Day 33

Well I failed on my 2nd day of Uberman; after my 10pm nap I was toast; I couldn't stay awake; I sat on the couch and couldn't stay awake, kept waking up and dozing off again because my eyes wouldn't stay open. The next day I overslept my 8am nap and woke up at 11, plus a couple in the afternoon I wouldn't wake up from; I ended up sleeping a total of 5 1/2 hours yesterday. I felt great after I had the extra sleep - tons of energy and no ill-effects. But no harm done; I guess the Uberman is still a couple of weeks away at least.

Polyphasic is such a clumsy term - sleeping multiple times in a day is not the same thing as sleeping in multiple phases, as is implied by the term. Nor does it refer to sleep at all - it could just as easily describe the moon and it's phases. And if something has only a single phase, then it has no phases at all, so the term polyphasic is actually redundant - no wonder the term is clutzy.

Somatasomal - now there's a cool sounding term.

Day 31

I had so much work to do last night that I ended up shooting for only 1 1/2 hours sleep. I set my clock wrong (it's a long story) and woke up after 45 minutes. I decided to just go with that and see how it went. I found it quite doable; i keep to a rigid schedule of 30 minutes sleep every 4 hours, and I was at normal functioning capacity all day.

I was very shocked that I could do it so easily - I believe it is because I have eased my way into the schedule all along the say - so I decided to jump right to the Uberman schedule today to see if I can do a day of it, or maybe two. It's 6:50 am and I'm fighting off the sleepies, but that is the way it works with most new schedules I try, so it's to be expected. The only part now is that it is very hard to wake me up and I have taken to holding my iphone in my hand while sleeping so that I can feel it vibrate and that combined with the noise is doing the job.

7:04am - I set my time for 10 minutes and put my head down on the table and went out like a light. I'm now refreshed. These little 5 and 10 minute naps really help when I'm too fried to get anything of merit done.

BTW, I have taken to sleeping on the floor at work in the server room under a desk away from everyone using my backpack for a pillow - i have to say that simply laying down like that when i nap (as opposed to laying on a couch or the car's back seat or reclining in the car front seat) has made a huge difference in the quality of my naps. I pass out fast and sleep deep. I guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and sleep on the floor a lot in the future. I'm thinking how I can make this sanitary (e.g. by wearing a nylon jacket.)

Also, I've decided to call a nap "going offline" or "taking my brain offline." It seems to capture the essence of what I'm doing - a nap is no longer accurate of what happens when I sleep for 20 minutes on this schedule - and it's kinda fun at the same time to call it "going offline".

Day 28

I have achieved the groove. I sleep 2 hrs per night (between 4-6 and 5:30-7:30), and nap 20 to 30 minutes 3x a day: noon, 5:30, and 11pm. If I am late to have a nap by more than 1 hour, the next time I sleep my body refuses to wake up for at least an hour, and then I am a mess until after the next nap, but not really back to feeling good until after the 2nd nap, and the next core needs to be 3 1/2 hours to make up for it. That "late for a nap" syndrome has been described in a very similar way in other Everyman blogs on the net, and I didn't understand it until I experienced it a few times. It's roughly equivalent to pulling an all-nighter in how tired I feel after and in the way it requires catch-up sleep.

I am still absent-minded, although I think perhaps that is waning just a little. I have found it difficult the past few days to sleep at noon; my mind is racing because of work, and I recline in the car on the front seat to nap but it takes my entire nap time for my mind to slow down and I simply rest. I find it fascinating that this has provided sufficient rest to continue as if I had slept, without actually sleeping. Tonight I was working in the server room, and I tried to nap at 5:30 pm by laying my head on the desk, but I didn't fall asleep and I felt sleep-deprived, so 2 hours later I laid down on the floor under a desk and fell soundly asleep using my backpack as a pillow. Laying prone is definitely far superior to reclining in the car seat or head on desk - I will have to incorporate this somehow - perhaps I will find a little fold-up mat I can carry so that I can sleep on the floor say, in an airport or in a polyphasic-friendly office. The company I am working for right now has absolutely no qualms about me sleeping on a desk or on a coach through the day; in fact they are benefiting from it because I have free time to help out in the evenings like tonight when it is important to them, so they are all for it.

Caffeine has become an ancient memory. I no longer feel like I need it or even feel a desire for it. My mental energy is much higher now than when I was on it, and without the jittery thought process that it incurs. Of all the things that I find have improved, the smoothness of thought stands out. It is a brilliant pleasure to teach and speak and find that my thoughts never ramble or meander or jump topics like they used to. I keep a wonderful thought flow going and always wind up making a fine point on the topic.

