Ok, so its been 20 days. I hate trying to remember things so I'll just say my polyphasic sleep experiment has had a rocky start, but for the last 4-5 days or so I've been doing pretty well, except for a few slip ups, usually about 3 hours, but in general I've found that my body is much much more efficient at sleeping and I sleep far far less now than previously. Hopefully everything will be running smoothly by the end of the month.
In other news I'm still broke.
Recent habits that are concerning me: online dating. I'm not sure why, but I've been spending a disconcerting amount of time on online dating sites. Also not sure why I'm admitting this. Have also been unusually active on facebook. I think I might be coming down with a case of loneliness. I need to blog more.
Garrett Inouye and Aimee Wong came up last week for a Bethel conference and stayed with me. Good conversations were had. Wish I had been blogging them.
Watched Trainspotting last night. Great movie, the scene with the dead baby is still haunting me though.
Seriously need to start being more productive gah.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Polyphasic Sleep, Day 3
Morning nap: ultimately, unsuccessful. was a little refreshed and meditated, but no actual sleep like last night. but some insight on the sleeping process and requirements gained.
went to store, bought ingrediants and made breakfast for everybody. Tried to make omlet and bacon. learned that cooking requires skill and practice, and a little bit of knowing what the hell you're doing. omlet turned into scrambled eggs with bell peppers, bacon, and pico de gallo. It was ok. vegies a little raw? I don't know. Also, nobody has yet awaken to try my breakfast, I forget that normal kids don't get up before seven. except for working ones. Cheyanne is suppose to work this morning, but probly wont have time for breakfast.
very tired. will probly attemt psuedo nap very soon.
pseudo nap somewhat successful, slept some, still tired.
update:
sick. sick sick sick. goddammit. experiment is postponed
went to store, bought ingrediants and made breakfast for everybody. Tried to make omlet and bacon. learned that cooking requires skill and practice, and a little bit of knowing what the hell you're doing. omlet turned into scrambled eggs with bell peppers, bacon, and pico de gallo. It was ok. vegies a little raw? I don't know. Also, nobody has yet awaken to try my breakfast, I forget that normal kids don't get up before seven. except for working ones. Cheyanne is suppose to work this morning, but probly wont have time for breakfast.
very tired. will probly attemt psuedo nap very soon.
pseudo nap somewhat successful, slept some, still tired.
update:
sick. sick sick sick. goddammit. experiment is postponed
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Polyphasic Sleep: Day Two. updates
Morning update:
after reading more interesting blog material I had my 5:30 sleep session. So far all is well. I'm not sure I really slept in the strictest sense of the term, but I got out of bed feeling rested so I'm not complaining. Afterwards I ran a (fast) mile with Jake and got some asthma, which developed into a weird cough/itchy throat that has stayed with me all day. After the run I decided I felt like doing a workout so I drove down to the Y where I found my dad actually swimming laps. We were a little surprised to see each other, he because I was up early, me because he was at the gym. I did an easy workout, had good stamina considering I haven't worked out in months.
some notes: time goes by much slower. I'm more interested in staying busy than I've ever been. Surprisingly Not lethargic.
after work out I became more tired.
exercise = good
driving = not a good idea
some interesting psychological effects:
lowered inhibitions, strangely giddy, tiny flee-like creatures hovering in my periphreal vision.
random thoughts:
why don't I have a fucking lemur?
second nap of the day, (830) taken: success. woke up after exactly 23 minutes. Still not really going fully unconscious, but still felling refreshed, although right now, still tired.
Good sleep combo: prenap meditation, during nap listen to lyric-less music/white noise. I listened to some Tibetan meditation music shit I got off torrent and it was really nice, super conducive for sleep. Damn I'm tired. I hope I make it to the afternoon nap.
ate breakfast, delicious tuna melt, seem to prefer eating healthier all of a sudden. nice. also cleaned kitchen while making sandwitch, just flowed, impressive. Kinda losing control over thoughts a little bit, super tired, considering yet another morning nap.
Afternoon update:
damn, took another nap at 930, and then another one, and another, until like 2pm. I hope this doesn't mess me up too bad, I didn't really get that much sleep overall, and I still feel tired, but man, I was struggling before, anyway, we'll see how it goes. I'm suppose to be driving with my sister to sac in a couple hours. Probably she'll do the driving, lol.
