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.