Opposite to what I initially encountered upon my polyphasic journey, I now find that I am most alert immediately after my core sleep, and less and less alert and more and more sleepy as the day wears on into the wee hours of the morning. And that makes sense. My body is finally tired at the right time, and alert after a sleep. Unlike before I started, when I was feeling I needed energy after waking up from a night's sleep, and having energy in the evening so much that I didn't want to go so sleep. That never made sense to me; now my body feels the opposite, and that is more logical.

Day 24

Yesterday was great until I missed my 5pm sleep by 2 1/2 hours. It was like missing an entire night's sleep. I was so groggy for the rest of the night I wasn't good for anything. Went to sleep about 3am, slept until 9am. I had 6 hours sleep, but it felt like 12.

I fell right back into my polyphasic sleep schedule - 20 minutes at 12, 5 and 11 pm. Now up at 1:12 and feeling pretty good.

I am going to try to come up with another name for the short sleeping periods - calling them naps is entirely inaccurate on this schedule. They are not optional, they are not light sleep; it downplays their importance and restorative nature. When I say I'm going to take a nap people inevitably react as if it were some luxury that can be or even should be delayed or resisted. Power nap is too cliche; somnobrevis? (From latin for brief sleep); brevisom? (sounds like a drug lol) restituo? (latin for restore/repair); renovo; somnus restituo; I will need to work on that. postulo somnus (required sleep) - that's closer.

Days 22 & 23

The last two nights I have slept just over 3 hours each night. I go to bed about 4am, get up about 7. I go out to the car at noon for a 30-minute nap, then have another 30-minute nap at about 5:30 or 6pm, and another around 10 or 11pm. This was working great for the last two days. I even woke up just before the alarm this morning, and was not drowsy. Tonight, however, I was invited to dinner with the boss so I decided to delay my 5pm nap until after dinner. That was a mistake. I was very tired throughout dinner, not really enjoying the company and unable to come up with much to say. Afterward, I ended up napping around 7pm. I fell so deeply asleep my alarm didn't wake me and had to be shaken awake an hour later. I am still a little groggy, at 11:30pm. So I seem to be falling in line with what I have read about the Everyman schedule - I can push or pull the nap times about an hour on either side of when they should occur, but more than that causes me problems.

But I have to say my energy levels earlier today were terrific and I was very clear-headed.

On that topic however, I find that although I have great focus and concentration now, I am very absent-minded. I will put something down and not know where I placed it. It's a strange combination - a seeming paradox, but it's the way I was when I was growing up, so it seems to fit in with the entire re-calibrating of my mental processes back to my teens.

So ends my first week of a normal work schedule on Everyman. It was a success; without it I would not have been able to study every night until 4am and then get up at 7am and go to work, attend meetings and teach. I should also mention that every student evaluation today mentioned how patient I was with them. This was an unexpected result - I noticed myself being very centered and deliberate in my thoughts and actions while teaching, and I felt very calm; quite different I suppose from when I was a caffeine junkie. It is true that I was impatient with with students before I began polyphasic sleeping. It's interesting that I hadn't read about added patience being a benefit of this way of sleeping in anyone else's blog.

Onward, forward, upward.

Days 16 thru 21

I have been remiss in updating my account of my journey into polyphasicness. On day 16 I slept 5 hours that night, then 9 hours on day 17. My concentration was failing; I had a dull aching sensation in the front of my brain; I needed rest. I felt if I got some rest I might be able to continue. So I did, and then I easily slipped back into a polyphasic schedule, this time, with renewed vigor. I have been sleeping between 3 1/2 and 5 1/2 hours per night each night, depending on how I feel that I can handle the next day, but on average I would say 4 hours a night. My naps have been longer, between 20 and 40 minutes (on average 30 minutes) to help me maintain this schedule. I know this is not as concise nor as optimal as the proscribed Everyman schedule - I assume many people sleep only 4-5 hours per night and get by even without naps, but for me personally this is a huge step forward and huge improvement over my 8 hours of sleep a night I previously required. Perhaps at 50, it takes my body longer to adapt to a new way of sleeping, or perhaps it is merely my physiology. If it is physiology, then this would explain why so many people fail, and perhaps provide a recourse for them to reach Everyman, and in time, perhaps Uberman. I certainly feel more normal than I did on the first leg of my attempt (before the 9-hour night), and maybe I will continue to pare down my sleep and hone my nap technique until I can adapt to polyphasary.