End of Day Update:
Instead of ne driving to sacramento, I taught elise to drive my stick-shift, which was a pretty good way to stay awake. During the drive I took my 17:30 nap and maybe got 3 or 4 minutes of good sleep, maybe, though still I don't think I ever really lost consciousness. After we got to Elise's place I took another pseudo nap around 20:30, again not losing consciousness, but feeling somewhat refreshed afterwards. Elise and I proceeded to pick up her friend, Cheyanne, (sp?) who is both a hottie and a super-fun sweetheart type who consistently volunteered to ride stick, wedged between me and Elise in my 84 Nissan two seater (I love having little sisters). We met up with some of their friends, attempted to go longboarding in a parking garage, got caught by police, sat around, watched a video previously captured video of Cheyanne falling on her face while longboarding in parking garage and then the group dropped me off at Elise's for my 23:30 nap and went to Denny's.
The good part: I finally completely achieved legitimate REM sleep during a nap! At least I'm pretty sure, I mean totally passed out, like hardcore, although I can't remember my dream, which is really a bummer since part of the allure of this whole experiment was having lucid dreams, but when I woke up I was completely out of it. I never consciously heard my alarm, I think I unconsciously turned it off, but I kind of vaguely remember it going off, like a dream. All I really remember is staring at my phone and having absolutely no idea where I was or what was happening. As I began to recall my situation I started to freak out a little because it felt like I had been sleeping for so long that I was sure I must have drastically overslept. I was totally dumbfounded when after triple checking the time on my phone it said it was exactly 12am, Wednesday morning, but I couldn't for the life of me remember hearing my alarm go off. I was also tripping out because it really felt like I had been asleep for hours. i felt almost completely refreshed, maybe a little hazy, but seriously it was as if I had a full night's sleep.
Anyway, so I met back up with Elise and her friends, we played some no-stakes poker and then retired to Cheyanne's place since Elise cancelled the internet at her apartment and the notion of trying to stay awake for six hours with no internet really scared me. And this is where I'm officially ending my Second Day blog.
after reading more interesting blog material I had my 5:30 sleep session. So far all is well. I'm not sure I really slept in the strictest sense of the term, but I got out of bed feeling rested so I'm not complaining. Afterwards I ran a (fast) mile with Jake and got some asthma, which developed into a weird cough/itchy throat that has stayed with me all day. After the run I decided I felt like doing a workout so I drove down to the Y where I found my dad actually swimming laps. We were a little surprised to see each other, he because I was up early, me because he was at the gym. I did an easy workout, had good stamina considering I haven't worked out in months.
some notes: time goes by much slower. I'm more interested in staying busy than I've ever been. Surprisingly Not lethargic.
after work out I became more tired.
exercise = good
driving = not a good idea
some interesting psychological effects:
lowered inhibitions, strangely giddy, tiny flee-like creatures hovering in my periphreal vision.
random thoughts:
why don't I have a fucking lemur?
second nap of the day, (830) taken: success. woke up after exactly 23 minutes. Still not really going fully unconscious, but still felling refreshed, although right now, still tired.
Good sleep combo: prenap meditation, during nap listen to lyric-less music/white noise. I listened to some Tibetan meditation music shit I got off torrent and it was really nice, super conducive for sleep. Damn I'm tired. I hope I make it to the afternoon nap.
ate breakfast, delicious tuna melt, seem to prefer eating healthier all of a sudden. nice. also cleaned kitchen while making sandwitch, just flowed, impressive. Kinda losing control over thoughts a little bit, super tired, considering yet another morning nap.
Afternoon update:
damn, took another nap at 930, and then another one, and another, until like 2pm. I hope this doesn't mess me up too bad, I didn't really get that much sleep overall, and I still feel tired, but man, I was struggling before, anyway, we'll see how it goes. I'm suppose to be driving with my sister to sac in a couple hours. Probably she'll do the driving, lol.
