, I'd probably have no problem with it, but I'm not. If someone in my household wants me to do something at a certain time, I have to do it, or risk social unrest.

Number 2 would be my preference, because I feel like the one-hour nap time is an optimal one that allows me plenty of time to get to sleep and (I hope) get through all of my sleep cycles. I don't doubt that Uberman works for others, but I am still skeptical about whether it is adequate resting time. Also, my friend has been encouraging of me to try forgoing the core sleep, saying that I should be able to handle it, and if it's a problem, then just stop.

I've been really hesitant to give up a longer sleep period, for fear that I'll be missing out on some essential sleep cycle, but the goal of my experiment was to give something different a proper try in order to empirically see for myself which system was better. I'm going to remember that.

So, my goal now is to try one week of doing nothing but one-hour naps, 4 times a day. There will be one day a week when I know I won't be able to do that, but for the others, I have a good probability of getting my naps at least close to the strategically scheduled times. After a week, I'll evaluate whether I want to keep going with this option or try another. If I fail to get my naps, feel that either the schedule or the napping is not working for me on the long-term, and I'm too tired, I'll switch to having a short nap at night followed by a foredawn core-sleep of about 3 hours, and see how that suits me.

Since everyone gives a name to their sleeping schedule, I've elected to just call my schedule "Quad," as I can't think of anything better. Tonight is the first night of strictly keeping to it, and I'll start updating on how it goes from here.

11 Days

It's been about 11 days since I officially set out to alter my sleeping. I slept more than usual last night. I started out wanting to take an hour nap at 11 PM and then go back to working, but I was disturbed in my nap by the cat again (she seems to be hiding in my room about the time that I wish to nap and then popping out to annoy me once I lay down). This time, she knocked something over and broke it while trying to get me up. I didn't get to enjoy my nap, woke up angry, and didn't really feel like going back to sleep or doing anything productive. I played a game for a little while, then decided to take a long nap because my arms were sore from work I did on Friday. I slept for about 5 hours, didn't feel any less fatigued, so I took another brief nap shortly after waking. My hope was that it would be good to get some extra sleep, as I do believe it can have some effects on healing and mood. It didn't really help me with either today. I've felt depressed and like I don't want to sleep since then. I'm not any less sore or achy, although I didn't exactly make it better by sitting for most of the day. Once again, I wonder if less sleep is actually better for my mood. I'm going to try going for less sleep again tonight, and see how that leaves me feeling. I don't feel like I overslept last night, but I can't say that the extra sleep did anything for me, either.

It works; now what?

Not very much new to report today. Everything is going along well. I haven't had any difficulties with the transition, other than a few nights when it was hard to wake up and a bit of worry about whether or not it's good for me. Perhaps this is because I'm already rather used to dealing with sleep-deprivation, however. I'm not used to it in the way that it's a daily occurrence for me and my normal state of functioning; most days I am not sleep-deprived, and I know the difference. However, I am able to make myself stay awake and function while sleep-deprived pretty well, and for the most part, it doesn't cause me a great deal of pain. I was also in the habit of napping when I had the time, so that wasn't really something new for me to adjust to, either.

I've had seem very odd sleep patterns in the past, and it wasn't odd for me to stay up all night because I was doing something I couldn't put down. For a while when I was 18 and not really doing anything that required me to be up all day (basically NEET), I slept from foredawn to mid-afternoon. My typical day was to do some work that required daylight during the afternoon then (such as fixing up the house or yard), enjoy some time outside at gloaming, and then spend the rest of the evening chatting or playing games, maybe take an evening nap, and read or study during the late night hours. I didn't eat much during this time; my appetite seems to actually follow a circadian rhythm in that I don't get hungry much at night. I would have dinner and a snack and that was all I felt like eating. And I've noticed that with my current polyphasic schedule, I don't get hungry late at night either, but I will get hungry around dawn. Others that I've told about this have speculated that it's simply because I don't do much that's physically active at night, but I'm not sure this is the cause. I don't do much physical activity as a student either, but mental activity will make me hungry all the same.

I felt very physically tired last night, however, and after taking an hour nap and waking up still feeling wiped, decided to have a recharge sleep of a few hours. I woke up early and proceeded to have an active and productive day, doing some shopping and cooking for the week ahead, watching a movie I'd been meaning to get to, and working on an assignment. I didn't feel like napping during the morning, and at my afternoon nap time, I couldn't believe that it was still so early in the day. Not because I was tired, but because I'd gotten a lot done. I slept only a short time and am back at work now, and will probably have a short core-sleep later and continue working tonight, in hopes of getting caught up on some things.

