Polynapping Aboard

In case anyone is still counting, it is now day 10 of my polyphasic sleep experience. It's to a point where, at least half of my waking hours I'm functioning at or near pre-polyphasic levels. I'm still having a bit too much grogginess for my taste the rest of the time, which essentially manifests itself as microsleeping at every possible opportunity, although the severity of the microsleeps varies also with physical fatigue levels. I did have my first oversleep of any duration yesterday, and really, it came in the form of an unplanned nap. Really, it was just one of my microsleeps that got the better of me, because I crashed out, right here in my office chair (albeit leaning back, rather than pulled up to the computer), for something between 20 and 60 minutes. I think it was closer to 20, but since I wasn't exactly watching the time closely when it began, I can't know for sure. That unplanned event wound up working out for the better, though, as it made me nowhere near tired enough to go to sleep at my next scheduled nap (1pm), so I had the opportunity to push my schedule back to the 2-6-10 schedule which I had originally chosen. I must say that this worked brilliantly, and I have had no other noticeable repercussions.

Tonight, going stir crazy from spending all my days and nights at the shop (and being awake for almost all of it!), I decided to head out to Cortez, and see if I could hang with Chris & his cousin Kevin for a bit. I figured, even if I missed them, I'd have a nice sunset to watch and a pleasant walk on the beach. Turns out I had little trouble getting his attention, so he picked me up & brought me out to the boat. When it came time for my 10pm nap, I asked Chris if I couldn't take it in the hammock up front. I've been wanting to make use of it forever, so I had him put it up for me for my nap. There was a really strong breeze, which not only kept me cool & comfy, but also made the forestay & other rigging on the boat vibrate, which then got transferred into the hammock...it was like the whole boat was singing to me! A very cool experience indeed. I never did actually fall asleep, but I got some nice, deep rest in nonetheless.

Day 7 of Polyphasic Sleep

Wonderful news! I've woken up from three of my last four naps either without or before the alarm! This is great because, when I wake up on my own like that (and I have the discipline to get up, rather than following the monophasic "I have more time, I should try to sleep some more" mindset), I generally feel far more alert and well-rested than when I wake to the alarm. That's definitely the case this time. I feel the most alert I have all day. Don't get me wrong...I could still climb into bed at this point and fall asleep, thus completely wasting all the work and sleeplessness I've put into it, but why would I want to?

Here's where it gets really weird...although the prescribed nap time for this schedule is usually somewhere between 20 and 25 minutes, when I wake on my own, usually 16 minutes has passed. And this last nap, my 1pm, I only slept for TWELVE minutes, AND I had a dream (previous 16-minute sessions have seemed dreamless -- at least I couldn't recall any dreams upon awakening). Unbelievable that I could do that, and yet still awaken SO refreshed and chipper! Especially when I look back over the past four days, and how much intense grogginess I've been experiencing, even after a deep REM sleep. It is also cool how much time I subjectively SEEM to spend sleeping. Whenever I get a dream, it seems to be the full-length kind, the sort that I had always assumed took hours to develop and play out as I was sleeping. But now I know for a fact that a full-on, technicolor dream can take less than 15 minutes. And not to worry, they definitely involve the same depth of weirdness that my monphasic dreams did, for example, in this last one, a scene where my mom jury-rigged my boat's sewage pumping function so that it worked with just the pull of a line...and then she accidentally demonstrated it and proceeded to dump sewage into my boat via the front hatch! Thank goodness it was just a dream.

So now my other wonder is...do I want to start going to the gym more often? Yesterday, my gym trip, including a short side "shopping" trip (didn't buy anything), took up 3/4 of my waking time between naps. When I then went to try to sleep, my muscles kept twitching, and wouldn't let me. So I wonder if I break my trips out into separate days of cardio & weight training, if I could avoid this unpleasantness. Or, perhaps the muscle twitch was just a function of how long it's been since I last worked out (I skipped my previous two because I wouldn't have been safe to drive). Part of me wants to go to the gym today, and just do cardio, and see. Another part, though, is warning me not to get too gung-ho, since that is what kills so many new gym routines. Not that my routine is new, but the whole context surrounding it is so new that I feel like I'm starting over again.

OK, well, as alert as I am, I still have trouble sitting at the computer for long periods without falling asleep (I'm beginning to see this as a blessing!), so I'm off to put away some of the laundry I did this morning!

