Enough is enough, polyphasic sleeping is just not worth it, for me at least. Final decision came for me this morning. Admittedly this was the day following the previous days oversleeping screw up, but the everman schedule is supposed to be more forgiving. I went to sleep for my core at 4 last night and set the alarm for 8. Thought I’d give myself a nice phat core as I’d missed the morning nap and had such a big one the night before. I woke up exhausted and sat on the sofa, nodding off and waking up. This felt like it went on for about an hour, before I managed to focus on the clock and realised that it was only 6 am. Back under the covers again then. Eventually, I woke up properly on the alarm and got up. Felt pretty tired, but thought no probs, but be fine once I get the nicotine levels back up. So, begin the usual start to the day, by skinning one up. I do this on auto pilot now, as you can imagine. Put a filter in the corner of the gob (mine in the absence of another suitably available one), pull out a paper, line it with tobacco, transfer filter from gob to paper and roll. This morning, it didn’t work. At 8:02, sitting on the sofa, I put the filter in my gob, pulled out the paper and added the tobacco. At 8:04, I woke up and picked the tobacco back off the floor and put it back in the paper. At 8:48, woke up and picked the tobacco again. This time I completed the procedure and got to smoke the roll up. I pretty much recovered after that, but the bottom line is that I just don’t think it’s working out well for me, so can’t be arsed to do it anymore. Anything that interferes with the morning drag, has got to go.
So, can I take any positives from this, well the answer is yes. The only problem I’ve ever really had, was the need for a snooze in the afternoon. It’s always been a struggle to make it all the way through the day. I’m not sure why this should be the case. When I force myself through it, I’m fine for the evening and can stay awake till late, no probs, it’s just an afternoon thing. At least this experience has taught me how to nap properly. I can now drop off in sub 2 minutes, which open a whole new world of toilet cubicle naps and solves the wobbly afternoon head in the office syndrome. Job’s a good un, as they say, whoever the heck they are! Reality is, I can get by on 6 hours fine anyway and the only time I’ve ever stayed asleep/in bed for the full 8 hours in years, is whilst trying this polyphasic malarkey. I do still believe that it can be done, as I actually had some good spells on the uberman and may even have given up on that a little early, for me, it just wasn’t worth the pain. After having a few nights all to myself on the trot, I’m not all that sure I want them! I have to admit, I could see the novelty wearing off very quickly and boredom quickly becoming a factor.
So, what about this blog. Well, my last blog got fairly popular, but also became a drain, so I’m not going to do the same thing again. The problem was that people expect a daily entry and I really don’t like to be depended on, not by the masse anyway. Having said that, life generally presents you with much to write about. So, I’ll keep it muddling along, just not necessarily ever day.
Film review – atonement. In a word, good. It’s a period drama and with the unlikely exception of Pride and Prejudice (yes, I was surprised I liked that too!), I generally don’t like them. This film had a great plot, was well acted and generally got on with it well. Apart for some daft arty farty bollox for a while in the middle, it was a great film. There was a little too much of Ms Knightly in skimpy and wet attire, suddenly bring you to mind of the recent restaurant trend to abandon stocking tooth picks, but you have to give it to the girl, she does gives classic good english face. Is it worth going to the cinema for? Yes, probably. It’s slick and at several time throughout the film, I sat and thought, “I really don’t know what the plot is going to do next”, which was a refreshing change. Right down to the end, I really didn’t expect that either. So even if you don’t go out to watch it, well worth adding to the DVD list.
Global warming, I want my money back! Alright, I didn’t actually hand any money over, so can’t really expect to get any back, but I really did buy into it. I have been waiting (with very nearly baited breath) for several years now, for the changes to kick in. I was going to ceremonially burn the winter coats, have a nice potted palm tree on the balcony and start going to wales for my holidays again, with the expectation of getting several rain free days. Generally speaking, I was looking forward to global warming, making things generally, warmer. What has global warming actually meant to us? Floods, storms and a liberal plethora of worldwide disasters. That’s no good to me. Come on scientists, stop buggering about and make global warming, make things warm, or there’s just no point in having it, is there. Seems pretty obvious to me! Oh, hang on a minute, that’s the point isn’t it, it’s not actually meant to be a good thing. Bugger. Oh well, was a nice idea. Maybe it’s time we actually abandoned it and cut down on the whole pollution thing. Stop the whole global warming thing altogether, frankly, it’s just not working out the way we hoped...
Political comment of the day – Hain, you’re busted, bugger off. Seriously, if anybody would like to make any anonymous donations to my election funds, I not only promise not to declare them, but as a bonus, I promise not to stand for election either. Now that’s got to be a good deal. You have to wonder really. This government seem to have loaded the gun and I’m now wondering which part of their anatomy they’re going to point it at next! Really, if you wrote a sitcom and included this stuff, people would think it too farfetched and turn off. British politics at it’s most entertaining, second only to the Americans. (BTW – do I get an award for bashing our transatlantic cousins yet?)
So, I think a trip to the Tap for a couple tonight, to celebrate my return to normality might be in order. Anybody care to join me? Won't be a big one, prolly talking 7 - 9, so no more than a gallong or so of beer :-)
Now for the geeky bit, the coding. I’m really ashamed to admit this and am definitely putting it down to the lack of sleep, but I’ve been coding like a prat, or maybe worse, an American! I’m not talking about syntax here or even a particularly bad domain or object model. No, it’s much worse than that. I’ve been working on a little (well, not actually that little) app, to make job searching more productive and of course, being bone idle, easier. It started off well enough, with a decent datamodel, to under pin it, then a high level architecture, then it went horribly wrong. Instead of starting to write tests and begin getting the data in and making sense of it, I started work on the gui and writing pretty/fun user controls. Or rather playing around with pretty and fun stuff and actually producing very little. Ok, it’s not all bad, I now know a lot more about attributes and how they work with the properties window. I also know a lot more about SharpDevelop (look at the alpha for version 3, I’m now switching from VS at home, nuff said). However, my project has not developed a single jot. OK, I’m back on track now and am actually starting to pull jobsearch data off tut tinterweb and process it, but I should have been here a week ago. This is a classic example of how to bin a complete week, just geeking out and totally losing track of what I was trying to achieve in the first place. This is a pretty damned fine example of why having a more hours available, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get a lot done!
Laters...
