Day 7

7:20am Woke without help from my alarm. Rolled over and fell asleep with the intent to get up in a few minutes.
7:45am Woke and got up. Core sleep: 2.5 hrs.

Today's alertness: very good.

10:30am: 20 minute nap. Decided to take it 1 hr early because I was getting just a little tired and wanted to stay alert and rested throughout today and not have another really sleepy episode like last night, even if it was caused by the alchohol.

Notes:
Another approach to getting to the Uberman schedule occurred to me: maybe I should split my core sleep into two segments, e.g. instead of a core of 2 hrs, sleep 2 1-hour cores, and then gradually reduce their duration. Perhaps one in the evening, one in the early morning. Or perhaps one in the early morning and one at noon. Or one in the early evening and one at noon. I'm trying to accomplish two things by doing this: arriving at a schedule that I can stay on while I'm working: sleep before work, at lunch, and after work, without having to take naps.

I realize now that I have had two episodes of what I will call hyper-awareness. Last night when I was bringing in firewood from the back yard, I was acutely aware of every minuscule moment passing by, as if I had high-definition consciousness. This also occurred the morning of Day 4 as well and lasted about 20 minutes. I wonder if it will happen again.

1:30pm: 20 minute nap - awoke refreshed and alert

3:30pm: 20 minute nap. I'm spacing naps a little closer together today to ensure I get enough rest. I don't want a repeat of last night.

6:30pm: 20 minute nap. Asleep in less than a minute. Awoke refreshed.

Observation: alertness higher than baseline before the experiment - lower than hyper-alertness. I'll call it elevated alertness. Occasional mild tinnitus (ringing in the ears) ... possibly an artifact of caffeine withdrawal.

10:00pm: gym, squats (warmup) 125(8), 145(8), deadlifts: 285(8) 315(7), 285(8), stiff-leg 225(8), 245(7). Observation: these are normal weights and reps for me, considering I took a week off. I feel like i have slightly less endurance; strength is unchanged.

11:00pm: blood pressure 120 over 77, heart rate 74. My normal heart rate is around 60-64. Could be due to recent workout,

12:30pm: attempted 20 minute nap. Could not sleep. Remained in bed for the entire time. I am highly stimulated - I haven't had caffeine that I know of, although I feel as stimulated as that but without the jitters. I attribute it to the workout. Animated conversation feeling a familiar caffeinated intense focus, but without the caffeine, jitters, or shortened patience; a form of heightened awareness with associated energy burst.

3:30am: attempted 20 minute nap. Awakened by my SO after 40 minutes. I either forgot to set my alarm or I awoke and shut it off. Awake for 10 minutes, decided to move my core sleep up to see how that goes. Slept for 2 hours. Awoke to alarm with difficulty.