Polyphasic Sleep Experiment:  Day 3

I wanted to quickly start a post before my 11AM nap. Today (in particular, between my 3AM and 7AM naps) was horribly difficult. This is the kind of sleep deprivation I thought I was going to be experiencing in the first place. I’m not sure why it took almost two full days to kick in but, it’s definitely here now. I was playing a video game, trying to keep my mind off of how tired I was, but I kept closing my eyes and starting to nod off for a bit. I wasn’t actually sleeping – but it was more like when you’re in a boring class and you fall asleep and hang your head and the momentum of your head dropping wakes you up immediately. I found that I would be running around shooting stuff in the game, really barely even concentrating on it due to my fatigue, and then all of a sudden my eyes would close for about 3-4 seconds and I would open them again to see my character running aimlessly into a wall or being killed by enemies. Needless to say, I was really tired.



I have considered from the start the possibility of adding extra naps in to the hard waking hours of this new schedule to make things easier, and that’s what I had to do during my 3am-7am waking hours today. I added an extra nap in at 5am, which was completely necessary as I was worried I would fall asleep in my computer desk chair if I didn’t. The way I see it, as long as I keep the naps at least an hour (preferably two) apart from each other and do not sleep for more than 30 minutes, my body should still adapt to the new schedule, no matter how many naps I take, because it still needs to learn to go right into REM sleep for those 30 minutes. I, however, don’t want to go overboard, because if I get my body used to taking 10 naps a day instead of just 6, then I’m going to have to wean myself off of those extra naps, because they’ll be taking up extra time in the day that I don’t want to waste. So, I’ll try and keep my extra naps at a minimum (one extra nap a day, possibly two if it’s really bad) so that the transition from 7 naps a day to 6 naps a day won’t be too difficult once I get more stable with the new schedule. I see myself taking this extra nap for a while, though, just because it was so hard to stay awake this morning, and I don’t think it’s going to get any easier for at least a couple of days. I’ve just got to stay focused on my goal, though, and not let anything deter me from successfully setting up a polyphasic sleeping schedule.



There was, however, a problem when I took my 7AM nap. I was extremely tired at this time, and pretty much just wishing I could sleep forever. I set the alarm for 7:30 AM, and then, I swear to you, I have no idea what happened. I remember waking up 5 minutes before the alarm went off and thinking “SHIT I OVERSLEPT!” but then realizing I had 5 minutes left and laying back down…and then I truthfully do NOT remember what happened, but somehow my alarm that was set for 7:30 went off, I must have turned it off in a practically drunken sleep deprivation stupor, and then for some reason, instead of staying asleep for the rest of the day and completely destroying my chances at the schedule like I figured would happen if this occurred…I only stayed in bed until about 8:15 or so…I think. Like I said, I don’t remember much of this, I just remember waking up and being very worried about the fact that I overslept with my nap, and hoping I hadn’t ruined anything that would be difficult to repair. I hazard a guess that I probably slept an hour or so, instead of a half an hour (considering the time I was just laying in bed and not sleeping). I still feel tired, so I assume that the extended nap was not enough to damage the schedule noticeably. I am considering finally implementing my headphone/polyphasic mp3 idea so that it’s not something I can so easily shut off…and then maybe have a backup alarm, as well, to make sure I get up on time.



Well, I’m going to go take my 11AM nap, now. I’ll wait to publish this post until after I am done with that nap so I can mention anything interesting that might happen.



The 11AM nap was good – much easier to wake up from than that horrible 7AM nap. I feel very awake right now, but I think it has to do with my mother just getting angry with me, most likely causing me to produce adrenaline. I should mention here that, I am impressed that mood swings have not been occurring during the experiment. I considered that as a possibility when I first started but, it doesn’t seem to be a problem, and I feel like my personality hasn’t changed at all save for me becoming more tired in general, and maybe less outgoing due to that fatigue.



I have been experiencing some more appetite jumps. For instance, before my 11AM nap, my appetite spiked and I was very hungry. However, I chose to go to sleep instead of postponing the nap and eating, and then after the nap I was not that hungry. This would happen sometimes even when I was on a monophasic sleep schedule, but it seems more often or more powerful now that I’m polyphasic.



A post or two ago, I was going to mention that my arms were feeling somewhat sore, but I decided against it since I figured it was due to exercise. The only weird thing is, it took over a day for them to start feeling sore….it just felt weird and out of place. I talked with someone about the stages of sleep that I will be avoiding with this new schedule after this, and she claims that certain stages of sleep, other than REM, are involved in building muscle tissue – and she said that I might start feeling sore in certain muscle areas if I continue. Maybe my arm muscle soreness is a result of this? Again, if I start to experience any health problems or concerns that really bother me, I will certainly terminate the experiment. As of right now though, nothing too bad is happening, and the experiment seems to be going alright save for the mess-up I experienced during my 7AM nap this morning. Will keep you posted.