Had to bed a little earlier last night. It was only 2:30 or so. That is disappointing. I think the problem occured because I changed my 11 nap a little. Due to the other things happening at my house, I took my 11 nap in my bed, instead of the futon, and didn't use my white noise cd. As a result it wasn't a very good nap. This sleep experiment is really seeming like it will be what finally forces me to pick up some sort of MP3 player, so I can keep my white noise track closer to me, and increase it's flexability. I guess I'll have to check my budget to see if / when I can afford one.
This blog got it's first visitor from Europe! Hello my overseas friend. I setup the Google Analytics on this blog, just so I'd have some sort of record keeping. I'm quite happy with it, it's a pretty next little app. I don't get a ton of visitors, but It's interesting to be able to see some of that information. I also enjoy making guesses as to who it is visiting from where. I have a visitor from Edmonton that is checking this blog close to daily (Hi Ash!). There's a slightly less regular visitor from North Battleford too, but I am not sure who that is. Saskatoon I have a very large number of visitors, which makes it a lot harder to figure / guess who those are. Makes for a fun game though. I think it would be even more fun if some of you visitors would comment on my posts. Tell me what you like about my posts, ask questions, generally help me improve this blog, and give you guys the content you want. I intended it as a record of my experiment, but that makes for a reasonably boring read, so I think I'm going to start bloging about other things. I need the weather to clear up so I can go make some good stories about my adventures in the wee hours of the morning.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Day 16
Uggggg.
So like I said I would on day 11, I have started being more ridgid in my core sleep times. I went to bed promptly at 4am last night, after trying to keep myself awake. I was a little worn out when I went to bed. Alarm went off at 7, and I woke up. But then, while I remember the next 40-45 minutes, I just wasn't functional. I was in a state of awake, but not really. It's hard to explain. But the important thing to note, is I'm hurting. What I'm feeling this morning is what I was expecting during the adjustment period. It sucks. But I think that I'm at the stage when I'm somewhat comfortable with my schedule asa 3am-7am core, with my 3 naps. And that's not where I want to end up, so time to force my body into the schedule I want. Hopefully I can adjust to this within a couple of days.
My weekend summary, with the lack of sleep and abundance of drinking, has started some discussion over at my friend Kevin's blog ( http://kevin.scaldeferri.com/blog/ ). He, I guess, is my polyphasic pal. We're both starting reasonably similar sleep plans around the same time (I think I started maybe a couple days before him) We're also going through a lot of the same things. With a couple distinctions.
I couldn't give up my Tea. I have cut back, and I only allow myself at most, 1 glass of tea, and I make it right after a nap, and I give myself about 30 minutes to finish it. I find it really helps me feel more alert and awake after a tough nap, and has not (or doesn't seem to) effect my napping at all. Kevin has dropped caffeine entirely. He's also quit drinking entirely, where I still have a beer every now and then. I am cutting back on both, but trying not to cut them entirely. I made a bunch of sacrifices for this sleep schedule, but I'm trying to make as few as possible.
Kevin also brought up some good points in a recent post that I had never thought about, but makes sense. He has not been very consistent with his nap locations, and is speculating that it may have a deterimental effect. I guess in that I would be the other side of the controlled experiment. Due to constraints at work, I always have my noon, and 5 nap in my car, and my 11 nap is most often on the futon in the basement, Core Sleep is in bed. The only thing that ever changes in that is my 11 nap sometimes is in a car, if I'm out. Even when I leave work early to get home before my 5 nap, I usually sleep in my car. Largely because by the time I get home, I'm just exhausted, because it's close to nap time. Walking inside is a freaking long walk. plus I have a comfortable blanket that is right beside me. Although I park on the street, in front of my neighbours house. They must think I'm weird, as there have been days when they were workign on something in the garage, and I pulled up in front of their house, and shifted over to the passenger seat and slept for 25 minutes, then left my car. I sometimes wonder what they figured I was doing, or if they talked about the crazy neighbour who sleeps at weird times, and in his car.
