October 26, 2010

• My Dad on Facebook:

       Dude!
       When you PC is on, does that mean that iPhone is also on?

   

  Dad...you're 50-something years old. I'm pretty sure the only people who ever use the term dude with me are Ohioan teen girls. You should be stable and sage-like like wrybreadspread; your age is your asset.

  Alright, I'm totally stereotyping him, I admit (and am totally guilty). And, obviously, I'm largely kidding; he's only checking up on me. But there's something that just feels unnatural about him using that.

   

   

  Alright, DAY TWO.

  I hadn't really thought about keeping track of how this little experiment would go but I figure why not? Could be amusing. Plus, I haven't properly kept track of anything I've done for years (as you might've garnered from this "journal", seeing as I rarely give updates about what happens in my day-to-day life). I'd be interested to look back and see how things have progressed, sort of a further way to gauge the effectiveness of this new sleep pattern.

  So, last I left you, I remember mentioning that one of my nap times would be at 12. First, in part due to my depression and my acquired coping method of planning some things out as a way to stay organized, I get very disoriented and emotionally rattled when things don't go as planned. What's this got to do with sleeping? Nothing directly but it gives you an idea of my mindset when I woke up an hour and a half after my intended 20 minute nap and more than half of my class had been missed.

  Thankfully Professor Kent was understanding (that's because she's amazingly awesome and why I chose her as my adviser). However, of course, this screwed up my schedule. So, I have over slept once thus far.

  The extra hour has made falling asleep more difficult, since it's extra energy I hadn't intended. It also will off-set my body from recognizing that I'm only getting 20 minutes of sleep per interval. Apparently it thinks that I only do so by 2 hours at the moment (hence why I woke up and didn't just sleep through the rest of today); I'm not sure why. I haven't consistantly only slept for only 2 hours multiple times lately.

  Admittedly, if my sleep patterns have been anything lately, they've been sporadic and out of place. 3 or 4 days ago I had a paper to write, which wound up using the whole night. Considering that it helps to work when you're not groggy, I've been experimenting with sleeping in short intervals while you work since last semester.

  My whole "Sleep 10 minutes and then work 30, repeat" didn't work quite well when I wound up just sleeping, waking up at when I usually set my alarm - without the help of my alarm (seeing as I fell asleep without intention, you might imagine that I hadn't set an alarm for that day). While the sleep was utterly refreshing, it only gave me 5 hours to do my paper, seeing as I still had math homework that had to be done before class and comp. sci. homework due sometime that day. It all got done, but it wasn't very useful.

  With the paper I worked on 3 or 4 days ago, I tried sleeping for 5 minutes and then just working between those (I didn't really pay much attention to how long I worked between the intervals. Truth be told, I wound up at some points doing 5 minutes work, 5 minutes sleep. I cave easily). That actually worked quite well, except for one instance where I seemed to've missed the alarm and slept for 1.5 to 2 hours. Otherwise, though, I didn't fall asleep for anytime longer and the paper got done. What interested me most about it, though, was that I didn't have any of the tiredness that normally accompanies an all-nighter (varying on how much sleep I've had the week before, of course). I was totally at normal energy 'til the end of the day.

   

  While not a direct thought that I had, this attempt to bring my sleep patterns under some logical sense is part of what interested me in getting polyphasic sleep. But this also makes me wary.

  According to the article I posted last entry, the writer found that he becomes dependent on that schedule. Varying far from it winds up in him getting exhausted. I suppose what weirds me out about this is that our conventional (though misguided) way of measuring benefit from sleep is simple and very capable of being concrete - how many hours did you sleep? Measurable.

  This new sleep pattern acknowledges that REM is the useful sleep I need and that outside of REM is unnecessary. So, in other words, outside of my constructed schedule, I have no way of measuring if I've gotten the right amount of sleep. I mean, even the notion of just getting 2 hours per day runs utterly contrary to how we usually think of sleep.

   

  This is most easily demonstrated in the way the rest of my naps went. While I'm using the article I showed you guys as a guide, I've also got to be skeptical. For one, the guy is a vegan and, guessing completely wildly based on what little of how he describes his eating style, probably a more healthy eater than me. This could make a difference. The most clear way is when he mentions caffeine.

