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

I’ve started my polyphasic sleep experiment tonight whilst I’m still enthusiastic. I thought about best ways to start this but quickly realised that there was no good way to start. The entire aim of the first couple of days is sleep deprivation. That’s what triggers the adaption. So I’ve had my first nap.

I didn’t sleep particularly well, just sort of drifted in a semi-sleep, relaxed but not actually sleeping. Thats what you get for trying to go to sleep before you’re tired. I’m thinking the 3am sleep will be somewhat easier to get into.

Tags: Sleep, Polyphasic, Uberman, Experiment

Colin will laugh when he hears this but I’m thinking about giving polyphasic sleep a try.

Polyphasic sleep is (according to Wikipedia)

a sleep pattern intended to reduce sleep time to 2–5 hours daily. This is achieved by spreading out sleep into short naps of around 20–45 minutes throughout the day.

The upshot of which is, of course, that you get a whole lot more awake time. Apparently once you get the hang of it you feel more alert than before you started. If I do this (and its a very big if because I’m not exactly known for following through with things) then I’m thinking that 11pm, 3am, 7am, 11am, 3pm etc sleeps will be the go (based on my timetable). I’ll also obviously have to figure out a way of doing this without bothering Colin.

The next couple of days will tell whether I actually start this and from then I’ll blog my progress.

This has, of course, been inspired by reading Steve Pavlina’s log outlining his marvelously successful attempt. He’s switched back to sleeping normally now but he kept it up for several months and only switched because of social reasons. If you’re interested in polyphasic sleep its well worth a read.

Tags: Sleep, Polyphasic, Uberman, Experiment