Yay! I've made it to day five

Well, I've made it over the notorious hump of day three, and am now starting into day five of polyphasic sleep. I've heard here and there that day seven can be a doozy too...we'll see. I still don't feel quite "right," but most of the time, at least in the first two hours after a nap, I'm plenty alert enough for most activities. The one activity which I have yet to re-add to my schedule is gym time. Perhaps tomorrow. Today, Mom has a Dr. appointment that I promised to take her to (back before I was even considering polynapping), and that is going to necessitate an adjustment to my nap schedule. I'll have to nap at 9am instead of my usual 10. I realize it's a little early to be monkeying with the schedule but, it is, unfortunately, unavoidable. Since I want to be sure that I get enough rest to be able to drive tomorrow morning, I'm starting a bit early; I took my 2am nap at 1, and I'll be taking one at 5 instead of 6. Hopefully having the full four hours to get tired before the 9am nap will do the trick! The only question then is...stick with the 1,5,9 schedule, or try to transition back to the 2, 6, 10? Though I chose those numbers for some good reasons, they are, right now, rather arbitrary. So staying with 1, 5, 9 should be just as good. Since I don't have any pressing need to tinker it back to 2, 6, 10, I probably won't.

Day 3 of Polyphasic Sleep

Well, this little 'spearmint o' mine has been both more difficult and easier than I expected. There have been periods of time where, had I not taken to pacing back and forth through the warehouse, I would never have stayed awake until my next nap time. The easy part has been acheiving REM sleep, although acheiving sleep at all during a nap time is still eluding me, sometimes three naps at a stretch. :( Then there's the odd permutations of sleep you get to experience, such as my current personal least-favorite, "going to sleep for a couple of minutes then having only your brain wake up for the rest of the sleep cycle." A very strange one that is. It is not the same as lucid dreaming (although I've read that that is a much more common occurence in this type of sleep pattern), because my brain is truly awake and aware, and not just in control within a dream. Somehow, though, that sort of sleep just doesn't feel as restful as when I actually remain unconscious the entire time. And though I'm enjoying the extreme vividness of the dreams that I do have when I make it to REM sleep, it is the time dilation during sleep that is most striking of all. Every time I lay down to nap, the goal is 30 minutes. Sometimes I will wake up before the timer goes off (although, being greedy, I always try to sneak in as much sleep as possible rather than getting up at this point -- perhaps that's the wrong thing to do?). Other times I sleep through the timer and on into the snooze (five minutes after the initial timer goes off). But whatever the case, and whatever type of sleep I experience, it almost always seems as though I am asleep for far longer than what the clock tells me. The dreams are especially effective at producing this illusion. I would swear that I had at least an hour's worth of dream this morning, but digital clocks don't usually lie, so I apparently slept for only 30 minutes or less.

Oversleeping...this is a common problem I hear about from other folks attempting to make an adaptation to polyphasic. Surprisingly, I've only overslept four times. Two of those times it was because I slept through to the five-minute snooze mark. The other two times I somehow forgot to set my timer before laying down, and, amazingly, still woke up after only 40 minutes had elapsed! This astonishes me because I read about so many folks who lose 4, 6, even 8 or more hours at a stretch when they accidentally oversleep. Those sorts of "oopses" are also supposed to greatly slow down the adaptation process. So I am hoping that my luck holds out, and also that I don't forget to set any more alarms! I don't doubt that, given sufficient sleep deprivation, I too could succumb to a multi-hour sleep that would set me back by several days' worth of conditioning. And trust me, this is some rough condition to subject oneself to; I have no desire for it to last any longer than necessary!