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Over slept and a film review
Day something or other, I forget when I started this sleeping malarkey now, but it’s gotta be getting on for about a week. So far I’ve given up on the pain that is the uberman schedule and swapped to an everyman. The latter is going well, so well in fact that the SO and I decided to have a nice glass of wine with our pheasant for tea (dinner to you up yourself southern types). I didn’t have a lot to drink, maybe 3 glasses of Merlot, had a nap at midnight and finally settled down for my core sleep at 4:30, feeling fine. Woke up at 8:20 as planned, turned off the alarm, rolled over to get up and discovered it was 11 am! Somehow between switching the alarm off and turning around to get out of bed, I managed to fall back to sleep. Not good. In between that and my finally getting up, the postman rang the doorbell several times and the SO got up to answer it, with me sleeping through the lot! I’m a little surprised by this as generally I was feeling good. The core sleep felt like a proper nights sleep and the few short naps were generally keeping me pretty sharp during the day. I thought I’d cracked it. Hey ho, will set the alarm tonight and keep going. Even if I don’t gain much time, the increasing alertness is a defo bonus J
Film review – Ps I love you (no not you, it’s the rirle of the film). It starred Hillary Swank (fro million dollar baby) and some other actor types, including the blond air head from friends. The SO and I settled down to watch this expecting a bit of a rib tickler and simply put, it wasn’t. What it was though, was a good film, much to my surprise. The humour was intelligent(ish) and well thought out(ish), not a bad effort from the Americans. Sorry transatlantic cousins, you still think slap-stick is funny, you have a long way to go on the humour front! Anyway, this birds bloke snuffs it and writes her letters, post mortem. Well, actually he wrote them before he died and arranged for them to be sent at regular intervals. Generally it worked well. A bit muchy in parts, but not enough to retrieve your breakfast, so all is well.
Off to the market now to buy batteries for the sex toys. Need to keep those in good working order, to stop the SO from pestering me too much. Not that I mind the odd bit of squechly of course, but too much of a good thing and all that...
Later, shock horror, I’m going to go to the gym. It’s another thing I’ve been threatening to do for ages and it’s high time I carried out that threat. I’s a gonna git back in shape. Maybe not the full 6 pack, but at least not the full firkin any more. The way I figure it, I’m no midget now and if I hit the weights for a few months and montsa up, nobody will notice a remaining small barrel, when it’s got the full side of beef resting on it J
Laters...
Film review – Ps I love you (no not you, it’s the rirle of the film). It starred Hillary Swank (fro million dollar baby) and some other actor types, including the blond air head from friends. The SO and I settled down to watch this expecting a bit of a rib tickler and simply put, it wasn’t. What it was though, was a good film, much to my surprise. The humour was intelligent(ish) and well thought out(ish), not a bad effort from the Americans. Sorry transatlantic cousins, you still think slap-stick is funny, you have a long way to go on the humour front! Anyway, this birds bloke snuffs it and writes her letters, post mortem. Well, actually he wrote them before he died and arranged for them to be sent at regular intervals. Generally it worked well. A bit muchy in parts, but not enough to retrieve your breakfast, so all is well.
Off to the market now to buy batteries for the sex toys. Need to keep those in good working order, to stop the SO from pestering me too much. Not that I mind the odd bit of squechly of course, but too much of a good thing and all that...
Later, shock horror, I’m going to go to the gym. It’s another thing I’ve been threatening to do for ages and it’s high time I carried out that threat. I’s a gonna git back in shape. Maybe not the full 6 pack, but at least not the full firkin any more. The way I figure it, I’m no midget now and if I hit the weights for a few months and montsa up, nobody will notice a remaining small barrel, when it’s got the full side of beef resting on it J
Laters...
Monday, 14 January 2008
In the dreaded 7 - 11 slot
Wow, 9 o’clock in the morning and in the words of Frankenstein, “It’s alive!”. The everyman schedule (otherwise referred to as the weakling schedule), actually seems to be suiting me. It’s still relatively early days and I need to see more benefits, but it’s all looking positive. As it stands I’ll be on 5 and a half hours sleep a day, so the proof of the pudding will not be in the actual eating of it, but rather in the being alert enough to make the darned thing, at any point in time during the day. I need to trim the core down to 3 hours a night and I’ll do this in 10 minute intervals over a couple of weeks(ish). That would have me up at 7, so into an office (assuming I get back to work anytime soon) comfortably for 9. In an ideal world, I further trim that down to a 2 hour core, but I won’t worry if that doesn’t happen as the best part of 20 useful hours a day, would be good enough for me.
Have I adapted? Prolly still too early to say, but I’d be surprised if that’s not the case now. I seem to be happily alert for 4 to 5 hours at a time, then I need a 20 – 30 minute nap. Post nap, my wake up time is short, less than 10 minutes and I’m away. Even the core this morning, I was mentally switched back in 10 minutes, rather than the hour I take on 8 hours. All in all feeling very positive so far!
So, what I am doing with the extra time, well, so far, not enough! I made a rather nice chocolate Roulade with am Ameretto and Kalhua butter crème filling last night. Which although tasting pretty darning good, possibly hasn’t helped the diet all that much! Going to knuckle down today and try and be more productive, I’ll let you know how that one goes later today.
As part of the beginning of the fitness campaign, the SO and I walking down to Broadway market on Saturday. Generally speaking, it’s a bit up itself, but there is some decent gear there. It has a proper butchers shop in the middle of it, which had decent meat and wasn’t too expensive. But the high point for me, was what we’re having for tea tonight. A brace of pheasants, yum. Haven’t had pheasant for years. The SO has never had it before, so she’s in for a treat J
On a side note, as part of the ongoing battle to eat regularly healthily, I took to eating Fruit and Fibre for breakfast. On the whole, I like it, but there is one thing that drives me crazy. Those titanium chips, masquerading banana. Why do they put that stuff in? Ok, I’m not saying they taste bad, as such, but. I’m happily munching along on the general nuts fruit and tolerably boring bits, when all of a sudden, you hit one of the so called banana chips and they attempt do exactly that, chip, usually a lump off your teeth. Do they really need to include them, as consumers can we start up a campaign against them. I think those of us who are still the proud owners of our own filling should rise up against the manufacturers of this and force them to eat their own bananas, they’d soon see sense then!
OK, enough blogging. I’ve had my breakfast, so I’ll make one more cup of tea and settle down with a compiler and really test my awakeness, by writing some code!
Have I adapted? Prolly still too early to say, but I’d be surprised if that’s not the case now. I seem to be happily alert for 4 to 5 hours at a time, then I need a 20 – 30 minute nap. Post nap, my wake up time is short, less than 10 minutes and I’m away. Even the core this morning, I was mentally switched back in 10 minutes, rather than the hour I take on 8 hours. All in all feeling very positive so far!
So, what I am doing with the extra time, well, so far, not enough! I made a rather nice chocolate Roulade with am Ameretto and Kalhua butter crème filling last night. Which although tasting pretty darning good, possibly hasn’t helped the diet all that much! Going to knuckle down today and try and be more productive, I’ll let you know how that one goes later today.