So like I said I would on day 11, I have started being more ridgid in my core sleep times. I went to bed promptly at 4am last night, after trying to keep myself awake. I was a little worn out when I went to bed. Alarm went off at 7, and I woke up. But then, while I remember the next 40-45 minutes, I just wasn't functional. I was in a state of awake, but not really. It's hard to explain. But the important thing to note, is I'm hurting. What I'm feeling this morning is what I was expecting during the adjustment period. It sucks. But I think that I'm at the stage when I'm somewhat comfortable with my schedule asa 3am-7am core, with my 3 naps. And that's not where I want to end up, so time to force my body into the schedule I want. Hopefully I can adjust to this within a couple of days.
My weekend summary, with the lack of sleep and abundance of drinking, has started some discussion over at my friend Kevin's blog ( http://kevin.scaldeferri.com/blog/ ). He, I guess, is my polyphasic pal. We're both starting reasonably similar sleep plans around the same time (I think I started maybe a couple days before him) We're also going through a lot of the same things. With a couple distinctions.
I couldn't give up my Tea. I have cut back, and I only allow myself at most, 1 glass of tea, and I make it right after a nap, and I give myself about 30 minutes to finish it. I find it really helps me feel more alert and awake after a tough nap, and has not (or doesn't seem to) effect my napping at all. Kevin has dropped caffeine entirely. He's also quit drinking entirely, where I still have a beer every now and then. I am cutting back on both, but trying not to cut them entirely. I made a bunch of sacrifices for this sleep schedule, but I'm trying to make as few as possible.
Kevin also brought up some good points in a recent post that I had never thought about, but makes sense. He has not been very consistent with his nap locations, and is speculating that it may have a deterimental effect. I guess in that I would be the other side of the controlled experiment. Due to constraints at work, I always have my noon, and 5 nap in my car, and my 11 nap is most often on the futon in the basement, Core Sleep is in bed. The only thing that ever changes in that is my 11 nap sometimes is in a car, if I'm out. Even when I leave work early to get home before my 5 nap, I usually sleep in my car. Largely because by the time I get home, I'm just exhausted, because it's close to nap time. Walking inside is a freaking long walk. plus I have a comfortable blanket that is right beside me. Although I park on the street, in front of my neighbours house. They must think I'm weird, as there have been days when they were workign on something in the garage, and I pulled up in front of their house, and shifted over to the passenger seat and slept for 25 minutes, then left my car. I sometimes wonder what they figured I was doing, or if they talked about the crazy neighbour who sleeps at weird times, and in his car.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Day 15
Two week mark!
I'm still pretty worn out today, but pretty much the same as I imagine everyone who had a busy weekend feels. I was quite groggy in the morning, but after my noon nap I felt a lot better. Hopefully my 5 nap makes me back up to 100%.
Overall, I'm still quite enjoying this sleep schedule. I'm starting to get to the point where I'm recommending it to people, if they want to try. I still greatly suggest you do more reading on it (via links on left, or the google) as I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert. However, the extra time in a day is pretty neat, and the shift really hasn't been that difficult. I'm also getting better at the abridged explaination of what the heck I'm doing. When people don't realize I'm serious, until I'm walking out the door for a nap, makes things a little frustrating. I'm heading to bed! I don't want to answer your 100 questions. Ask me again in 30 minutes. It helps that my roomates are willing to tell their opinions on it. They know I get a little cranky just before naps, and need like 10 minutes to fully wake up afterwards, and they are pretty good at distracting, and fielding the general questions. I just hope they aren't pushing false information.
My boss has already suggested I write a book about this. I laughed at him. That really shows how little documentation we do internally here, because if we had more docs, he's realize I'm not a very good writer. Plus I hate it. However, PureDoxyk ( http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/ ), the founder of the everyman schedule I believe is working on a book. I think that in this case I will just defer to her work. She's also been on this sleep schedule a fair bit longer than I. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll say something great on the google group, or her blog or something, and I'll be used as a quote, or example. Maybe I'll write a chapter on surviving polphasic sleeping in harsh northern climates.
