Day 6: Getting Back into the Flow of Things

So Day 6 didn't have the best of starts. I was working on a group project Sunday evening starting at 10 pm. We worked until 12 am at which point I retired to take a 20 minute nap. I set my alarm to 12:30 only to wake up at 2:30 in the mornin. Once again I am extremely grateful that my instances of oversleeping have only been 1.5-2.5 hours rather than the customary failed polyphasic sleep of 6-13 hours. What this represents to me is that my body may really be getting used to the polyphasic sleep cycle.

I decided to skip my core sleep cycle again which has been making me feel a little better. But in order to combat the difficulty of the 4 am - 8 am time period, I added an additional 20 minute nap at 6 in the morning. So my sleep cycle today has been midnight, 4 am, 6 am, 8 am. After my 8 am nap, I went on a half hour 3-mile run with a friend. This has been my first experiment with physical exercise since I began the experiment.

I felt really good throughout the day and stuck to a concrete nap schedule at noon then 4 pm. Things got a little more creative later in the evening. Monday night is always college newspaper night for me so I ended up taking my 8 pm nap on a couch in a lounge. Unfortunately, I wasn't as lucky for my 12 am nap. Since all the lounges were locked, I spent my nap on the floor. In order to ensure that I would wake up, I brought my alarm clock to the news room to keep by my side wherever I sleep.

I am definitely feeling quite tired at the moment. Both my mother and a friend of mine recently stressed the importance of the 3-hour core sleep cycle, and while I agree that it is extremely useful, I think I will continue to put it off until I am more assimilated with the polyphasic sleep cycle. I've started to realize just how difficult polyphasic sleep is. Sometimes you just want to go to bed after a long day, but I need to remember that I can't. And as long as I follow this sleep cycle, I will never be able to sleep extensively when I feel like it.

My friends at college have been supportive though more mocking than my friends at home. I think that since my friends from home saw the intense physical effects of those first few days (sunken eyes, glazed-over eyes, deep fatigue, etc.) they have more of an appreciation of what I'm doing whereas my college friends saw a more happy, energy-filled kid. My alertness and energy are roughly the same as when I was a monophasic sleeper except that I get more hours of the day awake. I look forward to the time where I feel more energeic and alert.