Still Going Strong

I realized it's been a while since I've updated this blog, so here's a new post. I'm horrible at keeping up with journals. I'm on Day 66 right now, and I feel great. No detrimental effects that I'm aware of. A great development: I have flexinaps! The time between the beginning of my naps can easily be anywhere from 3 to 5 hours, and I've stretched it to 6 and even 7 once without anything horrible happening. I just felt a little sleepy after my next nap.

My friends have been incredibly supportive. I've gone on a few church trips, even one in which I had a roommate, and everything worked out fine. I would nap during lunchtime, during car rides, etc. At night I would quietly read with a tiny light or surf the Internet. At first I was worried about how I would make my alarm wake me up without waking up my roomie, but then I discovered I could put my cell phone on vibrate and nestle it next to my neck so I would be certain to feel it. Worked perfectly.

What else, what else? Hmm... sometimes I'm lazy in the morning. After my 5am nap, I often lay in bed looking out the window, or reading if I remember to have a book nearby. I don't think it's due to actual tiredness at all. It's my inner laziness coming out. I've always had trouble motivating myself to get up in the mornings. It may have been too much to expect polyphasic sleep would eliminate that trait. If I have somewhere to go that day, though, then I'm up and at 'em with vigor. I'm looking forward to the school year starting again, because I have no choice but to get out of bed early in the morning. Summer was a good time to start polyphasic sleep, but not as good for maintaining discipline.

I'll try to update this blog occasionally as time goes on. I'm looking forward to my polyversary next summer, even though that's a long way away.

Sleep Deprivation and Thermoregulation

Interesting abstract of a scientific journal article I found:

During the cold test,T _re did not change but _sk and were higher after SD (P<0.05). Increased (+ 6%,P < 0.05) was related to earlier and higher shivering, with a possible increase in the sensitivity of the thermoregulatory system as shown by the shorter time to onset of continous shivering (d): 8.66 (SEM 1.33) min versus 28.20 (SEM 1.33) min (P < 0.001) and by a higher _sk observed at d: 27.60 (SEM 1.40)° C versus 21.40 (SEM 0.60)° C (P < 0.001). These results were associated with higher cold sensations and shivering following SD. They also suggested that SD modified thermoregulatory responses at a central level especially in a cold environment. (source: SpringerLink Journal Article)

 What all that gibberish means is that their test subjects felt colder after being deprived of sleep. It's a scientifically demonstrated effect.

What does this mean for me?

It means I was suffering from sleep deprivation previously, and that's why I was cold. I figured.
And now that I've recovered, I'm not cold anymore. I feel warm. I'm guessing that means I'm no longer sleep deprived. Yay!

Day 15 Diagnostic

I love love love being a polyphasic sleeper. It keeps getting easier and easier to be awake at night. Now I'm fully awake most of the night, just as I am in the day. It's just between 4 and 6 that I struggle, and even there I'm improving.
Miraculously, last night at about 1:00 my body stopped feeling cold. Ever since I started polyphasic sleep, my body has had trouble regulating its temperature, so I've felt cold almost constantly. Only when I exercised did I feel warm. But then, today in the early hours of the morning, bam! Warm. Now I'm not cocooned in my pink hoodie and two layers of pajama pants, lol. I feel fantastic.
I practiced a little basketball this afternoon after fourth nap. It's a beautiful day out. I enjoy the long walks I go on when the world is quiet.

It's hard to believe this is Day 15. It doesn't seem like that much time has passed. Here's my Day 15 diagnostic:

• appetite - normal during daylight hours, approaching regularity at night. i have a new meal called "munch," which is short for "midnight lunch" hahaha. digestion proceeds regularly as well. tmi? lol
  