We do have a wiki in the works though. I think I'll end up doing a lot more work on that, as I'm more computer competent, and I have some ideas / visions I would like to do on that wiki. I'm trying to devote a night or 2 a week to working on it. Currently it just needs a bunch of good templates established, and some of the good information from the google group and elsewhere collected together. I don't want to promote it too much jsut yet, as it's still pretty useless, but I'll let you all know as soon as it gets more benefictial.
I'm still pretty worn out today, but pretty much the same as I imagine everyone who had a busy weekend feels. I was quite groggy in the morning, but after my noon nap I felt a lot better. Hopefully my 5 nap makes me back up to 100%.
Overall, I'm still quite enjoying this sleep schedule. I'm starting to get to the point where I'm recommending it to people, if they want to try. I still greatly suggest you do more reading on it (via links on left, or the google) as I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert. However, the extra time in a day is pretty neat, and the shift really hasn't been that difficult. I'm also getting better at the abridged explaination of what the heck I'm doing. When people don't realize I'm serious, until I'm walking out the door for a nap, makes things a little frustrating. I'm heading to bed! I don't want to answer your 100 questions. Ask me again in 30 minutes. It helps that my roomates are willing to tell their opinions on it. They know I get a little cranky just before naps, and need like 10 minutes to fully wake up afterwards, and they are pretty good at distracting, and fielding the general questions. I just hope they aren't pushing false information.
My boss has already suggested I write a book about this. I laughed at him. That really shows how little documentation we do internally here, because if we had more docs, he's realize I'm not a very good writer. Plus I hate it. However, PureDoxyk ( http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/ ), the founder of the everyman schedule I believe is working on a book. I think that in this case I will just defer to her work. She's also been on this sleep schedule a fair bit longer than I. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll say something great on the google group, or her blog or something, and I'll be used as a quote, or example. Maybe I'll write a chapter on surviving polphasic sleeping in harsh northern climates.
We do have a wiki in the works though. I think I'll end up doing a lot more work on that, as I'm more computer competent, and I have some ideas / visions I would like to do on that wiki. I'm trying to devote a night or 2 a week to working on it. Currently it just needs a bunch of good templates established, and some of the good information from the google group and elsewhere collected together. I don't want to promote it too much jsut yet, as it's still pretty useless, but I'll let you all know as soon as it gets more benefictial.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
End of weekend
I had a very fun weekend, but not a very good one for sleeping.
Friday night I was at the Hose, having some beers with old co-workers. I entirely skipped my 11pm nap, partially because I wasn't thinking and drank rye and coke, which is caffienated, and kept me up. I was extremely exhausted the next day.
Saturday I was at a house party. I thought a little further ahead and drank beer until after my nap, which went good. But then I drank far too much, and slept through my morning alarm, and slept all the way to when I am normally waking up from my first nap... so I guess the timing worked ok, but that was far too much sleep.
So the conclusion I have come to if I can drink, but I can't get super stupid crunk, or I'll have to change the schedule somewhat temporarily, which is definitely acceptable. I knew I'd have to make some sacrifices when I started doing this, and that will apparently be one of them. The weekend though is leaving me a little more tired than I have been previously. Hopefully it doesn't take long to get back on the good schedule.
Friday night I was at the Hose, having some beers with old co-workers. I entirely skipped my 11pm nap, partially because I wasn't thinking and drank rye and coke, which is caffienated, and kept me up. I was extremely exhausted the next day.
Saturday I was at a house party. I thought a little further ahead and drank beer until after my nap, which went good. But then I drank far too much, and slept through my morning alarm, and slept all the way to when I am normally waking up from my first nap... so I guess the timing worked ok, but that was far too much sleep.
