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!