I have absolutely insane friends.
Friends that will at first laugh at you after they find out that you want to try a radical new way of sleeping, and then eventually realize that you are serious, and then take 1am naps with you are, hands down, without a doubt, the absolute best.
After posting about not having any troubles waking up immediately after my alarm going off, I slept an hour at 9am after not being able to deal with the grogginess and the feeling of my brains being complete mush. I don’t remember doing it, but I am pretty sure I turned off my alarm and went right back to sleep. Luckily it was only an hour, and I am not feeling guilty about it anymore.
I am also realizing the vital importance of having a quality nap. Since I am having trouble clearing my mind and being distracted after laying down, it’s important that I have somewhere that is relatively quiet (or constant background noise) to nap. I am pretty sure that’s why I slept through my alarm yesterday. Earlier that day, I was at a friend’s house, and the only available place to sleep was on a couch next to a TV, and a few other people were there, and they ended up waking me a few minutes before my wake up time.
I didn’t think I was feeling too fatigued, just the normal jet-lagged feeling that I’ve almost become accustomed to. It definitely affected me later on that night though (Especially in the 1am-9am phase)
I also was feeling much colder than I normally do since the beginning of the experiment. I read about a similar experience Steve Pavlina had, and I have to wonder if I was actually feeling the same thing or if it was partly psychological. Hard to say, because I feel like it’s either warmed up or I am just less cold. I will note that I still do feel more cold than I remember being while sleeping monophasically, but it’s not that much of a difference really. Colorado is just a cold place this time of year.
Disappointingly, I still have had no other dreams other than that first one (yesterday?). I am really looking forward to dreaming when they do start happening.
Even though I feel like I will be able to adjust okay, mentally it’s a big challenge to cope with the fact that I am kissing 8-hour or so nights of sleep goodbye. It’s just a different way of thinking about sleep, and being able to let go the previous notions I had about sleep. I have a mixed opinion of sleep. I think it feels terribly good, especially when your body needs it, but also it’s just as terribly inefficient. You get nothing done when sleeping, and I often wish it was optional, or I could take a pill that would allow me not to sleep at all.
I am digging the way days and nights flow together. Life is definitely moving slower. It boggles my mind that my house mates went to bed some time ago, and here I am fairly wide awake downstairs on my computer blogging about the whole thing. Heh. It’s glorious.
Another observation that I’ve made is that I’ve picked up a weird neck twitch when I am first trying to fall asleep. I don’t know if this is due to the initial sleep deprivation, but it has been happening consistently, and it weirds me out a bit. I will be laying perfectly still, and all of a sudden my head will jerk to the right ever so slightly. If I am almost asleep it draws me out of it, but it’s more of a nuisance than anything.
As far as mental clarity, I am still pretty foggy. I feel like there is some progression, but I think getting consistent, quality naps is the key for me right now to get over the hump and start being able to do more sedentary tasks (like reading) without the worry of falling asleep in the middle of them.
I haven’t noticed too much of a change in my diet. I am drinking water like it’s going out of style though. I think I am averaging 12 or so glasses a day. I think this helps me a lot to stay awake during the early part of the morning. I wasn’t drinking enough water before switching to polyphasic sleeping, so I am happy that I am now.