Lifetime for Lifestyle

Polynapping is like riding a bike.

Yesterday Ivy posted on uberman mailing list the excellent analogy about polyphasic sleep schedule is like riding a bike. Link is available only for group subscribers and I can't resist putting it here:

Being on a polyphasic sleep schedule is a lot like riding a bike.

On a bike I can do a lot of things cars can't, and being a biker has benefits that cars don't have. Of course, it also has disadvantages. But for my lifestyle, the good outweighs the bad for both biking vs. driving a car and polyphasic sleep vs. monophasic.

On a bike, I can whiz past a line of cars stuck in a row waiting to get out, and jump up onto a sidewalk having wriggled between two bumpers, yelling "seeya, suckas!" I can always find parking because I just slap the lock on it. I don't have to pay for gas; yes, I have to pedal (and that involves actual work, not just putting my foot on a pedal like in a car), but I receive health benefits from that too, I get a workout at the same time. I don't have to pay for insurance or car payments; if you buy a bike, you just ride it until it falls apart. It requires no license, and nothing to renew. Weather conditions (climate, precipitation) and distance limit the use of the bike, but my lifestyle generally requires me to stay in a small area anyway and there are passable stay-dry and bundling-up clothing options. I can't carry large loads on it, but I rarely buy large loads of stuff and I do have friends with cars who don't seem to mind volunteering their services when need be. In general, it's sweet having a bike.

So yeah, it's awkward to take a nap every few hours if I'm in a social situation. But guess what? The kind of friends I have generally don't mind. Yeah, it's a difficult thing to get used to. Still beats having to resign myself to a day over with, a time to "turn in," giving in to lay there for several hours at a time getting nothing done. Biking takes extra time and extra work. So does polyphasic sleep. I'm willing to do it because I have the kind of aspirations that only a twenty-two-hour day seems to be able to support. I deal with the inconveniences (so far) because it is just too sweet to be able to scoot between the two bumpers of the sleeping world. To know this option of sleeping works, to know that my body is surprisingly willing to slip in and let this alternate pattern satisfy its sleep needs, to know that even if I can't do it forever the option is open to me to do it for weeks or months at a time in a pinch . . . it's just . . . sweet. Very, very sweet.

Thank's Ivy!

Technoraty tags: polyphasic sleep, polynapping, uberman

posted by Unknown @ 4:54 PM