  I forget if I've mentioned it here, but I have a quite consistent addiction to sugar. To prop up my sporadic sleep schedule (or lack thereof), it comes in handy. If I crash, just take some more. Naturally, I'm not opposed to using caffeine the same way, if needed (though I don't think I have an addiction to it). And, really, it's kinda hard to avoid on a college campus.

  So, while not a part of his diet, they're quite a consistent part of mine. He tried playing with using caffeine to stay awake, possibly to skip one of the 20 minute interval naps completely, and it didn't work.

  But would it work for me? Better yet, will getting into the cycle be more difficult if I'm drinking soda right before I try to take a nap? I only had some during dinner, so it wasn't really a problem today, but they're things to keep in mind.

  The other difference I want to highlight is that he said he felt like a zombie for the first few days because the body isn't used to jumping right into REM sleep, meaning that the 20 minute naps were pretty much useless sleep. So, ironically enough, sleep deprivation ensued.

  Me, on the other hand - well, I'm quite well acquainted with sleep deprivation (as we probably have learned quite well in these two most recent posts alone). Despite my 1.5 hour nap today, I've been pretty fine throughout the day. Towards the end I could feel being tired, but nothing at all like the haziness that follows, say, only getting 2-3 hours of sleep the night before. It was kinda like the grogginess was there in the background but you could easily push it aside.

  However, this is further confusing since I haven't had much REM sleep today (er, yesterday; you know). In fact, as the day wore on, the more I got less REM sleep from my naps. So it's not like they've been sustaining me. Of course, my naps have been wherever I can take them (namely the science buildings and the student center). I always feel like I'm doing something I shouldn't by sleeping in public places, so I rarely can fall asleep easily. And, of course, I'm often on whatever sofa/chair I can find, so it's not exactly comfy.

  That said, my latest nap sticks out the most. The previous hours of the day had followed like I described. Being 3 in the morning, I decided to head back to my dorm before going back to the science buildings to finish my lab. I figured sleep in my own bed would help me along and get me the sleep I'm trying to achieve.

  Instead, it felt like I couldn't get any sleep at all. I kinda laid there and rested, but obviously no REM came from that. Since I felt groggy as a result, I figured I'd stay in bed for 20 more minutes in hope of getting any sleep. I kinda don't recall everything, so I might've fallen asleep. Seeing how it played out, I'm not sure if I want to call it over-sleeping.

  However, more than anything, such (unproductive) sleep made me groggier than all of today possibly did. I normally just got up after each nap, feeling like I didn't exactly gain all I could (like I said, most of my naps are still not REM sleep), but feeling that background grogginess that basically meant I still had more energy than I normally would for the amount of sleep I've been getting.

  Walking back to the science quad has shook off much of the grogginess, but I'm still more tired. So, I'm wondering if I'm reaching the part where the writer of the article I posted felt like a zombie. But, again, it's hard to gauge given the differences between our circumstances.

   

  I guess the last thing I want to say is how useful this could be, if I can properly shift myself to this sleep schedule. While I'd prefer all of the other benefits that supposedly go with this sleep schedule (more vivid dreams, more energy and alertness), it seems I'm able to sustain myself better this way already. Considering I'm only getting 2 hours of sleep per day, groggy but more energy than a concentrated 2 hours of sleep is not a bad trade-off. Again, it presents sleep in a way that I can't possibly do anything with. I wouldn't even begin to know how to stray from the schedule while maintaining the energy conserved. But such is the elusiveness of REM.

  Regardless, the time gained should be great. I mean, 22 hour days? It's like the perfect solution. I'd've made it up if I hadn't found it to be true. It's basically the eradication of sleep from your day - and, yet, utterly not so since what you're really doing is utilizing sleep to its utmost potential and, therefore, requiring less of it.

  For example, I probably would've never gotten this lab done today - I'm almost finished, but, thanks to my new freed time, I have completely until 1 today to get it done, minus 40 minutes (2 naps). I could get more homework done. I could free up time to finally write back to my friends, seeing as I've pretty much had no time to do so. Hell, I could manage my clubs better.

  And, more than anything, I can witness the glory that is night and (even) early morning. I can get breakfast everyday. I mean, for anyone who's an early riser, this seems ridiculous. But, seeing as I had trouble capping my sleep at even 12 hours, to suddenly take TEN of those hours back? This is phenomenal.

  I'm seriously hoping my body will be able to adapt efficiently to the schedule.

  • 5:49 am
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