After working on my school's paper Sunday evening, I retired to my room for my midnight nap. Exhausted from the previous evening's drinking and the minimal recovery from it, I set my alarm clock and went to bed. Waking up 20 minutes later, I was still exhausted ... and angry. I had been doing this experiment for 13 days, slept 36 hours in last 312 (including mistakes and initial 3-hour core sleep cycles). Yet when I woke up at 12:20, I didn't feel a lick better than I had before I went to bed.
I was sick of the minimal improvements over two weeks with just one day left before assimilation is supposedly complete. It's 11:50 now and just a few more minutes until Day 14 begins, and I can honestly say that my assimilation period is not done. Or ... possibly, it was done ages ago, and general fatigue never really ends. I don't know. Admittedly, I have overslept but only occasionally and not by much. Not until last night that is.
After waking up at 12:20, tired and angry (somewhat like babies who are naturally polyphasic sleepers), I set my alarm clock to 7 am deciding to reevaluate the experiment the next morning. Well, if there's anything really great about polyphasic sleep, it's stopping. Those seven hours were phenomenal.
I started my day deciding to stop the experiment, not because I had overslept, on the contrary, my decision to oversleep was based on an earlier decision to quit. After this weekend, I realized how extremely difficult polyphasic sleep is in a monophasic world. Leaving my friends during the weekend even if only for 20 minutes is irritating. Trying to go see a movie has to be a planned event around me. Group projects, school meetings, extra-curricular activities, none of them fit with a polyphasic sleep. Furthermore, the extra productivity that I have so desired has evaded me. Perhaps this is because I delay doing work under the assumption that I have so much later in the evening, or perhaps it is because when I do work for long periods of time, I tend to lose my eyesight, either way my goals are not being accomplished.
But over the course of the day, witnessing both my own and other's disappointments that I was stopping, I reread some old blogs and found some new ones. As I read through the blogs, I felt the same excitement that I had when initially turned on to polyphasic sleep. Thus, I am happy to announce that, for now, I will be continuing my experiment.
In order to improve the efficiency of the cycle as well as my personal disposition, I will be altering my cycle. I will continue naps at 12 pm, 4 pm, 8 pm, and 12 am, but I will be re-incorporating a permanent core sleep cycle from 2-5 or 3-6 depending on how late I am awake naturally. Furthermore, every week I will turn my alarm clock off Saturday evening and sleep as long as my body requires into Sunday afternoon. These days, referred to as "reboot days" by other bloggers will allow my body to catch up on any of the other sleep stages if it so desires. While dangerous for the beginning of a polyphasic sleep cycle, I believe that reboot days are a legitimate and safe practice for the length of time that I've been polyphasic sleeping.
Thanks you everyone for your support, and I look forward to future posts.
I was sick of the minimal improvements over two weeks with just one day left before assimilation is supposedly complete. It's 11:50 now and just a few more minutes until Day 14 begins, and I can honestly say that my assimilation period is not done. Or ... possibly, it was done ages ago, and general fatigue never really ends. I don't know. Admittedly, I have overslept but only occasionally and not by much. Not until last night that is.
After waking up at 12:20, tired and angry (somewhat like babies who are naturally polyphasic sleepers), I set my alarm clock to 7 am deciding to reevaluate the experiment the next morning. Well, if there's anything really great about polyphasic sleep, it's stopping. Those seven hours were phenomenal.
I started my day deciding to stop the experiment, not because I had overslept, on the contrary, my decision to oversleep was based on an earlier decision to quit. After this weekend, I realized how extremely difficult polyphasic sleep is in a monophasic world. Leaving my friends during the weekend even if only for 20 minutes is irritating. Trying to go see a movie has to be a planned event around me. Group projects, school meetings, extra-curricular activities, none of them fit with a polyphasic sleep. Furthermore, the extra productivity that I have so desired has evaded me. Perhaps this is because I delay doing work under the assumption that I have so much later in the evening, or perhaps it is because when I do work for long periods of time, I tend to lose my eyesight, either way my goals are not being accomplished.
But over the course of the day, witnessing both my own and other's disappointments that I was stopping, I reread some old blogs and found some new ones. As I read through the blogs, I felt the same excitement that I had when initially turned on to polyphasic sleep. Thus, I am happy to announce that, for now, I will be continuing my experiment.
In order to improve the efficiency of the cycle as well as my personal disposition, I will be altering my cycle. I will continue naps at 12 pm, 4 pm, 8 pm, and 12 am, but I will be re-incorporating a permanent core sleep cycle from 2-5 or 3-6 depending on how late I am awake naturally. Furthermore, every week I will turn my alarm clock off Saturday evening and sleep as long as my body requires into Sunday afternoon. These days, referred to as "reboot days" by other bloggers will allow my body to catch up on any of the other sleep stages if it so desires. While dangerous for the beginning of a polyphasic sleep cycle, I believe that reboot days are a legitimate and safe practice for the length of time that I've been polyphasic sleeping.
Thanks you everyone for your support, and I look forward to future posts.