So the conclusion I have come to if I can drink, but I can't get super stupid crunk, or I'll have to change the schedule somewhat temporarily, which is definitely acceptable. I knew I'd have to make some sacrifices when I started doing this, and that will apparently be one of them. The weekend though is leaving me a little more tired than I have been previously. Hopefully it doesn't take long to get back on the good schedule.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Day 11
I felt much better yesterday after my naps. That is one of the odd, unexpected results of this experiment so far. I am not tired before my naps usually, until about 10 or 15 minutes just before them, and I am a little groggy for about 5 minutes or so after waking up, but then I feel great. The only time I feel tired is always when I wake up from my core sleep period. It's a real chore to get up when that alarm goes off, but my nap alarms I can just spring up from. I think it's because I haven't quite nailed in the schedule of that Core sleep yet, so my body isn't getting too accustomed to it. I have successfully transitioned into 3 naps a day. Those are easy. I am also really enjoying the 4 hours or so of me time I'm getting every day after my roomies go to bed, even if I'm not really accomplishing anything great in that window yet.
I think next week, maybe tuesday or wednesday, so I can have some recovery time after the weekend, I'm going to be very rigid with my core sleep times to try and force that transition into place.
I think next week, maybe tuesday or wednesday, so I can have some recovery time after the weekend, I'm going to be very rigid with my core sleep times to try and force that transition into place.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Day 10?
I think it's day 10. Yesterday did not go so well. My CD player was acting up on me, which cut my 5pm nap a little shorter, as I had no means to keep my white noise covering the airport traffic. I also was about 30 or 40 minutes late for my 11 nap, and both those factors combined made it a little rougher of a day. Got to bed shortly after 3, making my core 4 hours. I'm not quite at the stage where I can get by on a 3 hour core. I feel groggy when I try to.
But I feel a little groggy today, I think due to the poor sleep quality I had yesterday. I think I'll just try to take it a little easier at work this morning, and hopefully my noon nap will refresh me, and I can get the tough stuff done this afternoon.
But I feel a little groggy today, I think due to the poor sleep quality I had yesterday. I think I'll just try to take it a little easier at work this morning, and hopefully my noon nap will refresh me, and I can get the tough stuff done this afternoon.
Monday, May 21, 2007
End of Day 7
Well, I'm one week into this new sleep schedule. I'm still quite enjoying it. I have been a little disappointed the weather hasn't been nice, as I wanted to try to get in the habit of more walks and other exercise outside, but thems the breaks.
Last night I actually tried to sleep from 4-7, like the planned schedule is. I have been closer to 2:30 or 3 to 7 so far. Switching was a mistake. I am not quite ready for it yet. I was very very tired when I got up at 7 and ended up going back to sleep for another 1:30. So I think I'm going to stick with about 4 hours in that Core period for now.
I'm begun flexing some of my naps a little. On Sunday I has my noon nap at 10:30 instead, since I need to be somewhere for lunch. I was surprised at how well that worked. I wasn't tired when I laid down, but I put my cd on, and got some sleep. I didn't move my 5pm nap either, but I was very tired by the time it arrived. Some of the other naps have moved back and forth by about 30 minutes, without too much hassle or effect on my overall alertness or anything.
One of my current biggest concerns is my lack of good headphones. Currently to listen to my sleep cd I need to either be in my car, when my cd player is, or with my headset on my PC, on the futon. However, it's a little odd to have a bed upstairs that I'm only using about 3 hours a day. and also a little strange to walk out to my car for a nap while I'm at home. (although it is pretty comfortable there) So the solution I have decided on is to buy a new reasonable set of headphones to use with my ancient portable diskman, and make that my sleep hardware. Maybe this sleeping will be what I use to rationalize a purchase of an IPod. It's not too hard to convince myself I should get one. I should pick up a thin blanket that can actually cover my whole bodyIt'd be nice if I could get something that cn fold or roll up in some sort of little bag, so that it takes up less space in my car. Maybe a little pillow too. While I'm making a list of things I should get too, I need one of those face masks to cover my eyes when it's light out. Not sure where you even buy those. Maybe I'll hit walmart tomorrow or something.
