Two and half more days have passed since my last post and I’m still meeting my schedule adequately. With the exception of one nap I’ve started every nap within 5 minutes of when it was scheduled and I’ve woken up within 2 minutes of the planned 25 minute nap. The one exception occurred because by accident I had an alarm go off 10 minutes into my nap. At that time I decided I still needed a full nap so I reset the alarm to go off after 20 more minutes. Luckily that deviation is quite minor.

The last two days have been similar to the previous two in that the days have been alright with the nights being more difficult. I’m still finding the time between 5am and 9am to be most difficult. This morning was exceptionally so! During this time I found my vision loosing focus and then it almost felt as if my mind was disappearing into a vortex. I’m pretty sure this is where I could fall asleep. So far though my focus kept coming back and I could see clearly a bit before falling out of focus again.

This morning I took a long walk which consisted mostly of doing what I just described above. That walk was the most difficult experience yet. The walk seemed exceptionally long as I kept coming in and out of focus. I found myself very sweaty when I got back from the walk. Part of this was because I wore a coat and it was fairly warm out. I also think it’s possible the sleep deprivation had some influence on how my body was working at that time. What was perhaps more interesting though is within 10 minutes of getting back from the walk I found a sharp increase in my focus. That was reassuring as I still had a while to go before the next nap.

I had originally decided that I was only going to nap 6 times throughout the day according to a strict schedule. After last nights experience and also reviewing Pavlina’s logs I’ve decided to change my approach. If nights get more difficult then I may find myself awaking from a nap I didn’t plan. During Pavlina’s transition he decided to add an extra nap directly in between his 1am and 5am nap. I’m going to be doing exactly the same. So I’ll be napping at 2:45am for 25 minutes.

One thing that has surprised me the most with this experiment is the sometimes rapid fluxuations with how I feel while I’m awake. I’ve gotten into the habit of rating how alert I’m feeling between 1 and 10. (Where 1 is being barely able to keep my eyes open and 10 is god shining beautiful rays of awesome on me) I’ve gone from 2 to 6 within a few minutes. I’ve also gone from about 4 to 9 within half an hour. It’s really odd to experience too. I’ll just sit there doing things on my computer and gradually the room begins to illuminate and then glow. During that time I’ll also feel myself getting warm, fuzzy, and joyful inside. The transition is spectacular!

I’m trying hard to create a simple baseline for this experiment by not engaging in activities that could alter my sleeping rhythms dramatically. I’m stretching a bit though because I’m trying to make the most of my time with my brother while he is in town this week. One example of this is that I found myself using a hooka for the first time last night. I don’t think the hooka had a profound effect on my sleeping but of course I’m not sure. Regardless I had a good night with the hooka and him!:) I’ve enjoyed my time with him this week; however I’ll admit to be a bit relieved that his visit is almost over. He’s pretty good with pushing me outside my normal routines.

Pavlina in his logs talks about psychologically transitioning to a polyphasic sleeping schedule. I’m only beginning to understand what he is talking about. In 5 days I’ve already napped over 30 times. I’ve gone to bed and awoken 30 times in 5 days! Oddly, each time doesn’t feel that different then what I was already use to with a single night’s sleep. By this I mean when the alarms goes off I’m a bit confused for a few brief seconds. I find myself trying to get a grasp on where I am and what I’m doing. Experiencing this every 4 hours is just weird.

I’m also finding old patterns that just do not make sense anymore. One example of this is the knowing that eventually I’ll be in bed for a bunch of hours. I’ve had it happen several times now where I’ll notice I’ve done an activity all night long and therefore I seem to know I won’t be able to do anything else for many hours because I’ll be sleeping. Except this is wrong now. In 25 minutes I’m actually good to go again.

I’ve got another week ahead of me with practically nothing planned. This will help with stabilizing the transition. I’m still however thinking out long term. Eventually I’ll have more activates happening and not all of them are gong to be so kind to conform to my 4 hour cycles. To sustain polyphasic sleeping long term I’ll need to develop strategies for dealing with long activities or activities that occur during a schedule sleep time. I’m keeping this on my mind in the following week!