• creativity - apparently normal. i don't do much creation in the summer anyway. when fall comes, it will be more apparent whether my creativity and productivity have increased the way Steve Pavlina's did
• health - fabulous. no sicknesses, no sore throats, no weakness. in fact, i feel more drive to be active and athletic now, so my physical fitness is quite good.
• sleep - i fall asleep very quickly every nap, and i dream every nap. i remember my dreams when i wake up, though i forget them later if i don't make an effort to retain the memories. i almost always feel better and more awake after my naps than before them. my naps are nice and flexible; i can stretch my waking periods anywhere from 3 to 5 hours comfortably. 6 waking hours is a stretch but i can do it without immediate impairment. i just feel it later. i haven't tried naps less than 3 hours apart, because i've had no need to.
• concentration - if it's any indication: i've been working on a 500-piece puzzle, and my ability to do it is unchanged from doing a puzzle of that size as a monophasic sleeper. i'm just as i was before. i can still focus totally on whatever i happen to be doing, if i'm interested enough. i still zone out when people around me are conversing.
• stillness - i'm a rather patient person (unless i'm really excited about something). i'm very calm, and usually still. but my body has changed a bit as far as sitting still goes. i think i've mentioned this briefly before. sometimes when i'm sitting, i can't stay still. i have to start shaking my leg or wiggling my foot. i don't know what to make of it. it doesn't happen at a certain time of day. just every once in a while, my body will complain about being still.

That's about all I can think of. I'll continue to make side notes about my condition as I post entries on this blog. Oh, I just remembered something: my eyes don't like to stay still for very long. I used to have staring contests with my cat sometimes. Now my eyes won't stay still long enough for that. The good news is, I've heard that people who move their eyes around more instead of leaving them fixed are less likely to develop eye problems. Yeah, yeah, I know: citation needed. I have no idea where I heard that, but it makes sense. Moving my eyes uses the muscles that control my eyeballs, and using a muscle exercises it. Exercise is good. The bad news is, I'll never be able to gaze deeply into the eyes of my long-lost lover after running through a field of flowers in a white sundress. Bahahaha!!!

Breaking the Habit, Tonight

The alternating pattern continues: today was a great night of alert awakeness, complete with running and a bike ride. Maybe tonight I can break the pattern. I have high hopes.

I've noticed something interesting. I get tired after about 5 hours, or when I'm expecting a nap, or when I'm bored. Whichever of those comes first. When I'm expecting a nap, I can feel what some call "sleep pressure," somewhat like the non-urgent need to go to the bathroom, which slowly intensifies. I think the presence of this "sleep pressure" before my naps indicates that my body is continuing to adjust to this new sleep schedule. This is day 12. That means I've gone 12 days without a full night's sleep. If polyphasic didn't work at least a little, I would not feel like I do now. I would venture to say it works a LOT, because I feel fabulous.

I biked 7.24 miles today, which is a bit more than yesterday. I enjoy biking. In the fall, I'm looking forward to biking to school again. That's 7.6 miles if I remember correctly, but it's very difficult because of the huge hills, and it takes a while because of traffic lights.

I recently read something or other that "debunks polyphasic sleep" and effectively says that all polyphasic sleepers who say they're fine are liars. Liars! That bothers me. For one thing, Steve Pavlina, probably the most famous polyphasic sleeper on the internet, seems like a very honorable man who would definitely not lie. He's all about personal development and self improvement. I am quite certain that he is not the kind of person who would construct such a web of lies simply for--for what? What could possibly be his motive for lying anyway?
Furthermore, I'm a polyphasic sleeper, and I'd say I'm fine. Would the guy who wrote that report call me a liar, too? If he does, he has another thing coming. lol.

Alternating

Every other night, I mess up. 0:00-6:00 on Tuesday was perfect. On Wednesday I went back to sleep after my second nap and slept for an hour. On Thursday, 0:00-6:00 was good. On Friday, I did the extra hour thing again. On Saturday, perfect just like Tuesday. And today, Sunday, I did the hour thing again! It's ridiculous. On the good days, I'm amused by it. On the bad days, I wake up from that extra hour feeling frustrated and not well-rested. But hopefully I'm improving. The bad days aren't getting worse, and the good days are getting better. On Saturday between 0:00 and 7:00, I ran a third of a mile, biked 6.4 miles, and walked almost a mile with my dog. I did all of that before most people are even awake. Pretty cool. I was pretty hungry after that. lol.

Conclusion: I need to make sure I get up when my alarm goes off, and I need a snack around 3:30 in the morning.

