October 27, 2010

  • Alright, next update on my recent sleep escapades (with all the hours I'm saving, I can actually say that remotely seriously :{P ).

    In my last update, I had overslept one of my naps. Following that, I got back onto the schedule alright. I ended up off-setting the sleep schedule by half an hour or so to celebrate Emily's birthday, but nothing ridiculous. If my body does adapt to this schedule, I'll have roughly an hour wiggle room so I should probably get used to not always falling asleep directly on time.

    Having to take my nap at 11:30, now most of Williams Catholic is certain that I'm crazy (though I appreciate their loving concern). Granted, as my first somewhat sarcastic post might've revealed, I'm not certain myself this will work.

    But, like I said, I've developed a habit since Senior year of high school of just trying things, so long as there's a remote possibility of success, and worrying about the consequences once they occur (I'm pretty sure that's a regression in terms of decision-making but since I've noticed this trend in me I've always wondered if I even did grow out of the phase of learning only from the consequences of your actions *shrug*).

    So, maybe this whole thing is crazy and unhealthy and won't work. All things considered, it's only the latter that's really regrettable. I don't think I've monitored what enters my body...well, ever and, as I said before, I'm quite content in my sugar addiction. Sleep deprivation is nothing new to me, so no real new points there. Plus I've always been more goal oriented than long-term oriented ("Who cares if I'm utterly exhausted?? I finished, didn't I?"). So, from that perspective - you only live once, right? Such sound advice is what I tell myself too.

     

    Anyway, these are all side tidbits. My sleeping was doing well. Between the 8 and 12 hour nap I was downright exhausted. And here's where things got derailed. Like before, I overslept (and, again, like before, my body woke me up in almost exactly 2 hours). This also had the added bonus of having me sleep through lab (though I technically made the 2:30 one, apparently Duane has stopped teaching the lab again from that time period so I just read over the procedure and headed back to my dorm).

    I'm not so worried about that this time in part because I've (unwisely) managed the past three weekends doing absolutely no work (other than last minute scrambling, there was actually very little difference than a normal weekend of work - that still disturbs me) and, with my new sleep schedule, I'll be able to have plenty of time to just focus on my coding before going to a TA for help.

    The extra 9-10 hours I've gained from switching to this schedule has made the past 2 days remotely possible. There was no way I'd finish my two labs if I was on a monophasic sleep schedule. I'd like to think that such an expansive amount of time will allow for me to not be capable of possibly procrastinating that long (thus allowing me to do my work), but I know my body's love to adapt when it comes to procrastination.

     

    Anyway, back to the actual details of this sleep. So, for my 12 P. M. nap, I overslept. This is problematic because my oversleeping so far seems to happen at my most tired states - states that should be utterly ripe for my body to immediately jump to REM. Constantly sleeping past these is probably stopping my body from making the proper adjustment.

    On the other hand, I've been playing with the idea of, if this sleep schedule doesn't work, switching to sleep schedule focused around 2 hour sleep periods (since my body seems really invested in that time frame these days). I won't gain back nearly as many hours, I think (I haven't planned any actual schedule out yet so this is guess-work), but it might be an idea to play with. I mean, considering I seriously have a problem with getting sane numbers of sleep, this might be a wiser decision since any reduction in sleeping hours would be better than none. It would allow for enough time, in theory, for my body to switch into the REM sleep I need since my big problem with the 20 minute naps (thus far) is that I'm just not getting REM (or even falling asleep in time for my alarm).

     

    In any case, that's where I'm at right now. I'm going to hunker down and try to keep better to my sleep schedule. That part that irritates me is that that crucial moment probably won't come again until roughly four naps in (so, for my upcoming 6 A. M. nap). I can be impatient and I hate waiting. This is part of why I plan schedules that try to optimize my time all the time (and then get utterly frustrated when they inevitably go wrong due to random unforeseen events throughout the day). These two set-backs are irritating. Granted my next midterm isn't until 2 weeks, so I have time, but still.

    The other area I'm wondering about is how to handle my usual methods of staying up or getting energy. I've managed to cut caffeine out nearly entirely during these past 3 days. Sugar I've been less monitoring about, though I haven't actually sought out sugar as a means to stay awake. In the "article" (I know it's not, it's a blog post, but I didn't actually pay enough attention to the site when I first went to it to notice whether it was a blog or not, and I'm more concerned with you all understanding what I mean that what it's called, in the grand scheme of things, seeing as this really is just a personal (and, therefore, informal) journal rather than any sort of formal publication) I showed you all on the first post, the author says he avoided eating before naps since the (possible) digestion made it harder to sleep. I've been doing that. But I don't know what to do about those other habits that keep me up. I mean, I have to make it to each of my assigned naps and not fall asleep before that but, on the other hand, this process works by jumping to REM from exhaustion, so I don't want to assuage my sleepiness before a nap.

    In any case, I thinks that's all the updates I have. This will be...a long weekend. Work (school and workstudy), yet Halloween...balanced between polyphasic sleeping. Heh, I remember coining a phrase that seems to fit these past days quite well: "Why be normal when you can be ridiculous " I won't be able to say my life boring come my end, I can say that at least.