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...
Saturday, 12 January 2008
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!
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