Rambling and an Extra Nap

Yeesh. Two steps forward, one step back. So the night at the beginning of June 2 was terrific, but the next night was terrible. Very sluggish and tired, no walks. And the night I'm almost done with now was somewhere in between. To entertain myself as the night wore on, I learned about early musical forms that led up to the emergence of classical music. Then I wrote a computer program to store my nap times and make calculations about them. I've taken my 4:00 nap but I still feel tired. Next nap is at 8:30, and I don't really want to wait, but I shall. Maybe biking at 5:30 will improve my tiredness status. My body says it doesn't feel like biking, but I know I'll enjoy it if I do.
I have half a mind to take another nap between now and 8:30. Is there any reason not to? I don't think it'll mess too much up. The only thing I can feel getting in the way would be pride. I accept pride so long as it doesn't interfere with logical decision-making. Hmm. Seven naps in one day. 4:00 and 8:30 with a 5:30 nap in between. Am I tired enough to choose to do that? Or am I just being lazy? Bike ride or nap, that is the question. I'm rambling quite a bit, which is another sign of tiredness. Yes, when I close my eyes I feel a veil attempting to cover my consciousness. I think it would be wise to nap again, so I shall.

Huge Leap Forward

Oh my goodness. I feel spectacular! Today is rapidly becoming the best polyphasic day I've ever had. I read a book until 1:00 when I napped. Then I went on a walk around my neighborhood for quite a while, which invigorated me. By the time I got back, it was getting close to 3:00, which is when I usually feel most tired. But instead, I was still alert from my walk, and I stretched leisurely, enjoying my awakeness. I wondered what to do with the hour before my next nap, and realized I felt like doing math problems. o.O Yes, math problems. So I got out my precalc book and did some simple trigonometry problems just for kicks. Weirdness. Then I napped, woke up feeling great, chilled out for a while, went on a bike ride when the sky had a little light in it, and stretched again. Now I feel absolutely fantastic, and I think the day will continue to be wonderful.

I suspect it was the late night walk I took during first slice that kept me going when I would have entered a zombie-like state as usual. It got my heart rate up and made my body reach a higher state of awakeness than if I just sat around like I usually do at that time.

Mmm. I feel fabulous.

Natural

Really not much to report. I'm rarely tired at any time except for the early morning, from about 2:00-4:00. And even that tired time is slowly improving. This is the end of day 5 of my transition. Something is so weird about this. What about all of the tiredness and struggling I read about in other people's blogs? Why have I never slept through my alarm as so many other people do? Why is this so easy for me? Maybe some people are naturally more suited to polyphasic sleep, which is an idea I've been thinking about all along. I don't think it's something I did. Unless my ovo-lacto-pesco-vegetarianism and my frequent walks have something to do with it, I think there's just something in my nature that makes me a natural at polyphasic sleep.

Mistake. First, only?

Oh noes! I got careless. Very careless. I had a feeling something would go wrong after my 4:00 nap, because there was nothing I wanted to do.

I went through the nap like normal and woke up to my alarm after thirty minutes. I actually remembered a bit of my dream for a longer time. And then I made the mistake. I was comfortable, so I lay there for a bit. I was on my stomach with my head up, and I thought I would be okay for just a few moments of this. I noticed how easily my eyes seemed to shut without me telling them to, but still I didn't get up. Couldn't be bothered.

Next thing I know, it's 7:15 and my mom is coming in my room to ask me a question, expecting me to be awake. Dang! I slept for two and a half hours! I don't even feel any better after it. And I didn't get my second slice bike ride. Grrar!

But I'm forgiving myself for that slip-up, resolving not to make the same mistake twice, and sticking to my schedule as planned for the rest of the day. Busy day today, with Sunday school, worship, a meeting in the afternoon, and youth group in the evening. But my naps will be fine.

Early Morning Progress

The rest of the time until now was a little better. After my 20:00 nap, I felt much improved. I submitted my unfinished manuscript to CreateSpace, and soon I will get a free copy of it. I think being able to hold part of my book, in real book form, will be great motivation to finally finish.