Activities during this time period have been very limited, due to my very limited cognitive ability. As boring as it is, I've been making do with things like cooking, washing dishes, the occasional scrapbook page (no journaling, though; can't hardly think well enough to compose these sentences, much less try to remember all the important details of a trip a year and a half ago to preserve them!), a handful of Sudoku games (my success rate, even on easy puzzles, has dropped considerably. So, if you have any doubt that my brain is not functioning quite up to snuff, let that fact reassure you. I suspect my writing here is also dry and boring but...it's really only aimed at letting you know how I'm doing on this, and that it hasn't killed me yet, so, meh.), the necessary eBay formalities (I dread the thought of what errors I wrote into this week's listings!) a trip or two to the post office when I'm feeling alert enough to drive, and the customary visit to Mom's last night. I warned her that she might have to pick me up, but I was actually pretty OK yesterday afternoon. Not so much so today. Wouldn't want to try driving right now. Actually, I'd love to; I'd love to get out of the shop, maybe go down to the anchorage and stare dazedly at the drunk people, but I'd rather not risk my life to do it, so here I sit, boring you all with this tale of woe. ;) Thus, before you get too bored, I'll sign off. Hopefully I'll begin adapting within the next couple of days, and I'll have more interesting and insigtful observations to make here. Hopefully.

Polyphasic Sleep

So, I ran across the blog of Steve Pavlina a couple of days ago; more specifically, his entries on polyphasic sleep. I read through them over the course of a couple of days, and got really excited about the notion. Given that I doubt I'll ever find a more perfectly suited period in my life during which to experiment with such a sleep pattern, I chose to take advantage of my excitement, and start making an attempt to transition to polyphasic sleep. That's just how I am most of the time. If I get really into something, and make the most of my jazzedness over it, I can do almost anything. But if I let an idea simmer for too long, especially one as wacky as this, it usually fizzles. If you've never heard of the notion of polyphasic sleep, sometimes also called Uberman sleep, it basically consists of several short naps, evenly spaced throughout the day. I will let you read the blog referenced above, or google it for yourself, if you'd like more details. For now I will simply say that I am attempting the 6-nap version, with my naps timed at 10, 2 and 6, both AM and PM.

So here I am, within five hours of what I would call the close of "Day 1" (meaning, I was up all day yesterday, but began with my first "nap" yesterday at 10pm. I use the term "nap" loosely, as, during the 10pm & 2am scheduled naps, as well as a "tweener" nap at 4am, I didn't actually sleep. By my 6am nap, however, I was sufficiently fatigued to fall asleep within the alloted half hour, and actually start dreaming before the alarm went off. Ever since that point, I have been in a bizarre state of alertness. My mind is actually fairly sharp (once I throw off the initial grogginess that wants so badly to pull me back down to the bed at the end of a nap time), but it feels as though all of my bodily systems are running at a reduced rate. There is a brain fuzz that I can't describe; it doesn't seem to impair my ability to think logically or puzzle things out, but my focus is far less steady than it normally would be. Of course, "normally," I'd guzzle some caffeine to clear such cobwebs up. This is not an option on a polyphasic schedule, as any amount of caffeine will severely impair the quality of sleep had in the following nap (or two). Thus I am killing two birds with one stone: adopting a sleep schedule that will drastically increase the number of productive hours in my day, and breaking off my caffeine habit cold turkey.

Speaking of caffeine, I currently have a headache. I honestly don't think it's withdrawal-related, though. I'm pretty sure it's posture-related, as my lack of physical energy has had me slumping and slouching a great deal more than I'm used to. What bums me out is that, the only way I can reliably (OK, almost reliably, it doesn't ALWAYS work) get rid of a headache is to take some analgesics, and lie down. NOT an option right now, as laying down would guarantee me a messed-up nap schedule. So I will probably take the analgesics in a half hour or so, and hope that my 6pm nap helps activate them in the normal manner. There's something so comforting about being able to lay down when I feel unwell. This is the first thing I've noted which may make me, long-term, question my commitment to polyphasic sleeping. For now, however, I'm commited to at least giving this a good go (two weeks to a month, depending on how well it works), to see what life is like after the adjustment period.

New Mexico, Part the Fourth

Finally, I get back on the New Mexico track. Of course, y'all have probably forgotten that I even *went* to NM by now, but, oh well. This next installment covers what happens after we leave Los Alamos. My apologies to Mindy if I have forgotten or misspelled her cat's names. Many more apologies for not having captured a single photo of her lovely face among all the many of her cats. This is a known weakness of mine; my inability to ask people beyond my own traveling party to pose for (or at least consent to) photos. I did manage it once, at the very end of the trip. But you'll have to wait for that one. In the meantime, I give you:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/auri/189897175/in/set-72157594199641447/