I should mention that yesterday and today were my first standard workdays on a polyphasic sleep schedule. I got 5 hours of sleep the night before the first day to ensure that I had enough focus to teach competently throughout the day, then last night I got 3 1/2. I did my gym workout last night (deadlifts - weights improving) and with a 30-minute nap at noon and at about 6pm each day, plus a 40-minute nap in the evening I'm feeling quite well and happy to continue; certainly this is taking less effort than the first leg of my attempt.

To nap at work, I went to my car, reclined the driver's seat and turned on the engine to idle to provide heat (it's a little chilly in Milwaukee yet this time of year.) The first day I didn't sleep, but today sleep was easily within reach, and quite refreshing. I do believe practice makes perfect.

Another thing I should mention is that people told me I "looked like hell" during the first phase of my attempt, with bulging bags under my eyes. I have not heard that so far during my second attempt, maybe my body is adapting.

Day 15

Yesterady was a disaster. Sleep is a funny thing - sleep deprivation had been accumulating and I wasn't really noticing it. I was just happy to be awake and productive so many hours in a day that I ignored the weird feeling in my head, just going with it, thinking I would adjust and it would be all ok. Well yesterday morning I blew up at my SO for a ridiculous reason. It was bad. I decided I needed more sleep.

What went wrong? I was following all the sleep patterns pretty much to the letter. I think my body is taking a long time to adjust - perhaps my initial assumption about going slow and easing into it is best. I slept an hour at noon, then a couple of hours in the afternoon, just easing off the schedule some and adding more sleep in. Then I went to bed at 3am and got up at 8 am this morning, just to give my brain a rest, and a chance to recuperate. I will continue to try to reduce my sleep.

Observation: on 5 hours of sleep I am well-rested, as much as 8 hours before I started this experiment. So perhaps I need to do it in phases, by cutting back on sleep, then increasing it but not to prior levels, so that I am averaging toward less sleep, and deeper sleep.

That's the plan.

Day 13

4:30am - woke spontaneously after 1.5 hours sleep. Debated whether to get up or sleep the full 3 hours. Decided to go for the 3 hours, so that I could finish getting used to that before progressing onward. Besides, I didn't know what the nap schedule would be for the 1.5 hr core sleep. Decided to look it up.

6:00am - woke to my alarm, no difficulty getting up. A little groggy

9:32am: I have had a couple of 5-minute naps to clear my head. They really help.

Note: I think I have almost adapted to the Everyman schedule. My head is now crystal-clear by 9am and I feel as mentally and physically energetic as I was on 8 hours of sleep a night pumped up on all that caffeine. I did not get sick from a lack of sleep. I sleep deeply and do not take anything to help me sleep as I did before. This is a personal breakthrough for me.

Day 12

8:00am: Turned alarm off at 6am. Laid head back down and was woken up by the SO. My eyelids felt like they were weighted down with concrete; I literally couldn't keep them open for the first 5 minutes after I got up. I wonder if it was the chamomile tea - I can understand it acting like a drug in this situation; this inability to open my eyes was beyond anything I had experienced in my life. I worked out last night too, so perhaps a combination of both. Ok, so no more chamomile tea for me for now. Although, I have to say it was nice to sleep in on a Sunday morning, I never thought I would consider sleeping 5 hours "sleeping in." But the kicker is that I feel like I've had a week's worth of sleep. Every day that I am on this schedule my sleep gets deeper and more restorative.

Note: Because I am most drowsy right after my core and for hours afterward, and most awake and alert just before it, I feel like it might be advantageous to start taking my core in the early evening, say 6pm. That way when I start back to work again a) if I oversleep I won't be late for work. This is a real possibility with the way I am unable to re-awaken easily, and b) I will be most alert for my work - teaching requires a lot of alertness.

So, potentially my schedule could be:

core: 6pm - 9pm
naps: 2am, 7am, 12noon

That way my sleepiest time would be 9 to 2, and if I won't be able to sleep at noon I can sleep 7 to 8am and then not need a nap at noon.

On travel days this schedule could present a problem but if i take a "red-eye" I will probably do really well because then I can fly overnight and be there fresh in the morning... interesting.

Napped for 20 minutes at 12, 5 and 10pm on schedule. The SO napped with me at 5 but came in half-way thru the nap, and so I basically was awake for the second half. Was much more tired in the 1-2am period - perhaps they are connected.

Have learned that a 5-minute ad-hoc nap with my head down on my desk clears my head a lot. Still haven't tried the 10-minute variation.

Retired to bed at 3am.