It's almost time for my 4:00 nap now, which means I made it through first slice, the most difficult slice, without that horrible tiredness and burning eyes. My body is slowly but surely adjusting. Maybe soon I'll actually be productive during this time instead of having to mindlessly read or watch a movie. I feel good right now; clearheaded, alert, and not tired. Definitely progress in the right direction.

Hmm... what shall I do after my 4:00 nap? I won't bike until it's light out, which is about 5:45. Maybe I'll write--not working on my novel, no major projects--just writing for fun. I can think of an old story that might be interesting to continue.

I asked for it...

Today has not been a good day. I've been tired almost constantly. My only respite is when I'm active. I was tired even in third slice, which is usually the best one. I felt good when I took my dog on a walk in fourth slice, and I went outside to shoot hoops in fifth slice. Those times were the highlights of my very drowsy day. It's hard to keep my eyes open while looking at this screen. It's a small miracle that it's easier to keep them open while watching an episode of Xena. lol.

Despite my terrible tiredness, I still feel optimistic about all of this. Wasn't I just complaining that it was too easy? Now I got what I asked for. And today hasn't been a total loss. I worked more on revising my novel. It's not going to be complete in time to get a free copy before the deadline that CreateSpace is offering, but I'm going to upload however much of my manuscript I have ready for publishing. That's about seventy pages right now.

It's so funny to me that I'm dreadfully tired while I sit on the couch, but when I go outside and play basketball I feel great. Does using more energy make me feel more energetic? It would seem so.

Generally Not a Zombie

I went on a pleasant evening walk with my brother around 23:00, and then took my 00:00 nap. I felt absolutely great in the beginning of first slice, but then I finished the book I was reading and everything went downhill. My eyes were really tired and they had that slight burning feeling from being open too much. My brain was ready to fall asleep. I decided to take my second nap at 3:00 instead of 4:00 because I was just that tired. After that nap, I felt less like I was about to fall asleep, but my eyes were still very tired of being open. Tried closing them, but it was too risky. Tried reading, didn't work. Finally I watched a movie, and that worked fairly well. Maybe that can be a regular thing: watching a movie late at night. Anyway, the movie lasted until about 5:30, at which time I decided it was light enough outside that I could go on a bike ride, which I did. I biked 5.6 miles and I feel great. No tiredness or fatigue while I biked, aside from a very normal amount of leg tiredness after going up long hills. I stretched after my bike ride, of course. Then I ate breakfast (apple jacks with soymilk) and sat down at my computer to write this. The rest of my naps today will probably be right on schedule: 8:00, 12:00, 16:00, 20:00.

Something doesn't seem fair about all of this. So far I seem to have it really easy. Aside from my wee-hours-of-the-morning war to stay awake, I generally feel alert and chipper, and very non-zombie-like. From the other blogs I've read by polyphasic sleepers, the transition is usually extremely difficult and tiring. But this is my third morning and, again excluding the couple of hours when my eyes burn in the early morning, I feel really great. As if I were made to be a polyphasic sleeper. Feels natural.

My favorite parts of my polyphasic days are when I'm exercising. I love walking with my brother, or walking the dog, or riding my bike. Anything active is just really enjoyable. Those are also the times when I feel completely untired, with no sign of the fatigue that should supposedly accompany missing three full nights of sleep.

Some Slices are Easy as Pie

Third slice is still the best one of the day. I actually didn't even feel tired during that time. I watched two episodes of Xena, ate lunch, and showered. At 13:30 I took a nap, and shortly thereafter I went to Starbucks to meet with a friend. As I drove, I paid careful attention to how I felt and how I was concentrating. Everything was fine; I didn't feel drowsy, and I had no trouble focusing on driving. I didn't feel sleepy during that fourth slice, but I could feel my fine motor skills getting worse (omg. I had difficulty just laying down my playing cards in neat stacks! argh! lol), and my mind couldn't keep up with the world sometimes. But I didn't feel sleepy and I did feel happy. Driving home was just as easy as driving there, I'm pleased to report.

I took my fifth nap of the day near 17:00 when I got home, and then my sister and her husband came over for dinner to celebrate my high school graduation (I homeschool, so it was a small family event). I felt alert and good until 20:00 approached. I started to feel very sleepy, and finally at 20:30 I excused myself and took my sixth and final nap of the day. Now I'm in sixth slice, feeling a little tired but easily able to continue awake until midnight, when the new day will begin.