As part of the beginning of the fitness campaign, the SO and I walking down to Broadway market on Saturday. Generally speaking, it’s a bit up itself, but there is some decent gear there. It has a proper butchers shop in the middle of it, which had decent meat and wasn’t too expensive. But the high point for me, was what we’re having for tea tonight. A brace of pheasants, yum. Haven’t had pheasant for years. The SO has never had it before, so she’s in for a treat J
On a side note, as part of the ongoing battle to eat regularly healthily, I took to eating Fruit and Fibre for breakfast. On the whole, I like it, but there is one thing that drives me crazy. Those titanium chips, masquerading banana. Why do they put that stuff in? Ok, I’m not saying they taste bad, as such, but. I’m happily munching along on the general nuts fruit and tolerably boring bits, when all of a sudden, you hit one of the so called banana chips and they attempt do exactly that, chip, usually a lump off your teeth. Do they really need to include them, as consumers can we start up a campaign against them. I think those of us who are still the proud owners of our own filling should rise up against the manufacturers of this and force them to eat their own bananas, they’d soon see sense then!
OK, enough blogging. I’ve had my breakfast, so I’ll make one more cup of tea and settle down with a compiler and really test my awakeness, by writing some code!
Sunday, 13 January 2008
On the up
I’m not exactly sticking to this everyman schedule religiously, but then again, you don’t have to, apparently. Whatever, it seems to be working out quite well so far. The mornings are still a bit groggy, but it’s a lot better. I sort of decided I was only going to nap when I felt I needed to, but I seem to need to have one at the right times anyway.
Went out to the shops today and didn’t consider the time, which meant I was late back, past the nap time, and I really needed it. I guess that means this schedule seems to be suiting me well. I’m going to try a 4 hour core tonight, 4 – 8 and see how the morning feels on that. Need to get to a schedule that is comfortable and I sharp all day, then I can start trimming the core sleep down. I should be able to get down to a 2 hour core and 3 20 minute naps. This will give me plenty of time back and regular naps through the day to stop me being drowsy. Seems to be working well so far, once I get past the perennial 7 – 11 morning issues.
So, going to start winding down to my core sleep now.
Nighty night...
Went out to the shops today and didn’t consider the time, which meant I was late back, past the nap time, and I really needed it. I guess that means this schedule seems to be suiting me well. I’m going to try a 4 hour core tonight, 4 – 8 and see how the morning feels on that. Need to get to a schedule that is comfortable and I sharp all day, then I can start trimming the core sleep down. I should be able to get down to a 2 hour core and 3 20 minute naps. This will give me plenty of time back and regular naps through the day to stop me being drowsy. Seems to be working well so far, once I get past the perennial 7 – 11 morning issues.
So, going to start winding down to my core sleep now.
Nighty night...
Rock and a hard place
Or maybe the devil and the deep blue sea, not sure which, but I’m certainly stuck somewhere. Couldn’t continue with the full one Uberman schedule. I just simply wasn’t adapting at all, it was just turning me into a Zombie. The 3 – 7am period was a case of the wheel was no longer turning, as the hamster was dead and the 7 – 11 am period was one of the lights were on but nobody was home. The rest of the day varied from very dim witted to full on space cowboy, after doing far to many drugs. So I decided to cave and introduced a core last night, in the 3 – 7 slot, it was actually the 4 – 8 slot as I was late helping the SO with some stuff.
So, how is it going? Answer, not well, but better than it has been. I had a 4 hour period yesterday between 7 and 11 am where I didn’t actually sleep, but the difference between the 2 states was that sleeping involves lying down with your eyes closed and that was sitting up with eyes open, but that was the only difference! Having said that, the reast of the day, after the 11 am nap was good! So, I deduced from this that I probably need to include a core sleep. Last night I did exactly that. How do I feel today, after that? Answer, not brilliant! Woke up at 8 felling shattered, couldn’t wake up properly at all, so after 30 minutes of that, thought sod this and lay back down. I was happy to give up at that point, but despite being knackered, couldn’t sleep.
So, it looks like I can’t polyphasically sleep and can’t get back to monophasic sleeping either! Great, this one’s going really well! I think I have no choice now but to continue with the polyphasic thing for a while, but include a core sleep, as if nothing else, I do seem to be functioning quite well on it. Still nowhere near where I want to be, but then again it’s still less than a week. One real bonus though is that I’m really good at napping now, so in theory, I could go back night sleeping, have a nap at lunchtime and be fully functioning all day. So there will be positive out of this, which ever way it goes.
I’ll plod on with a core sleep and 4 naps a day. The plan being that assuming I adapt to that, I’ll just reduce the core sleep until I get it down to 2 hours and would be a reasonable compromise. The rules remain the same, I have to see clear benefits. I have to be more alert and generally sharper during the day and I have to see health benefits. In truth, one or the other would do. But if I don’t get improvements in either area, I’ll go back to being monophasic.
So, how is it going? Answer, not well, but better than it has been. I had a 4 hour period yesterday between 7 and 11 am where I didn’t actually sleep, but the difference between the 2 states was that sleeping involves lying down with your eyes closed and that was sitting up with eyes open, but that was the only difference! Having said that, the reast of the day, after the 11 am nap was good! So, I deduced from this that I probably need to include a core sleep. Last night I did exactly that. How do I feel today, after that? Answer, not brilliant! Woke up at 8 felling shattered, couldn’t wake up properly at all, so after 30 minutes of that, thought sod this and lay back down. I was happy to give up at that point, but despite being knackered, couldn’t sleep.
So, it looks like I can’t polyphasically sleep and can’t get back to monophasic sleeping either! Great, this one’s going really well! I think I have no choice now but to continue with the polyphasic thing for a while, but include a core sleep, as if nothing else, I do seem to be functioning quite well on it. Still nowhere near where I want to be, but then again it’s still less than a week. One real bonus though is that I’m really good at napping now, so in theory, I could go back night sleeping, have a nap at lunchtime and be fully functioning all day. So there will be positive out of this, which ever way it goes.
I’ll plod on with a core sleep and 4 naps a day. The plan being that assuming I adapt to that, I’ll just reduce the core sleep until I get it down to 2 hours and would be a reasonable compromise. The rules remain the same, I have to see clear benefits. I have to be more alert and generally sharper during the day and I have to see health benefits. In truth, one or the other would do. But if I don’t get improvements in either area, I’ll go back to being monophasic.
Saturday, 12 January 2008
Reply to comments
4 hours sleep, 20 minutes awake, repeat, add infinitum. I recognise that style striaght away, welcome aboard Mr S. Love the suggestion BTW, just doubt the productivity levels in the long run, although in the short term, there would clearly be an improvement on my current form.
