Miriam Parkinson

Day one is not quite over but my mental faculties seem to be at a highpoint so I’ll take advantage of them while I can still think.
Last night was a little tough. I didn’t really sleep through my naps, I stayed in a sort of half-sleep relaxed state – similar to hypnosis. I was frequently hungry, but strangely I craved relatively healthy things like capsicum and scrambled eggs. I quickly discovered that if I could keep moving I didn’t get tired. As soon as I sat down at the computer I became drowsy.

The best pick-me-ups were juice and exercise. I did the New York City Ballet Workout DVD at 3.30am and found that I actually performed better than I normally do. A glass of orange juice seemed to immediately revive me even at my lowest points. I’ve bought a bottle of fruit and veg juice so I’ll compare results.

Another interesting thing I noticed was that I was very aware of my circadian rhythms. I could feel my heart rate and temperature drop at one point in the night and I started to really perk up around 5am. I also seemed to have an exaggerated startle reflex. I was listening to podcasts and every time there was a foreign noise in the background I jumped out of my skin.

I’ll be getting a heart rate monitor in the next week or two so it might be fun to do one night where I do an hour by hour log with a quick comment on my heart rate, perceived temperature and how I feel overall. Get a feel for what’s happening internally.

Colin is taking me to the movies tonight so this will be a bit of a challenge. I’ll pretty much end up skipping a nap so we’ll see how this effects me later tonight.

Wish me luck!

Tags: Sleep, Polyphasic, Uberman, Experiment