Polynapping, days 18-22
First of all, some stats:
2006.01.04. Sleeping at 02:00-02:30, 06:00-11:00, 21:30-23:20. Total sleep time: 7h20m
2006.01.05. Sleeping at 02:00-02:40, 05:50-10:00, 14:00-15:40, 22:00-next morning. Total sleep time (counting only this 24h period): 8h10m
2006.01.06. Sleeping at 00:00 (from previous day) - 08:20, 11:00-11:30, 14:30-15:00, 17:50-18:30. Total sleep time: 10h00m
2006.01.07. Sleeping at 00:00-00:40, 04:00-09:50, 11:00-11:30, 14:00-14:30, 17:30-18:30, 22:20-22:40. Total sleep time: 8h50m
Looks like total disorder, chaos and definitely not a polyphasic sleep, right? ;)
Well, it may look like this. But feels completely different.
During these days of stress, leasure and holidays, I feel like my polynapping skills completely integrating into myself. Now I may polynap or may go monophasic at will at any time, by will. Feels definitely interesting :)
In couple days I'll summarize my experience about polynapping in a separate post. Or may be a howto is better?
Technoraty tags:
polyphasic sleep,
polynapping,
uberman
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
Polynapping, days 15-17
These were, again, days of great stress and napping schedule disorder
Day 15. 2006.01.01
After celebrating a new year (and taking a quite some alcohol) I've got a core sleep (I refuse to call it a failure) from 04:20 till 10:30. Following naps were on schedule: 14:00-14:30, 18:00-18:30, 22:10-22:40.
Total sleep time: 7h40m, slightly less than I'd sleep usually.
Day 16. 2006.01.02
Napped 02:10-02:40. Had a core sleep 06:00-10:30. Then again naps 14:00-14:30, 18:10-18:40, 22:40-23:30.
Total sleep time: 6h20m
Day 17. 2006.01.03
After getting core sleep for two days this day was a perfect one, literally by book. Naps 02:00-02:30, 06:20-07:00, 10:00-10:30, 14:00-14:30, 17:20-18:00, 22:10-22:40.
Total sleep time: 3h20m
Generally, I find that I don't want to stick religiously to the schedule as I've did during the adaptation period. Nevertheless, I need a core sleep after (during?) stress time and after celebrations with alcohol, howhever small amounts would be.
So, from now on I'll follow more my body feelings than original uberman schedule.
Technoraty tags:
polyphasic sleep,
polynapping,
uberman
My polynapping - Q&A
Q. How long is your nap now?
A. I've started with 30 min naps and now switched to 25 minute ones, since my REM sleep completes in about 15 minutes.
Q. How do you know when you reach REM?
A. W
ell, actually, that's a guess. I loose the sense of time, my thoughts are very dream-like and I awake very refreshed, even if I had a headache before. As far as I understand that are traits of REM sleep.
Q. Do you dream each time?
A. Yes, though I don't loose a contact with reality every time, so it's something between a deep meditation and a dream. To have a sleep (with reality contact lost) every time I found the calm music and no light to be usefull. I use wonderful Enya music.Q. H
ow much time of your nap you lose consicousness?A. I can't give a straight answer since m
y sense of time becomes very mixed up to this point. I loose my awareness at 2nd-to-7th minute, then I have from 10 to 25 minutes of "sleep", then I wake up either by myself (feels like a strong inner impulse, btw) or by an alarm.
Q. A
re the dreams during these 10-25 minutes?A. Y
es
Q. But you have a bit of contact to reality during these dreams?
A. Sometimes yes, sometimes not. Daynapping, in general, leaves more contact to the reality. And my night naps usually end with an alarm.
Q. Do you have control over the dream like a lucid dream.A. N
ot (yet?). But I had no such goal :)
Q. Do you remember your dreams before going poly?
A. Well, I hardly remember my dreams even now. Perhaps just a general context - and not for a long time. BTW, usually I drift asleep starting thinking about my current tasks and plans (in relaxed manner) and that sets general context of the subsequent dream.