I fall asleep during every nap now. I'm surprised at how easily that happened. I think I usually take a while to fall asleep. I'm guessing it's faster now because of my lack of sleep. I'm pretty sure I'm dreaming every nap now, too. More than once I have dreamed that my alarm goes off, and I wake up for real, and a second later my real alarm goes off. Kind of humorous, actually. It's also interesting to note that I always feel like I've slept longer than I really have.

Until this evening, my body had been feeling warmer than usual, and it was pleasant. I dislike being cold from the air conditioning running all the time. But now, my body feels more sensitive to cold, and I'm huddled in my pink hoodie, trying to get warm. And I'm eating chocolate chip cookie dough, which is irrelavent but delicious.

The Battle Against Drifting Off

I said I would write again after the evening was over, but here it is now and night has already passed. I was pretty tired after my nap, which I postponed until 1:30 because I'm shifting the times back a bit to space my naps around seeing a friend this afternoon. Being able to stretch naps like that is pretty cool. Imagine a friend asking you to hang out at three o'clock in the morning, and you replying, "Oh, sure. I'll just start my eight-hour block of sleep earlier so I'll be awake to hang out." People just don't do that. My naps are wonderfully flexible.
Anyway, here's a more in-depth status update for people interested in my polyphasic transition.
First slice (today that was from 2:00-5:30) was extremely difficult. I tried listening to an audio book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but I felt myself in danger of drifting off because I let my eyes close while I listened. So I gave up on the audio book and snuggled down into an armchair with a real book. I didn't know how I would make it those next couple hours. I drank some fruit juice because I hear that helps give an energy boost in those down times. But still every minute was difficult. My body was complaining about how I was keeping it awake. I had to keep moving and shifting in my seat, because something almost like pain would gather in my limbs if I stayed still too long. Very odd. Finally I stood up and walked around the room several times and stretched, trying to wake myself up more. It basically worked. By the end of that first slice, it was a lot easier to stay awake reading my book. Still, though, I was extremely grateful for my 5:30 nap.
Second slice is a lot better. At 6:00 when I woke up, I walked the dog. Again, it was very pleasant to get out in the early morning air and get some exercise. That worked up an appetite, so I had a banana milkshake and some toast for breakfast. My eyes feel tired, but my body feels ready to stay awake until my next nap.
My mood is still good. Usually when I lose sleep, I get a little irritable and grouchy. That was one of my mom's trepidations when she let me start this transition. Fortunately, I still feel generally cheerful and positive, especially in the mornings.
My concentration seems fine, but I don't really have a way to test it and get quantitative data. I'm focusing pretty easily on writing this, if that's any indication.

Slow-Motion and Motivation

The afternoon is over. I took my fourth nap of the day at 16:00. Though it felt like it took a while to fall asleep, I also felt like I was asleep for a long time. I definitely dreamed, and I think that's a good thing; it shows I'm already entering REM sleep in my naps. After I woke up, I was tired. I sat on the couch and talked with my brother and mom. I had trouble keeping up with the conversation, picking up on puns, and just overall focusing. I felt... slow. Like a computer with too many background processes.
I had spaghetti with sauce and tofu sausage for dinner (I guess at this point I should mention that I'm an ovo-lacto-pesco vegetarian). I'm still a little sleepy, but I feel a little less disoriented and slow than before. Looking forward to my 20:00 nap. Next blog post will be after the evening ends. I'm doing a lot of blog posts during the transition, and the number will probably decrease once I'm through. I feel like it's a sure thing that I'll succeed, because even when I'm very tired, I'm still optimistic and determined about this whole endeavor. Plus, I've told my friends about it, and my pride won't let me back out now that they know what I'm doing.