Yes, I was going to give it 2 weeks to fully adapt, but the few bogs I've seen for the sucessful ones, peaked on the second night and showed steady improvement from there. I peaked on the second night too, but then bottomed again hard and stayed there! Nope, not continuing with the Uberman, I am just too out of it and don't feel like I'm going to adapt properly. I'm going to give the Everyman a few days. I should be able to stick to that, it's close to my natural pattern. I've never had trouble with getting up in the mornings, even after a late night. It's just the ability to function all day I struggle with! Therefore, maybe the Everman will suit me. I can gradually keep trimming my core sleep down to 2 hours. So when I get into that, I gets 3 naps during the day to keep me going and a core sleep to s me being this Zombie!
Bottom line, nothing is worth this ammount of pain for 2 weeks and the SO has noticed a big jump down in the last 36 hours, underlining this. I think this may well turn out to be a younger mans game, I'm not 20 anymore! I may end up on a decent schedule anyway, just by trimming down the core sleep, over a longer period of time.
Effectively just had a 2 hour core sleep and I feel capable of functioning at the moment and I want to keep it like that. I may not have the strongest brain in the world, but I'm used to it now, I like it's company and I want to lose it again.
Nuff said...
Yes, I was going to give it 2 weeks to fully adapt, but the few bogs I've seen for the sucessful ones, peaked on the second night and showed steady improvement from there. I peaked on the second night too, but then bottomed again hard and stayed there! Nope, not continuing with the Uberman, I am just too out of it and don't feel like I'm going to adapt properly. I'm going to give the Everyman a few days. I should be able to stick to that, it's close to my natural pattern. I've never had trouble with getting up in the mornings, even after a late night. It's just the ability to function all day I struggle with! Therefore, maybe the Everman will suit me. I can gradually keep trimming my core sleep down to 2 hours. So when I get into that, I gets 3 naps during the day to keep me going and a core sleep to s me being this Zombie!
Bottom line, nothing is worth this ammount of pain for 2 weeks and the SO has noticed a big jump down in the last 36 hours, underlining this. I think this may well turn out to be a younger mans game, I'm not 20 anymore! I may end up on a decent schedule anyway, just by trimming down the core sleep, over a longer period of time.
Effectively just had a 2 hour core sleep and I feel capable of functioning at the moment and I want to keep it like that. I may not have the strongest brain in the world, but I'm used to it now, I like it's company and I want to lose it again.
Nuff said...
Failure
Went out for a couple of hours last night with the G-Man and the SO. Naturally I didn’t drink, just had a few alco free largers, with black currant squash to swap one bad taste for an slightly less offensive one. Left those two to go home and have my nap, with the intention to meet them at the next venue, should they decide to go on. Despite walking home in the rain, being damp and a tad on the cold side, I dropped off to sleep immediately and woke up 20 minutes later, feeling fine. Met the other 2 at the Jazz bar. The Jazz bar is our local venue in Dalston and is tiny. Think of a sardine can with music playing and you’ve got a reasonable image. We had a drink, went out for a smoke and then they wouldn’t let us back in because it was full. We eventually managed to persuade them to let us get our coats and came home.
This is fast becoming a trend. It’s just not socially practical to be a smoker any more. The Jazz bar has always been a packed out pain in the neck, but with it not possible to have a smoke anymore, it’s a non starter.
So, last night I failed miserably. Had my 3 am nap and woke up OK, had my 7 am nap and woke up to. The problem is, the bits in between could not be described as awake. I’m clearly not adapting at all. Discussing it with the G-Man last night I decided to give it a total of one week, to see signs of improvement, then switch to the everyman schedule if it wasn’t working and introduce a core sleep. Clearly being zombie for 5 hours tells me it’s not working and I’m not surprisingly not one of the very small percentage of people for whom this works. Bugger. So, rather than give up completely, I’m going to switch now and give the everyman a few days. I’m clearly a lot less confident now, but am determined to do due diligence and give it a proper chance. The reality is that I’m not naturally a monophasic sleeper. I’m always useless in the mid to late afternoon period and always want to have a nap, even if I’ve slept 8 hours the night before. So maybe getting some actual sleep as well may work for me. Starting tonight, I’m going to introduce a 3 hour core sleep. I’ll have it between 4 and 7am. Then I’ll have 3 30 minute naps at 12, 5 and 11. That way I could continue to do this when I go back to work as this pattern is more forgiving and you can move the naps around.
I know I’m going back on what I said, but I was trying to force myself into the uberman patter and it hasn’t worked. Rather than abandon it entirely, I’m going to try this way. The goals of this have not changed. I still want to find a way of sleeping that makes me feel generally more awake, fitter and healthier.
Bugger...
This is fast becoming a trend. It’s just not socially practical to be a smoker any more. The Jazz bar has always been a packed out pain in the neck, but with it not possible to have a smoke anymore, it’s a non starter.
So, last night I failed miserably. Had my 3 am nap and woke up OK, had my 7 am nap and woke up to. The problem is, the bits in between could not be described as awake. I’m clearly not adapting at all. Discussing it with the G-Man last night I decided to give it a total of one week, to see signs of improvement, then switch to the everyman schedule if it wasn’t working and introduce a core sleep. Clearly being zombie for 5 hours tells me it’s not working and I’m not surprisingly not one of the very small percentage of people for whom this works. Bugger. So, rather than give up completely, I’m going to switch now and give the everyman a few days. I’m clearly a lot less confident now, but am determined to do due diligence and give it a proper chance. The reality is that I’m not naturally a monophasic sleeper. I’m always useless in the mid to late afternoon period and always want to have a nap, even if I’ve slept 8 hours the night before. So maybe getting some actual sleep as well may work for me. Starting tonight, I’m going to introduce a 3 hour core sleep. I’ll have it between 4 and 7am. Then I’ll have 3 30 minute naps at 12, 5 and 11. That way I could continue to do this when I go back to work as this pattern is more forgiving and you can move the naps around.
I know I’m going back on what I said, but I was trying to force myself into the uberman patter and it hasn’t worked. Rather than abandon it entirely, I’m going to try this way. The goals of this have not changed. I still want to find a way of sleeping that makes me feel generally more awake, fitter and healthier.
Bugger...
Friday, 11 January 2008
Comments
The chances of somebody having stumbled into the blog in the 3 days it's been up, are pretty remote. Therefore I assume you are probably somebody from my original mailing list, pointing the blog out or a collegue of theirs. I'm quite happy for you to have your opinion and to debate it with you, I'm not however interested in doing it in the comments section of my blog. Assuming you are either on the list ora friend of someone on the list, then you are also likely to be here in London, so let's meet up and discuss it like civilised people.