Anyway, even though I am not following something as strict as Uberman and have had a flexible pattern, I feel like I can be successful on a polyphasic schedule. Overall, I've been sleeping less, but feel like I'm getting more out of my time awake. The only question that remains for me is whether it's sustainable. I think I've gotten to like it more than I thought after starting, as I initially had some reservations about whether I'd be happy giving up long sleeps. Maybe I was really oversleeping before, because I seem to be doing just as well with less rest. Now, I'm not sure I'd want to give up on the possibility of having more time and still having plenty of refreshing naps.

End of the day reflections

I ended up incidentally taking short naps today, and did pretty well with it. I was busy almost straight through until now. I only took a 20 minute nap at lunch, and comfortable in my new napping spot (I figured out that I could lock the door from the inside, and I remembered to bring a scarf with me to use as a pillow), I actually slept for most of that time, because I was well-tired by then from working most of the night and morning. I had some nice white noise of the building in the background, a little sunlight streaming in the window (I always prefer to wake up to light, makes it so much easier to get up), and the only disturbance I had was what sounded like a squirrel briefly jumping around in the ceiling. I actually dreamed, and I feel confident that I experience dreams rather than hypnagogia, because I forgot where I was during their duration, something that I usually don't experience when merely dozing and having twilight-sleep images. I had lunch when I woke up, felt rather refreshed, and went on working. I got tired again around 3:30 and had about 20 minutes of downtime then, relaxing in an armchair, although it was too noisy around me to sleep. I also had one cup of coffee and a Powerbar around this time, because I needed to be awake and alert for several more hours before I could get home and nap.

Overall, I was a little tired, but had no problem doing mental tasks and being energetic. I felt like I wanted to sleep toward the end of my evening class, but I wasn't too tired to concentrate and didn't actually fall asleep. So, I went a day without a core sleep and with minimal naps, and I felt better than I would if I'd not slept at all. Also, just the knowledge that there are polyphasic sleepers who get by on about as much sleep as I got helped me to feel okay with it and to not feel the despair that I used to feel at having to work late and early and not catch much sleep. I didn't have the extreme tiredness or mood swings of sleep deprivation, but I still had some of the light-hearted, easy-going, uninhibited feeling that I sometimes get when I do voluntary sleep-dep. I think this is probably something like the "euphoria" that some polyphasic sleepers say they feel. It's a balance between being refreshed from napping but also having that "Eh, whatever," feeling that you get from being very sleep-deprived. I'd like to know what hormones it is that cause the latter, because it's been such a common feeling for me with being sleep-deprived. Being in that state actually sometimes makes work easier. I procrastinate when I'm afraid of screwing up or feel overwhelmed, and I lack these worries when I'm sleep-deprived, so it's easier to just go along with circumstances and get right to work and get it done when I need to. It's not a feeling that I dislike.

Anyway, after today, I think I could do something like Dymaxion or Uberman, and I think I'm feeling what it'd be like to be on those plans, but I'd rather get more sleep than either of those afford (when I can get it) and have more flexibility on missing naps. I'm going to stick with my "Quad" schedule of 4 x 1 hour naps, I think, and see how I feel. I'm not dead-tired, but feel as if I'd have no trouble napping at anytime now. It's an odd feeling, and I'm going to have to reflect more on whether or not I think this is healthy. It sure beats the depression that often accompanied my "monophasic-fail," though.

Quick nap updates

I've been awake since midnight tonight, it now being about 1:30 AM. I decided to turn my 11 PM nap into a one-hour instead of a three-hour. This was done in part because I needed the extra time tonight, and because I seem to feel better being sleep-deprived rather than groggy from a longer nap. I haven't completely given up on a "core" yet (mostly due to my culturally-instilled superstitious belief that I'm going to die if I don't do the majority of my sleeping at night), but I'm still feeling like I'm more suited to shorter naps. I can actually get up from them and not feel like a zombie brought back to life. I laid down for an hour nap, slept for about 30 minutes of that, with no memory of dozing off or dreaming, and woke up tired but alert and capable of working. Productivity is about average (no more or less than usual), reflexes are adequate.

6:50: My 5 AM nap was predictably harder, although I did get some sleep. I settled down on the palett I'd made on the floor to use until I got more adapted to the schedule, but I kept getting disturbed by noises. This turned out to be the cat, and she eventually came over and started to talk. I told her to settle down and take a nap too, and she laid down by me and proceeded to try to tickle me with her tail for the rest of the hour. I tossed and turned and couldn't get comfortable like I initially was again, and decided I wasn't going to be able to sleep at all like that again today. I was aching too much at that point. Since it was almost daylight, I decided to lay down on my bed and set my normal alarm for 30 minutes. I did that, and actually got a little sleep. I'm glad I did, as I'm sure it will be needed. I feel refreshed, though still tired. I feel a little less productive than earlier, but confident that I can do everything I want to today, once I wake up a little. I think I'll probably sleep good at my 11 AM nap. Not sure what I'll do tonight. I'll have to skip my evening nap, so I might just take a longer core when I finally get home.