End of Day Update:
Instead of ne driving to sacramento, I taught elise to drive my stick-shift, which was a pretty good way to stay awake. During the drive I took my 17:30 nap and maybe got 3 or 4 minutes of good sleep, maybe, though still I don't think I ever really lost consciousness. After we got to Elise's place I took another pseudo nap around 20:30, again not losing consciousness, but feeling somewhat refreshed afterwards. Elise and I proceeded to pick up her friend, Cheyanne, (sp?) who is both a hottie and a super-fun sweetheart type who consistently volunteered to ride stick, wedged between me and Elise in my 84 Nissan two seater (I love having little sisters). We met up with some of their friends, attempted to go longboarding in a parking garage, got caught by police, sat around, watched a video previously captured video of Cheyanne falling on her face while longboarding in parking garage and then the group dropped me off at Elise's for my 23:30 nap and went to Denny's.
The good part: I finally completely achieved legitimate REM sleep during a nap! At least I'm pretty sure, I mean totally passed out, like hardcore, although I can't remember my dream, which is really a bummer since part of the allure of this whole experiment was having lucid dreams, but when I woke up I was completely out of it. I never consciously heard my alarm, I think I unconsciously turned it off, but I kind of vaguely remember it going off, like a dream. All I really remember is staring at my phone and having absolutely no idea where I was or what was happening. As I began to recall my situation I started to freak out a little because it felt like I had been sleeping for so long that I was sure I must have drastically overslept. I was totally dumbfounded when after triple checking the time on my phone it said it was exactly 12am, Wednesday morning, but I couldn't for the life of me remember hearing my alarm go off. I was also tripping out because it really felt like I had been asleep for hours. i felt almost completely refreshed, maybe a little hazy, but seriously it was as if I had a full night's sleep.
Anyway, so I met back up with Elise and her friends, we played some no-stakes poker and then retired to Cheyanne's place since Elise cancelled the internet at her apartment and the notion of trying to stay awake for six hours with no internet really scared me. And this is where I'm officially ending my Second Day blog.
Polyphasic Sleep: Day 1
I am three hours from the end of my first 24 hour day of the Dymaxion experiment. Although technically it's been about 38 hours since my last monophasic sleep session, I count the beginning of my day at 7:30am Monday morning because that's when I took my first nap.
So far the experience has been pretty positive. I started out planning my day around what is known as the Uberman schedule which is 6 naps a day instead of four, but a couple hours ago I decided that I would aim for the more efficient 4 nap routine supplemented as needed until I get the hang of speed sleeping (I still have to reset my alarm calendar).
This whole thing is definitely a trip to get used to. I've already had two minor slip ups so far. During my noon nap I couldn't fall asleep, so after filling my belly with soup I decided to give it another try an hour later. I ended up falling into some sort of repose about 10 minutes before my alarm when off but then foolishly reasoned that I should go for a full half-hour, stifled my alarm without adding a backup and ended up being out for almost an hour and a half. It didn't feel like REM sleep, so I'm hoping it didn't set me back too far, but its still a bad precedent to be setting this early on. On a positive note, I felt great after the nap. I ended up going on a nice long jog over to Jake's where I communed and took a very successful nap in his basement-of-a-room, and then jogged over to my parents house where my mom is looking after the Valenzuela children while Leah has her 4th kid. The exercise was fantastic and I ran better than I've ran all year (which isn't much, I've ran maybe a total of three times since I've been home).
After some visiting at my parents I came home, took a shower, and prepared for my midnight nap. I was feeling pretty tired and was a little worried about my ability to retain consciousness within 30 minutes of losing it. I decided to precede the nap with a meditation session, which seemed to work fairly well, although I stopped and began my nap a little early. I'm not sure if I ever actually slept, I didn't have any dreams that I can remember, I all seem to remember was this weird surreal struggle with myself after my alarm went off. I officially came to two hours later, once again bummed that I broke my rules. Again though, I'm not sure I achieved REM sleep, although I felt really good upon getting up. I decided to skip my tentative 330am nap and go straight through to 5:30, witch I think I'm going to make my official morning nap time for now on.