I repeat, again, as I continuously do in the blog. I hope to benefit a lot from this if I manage to adapt. Sub-functioning is not adapting and if that remains to be the case, continuing with it will not be an option. I am improving by the day, so it's certainly to early to give it up. It will not increase my creativity, not sure where you get that from! What it does is gives you more time to excercise creativity and be productive.
I repeat, again, as I continuously do in the blog. I hope to benefit a lot from this if I manage to adapt. Sub-functioning is not adapting and if that remains to be the case, continuing with it will not be an option. I am improving by the day, so it's certainly to early to give it up. It will not increase my creativity, not sure where you get that from! What it does is gives you more time to excercise creativity and be productive.
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Coming to the end of the third night.
It’s all in the mind I’m sure. It was the mind that considered skipping several naps during the day as it just wasn’t all that tired. But remembering the trouble staying awake after the 7 am one was enough to convince it, that the naps were a good idea. It just seemed to be a short time span between naps. It’s kind of like when you’re working a 2 – 10 shift, in a factory. You’d think you’d make proper use of the free morning, but you never do. You just busy yourself, counting down the time until it’s time to head off to work. Well most of the time between shifts is starting to feel quite like that now. Even though I don’t have to go anywhere to do it and it’s only going to swallow 20 minutes of my life, I’m starting to resent the naps. I really wasn’t expecting this! Then there’s the other extreme, the one that I’m facing now. It’s 5 am and I only have 2 hours till the dreaded 7 am nap, the one where it’s hard to wake up from and even harder to stay awake after. The time between 7 and 11 am is the hardest bit of the whole day. Note, I no longer distinguish much difference between night and day, only that one bit is darker and quieter than the other. If anything I prefer the night as it kind of a whole new world. I’ve never really existed in it before. I’ve visited it when I’ve had to get up really early for a flight or something, I’ve even dallied in it when I’ve come home particularly late and not immediately slipped into a drunken coma. No, this relationship with the night is entirely different, it’s almost welcoming. Or maybe this is just the point at which sleep deprivation is finally turning me insane ;-)
Actually, to be honest, apart from the 7 – 11 problem, I’m not actually really feeling sleep deprived now. It still takes a few minutes to drop off when I settle down for a nap, but I do actually sleep now and it feels much more like proper sleep. It even feels pretty close to waking up groggy from a proper nights sleep. You know, that first thing in the morning this where (well I do at least) you have to have a cup of tea and a couple of smokes, before you can consider doing anything else, like facing a bathroom. The SO thinks I’m barking getting up 2 hours before I am due to be at work, but I’ve always needed that time in the morning to feel remotely alive. One bonus of this, is that (assuming the 7 – 11 problems resolves itself) is that I no longer need an hour and a half to get going.
So, have I adapted or not. Well this is my third night without more than 20 minutes sleep in a 4 hour period and I’m not dead, so something has clearly changed. But I don’t think I’ve adapted. I mentioned in a previous blog that I think the only people who have properly adapted are the ones on Uberman schedule and actually feel brighter and more alive on a daily basis. The rest are just young/fit enough to handle the lack of sleep on a regular basis. These are the same ones who talk about rebooting every couple of weeks or so. Nonsense. They’re not rebooting, their system is giving up and reclaiming a nights sleep, regularly. They simply haven’t adapted and they’ve simply gained another couple of hours a day. That won’t be good enough for me. I want full adaption where I not only gain 6 hours a day, but I also see significant health benefits, or it just won’t be worth living juxtaposed to the rest of humanity for. OK, so maybe not fully juxtaposed, but certainly at a tangent to everybody else. I won’t be able to meet the gang after work on the occasional Friday night, have a gallon or so of beer and wander off home to sleep it off. I’ll never be able to do that on this sleeping patter. Oh sure, I have no doubt that I could have a 20 minute nap, sat in a corner in a pub. OK, I’d have to check a mirror when I woke up and then try and work out which one I had to throw the beating to, but could live with that. No, the problem is, I won’t be able to drink. Imagine getting drunk and not being able to sleep it off. You’d have to stay awake while your body processed the whole lot. That folks, is never going to happen. Fortunately I’m a big and brash enough character to have a decent evening out sober, but it does take the shine off a bit when everyone around you, isn’t! Hey ho...
So, I’m still here, still plodding away and still think I’m in with a fair chance of pulling this off. Maybe I’m not going to have the anticipated light bulb moment where I cry “eureka I’ve adapted” and suddenly feel like a cross between superman and Einstein, but as long as I make it to fitter quicker Jim, I’ll be happy.
So, now to answer some of the emails I’ve got and “It won’t fly” comments. You all know I’ve been thinking about this for a year and seriously considering it for the past 6 months. During that time I’ve read a lot about it. The problem with the whole subject of polyphasic sleeping, is that it is only now being properly studied. It’s being done by Nasa and the US Military, as they can both see clear benefits in it. Everybody has an opinion on it, some against and some more open minded. The only opinions I’m particularly interested in, are the ones of the people who have done it, both male and female and yes, there are female polyphasers out there. I believe that we are monophasic by training and not by nature and that we are the only species that practices this. We are not born that way, we all force our babies to sleep through the night early on, to suit our adopted sleeping patterns. I believe that by spreading my eating out over the 24 hour period, that my alimentary canal will benefit. Instead of needing the night to digest the food I’ve filled it with over a 12 hour period, it will comfortably cope with the smaller amounts that are constantly flowing through it. I also believe that once I’ve fully adapted, I will never feel drowsy and off my game in the afternoon again. I believe it could be a good thing for me, but if it turns out not to be, I believe I will got out and get blind drunk and switch back to monophasic during a booze induced coma ;-) That’s as far as I’m going into this argument. I’ve read all the articles that people are quoting me over the last 6 -12 months and a whole load more besides. I’m confident I know what I’m doing and that if it’s not working, I’ll stop it and not bloody mindedly damage myself by continuing.
So, to sum up, no I haven’t adapted yet, but I’m not tired for 80% of the day. There are no health benefits yet, in fact, I feel generally more drained and weary than tired and I have a nagging little headache most of the time and I never get those. I’m sure this is all to do with the chemicals my body is releasing to help fight the lack of sleep and it will adjust to the new spread out REM, rather than the old style concentrated one! My naps are now actually sleep and with the exception of the 7 am one, I have no problems waking up, even occasionally before the alarm goes off. So, I’ve just over an hour to go before the dreaded 7 am nap. Let’s hope this one starts getting better soon too!
