Today should be Day 1. But given that once you fuck up you go back to square one, and I fucked up last night I’ll be calling it Day 0. Tomorrow (if I succeed tonight) will be the 24h mark since I’ve slept 20min every 4 hours.
For anyone even considering attempting this, I want to recommend you the book on polyphasic sleep written by the first contemporary Uberman and the girl that gave it its name. This is her website http://www.puredoxyk.com/
You can find a lot of information online but she is the only person I’ve found that has slept polyphasically for years and her book includes things I hadn’t even thought of.
On to my explanation of the dreaded adaptation period.
As with any new habit/schedule/way of living, our body has to adapt. Be that a new diet, a new exercise regime… etc. For both those things the symptoms might be muscle soreness, irritability, detox… but I don’t think you even want to claw your eyes out. As with the sleep deprivation that comes with adapting to polyphasic sleep.
Now, I’m not saying that from experience, because I’m just starting out, but I already know it’s going to be torture.
Until your brain catches on and realises it better give you the sleep you need in those 20 minute breaks it’s going to be manipulating you and your body so that you go to sleep. For anyone who’s done a water fast you know how it is (I did a two week one in January, so I’m hoping to have an edge here). You literally cannot trust anything you think. Your mind is playing you.
Fortunately, our brain is quite capable, so this only lasts a couple of days. To be fully adapted it will take a couple of weeks more, but you won’t feel like you want to kill someone anymore and most polyphasic sleepers agree that it is no worse than the tiredness they felt while monophasic.
Now, why would I put myself through that?
The most immediate answer that comes to mind and the reason why I MUST succeed now (I’ve half-heartedly attempted it once before) is because I’m starting college in a few days. It’s a very challenging program and I want to be able to succeed but also have a life. So there.
I feel like it’s going to push me to stress a lot less. The constant break during the day and the extra 6 hours a day will definitely do the job.
Another psychological advantage is that I am very interested in lucid dreaming and it’s easier to achieve in while sleeping polyphasically (according to most people’s experience).
Mindfullness is another thing people talk about a lot when adapted. They feel more here. Some have even claimed it lifted the fog of depression, definitely a plus for me.
Another advantage time wise is that I moved to Switzerland from Mexico a year ago and most of the people I love are there. And let me just say that jet lag is not the worst consequence of time difference. I’m going to be able to keep in touch with everyone I love almost at all hours they’ll be awake. (Minus the onces I’ll be at school).
I’ve already mentioned this, but on top of having those 6 extra hours a day, during your naps, most people claim to feel like they’ve slept at least a couple of hours. Even more so if they remember their dreams. Let’s do the math: 16 hours awake my default + 6 extra hours + 6*2 hours of dreaming (*2 because that’s what they fell like) = 34 hours. Instead of the 18 we used to get (16 plus 2 of dreams)
So yeah… I’m sorry if I got you confused. I’m a bit foggy.
…
Information about myself that might be important: I’m 19 years old, my eating habits are terrible and go from one extreme to the next, I am quite physically active (during the adaptation period I’ll be slowing down a bit), and this is definitely not the oddest thing I’ve done.
Now unto how it’s been so far:
Yesterday was supposed to be Day 0, but since I effed up, today’s Day 0.
I took my first nap at 20h yesterday (08.09.2014), and I even drooled. Which is not unusual because though I rarely dream when I take naps, I am no stranger to them. My second nap was at 0:00 of today and though I did wake up to my alarm 30 minutes later (I’ll be cutting down the time as I progress) I made the most terrible mistake you can do while adapting: I stayed in bed. Resulting in 3 extra hours of sleep. In which I most certainly got REM. So that’s where the whole thing was thrown off track. My nap at 4 was pretty nice, I did get some minutes of sleep.
Right before my nap at 7:00 (this is the only time when I’ll break the every 4 hours rule, my naps are as follows: 0h, 4h, 7h, 12h, 16h, 20h) I had the worst nausea I’ve felt in a long time, that usually happens when I don’t sleep well, though I never expected it to be this bad so soon. I made another mistake when I woke up 30 minutes after though (-.- curse me… the same bloody one) I stayed in bed and slept for another half hour where I had a pretty long dream.
My nap at 12h was fine, at 16h I felt like it had been a couple minutes long, and the next one is in two hours. I don’t think there’ll be more to report on that one, though if anything happens I’ll be sure to mention it on the update for tomorrow.
vividipity 