A side note on how I got into this whole experiment, I stumbled upon this article http://www.highexistence.com/alternate-sleep-cycles/ by Jordan Lejuwaan, which led me to this blog http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep-log-day-1/ where Steve Pavlina apparently successfully incorporates the Uberman routine (I haven't finished reading it yet). I also followed Lejuwaan's recent attempt at the Dymaxion schedule here http://www.highexistence.com/polyphasic-sleep-cycle-day-1/ Lejuwaan started 2 weeks ago and reported good results the first week, but was since been MIA :S. There are also a number of forums and sites dedicated to those attempting more efficient polyphasic sleeping patterns. I highly recommend anyone who's interested to google this shit.
I'll keep updating
So far the experience has been pretty positive. I started out planning my day around what is known as the Uberman schedule which is 6 naps a day instead of four, but a couple hours ago I decided that I would aim for the more efficient 4 nap routine supplemented as needed until I get the hang of speed sleeping (I still have to reset my alarm calendar).
This whole thing is definitely a trip to get used to. I've already had two minor slip ups so far. During my noon nap I couldn't fall asleep, so after filling my belly with soup I decided to give it another try an hour later. I ended up falling into some sort of repose about 10 minutes before my alarm when off but then foolishly reasoned that I should go for a full half-hour, stifled my alarm without adding a backup and ended up being out for almost an hour and a half. It didn't feel like REM sleep, so I'm hoping it didn't set me back too far, but its still a bad precedent to be setting this early on. On a positive note, I felt great after the nap. I ended up going on a nice long jog over to Jake's where I communed and took a very successful nap in his basement-of-a-room, and then jogged over to my parents house where my mom is looking after the Valenzuela children while Leah has her 4th kid. The exercise was fantastic and I ran better than I've ran all year (which isn't much, I've ran maybe a total of three times since I've been home).
After some visiting at my parents I came home, took a shower, and prepared for my midnight nap. I was feeling pretty tired and was a little worried about my ability to retain consciousness within 30 minutes of losing it. I decided to precede the nap with a meditation session, which seemed to work fairly well, although I stopped and began my nap a little early. I'm not sure if I ever actually slept, I didn't have any dreams that I can remember, I all seem to remember was this weird surreal struggle with myself after my alarm went off. I officially came to two hours later, once again bummed that I broke my rules. Again though, I'm not sure I achieved REM sleep, although I felt really good upon getting up. I decided to skip my tentative 330am nap and go straight through to 5:30, witch I think I'm going to make my official morning nap time for now on.
A side note on how I got into this whole experiment, I stumbled upon this article http://www.highexistence.com/alternate-sleep-cycles/ by Jordan Lejuwaan, which led me to this blog http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep-log-day-1/ where Steve Pavlina apparently successfully incorporates the Uberman routine (I haven't finished reading it yet). I also followed Lejuwaan's recent attempt at the Dymaxion schedule here http://www.highexistence.com/polyphasic-sleep-cycle-day-1/ Lejuwaan started 2 weeks ago and reported good results the first week, but was since been MIA :S. There are also a number of forums and sites dedicated to those attempting more efficient polyphasic sleeping patterns. I highly recommend anyone who's interested to google this shit.
I'll keep updating
Polyphasic Sleep: The experiment
Hello again blogosphere, it seems I'm back after some time of absence. Of course I've been meaning to get back into these things all the while and have a great many topics and issues to address, but I'm going to skip all that and jump straight to the event that has driven me here today.
I am presently nearing the end of the first day of an exciting life experiment. I have decided to replace my boring, inefficient monohasic sleep routine with a brand new, state-of-the-something polyphasic sleep schedule. For those of you who don't know, a polyphasic sleep pattern is one in which the normal 8 hour block of sleep is split into 2 or more shorter sleeping sessions spread through-out the day, usually with the aim of achieving a more efficient/convenient sleeping schedule. The big idea behind the whole scheme is that in a normal monophasic sleeping session, only about 2 hours are spent in the crucial life-giving REM cycle. The other 6 hours are practically wasted on superfluous resting cycles. The ambitious polyphasic sleeper usually aims to avoid this waste using strategically timed naps through-out the day.
More information can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep
http://www.highexistence.com/alternate-sleep-cycles/
After all is well and done, I should be thriving on a mere two hours of sleep, daily.
Of course there's something of a catch: the adaptation process, which is said to take anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks, has been described as both grueling and agonizing; it also has, depending on the precise schedule pursued, a relatively low rate of success. This is probably because, to date, the only known method of conditioning the brain to switch immediately from awake to REM involves some pretty intense sleep deprivation.
