After surfing the net for a while I decided to anticipate my nap at 5:30 AM to make it fit better with my usual schedule; yet this time I tried to use the alarm function on my Ipod, because I thought it would be harder to sleep through Rammstein.
The only problem is, keeping one headphone on is quite difficuilt and uncomfortable. So at 6:30 AM I was still awake, quite frustrated, and turned the alarm off deciding to wait till 7 and try again. Not a good idea of course, since I was still lieing on my bed. Guess what? I dozed off.
What I could never have predicted, however, is that at 6:55 I woke up quite suddenly by myself after having a very vivid dream. This basically means that in a little more than 20 minutes I was able to enter REM sleep and then wake up; that's basically what I should only have achieved after days of sleep deprivation. Quite interesting indeed...
Was it an isolated stroke of luck? Only the next nap can tell...
Now I'll write something about the dream because I found it to be really bizarre. During the dream, I was actually aware that I was trying to achieve polyphasic sleeping; I was in a strange place with red soil (Australia?) on vacation and one morning ma mother told me we were going back in the evening. Then she went out and told me to wait for her.
After a while I got bored and went also out. I rode my bike till I saw my grandfather's red car, which I "borrowed". When I turned back I saw my grandpa on my bike who was following me. He didn't seem angry though. We arrived at a big pond, where my grandpa received a phone call from my mother, who was worried about me: she thought I was on drugs because of my recently changed habits and scarce appetite (due to polyphasic sleep). Meanwhile I was staring fascinated at the pond, because I could see a bird at the bottom who was looking at me and didn't move a bit. After a while I noticed it was actually a frog. Then I woke up.
It was a bit hard to get up after waking up, but shortly after I felt as if I had got a standard night of sleep instead of 90+20 minutes. Maybe I can skip the whole Zombiefication if I keep this up? I certainly hope so...!
Friday, August 8
Finally, a Success?
It has been about a week since my last update, after which, seeing how I was making no progress whatsoever, I decided to put the experiment on hold.
For the entire week, I'd keep sleeping through 1-3 alarms set at various nap-lenght times; but today I finally managed to accomplish something, namely to wake up after only 90 minutes of night-sleep (which is still triple the permitted amount, but oh well). The strange thing is, this happened because the alarm on my cell phone kept postponing itself every five minutes, and this went on for over one hour; but after exactly 90 minutes I easily woke up after having had a refreshing dream. Those sleeping cycles definitely exist!
Now I ate some stuff and feel quite good. My next nap is at 6 AM. Let's see if this will finally start working...
For the entire week, I'd keep sleeping through 1-3 alarms set at various nap-lenght times; but today I finally managed to accomplish something, namely to wake up after only 90 minutes of night-sleep (which is still triple the permitted amount, but oh well). The strange thing is, this happened because the alarm on my cell phone kept postponing itself every five minutes, and this went on for over one hour; but after exactly 90 minutes I easily woke up after having had a refreshing dream. Those sleeping cycles definitely exist!
Now I ate some stuff and feel quite good. My next nap is at 6 AM. Let's see if this will finally start working...
Thursday, July 31
What to do...
Apparently, the luck I had yesterday didn't last much, seeing as I found myself quite unable to take the scheduled naps...even the damn 11 PM nap which is giving me a really hard time. Well, it looks like I can't seem to relax enough to fall asleep knowing about the timer and having to continuously change the alarm settings doesn't really help. So at 2 AM I was so tired that I just turned the alarms off...and magically, I fell immediately asleep.
So what to do now? I guess I'll have to think of a way to relax enough to overcome the anxiety of my subconscious, who apparently doesn't want me to change my sleeping patterns. I'll try not taking any naps till the fatidic 11 PM one, but before that I'll have a long, hot bath. And drink some tea I guess. And eat an early, light dinner.
Will that be enough? I certainly hope so...
So what to do now? I guess I'll have to think of a way to relax enough to overcome the anxiety of my subconscious, who apparently doesn't want me to change my sleeping patterns. I'll try not taking any naps till the fatidic 11 PM one, but before that I'll have a long, hot bath. And drink some tea I guess. And eat an early, light dinner.
Will that be enough? I certainly hope so...
Wednesday, July 30
What a little luck can't do
Hi there, folks. If you notice the writing time of this post you may think I was finally successful in taking my first nightly nap; well, that's not really the case.
I had prepared everything: three alarms, and my grandmother to check on me at 11:30 PM. At 10:30 I was already in bed, sure that I would manage to get asleep in half an hour...
But then of course thing's didn't go quite as planned when I noticed I couldn't get asleep no matter how tired I were, thanks to noises coming from the TV downstairs but probably mostly out of habit. So at 11:30 I was still awake, had to change alarm settings, my grandmother came and took the alarm clock for her because she needed it next morning; so I found myself without the best one out of the three (the others are on my cellphone and my DS).
At this point I was getting so tired that I just shut my cellphone off after my DS "gave up" on its own, and tried to sleep normally. Well, I must have succeeded around late midnight, but then suddenly a stroke of luck: I woke up at four, after having a vivid dream. I took the chance and now here I am; with only little more than three hours of duration this can be considered as some sort of core sleep and therefore should not prevent me from taking my daily naps. I'll take the next one at 7 AM, hoping that this time I'll be able to follow my schedule more easily and closely. Even if I don't actually feel very tired... That's probably due to having slept for roughly 180 minutes, which equals to two complete sleep cycles in monophasic sleep.