Actually, to be honest, apart from the 7 – 11 problem, I’m not actually really feeling sleep deprived now. It still takes a few minutes to drop off when I settle down for a nap, but I do actually sleep now and it feels much more like proper sleep. It even feels pretty close to waking up groggy from a proper nights sleep. You know, that first thing in the morning this where (well I do at least) you have to have a cup of tea and a couple of smokes, before you can consider doing anything else, like facing a bathroom. The SO thinks I’m barking getting up 2 hours before I am due to be at work, but I’ve always needed that time in the morning to feel remotely alive. One bonus of this, is that (assuming the 7 – 11 problems resolves itself) is that I no longer need an hour and a half to get going.
So, have I adapted or not. Well this is my third night without more than 20 minutes sleep in a 4 hour period and I’m not dead, so something has clearly changed. But I don’t think I’ve adapted. I mentioned in a previous blog that I think the only people who have properly adapted are the ones on Uberman schedule and actually feel brighter and more alive on a daily basis. The rest are just young/fit enough to handle the lack of sleep on a regular basis. These are the same ones who talk about rebooting every couple of weeks or so. Nonsense. They’re not rebooting, their system is giving up and reclaiming a nights sleep, regularly. They simply haven’t adapted and they’ve simply gained another couple of hours a day. That won’t be good enough for me. I want full adaption where I not only gain 6 hours a day, but I also see significant health benefits, or it just won’t be worth living juxtaposed to the rest of humanity for. OK, so maybe not fully juxtaposed, but certainly at a tangent to everybody else. I won’t be able to meet the gang after work on the occasional Friday night, have a gallon or so of beer and wander off home to sleep it off. I’ll never be able to do that on this sleeping patter. Oh sure, I have no doubt that I could have a 20 minute nap, sat in a corner in a pub. OK, I’d have to check a mirror when I woke up and then try and work out which one I had to throw the beating to, but could live with that. No, the problem is, I won’t be able to drink. Imagine getting drunk and not being able to sleep it off. You’d have to stay awake while your body processed the whole lot. That folks, is never going to happen. Fortunately I’m a big and brash enough character to have a decent evening out sober, but it does take the shine off a bit when everyone around you, isn’t! Hey ho...
So, I’m still here, still plodding away and still think I’m in with a fair chance of pulling this off. Maybe I’m not going to have the anticipated light bulb moment where I cry “eureka I’ve adapted” and suddenly feel like a cross between superman and Einstein, but as long as I make it to fitter quicker Jim, I’ll be happy.
So, now to answer some of the emails I’ve got and “It won’t fly” comments. You all know I’ve been thinking about this for a year and seriously considering it for the past 6 months. During that time I’ve read a lot about it. The problem with the whole subject of polyphasic sleeping, is that it is only now being properly studied. It’s being done by Nasa and the US Military, as they can both see clear benefits in it. Everybody has an opinion on it, some against and some more open minded. The only opinions I’m particularly interested in, are the ones of the people who have done it, both male and female and yes, there are female polyphasers out there. I believe that we are monophasic by training and not by nature and that we are the only species that practices this. We are not born that way, we all force our babies to sleep through the night early on, to suit our adopted sleeping patterns. I believe that by spreading my eating out over the 24 hour period, that my alimentary canal will benefit. Instead of needing the night to digest the food I’ve filled it with over a 12 hour period, it will comfortably cope with the smaller amounts that are constantly flowing through it. I also believe that once I’ve fully adapted, I will never feel drowsy and off my game in the afternoon again. I believe it could be a good thing for me, but if it turns out not to be, I believe I will got out and get blind drunk and switch back to monophasic during a booze induced coma ;-) That’s as far as I’m going into this argument. I’ve read all the articles that people are quoting me over the last 6 -12 months and a whole load more besides. I’m confident I know what I’m doing and that if it’s not working, I’ll stop it and not bloody mindedly damage myself by continuing.
So, to sum up, no I haven’t adapted yet, but I’m not tired for 80% of the day. There are no health benefits yet, in fact, I feel generally more drained and weary than tired and I have a nagging little headache most of the time and I never get those. I’m sure this is all to do with the chemicals my body is releasing to help fight the lack of sleep and it will adjust to the new spread out REM, rather than the old style concentrated one! My naps are now actually sleep and with the exception of the 7 am one, I have no problems waking up, even occasionally before the alarm goes off. So, I’ve just over an hour to go before the dreaded 7 am nap. Let’s hope this one starts getting better soon too!
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
40 hours with no REM sleep.
Last night was tough, this morning was tough, but strangely, today was still difficult, but certainly not as bad. Tonight feels borderline manageable! I’m not sure why this is, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t made REM sleep during my naps yet, they just don’t feel like the sleep is deep enough. I suspect my body is releasing chemicals to combat the sleep deprivation prior to proper adaption, so I think this is a positive sign. Just hoping it’s not a storm eye type thing and the worse is yet to come. I do confess to feeling a lot more positive though. My body feels like it doesn’t belong to me any more and most of my muscles are feeling a little sore. I also have a nagging little headache, which is something I never get, even when hung over. Generally though, I’m starting to feel better. My last couple of naps have gone well. I’ve woke up without too much trouble when the alarm has gone off and the urge to either sleep or throw myself off the balcony is lessening. This is a good thing. All in all I’m feeling very hopeful that I am going to adapt early and am predicting proper REM naps by day 4. If that turns out to be the case, then I also assume that I will adapt fully 7 to 10 days and should then start to reap the full benefits. Generally be more alert, productive during the hours of darkness and able to work on spreading the eating out better and cutting down on the smoking. Need to do this as my chest feels like I’ve been smoking pure lead. For any that read this and don’t know me, the only thing I ever smoke is purchasable in the average supermarket, I never do anything more exotic than that!
The danger it not past yet. During the day I have the benefit of the SO to wake me should I sleep though an alarm. But she’s gone to bed early tonight as she has to go out tomorrow, so I have no back up for the 3 and 7 am naps. The way the last few have gone this shouldn’t be a problem, but best not to become complacent about it. So I’ll continue to lie in an uncomfortable position (no, not out on the balcony) and turn the volume up on the computer alarm. Sorry neighbours...
Watched the film Charlies War tonight and can recommend it. It’s not a great film, but the 3 mains actors have been rightly nominated for awards, they carry the film very well. Particularly surprising to me was Julia Roberts. I’ve always considered her to be a full on munter and wouldn’t have touched her with the G-Mans. She’s always had an amphibious look to me, sort of constipated wide mouth frog and been playing parts far to young for her of late. Well in this she’s playing someone more around her own age and actually looked all the better for it. Make up looked a little strange in a couple of scenes, but apart from that, a grown up attractive woman. I still wouldn’t mind, but that’s a me thing, but I’d prolly let the G-Man have a nibble now. Incidentally, this is pretty rich coming from me as I have pretty much redefined the whole mutton dressed as lamb concept!
