Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Polyphasic sleep experiment - Day 4

Not going to do daily updates unless there is something fantastic to write about, otherwise, while I have had some challenges adjusting to the schedule and a few hours of a zombie-like gaze, it seems to be going well.

Labels: sleep, writing

PermaLink / Posted by: Tony

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Polyphasic sleep experiment - Day 3

Things still going well, as I suspected I'm not hardcore about my schedule, I let it fluctuate a little bit so some naps are 20 minutes, some are 30 or so. I also combined last nights 1hr and .5hr naps into one 1.5hr nap, I think the key thing here is that we're basically talking about small blocks of sleep spread out over the day rather than one 8hr or so lump at night.

So far so good, I have only slept about 6hrs since Sat and while do feel some tiredness if I stretch the gap between naps too long, I'm generally fairly normal feeling. In fact, the usual after lunch "slump" is gone since I take a .5hr nap at lunchtime, so more or less, I'm really not ever tired. I know the first week is supposed to be the roughest, and it is unusual adjusting, but I seem to be taking to the change fairly well.

Labels: opinion, sleep, writing

PermaLink / Posted by: Tony

Monday, September 14, 2009

Polyphasic sleep experiment - Day 2

So far so good. My body is adjusting to the shortened sleep periods remarkably fast, I've already had dreams in 3 of my naps, though I'm not fully rested feeling, I'm really not that tired either, which is a little nutty if you think about the fact that I've only had 3.5hrs of sleep in the last 30 hours. Otherwise, things seem to be going well with my modified schedule.

From what I gather reading about other people's attempts, a good deal give up in the first week, or are not able to wake up on time and oversleep. I'm not sure how they manage that, use a good alarm clock and it isn't an issue. Right now I'm using earplug etymotic research headphones which help block out sound and let me fall asleep, which is hooked up to my iPod Touch which I set a 30 minute or 1hr timer on; works like a charm.

Labels: opinion, sleep, writing

PermaLink / Posted by: Tony

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Polyphasic sleep experiment - Day 1

So today is the first day of my attempt at a polyphasic sleep pattern. There just isn't enough time to do the things I want to do, and rather than spend a third of my life in hibernation, it seemed like an interesting idea concept to try. I have read many reports on the topic, most with overall successes, though they all generally seem to revert back to a "normal" sleep pattern after a year or two, but only because of social concerns.

A few years back I did a sleep deprivation experiment and I stayed awake for 68hrs straight. I found that I needed to eat a lot more frequently, which made sense, my body needed something to provide it with energy. I'm curious to see how this experiment will go in that regard.

I've been up since 3am and will take a 20-30minute nap at 6:30-7am.

To work around a somewhat conventional 8-5 schedule, I will have a slightly modified version of the 4hrs on, 40min nap rotation.

My daily schedule will be loosely this:
07:00a - 11:30a : Awake : + 4.5
11:30a - 12:00p : Nap : - 0.5
12:00p - 05:30p : Awake : + 5.5
05:30p - 06:30p : Nap : - 1.0
06:30p - 10:00p : Awake : + 3.5
10:00p - 10:30p : Nap : - 0.5
10:30p - 02:30a : Awake : + 4.0
02:30a - 03:00a : Nap : - 0.5
03:00a - 06:30a : Awake : + 3.5
06:30a - 07:00a : Nap : - 0.5
-------------------------------
Awake time: 21 hours
Sleep time: 3 hours

I'm not much of a blogger, but this does give me an easy place to record my experiment. The first week is supposedly the worst, I guess we'll see. ;)

Labels: opinion, sleep, writing

PermaLink / Posted by: Tony