Overall the weekend qent quite well for keeping my sleep schedule, but it was a less busy weekend. Next weekend will test it pretty good, as I will be trying more heavy drinking with this sleep schedule. I think it'll be interesting to see how much I can drink between say 9 and 11 to get quite drunk all night, but not too drunk so I can have a somewhat regular nap at 11. It's also a little odd to be planning to drive to a house party, that's within walking distance, just so I have a car there that I can sleep in for 30 minutes in the middle of the party. It should be fun explaining that to the people there who don't know me well too. It's hard enough explaining it to people who do know me well.
Other note: My long hair is becoming a bit of a nuisance to my napping. If I pull it back, I have a ponytail knot pushing in the back of my head, which is a little uncomfortable. If I don't pull it back, it ends up reasonably knotted and messy after a nap. Think about getting bed head not only when you wake up in the morning, but every 5 hours. As much as I'd rather not, I might have to go get my hair cut short again.
Well off to watch some TV before bed. I am enjoying the extra time I am getting in a day, but I'm not taking advantage of too much of it with any of the big tasks I wanted to accomplish yet. I'm mostly reading more, and watching more tv programs I've been intending to for awhile. Once the weather changes though I hope that will change.
That said, anyone live in the South East side, and interested in going for a walk every other day during the week at about 2am? No?
Last night I actually tried to sleep from 4-7, like the planned schedule is. I have been closer to 2:30 or 3 to 7 so far. Switching was a mistake. I am not quite ready for it yet. I was very very tired when I got up at 7 and ended up going back to sleep for another 1:30. So I think I'm going to stick with about 4 hours in that Core period for now.
I'm begun flexing some of my naps a little. On Sunday I has my noon nap at 10:30 instead, since I need to be somewhere for lunch. I was surprised at how well that worked. I wasn't tired when I laid down, but I put my cd on, and got some sleep. I didn't move my 5pm nap either, but I was very tired by the time it arrived. Some of the other naps have moved back and forth by about 30 minutes, without too much hassle or effect on my overall alertness or anything.
One of my current biggest concerns is my lack of good headphones. Currently to listen to my sleep cd I need to either be in my car, when my cd player is, or with my headset on my PC, on the futon. However, it's a little odd to have a bed upstairs that I'm only using about 3 hours a day. and also a little strange to walk out to my car for a nap while I'm at home. (although it is pretty comfortable there) So the solution I have decided on is to buy a new reasonable set of headphones to use with my ancient portable diskman, and make that my sleep hardware. Maybe this sleeping will be what I use to rationalize a purchase of an IPod. It's not too hard to convince myself I should get one. I should pick up a thin blanket that can actually cover my whole bodyIt'd be nice if I could get something that cn fold or roll up in some sort of little bag, so that it takes up less space in my car. Maybe a little pillow too. While I'm making a list of things I should get too, I need one of those face masks to cover my eyes when it's light out. Not sure where you even buy those. Maybe I'll hit walmart tomorrow or something.
Overall the weekend qent quite well for keeping my sleep schedule, but it was a less busy weekend. Next weekend will test it pretty good, as I will be trying more heavy drinking with this sleep schedule. I think it'll be interesting to see how much I can drink between say 9 and 11 to get quite drunk all night, but not too drunk so I can have a somewhat regular nap at 11. It's also a little odd to be planning to drive to a house party, that's within walking distance, just so I have a car there that I can sleep in for 30 minutes in the middle of the party. It should be fun explaining that to the people there who don't know me well too. It's hard enough explaining it to people who do know me well.
Other note: My long hair is becoming a bit of a nuisance to my napping. If I pull it back, I have a ponytail knot pushing in the back of my head, which is a little uncomfortable. If I don't pull it back, it ends up reasonably knotted and messy after a nap. Think about getting bed head not only when you wake up in the morning, but every 5 hours. As much as I'd rather not, I might have to go get my hair cut short again.
Well off to watch some TV before bed. I am enjoying the extra time I am getting in a day, but I'm not taking advantage of too much of it with any of the big tasks I wanted to accomplish yet. I'm mostly reading more, and watching more tv programs I've been intending to for awhile. Once the weather changes though I hope that will change.
That said, anyone live in the South East side, and interested in going for a walk every other day during the week at about 2am? No?
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