October 25, 2010

  • It's no surprise to anyone who knows me that sleep is not exactly my friend. When I get it, it's generally in 12 to 14 hour intervals (regardless of whether I want to be asleep that long) or not at all (I'd never know the morning hours otherwise).

    So, in my decision to pull an all-nighter for absolutely no reason (it just felt right...?), several The Arc songs (yes, play me your melodic symphonies!) and more work on my short story later, I decide to look up more on polyphasic sleeping since a friend had mentioned it to me yesterday.

    You can see this article here: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/03/polyphasic-sleep-one-year-later/. Don't worry, it's a summation of the experience a year after - because, as a product of the generation that grew up with Google, reading anything (outside of free time) that doesn't simply summarize the answer and information just isn't worth my time. Seriously, summarize, people. It makes life so much easier for the rest of us.

    Anyway, the basic idea is this. The polyphasic sleep cycle that the writer of the "article" above used was a simple 20 minute nap routine. Simply do this every 4 hour interval throughout a day. This, in total, equals 2 hours per day.

    Why might I do this, you might ask.

    Because I ceased thinking about the consequences of anything during Senior year, that's why. Though, on a (remotely) more serious level, there are too many hours of the day I put to waste. Personally, I hate to sleep any of it away. Except maybe the afternoon, but of course that's when everyone's active so I have to do that, now don't I?

    So, reducing my sleep to only 2 hours per day sounds splendid. The benefits sound pretty nice as well. Personally, the only benefit I need is long-term sustainability.

    Considering that I pulled an all-nighter, I figure I'm in the perfect state to activate REM sleep quickly (not to mention just fall asleep quickly on the fly). The transition should, thus, be more smooth, thus enabling me to test whether this method is suitable for longer periods of time.

    My first nap was at 7:30 this morning. My next will start roughly at 12 (I get out of class at 11:50).

    Wish me luck.