Like so many of my fellow internet addicts, I have decided to record my transition experience in blog form, with possibly a video entry or two depending on my (sure to be eccentric) mood.
My goal: incorporate what is known as the 'Dymaxion' sleep pattern into my daily routine.
My plan: Limit all my sleep to timed, half-hour intervals, until my brain gets the hint and then gradually reduce the number of naps until a homeostasis of 4 half-hour naps/day is achieved.
My reasons: (Shamelessly stolen from Jordan Lejuwaan at www.highexistence.com)
- Polyphasic sleepers report feeling more mentally alert than ever before. In fact the sensation is reported to be so rewarding that the ONLY reason they switch back to monophasic sleep is to accomodate the normal sleep cycles of their friends, family and co-workers.
- Time! Duh.
- Lucid Dreaming. Polyphasic sleepers report having the very frequent and vivid lucid dreams. Because polyphasic sleep allows your body to go right into REM sleep, the cycle where you dream, it’s a lot easier to bring some consciousness into the dream. Oh and lucid dreams are AWESOME.
- The mind-fuck aspect. Everyone that succeeds in becoming polyphasic writes about how psychologically strange it is to get used to. Every day tends to blend with the next since there is never really a solid break in consciousness. I love messing with my own head whether it be psychedelic drugs or meditation. A new mental challenge?? I’m game.
- It’s ridiculously cool. Only sleeping 2 hours a day and doing something that 99.9% of the world never does? That’s awesome.
I am presently nearing the end of the first day of an exciting life experiment. I have decided to replace my boring, inefficient monohasic sleep routine with a brand new, state-of-the-something polyphasic sleep schedule. For those of you who don't know, a polyphasic sleep pattern is one in which the normal 8 hour block of sleep is split into 2 or more shorter sleeping sessions spread through-out the day, usually with the aim of achieving a more efficient/convenient sleeping schedule. The big idea behind the whole scheme is that in a normal monophasic sleeping session, only about 2 hours are spent in the crucial life-giving REM cycle. The other 6 hours are practically wasted on superfluous resting cycles. The ambitious polyphasic sleeper usually aims to avoid this waste using strategically timed naps through-out the day.
More information can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep
http://www.highexistence.com/alternate-sleep-cycles/
After all is well and done, I should be thriving on a mere two hours of sleep, daily.
Of course there's something of a catch: the adaptation process, which is said to take anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks, has been described as both grueling and agonizing; it also has, depending on the precise schedule pursued, a relatively low rate of success. This is probably because, to date, the only known method of conditioning the brain to switch immediately from awake to REM involves some pretty intense sleep deprivation.
Like so many of my fellow internet addicts, I have decided to record my transition experience in blog form, with possibly a video entry or two depending on my (sure to be eccentric) mood.
My goal: incorporate what is known as the 'Dymaxion' sleep pattern into my daily routine.
My plan: Limit all my sleep to timed, half-hour intervals, until my brain gets the hint and then gradually reduce the number of naps until a homeostasis of 4 half-hour naps/day is achieved.
My reasons: (Shamelessly stolen from Jordan Lejuwaan at www.highexistence.com)
- Polyphasic sleepers report feeling more mentally alert than ever before. In fact the sensation is reported to be so rewarding that the ONLY reason they switch back to monophasic sleep is to accomodate the normal sleep cycles of their friends, family and co-workers.
- Time! Duh.
- Lucid Dreaming. Polyphasic sleepers report having the very frequent and vivid lucid dreams. Because polyphasic sleep allows your body to go right into REM sleep, the cycle where you dream, it’s a lot easier to bring some consciousness into the dream. Oh and lucid dreams are AWESOME.
- The mind-fuck aspect. Everyone that succeeds in becoming polyphasic writes about how psychologically strange it is to get used to. Every day tends to blend with the next since there is never really a solid break in consciousness. I love messing with my own head whether it be psychedelic drugs or meditation. A new mental challenge?? I’m game.
- It’s ridiculously cool. Only sleeping 2 hours a day and doing something that 99.9% of the world never does? That’s awesome.
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