Smiles and Sensitive Hearing

What a great morning! I greatly enjoyed walking the dog. The sun and fresh air invigorated me. I slept during my 8:30 to 9:00 nap (that's thirty minutes later than what I plan for it to be on other days of the week), and I'm pretty sure I dreamed. Then I drove to the soup kitchen as I do on Thursday mornings. Driving was probably a little on the dangerous side; I had to really concentrate. But I made it there safely, and got to work. I noticed that my hearing is more sensitive, and since I'm trained to react to sudden loud noises, I startled easily today. I felt pleasantly awake the whole time I was there. At about 11:15, I started drying and washing trays. My body felt hot (from the exertion?), and I felt ridiculously and inexplicably happy. I was genuinely happy and content washing trays so efficiently. Strangeness.

During the drive home, it was much easier to focus. When I got home, I took a 12:30-13:00 nap. Did not fall asleep, but rested my body and eyes. My throat was and still is a little dry. My good mood has carried over into fourth slice. I had a normal amount of hunger, and I ate lunch (tuna fish and mayonnaise on honey wheat bread, and a bowl of ice cream). And that's about it for the morning. Next blog post will come when the afternoon is over.

Sleepy. Good, though.

I'm on slice two (the awake time after my second nap of the day) and I'm feeling pretty tired. My body feels like it should be asleep, and my eyes want to close. But my resolve is strong.
I didn't fall asleep during my first nap, but I was very relaxed. I did some deep breathing techniques and had a peaceful rest. The time following it was easy at first, then more difficult. At 3:00, I felt cold and tired. I welcomed my 4:00 nap with gratitude. I managed to fall asleep, and I think I dreamed, which surprises me. It was pretty difficult to stay awake after that nap, but I'm still trucking along. I've been drinking plenty of water, and I ate a banana and some triscuits when I got hungry. In a few minutes I'm going to go walk the dog. The sky is lightening already. It's been a long time since I've been awake at this hour, since I abandoned my early rising practices quite a while ago.
My mood is generally positive and optimistic. Physically, I feel like my balance is off, and my body has sleep-weakness. I seem to be able to concentrate just fine when I put my mind to it. I finished off a chapter of my novel, which I've been rewriting/revising.
So my first night is almost over, and I feel tired but ready to continue. Next blog post will be sometime after the morning.

Tomorrow's the Big Day

Last night was the last full night of sleep I'll have as a monophasic sleeper. I'm taking my first 30-minute nap at midnight tonight, when Thursday starts. I made a 24-pointed asterisk-looking-thing on a bulletin board, and I wrote the hours of the day around the edge. I have six blue pushpins that I placed at the intervals where I'll be napping, and I can move them if necessary.

It's interesting to look at my 24-spoked wheel. At the top is midnight and the bottom is noon, so the top half of my wheel is darkness and the bottom half is light. The 24-hour day divides nicely into quarters. Night is from midnight to 06:00, morning is from 06:00 to noon, afternoon is from noon to 18:00, and evening is from 18:00 to midnight. Lovely symmetry. I've come up with a name for the times between naps: slices. Like pie. So I wake up from my 00:00-00:30 nap and think, "Okay, this is first slice. I have three and a half hours until my next nap, and then it will be second slice." I figure that's as good a word as any.

I've come up with a growing list of things that I can do during my free time. I'll list them here so other people might get ideas for their own lists:

• read books
• read articles online
• listen to classical music and learn about it
• memorize Fahrenheit 451
• write short stories and maybe a new novel
• work on a puzzle
• walk the dog
• ride my bicycle
• play guitar

That's it so far. I'll write my first blog post as a polyphasic sleeper sometime toward the end of Thursday night (00:00-06:00) to record how I feel after staying up all night with only two measly little naps to sustain me.

Preparation

In one week, I'm going to start my transition to polyphasic sleep. I will be following a schedule of six 30-minute naps spaced evenly over the course of 24 hours.
One of the difficult things about polyphasic sleep is figuring out what to do with all of the free time. I already have practically illegal amounts of free time, so this will probably be my biggest struggle. What do you do when you have all the time in the world?
To prepare, I should get my first week's schedule all set up, and come up with a big list of things to do to fill my time. It'll have to be pretty mindless stuff early in the transition when I'm braindead from sleep deprivation. Yay, zombies. Too bad I've already watched all six seasons of Xena. Maybe I'll find something else good on Netflix.
Anyway, I'm not polyphasic yet, so I should be getting to bed.