Q. What else have you learned by going poly?
A. Now I, perhaps, won't rush as I've did originally into complete uberman schedule. I'd suggest to start with daynapping with an alarm and then start heavily cutting the night coresleep time. But e
ven now, after the second week, I have terrible time between 04:00 and 07:00 - the infamous "dog watch".
Q. Is the time so terrible that you can basically do nothing or only less than usual?
A. Nothing at all. my eyes are closing. Simply closing. The only thing that helps is physical activity.
Q. Real sport?
A. Anything. Washing dishes, walking, cleaning the rooms.. But there's only a limited amount todo really, so I have to be creative - or fall back in 3hr sleep.
Q. Do you live together with someone who could wake up from the noise of you activity?
A. Yup - that's the reason I can't have much physical activity at night.
Q. Have you tried some kind of hard mental work? Even if it does't produce results?
A. Constantly - I'm a software developer and a team leader. That was one of original goals going polynapping - to have more personal lifetime while keeping hours. While at night I can do some development and, in worst case, reading ... At "dog watch" time I can really do nothing: if I sit down - I fall asleep.
Q. But to much bugs in the code that you write during your dog watch?
A. I don't develop during this time. And my development process saves me from bugs :)
The questions and answers where taken from irc log at #PolyphasicSleep at irc.quakenet.org
Polynapping, days 12-14
Day 12.2005.12.29 - After reading
Men's Journal article and remembering my nap duration experience, I've decided to push the experiment further.
During daytime I'll sleep a 10-20 min mini-nap. At nighttime I'll have full 30-minute naps. So far, as my 11-day experience shows, it matches my body preferences.
Day 13. 2005.12.30
Used mininaps througout the night couple times - excellent refreshing effect. But the 04:00-07:00 period remains the damned dirty-gray dog-watch area when eyes just shut down. Only physical activity helps, which I can't get enough since it's quite cold outside - and how much you can do at home besides cooking and cleaning?
So, I've had a standard 25-minute nap at 02:00 (planned) and at 04:30 (optional). Then I'd mininapped at 05:10 due to eyes shutting down. It was amazing: just 5 minutes of music relaxation - and voila. Will use that definitely.
Taken planned 06:00 nap. While I could have been out of the bad at 06:25, I didn't. Familiar "just another minute of sleep" mantra. Will meditate on that - is that just my psychological limitation or it's a real and grounded body request (and if there's the difference between two). Perhaps I should just call it a "core sleep", relax and enjoy? ;)
While the rest of the day was pretty usual, I've overslept the 22:00 nap. Well.. If one can describe a 13hr hibernation as an "oversleep" :)
Day 14. 2005.12.31
After I woke up midday - at 11:30 - I've rediscovered all "merits" of my "normal" sleeping schedule: a headache, general slowlyness, no energy and desire to do anything. Definitely not what I'd sign for.
Nevertheless, it's New Year evening day - a day we celebrate with the same ceremony the western countries celebrate the Christmas... So it would be a hard day anyway.
One of possible reasons of my massive oversleep may be my stress the day before (faced a difficult decision to make about multi-$K project). So the body just decided to wrap it up and fix this and everything.
Micronapping
After reading
Men's Journal article, I've (yet again) became intrigued:
Ok, I'm already conviced that 3 hours of sleep per day is enough, given you're napping by schedule. But being alert and conscious after only 5 minutes of sleep? That's ridiculous!
The only way to tell for sure is to try.
So, the experience so far is the following...
Dec 29. 15:55. Have a tiny headache that usually means that I have to take a nap. 2 hours till the nearest nap, meeting in 15 minutes. Actions:
- Turn off all lights (including monitor)
- Fire calm music track followed by energetic one. I've used Enya - How Can I Keep From Singing (4:30) and Jan Wayne & Charlene remix of Scorpions' - Here I Am (Send Me An Angel) (3:30).
- Lean back on the comfortable chair, close your eyes and relax every muscule you can. If you use to meditate - do it.
Results: Lost track of time at 2nd minute of the first track and woke only as it finished - before the 2nd track began. The eurodance-styled remix filled me with energy, while I was preparing for meeting (walking here and there). Felt like I slept a complete nap.
