Day 9

3:20am: Awoke from core sleep; drowsy.

I'm spending the day driving 11 hours home to Pittsburgh, so I moved my core up to 1:30am. No problems falling asleep or staying asleep; sleep was deep and refreshing. I am not nearly as foggy now as I was after last night's core.

Note: It seems the core is easily moved hours ahead at this phase of sleep adaptation, probably due to some physical and mental fatigue due to the adjustment to polyphasia. I'm guessing it would be harder to delay it by a similar amount. Therefore a possible general rule-of-thumb for adaptees could be: taking core earlier (advancing it in the schedule) is easier than taking it later. This is the opposite of my monophasic sleep experience; it is easier to delay my sleep to later than to sleep earlier. What does that tell me? Well at this stage it tells me that I had a sleep surplus before (even though I didn't feel like it) and I have a sleep deficit now.

6:30am: tried to nap in the truck while the SO was driving. Got some rest but no sleep - the radio kept me awake.

9:10am: Took 20-minute nap as passenger while SO drives. I was out like a light, and slept deep until my alarm went off. I know I slept deeply because a) I'm very refreshed, and b) I found out after I woke up that we went through a toll plaza and I didn't even know it.

Observation: My body is adapting to the polyphasic approach by making me able to nap deeply and block everything else out. I have never been able to nap like that before in my life. Apparently, it is a skill that can be learned.

12:30am: A 20-minute nap turned into a 30-minute nap when I failed to hear my iPhone alarm or to feel it vibrate. My SO woke me up. I am napping very soundly today.

4:00pm: nearly home - am so drowsy I am dropping off to sleep, almost uncontrollable. What is interesting about this is that I went from fully awake to gripping drowsiness in about 5 minutes. The only warning I had was there was a dull feeling of fatigue in the back of my brain that built for about 20 minutes beforehand. It's good to know these episodes can occur. I have read about them in other polyphasic blogs. I closed my eyes for a few minutes to clear it up a bit, not wanting to sleep before I got home.

Note: I don't really like the term polyphasic - it doesn't contain any reference to sleep - I could just as easily be phasing in and out of this dimension with a vague term like that. Something that includes the latin roots somni-, somno-, somn-, -somnia, -somniac for sleep or dream. Polysomniac? Heh, sounds crazy, I like it. Polysomnia seems a better term, meaning multiple sleep. I can see myself saying "I have polysomnia," or "My name is Ken and I am a polysomniac." I tried "I'm polyphasic" on a couple of my friends and they thought it was a next-stage bipolar disorder, maybe one where I have multiple personalities who are all bipolar.

5:00pm: Took a one-hour nap. My throat had gotten scratchy through the day, and I felt I was coming down with my trademark sore throat/cold that has always accompanied a prolonged period of insufficient sleep. What I good idea that was. Awoke feeling like I had 8 hours sleep, and no vestiges of a cold or sore throat remain.

7:00pm: attended conference call for my job. I was as tuned in as I have ever been. Every sense bristled. This is the first time I have interacted with others from my work since I started this experiment. I was a bit of a steamroller, I'm afraid. But then again, that's what I am at work. This confirms to me that I will have no lack of verve when I go back to teaching in 2 weeks.