Right, seeing as I’m semi alert, I’m going to write a bit of code for 20 minutes, then break for my 3 am nap. Fingers crossed dewds, things are looking good!
BTW, for people who used to read my previous blog, I'll get back to the general blog banter, once I've adapted properly and polyphasic sleeping is normal to me. Watch this space...
The danger it not past yet. During the day I have the benefit of the SO to wake me should I sleep though an alarm. But she’s gone to bed early tonight as she has to go out tomorrow, so I have no back up for the 3 and 7 am naps. The way the last few have gone this shouldn’t be a problem, but best not to become complacent about it. So I’ll continue to lie in an uncomfortable position (no, not out on the balcony) and turn the volume up on the computer alarm. Sorry neighbours...
Watched the film Charlies War tonight and can recommend it. It’s not a great film, but the 3 mains actors have been rightly nominated for awards, they carry the film very well. Particularly surprising to me was Julia Roberts. I’ve always considered her to be a full on munter and wouldn’t have touched her with the G-Mans. She’s always had an amphibious look to me, sort of constipated wide mouth frog and been playing parts far to young for her of late. Well in this she’s playing someone more around her own age and actually looked all the better for it. Make up looked a little strange in a couple of scenes, but apart from that, a grown up attractive woman. I still wouldn’t mind, but that’s a me thing, but I’d prolly let the G-Man have a nibble now. Incidentally, this is pretty rich coming from me as I have pretty much redefined the whole mutton dressed as lamb concept!
Right, seeing as I’m semi alert, I’m going to write a bit of code for 20 minutes, then break for my 3 am nap. Fingers crossed dewds, things are looking good!
BTW, for people who used to read my previous blog, I'll get back to the general blog banter, once I've adapted properly and polyphasic sleeping is normal to me. Watch this space...
Day 2 - 2 pm
Had a defining moment a little while ago. Went out this morning to sort out getting an MOT on my car, should pass OK as it spent most of last year in bit, so has actually done less than a thousand miles since it’s last one. SO I walked down to the garage to arrange stuff and he was going to call be back when I could run the car down. Lasted okish till 11, then set the alarm and settled down for a nap. Woke up and was really shot and actually decided to have another 20 minutes, reset the alarm and lay back down. But before I could close my eyes, the phone rang, so had to get in the car and go to the garage. Thinking about it though, I don’t really think how many 20 minute naps I have in the early stages as they are really doing me no good at all. The point is that you torture yourself to the point where the body get’s that desperate, that it goes into REM during the 20 minute naps. I’m nowhere near that yet, so the naps are not replenishing me at all. I’m really only having them to give the body chance to start using them, when it needs to. Anyway, I’m still on target, so far. I think the next 24 hours will make or break me, not sure I can survive the lack of sleep any longer than that. If I don’t start to feel an improvement tomorrow, I’ll have to switch to the everyman schedule and just try weaning myself down gradually. Hopefully that won’t happen.
So, now onto an important subject. What the heck is wrong with night time TV? There’s absolutely nothing on at all, it’s just all rubbish. SO much so in fact, I decided I could do better and started writing a sitcom. Naturally being so shattered I didn’t get very far and only lasted 30 minutes, but the idea is in place now and when I start to feel alive, I’ll continue with it. I’ll shove the pilot episode up ont tinterweb when it’s done. You never know, some TV company may spot it and we’ll have something mildly entertaining to watch. Got to be better than celebrity Big Brother. Trust me on this, as desperate as I was in the middle of the night, I just couldn’t watch it! I’m setting it in a small Spanish holiday resort. It’s the eclectic mix of cocaine fuelled timesharers, spliffed up kamikaze surfer doods and the reality escapers chasing their respective dreams. Naturally the problem with it being a small resort, is that everbody knows everybody’s business. Most people just think they are on a permanent holiday, so are generally boozed up and infidelity is rife, usually inappropriately so. Ok, so I normally have a pretty off the wall mind and now it’s suffering from sleep deprivation, so it’s pretty much doing its own thing!
An interesting side effect is how it’s affecting the SO (Significant Other). She’s usually the last one to go to bed. It’s a student thing, we all did it and she’s no exception. She tends to do her studying at night, so she’s always up later than me. Clearly, this was not the case last night and she wandered of to bed at half 3, just after my nap. The problem she had was that she is used to being the last one up and lying there knowing that I was awake in the next room, made it difficult for her to sleep. Hey ho, she’ll get used to it, I’m sure...
So, now onto an important subject. What the heck is wrong with night time TV? There’s absolutely nothing on at all, it’s just all rubbish. SO much so in fact, I decided I could do better and started writing a sitcom. Naturally being so shattered I didn’t get very far and only lasted 30 minutes, but the idea is in place now and when I start to feel alive, I’ll continue with it. I’ll shove the pilot episode up ont tinterweb when it’s done. You never know, some TV company may spot it and we’ll have something mildly entertaining to watch. Got to be better than celebrity Big Brother. Trust me on this, as desperate as I was in the middle of the night, I just couldn’t watch it! I’m setting it in a small Spanish holiday resort. It’s the eclectic mix of cocaine fuelled timesharers, spliffed up kamikaze surfer doods and the reality escapers chasing their respective dreams. Naturally the problem with it being a small resort, is that everbody knows everybody’s business. Most people just think they are on a permanent holiday, so are generally boozed up and infidelity is rife, usually inappropriately so. Ok, so I normally have a pretty off the wall mind and now it’s suffering from sleep deprivation, so it’s pretty much doing its own thing!
An interesting side effect is how it’s affecting the SO (Significant Other). She’s usually the last one to go to bed. It’s a student thing, we all did it and she’s no exception. She tends to do her studying at night, so she’s always up later than me. Clearly, this was not the case last night and she wandered of to bed at half 3, just after my nap. The problem she had was that she is used to being the last one up and lying there knowing that I was awake in the next room, made it difficult for her to sleep. Hey ho, she’ll get used to it, I’m sure...
10:00 am
It’s 10 o’clock in the morning and it’s starting to get pretty tough now. When I say tough, I mean tougher than trying to suck a marble through a drinking straw. And that’s all I’m going to write at the moment as I can’t sit for any longer than this, without falling asleep!
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
4 am
Despite feeling pretty tired, I’ve failed miserably to have a nap. I downloaded a software alarm clock and set it to play a tune, which I figure would wake me up. It has a really neat wake me up in n minutes function. SO I set it for 25 minutes, giving me 5 to drop off and 20 minutes of actual nap time. Fat chance! I reset it twice as I was determined to have the nap, but it just didn’t happen. Hey ho, maybe the 7 o’clock one will work.