On a side note, the dream was about me stealing a big television at school and the FBI being suddenly after me... I still managed to outwit them and get safely home though ;) I'm watching too much Prison Break lately I guess. But how could I carry the TV around while hiding it from view? Maybe I had an inventory...
I had prepared everything: three alarms, and my grandmother to check on me at 11:30 PM. At 10:30 I was already in bed, sure that I would manage to get asleep in half an hour...
But then of course thing's didn't go quite as planned when I noticed I couldn't get asleep no matter how tired I were, thanks to noises coming from the TV downstairs but probably mostly out of habit. So at 11:30 I was still awake, had to change alarm settings, my grandmother came and took the alarm clock for her because she needed it next morning; so I found myself without the best one out of the three (the others are on my cellphone and my DS).
At this point I was getting so tired that I just shut my cellphone off after my DS "gave up" on its own, and tried to sleep normally. Well, I must have succeeded around late midnight, but then suddenly a stroke of luck: I woke up at four, after having a vivid dream. I took the chance and now here I am; with only little more than three hours of duration this can be considered as some sort of core sleep and therefore should not prevent me from taking my daily naps. I'll take the next one at 7 AM, hoping that this time I'll be able to follow my schedule more easily and closely. Even if I don't actually feel very tired... That's probably due to having slept for roughly 180 minutes, which equals to two complete sleep cycles in monophasic sleep.
On a side note, the dream was about me stealing a big television at school and the FBI being suddenly after me... I still managed to outwit them and get safely home though ;) I'm watching too much Prison Break lately I guess. But how could I carry the TV around while hiding it from view? Maybe I had an inventory...
Tuesday, July 29
Resolutions
As usual, I couldn't get to sleep for my 11 PM nap and stayed awake for one more hour. This time I'm sure I had the alarm clock on and set at a half past midnight, yet when I woke up at 7 AM it was off and somehow set at 5:30 AM...that means it's obviously time to change some things.
I decided to keep 2 alarms set at the same time and a third "security" one to ring 10 minutes later. All the alarms will be out of my immediate reach...and set at their loudest. If even that won't be enough, well, then I'll think of something else, because I surely am not going to give up without even beginning the experiment.
Today I'm going to do some hours of physical activity to make it easier to fall asleep at 11 PM; I already went swimming and even caught a frog for the pond. :D
If I'm successful, I'm going to update after the nap. I sure never thought it would be that difficuilt to even begin with polyphasic sleeping!
I decided to keep 2 alarms set at the same time and a third "security" one to ring 10 minutes later. All the alarms will be out of my immediate reach...and set at their loudest. If even that won't be enough, well, then I'll think of something else, because I surely am not going to give up without even beginning the experiment.
Today I'm going to do some hours of physical activity to make it easier to fall asleep at 11 PM; I already went swimming and even caught a frog for the pond. :D
If I'm successful, I'm going to update after the nap. I sure never thought it would be that difficuilt to even begin with polyphasic sleeping!
Monday, July 28
...Again
Looks like I screwed it up again...
This night I just couldn't manage to get asleep for the 11 PM nap, so I had to wait until midnight before actually succeeding in that. The only problem was, I forgot to turn the alarm clock on... At least I think so, because I don't remember ever turning it off.
So I slept till 8 AM, and now I am as fresh as I could be, so I can forget about taking the daily naps. It seems like I'll have to try again with that 11 PM nap first, because after waking up from that getting asleep for the next naps shouldn't be a problem anymore...staying awake until them will.
This night I just couldn't manage to get asleep for the 11 PM nap, so I had to wait until midnight before actually succeeding in that. The only problem was, I forgot to turn the alarm clock on... At least I think so, because I don't remember ever turning it off.
So I slept till 8 AM, and now I am as fresh as I could be, so I can forget about taking the daily naps. It seems like I'll have to try again with that 11 PM nap first, because after waking up from that getting asleep for the next naps shouldn't be a problem anymore...staying awake until them will.
Sunday, July 27
Daily Naps
My daily naps went better than I had imagined after my little nightly oversleeping incident.
The 9 AM one went perfectly well, and after that I did not feel tired at all. At 1 PM I still didn't feel sleepy and was also hungry, so I decided to skip it completely to balance things out.
The 5 PM one went a little strangely, seeing as I was tired but could just not get to sleep, probably out of habit and because of noisy doors, inquising granparents and alarm clock settings I had to continuously change. That's why it became the 6:30 PM nap instead, after lying on my bed the whole time. When I woke up at 7 PM I really wanted to keep on sleeping, but now after getting up I feel pretty well, if only a bit drowsy.
At this point I guess I'll be forced to change my schedule to a 3-7-11 AM/PM, which also suits me better now that I think about it.
The journey of the average student through polyphasic sleep continues, stay tuned folks...
The 9 AM one went perfectly well, and after that I did not feel tired at all. At 1 PM I still didn't feel sleepy and was also hungry, so I decided to skip it completely to balance things out.
The 5 PM one went a little strangely, seeing as I was tired but could just not get to sleep, probably out of habit and because of noisy doors, inquising granparents and alarm clock settings I had to continuously change. That's why it became the 6:30 PM nap instead, after lying on my bed the whole time. When I woke up at 7 PM I really wanted to keep on sleeping, but now after getting up I feel pretty well, if only a bit drowsy.
At this point I guess I'll be forced to change my schedule to a 3-7-11 AM/PM, which also suits me better now that I think about it.
The journey of the average student through polyphasic sleep continues, stay tuned folks...
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