Fuzzy-headed and jelly-legged

That’s how I woke up this morning. Cumulative sleep deprivation is taking its toll. I don’t know if it’s because I’m uneasy now sleeping aboard, or what. I do know that the mass quantities of mosquitoes who come to stay with me all night aren’t helping one bit. I’m considering staying at the shop tonight. At least there I’ll perhaps feel secure enough to drug myself to sleep. Definitely wouldn’t want to do that at the anchorage, especially knowing that Chris plans on shoving off for Lido some time today. It seems as though I slept much better here, despite my nightly episode of waking up drenched in sweat, no matter how cool it had seemed when I went to bed. I also suspect that this all might have something to do with the sleeping pattern I’ve attempted to impose upon myself since moving back aboard. Given that I usually wake up automatically with the sunrise, and then have to make a conscious effort to get back to sleep, I’ve been striving for a getting-up time around 6:30, despite the fact that I usually don’t find sleep until some time after midnight. Usually this kind of thing sorts itself out after a few sleepless nights – I will eventually run out of gas, crash into bed at 8pm naturally, and not awake for a good 10-12 hours. But for some reason that adjustment sleep has been avoiding me, and I’ve just about reached my breaking point. Perhaps my regular gym schedule is giving me too much energy? Usually I sleep quite well on the nights of my workout days (of which yesterday was one), but such has not been the case lately. Please, no, I am not ready to become a gym rat yet. Let there be some other explanation! Mom, too, was complaining of difficulty sleeping when I went to visit her last night. Perhaps it’s the fullness of the moon? I know I’ve noted difficulty sleeping during that phase in the past, but it seems so…superstitious to actually take it seriously. Last night in particular might also have been a sugar-induced jitteriness, as Mom did serve me a horrendously huge slice of cake after dinner. Usually, though, that leads to an eventual crash, which never materialized last night. Aw, beans. I just hope I can start sleeping well again soon.

Added later (@ 6pm): Is it possible to suddenly change from being a morning person to being a night person, or vice versa? Although I have long accepted that these two types of people exist, I also admit to believing that, if you were born a morning person (as I was), you would die a morning person. My father, a "born" night person, was forced by a job with standard hours to "become" a morning person, but it was only habit. Given the opportunity, he'd still stay up late watching television, reading, or whatever, long after Mom (the house's consummate morning person) had gone to sleep. I'm starting to think, now, though, that I've become a night person, and didn't even realize it. Normally the shift back to morning life is SO easy for me, and staying awake after 10 is a struggle. Today, however (and much of the time in the past few weeks), after a prolonged morning struggle, I find myself alert and productive in the evening, when I'd normally be good for only reading, surfing, and similarly non-taxing pursuits. What gives? Does anyone have any similar experiences to share, or evidence that it's possible to suddenly, and without previous warning or concerted effort, switch horses?

Assailed

It all started innocently enough. I walked in and handed my membership card to the girl behind the counter, who absentmindedly waved it in front of the scanner. Then, remembering that the computer was down, she grabbed the clipboard and wrote down my information. Expecting the usual “Have a good workout!” greeting, I was making to take my card back and go. This time, however, the outcome was different. “When was the last time you had your measurements taken?” she smiled sweetly. Me: “Er, whenever I started coming…five years ago or so?” This, I quickly learned, was wholly unacceptable! Pretty soon, “the girl behind the counter” became Heather, and she was on a mission…to help me get more out of my Shapes membership. She was tiny, the type you’d expect to work in a health club, I suppose. I didn’t really notice this at first, and her personality had already won me over before I noticed just how obnoxiously skinny she was. She’s also the second person I’d met in the last two weeks who idolizes the notion of living on a sailboat. She was able to confirm what I already knew…I’m much too fat. She was also able to help me gather up the motivation to start using the weight training machines again. And she has promised to call and pester me monthly to come in and check on my progress. In return, I offered to take her and her boyfriend sailing some time after Jeff gets back. Perhaps my gym membership is worth more than I thought.

My Apologies

My apologies for being so silent and boring for so long. I just haven't had the gumption to put together an entry lately. Something is once again up with my brain chemistry. I've been doing my best to right it; eating well, sleeping well, working out regularly, even supplementing with 5-HTP, but all to no avail. It is all I can do to get my eBay chores done and slap a couple of photos on scrapbook pages. I'll keep at it, though. This ill wind is bound to blow over eventually. In the meantime, I hope you are all having a fun and interesting summer.

Take care,
auri