I’m already having doubts about the practicality of the Uberman schedule. I find myself counting down the time between naps and frankly, 4 hours suddenly seems like a very short space of time. Clearly it’s too early to know how well this will work in practice, we’ll just have to wait and see. But if it proves to be so, I can always switch to the everyman schedule and have a 2 hour core and only 3 naps, spaced throughout the day.Have to say that it doesn’t feel at all weird being up this late, which I thought it might do. My eyes are pretty tired though and seeing what I’m typing is a tad tricky, but that’s prolly just down to the contact lens. I dare say I’ll get used to it. Oh well, I’ll try to put the time to use now and set up the actual blog!
I’m already having doubts about the practicality of the Uberman schedule. I find myself counting down the time between naps and frankly, 4 hours suddenly seems like a very short space of time. Clearly it’s too early to know how well this will work in practice, we’ll just have to wait and see. But if it proves to be so, I can always switch to the everyman schedule and have a 2 hour core and only 3 naps, spaced throughout the day.Have to say that it doesn’t feel at all weird being up this late, which I thought it might do. My eyes are pretty tired though and seeing what I’m typing is a tad tricky, but that’s prolly just down to the contact lens. I dare say I’ll get used to it. Oh well, I’ll try to put the time to use now and set up the actual blog!
Polyphasic Sleeping
Ok, so I’m not actually doing it yet as this is the very beginning, but you have to start somewhere and blogging it, is proper committal. So, I am now really committed .
So, the big question most people will be asking, is “why”. The answer to this one is two-fold. Firstly the obvious answer is that I resent the hours wasted on sleep. Being polyphasic will give me back 6 hours of my life, every day. It will give me the time to do all the things I want to get done, but never get round to, because I never have the time. Strictly speaking I’m between contracts at the moment, so in fact do have the time and am still not getting the stuff done, so there is a minor flaw appearing in the plan already! But we can always fall off that bridge when we come to it! So, in theory, I’ll finally get to write that novel I’ve been wittering on about, build all those web sites etc. Kewl, don’t you think J
If you don’t know what polyphasic sleeping is, then do a google and save me the trouble of typing an explanation here. I’m going to be following the Uberman schedule, which means 20 minutes of kip, every 4 hours. I’m naively expecting this to be easy for the following reasons. Firstly, I already struggle to get through the day without the occasional nap, so I’m naturally leaning towards it. Secondly, I’ve always been good at getting up when the alarm goes off in the mornings, even when it’s silly O’clock in the morning. So I should be able to stick to the schedule quite well. On the other hand, I really like my sleep, so expect it to be a battle!
I’m hoping my health will generally benefit from this, overall. I’m a martyr to IBS. I get it regularly and a lot and it can be pretty darned nasty. I’m hoping that the side effect changes to my lifestyle will benefit it. Not drinking certainly helps, but doesn’t stop it. I’ll be changing the way I eat. Instead of having the set 3 larger meals, I will have a smaller one in each 4 hour time period, which my alimentary canal should handle much better than it does now. At least, that’s the theory.
One of the really scary bits is my addiction to nicotine. I suspect the extra 6 hours of smoking will be too much. The mad nights out where you are chain smoking into the small hours always leads to a heavy barking chest and sore throat the next day. I suspect I’ll have those symptoms all the time as there will not be a period of time when I rest my lungs. I don’t want to give up smoking as simply put, I enjoy it, but it’s going to be impractical to continue doing it. I’ll try and be diligent and ration my smoking time, but in the end, I may just have to quit! Typical, I just stocked up on Tobacco!
So, on to the practicalities, picking the right times for naps. My initial thought was to pick my times based around a fairly guaranteed lunch break, so went for 1 o’clock. However, going 4 hours either side of that means I’d be napping at 9 and 5, just as I arrive at work and just before I leave. Not very practical at all. So I’ve plumbed for 7, 11 and 3. That way I have a nap just prior to leaving for work and one on my return, with 2 at manageable times. The only noticeable thing during the day would be very predictable toilet break times!
So, the big question most people will be asking, is “why”. The answer to this one is two-fold. Firstly the obvious answer is that I resent the hours wasted on sleep. Being polyphasic will give me back 6 hours of my life, every day. It will give me the time to do all the things I want to get done, but never get round to, because I never have the time. Strictly speaking I’m between contracts at the moment, so in fact do have the time and am still not getting the stuff done, so there is a minor flaw appearing in the plan already! But we can always fall off that bridge when we come to it! So, in theory, I’ll finally get to write that novel I’ve been wittering on about, build all those web sites etc. Kewl, don’t you think J
If you don’t know what polyphasic sleeping is, then do a google and save me the trouble of typing an explanation here. I’m going to be following the Uberman schedule, which means 20 minutes of kip, every 4 hours. I’m naively expecting this to be easy for the following reasons. Firstly, I already struggle to get through the day without the occasional nap, so I’m naturally leaning towards it. Secondly, I’ve always been good at getting up when the alarm goes off in the mornings, even when it’s silly O’clock in the morning. So I should be able to stick to the schedule quite well. On the other hand, I really like my sleep, so expect it to be a battle!
I’m hoping my health will generally benefit from this, overall. I’m a martyr to IBS. I get it regularly and a lot and it can be pretty darned nasty. I’m hoping that the side effect changes to my lifestyle will benefit it. Not drinking certainly helps, but doesn’t stop it. I’ll be changing the way I eat. Instead of having the set 3 larger meals, I will have a smaller one in each 4 hour time period, which my alimentary canal should handle much better than it does now. At least, that’s the theory.
One of the really scary bits is my addiction to nicotine. I suspect the extra 6 hours of smoking will be too much. The mad nights out where you are chain smoking into the small hours always leads to a heavy barking chest and sore throat the next day. I suspect I’ll have those symptoms all the time as there will not be a period of time when I rest my lungs. I don’t want to give up smoking as simply put, I enjoy it, but it’s going to be impractical to continue doing it. I’ll try and be diligent and ration my smoking time, but in the end, I may just have to quit! Typical, I just stocked up on Tobacco!
So, on to the practicalities, picking the right times for naps. My initial thought was to pick my times based around a fairly guaranteed lunch break, so went for 1 o’clock. However, going 4 hours either side of that means I’d be napping at 9 and 5, just as I arrive at work and just before I leave. Not very practical at all. So I’ve plumbed for 7, 11 and 3. That way I have a nap just prior to leaving for work and one on my return, with 2 at manageable times. The only noticeable thing during the day would be very predictable toilet break times!
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