Men's Journal published lean, concise and up-to-point article about napping. It was surprise for me that the micro-naps (two to five minutes) can also have strong refreshing effect. I wonder what's the technique?
Most useful part is, again, a nap length classification:
THE NANO-NAP: 10 to 20 seconds Sleep studies haven't yet concluded whether there are benefits to these brief intervals, like when you nod off on someone's shoulder on the train.
THE MICRO-NAP: two to five minutes Shown to be surprisingly effective at shedding sleepiness.
THE MINI-NAP: five to 20 minutes Increases alertness, stamina, motor learning, and motor performance.
THE ORIGINAL POWER NAP: 20 minutesIncludes the benefits of the micro and the mini, but additionally improves muscle memory and clears the brain of useless built-up information, which helps with long-term memory (remembering facts, events, and names).
THE LAZY MAN'S NAP: 50 to 90 minutesIncludes slow-wave plus REM sleep; good for improving perceptual processing; also when the system is flooded with human growth hormone, great for repairing bones and muscles.
Polynapping, days 9-11
These days where the most difficult. I had my (offshore) customer visiting me and, thus, couldn't simply go and nap.
Day 9.
Started napping on schedule (30 min nap at 02:00, 30 min nap at 06:00), but after the second one waked up in zombie mode. Could not stand this, so returned to bed in 20 minutes.
Wrong! Overslept for more that hour and woke up with an oversleep headache.
Subsequent naps were on schedule (10:00 and 14:00) and without any unwanted side effects.
Later, since I had to meet my customer at the airport, the 16:00 nap was missed. This resulted in yet another oversleep as soon as I could get to bed - from 20:30 to 22:30.
Just compare this day to my previous transition period, when I've religiously sticked to the nap schedule.
Conclusion. The schedule is a must. Stick to it as much as possible.Day 10.As previous day shown, the schedule is a king. But this day a customer was a king. We had 12hr planning meeting with no chance to escape. The only possibility to nap was a dinner break - and I used it.
So naps today were at 02:20-02:50, 04:00-04:30, 06:00-08:50 (oversleeeeeept), 14:00-14:30, 22:00-22:30.
Conclusion. You have to choose always. Choose wisely.Day 11.This was the third day of meetings burnout and, thanks, the last one. To stay alive and concious I had to take a core sleep at night. Not that it helped much, but at least I looked like a human being. During the day I had a chance to catch only a one 20-minute nap. Strangely, but even at this time I felt like 15-20 minute nap is what I really need.
At 15:00 all questions were finally answered, every point in the list checked and customer was off to a plane. And I was off to have some rest, which resulted in another 2hr sleep. Not sure if I hadn't to have it if I was on regular schedule.
Nevertheless, after all this mess with my original every-four-hour-nap schedule, my body quickly adapted back. Back to polyphasic sleep.
Sleep time: 01:00-01:30, 04:00-04:30, 05:30-07:50 (the core sleep), 12:10-12:30, 16:20-18:30, 22:00-22:30
Conclusion. Your body always knows what it need. Just listen it.Overall feeling.
These three days were the real test of my commitment to the polynapping. I've observed a slowdown, difficulty to adsorb information and drowsyness at time I've used to nap. Nevertheless, as Steve wrote, it was quite possible to get pass this feeling and continue to work.
As soon as an external pressure was removed, the polynapping schedule was again a natural one. Yes, there were several times I've need a core sleep, but I consider this ok, since my goal is not to become a paranoid follower, but just to have more lifetime.
Polyphasic sleep
Steve, thank you for ever trying the polyphasic sleep (and
writing about that!). I am only week on this sleeping schedule - and I am happy.
Now, suddenly, I've got time to do things I love. I've got desire and energy to bring my relations with relatives to new level (esp. with my fiancee). I'm catching up my todo list. I'm catching up my reading list. My mind is full of new ideas.
And I love it.
After reading all Steve's experience I wasn't skeptical - I've had times when I had to sleep four or even two hours a day. But these were definitely the extreme days. I've never considered pursuing this as a long, let alone a lifetime choice.
Now, week after, I see I will never revert completely back to my usual 9-10hr hibernation. I prefer to spend this time in a lifestyle I love.