It has been 72 hours since I awoke from hibernation. Since then I’ve napped every 4 hours for 25 minutes. My naps are at 1am, 5am, 9am, 1pm, 5pm, and 9pm. Overall this transition is feeling easier then I expected. Of course I say this with respect to that I’m only 3 days in. I’m guessing the worse symptoms will peak today.

A lot has happen in the first 72 hours. The first day was not a big deal as I had a full nights rest leading up toward it. I didn’t even fall asleep during some of the naps for the first day. Still, I’m glad I stuck to the schedule to help establish a routine.

The second day was uneventful until the night hours. This is no surprise as I was expecting the night hours would be among the toughest. What I didn’t expect was this difficulty would extend into the early morning. I’ve found 5am-9am to be the hardest hours to stay awake. During this time I experience what some polyphasic people call zombie mode. In zombie mode I can’t seem to do activities that require even a small amount of concentrations such as watching a movie. When attempting this I’ll find myself loosing focus to what I’m looking at and instead I start drifting off.

All is not lost in zombie mode though. While I’ve lost some focus, I find I’m able to move my body about just fine. In fact that seems to be about the only thing I can do. I just keep moving around. Walks are nice during this time. Interestingly, as long as I’m moving I find myself hardly aware of any symptoms of sleep deprivation.

This morning I found myself quite enamored with zombie mode. I had decided to walk a trail near my house. What I discovered is that my internal dialogue had shut off and I was present in the now. This was exceptionally easy because my mind doesn’t seem to have the option to think much in zombie mode.

I’ve been finding this last night to be the most difficult of the three. As I write this I feel fairly exhausted. I’m quite hopeful this will clear up soon. I know I’m entering REM sleep at least sometimes because I awoke from my 5am nap with a reoccurring dream.

The symptoms of sleep deprivation have been seemed light to me so far. In the past the lack of sleep has made me have headaches and also my digestion would make me feel wretched. I’m barely noticing either of those symptoms. I’m actually feeling almost no ‘fight’ as a whole with regards to sleep deprivation. This is surprising to me. I thought I would consciously have to try to keep myself from sleeping. As if I’d be battling this great beast that would be inflicting various things on me to coerce me to fall asleep. Nope.

The worst thing I’ve dealt with is that of zombie mode. Although zombie mode doesn’t feel bad. No, instead I just find I’m loosing concentration. I can solve this issue by not involving myself in activities that involve concentration.

I do hope I’m not getting ahead of myself with regards to how simple I’m feeling this is. With only 72 hours under my belt there is likely plenty of time for something to catch me by surprise. I’m keeping my eyes open for surprises… Well, as much as they’ll stay open at the moment.

I first started reading Steve Pavlina over 2 years ago. At the time his experiment with polyphasic sleeping grabbed my attention. Somehow this polyphasic sleeping stuff allowed him to only sleep two to two and a half hours in a day? That is so cool!

Polyphasic sleeping is about breaking up your sleep such that you sleep multiple times in a day versus a single time. Now, there are many different types of polyphasic sleeping, however among the most popular and the one chosen by Pavlina is the Uberman schedule.

The Uberman schedule uses 6 20-30 minute naps spread evenly throughout the day. So for example someone using the Uberman schedule may decide to take a nap at 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, and 10pm. The goal of this schedule is to reduce the amount of time it takes to get into REM sleep. A typical sleep cycle will last 90 minutes and REM will occur near the end of the cycle. With the Uberman schedule theoretically that time can be reduce such that REM is achieved and the cycle finishes within 20-30 minutes.

Achieving the Uberman schedule is not easy. In fact you can goggle polyphasic sleeping and see just how many people have failed to do so. There are two common problems that occur : a person is not strict enough with their schedule and a person may accidentally oversleep.

Both of these issues can be solved through the use of some discipline. Plain and simple, you MUST follow your schedule. So typically that means you MUST take your nap at the designated nap time and ONLY for the time allotted. Equally be sure and doubly sure that your alarm clock is set and will wake you up.

Now, there is one more critical thing to expect with the transition: you’ll go through sleep deprivation for a few days. The symptoms vary from person to person but among the symptoms you might notice are fatigue, headache, muscle soreness, digestion issues, overall lower immunity, oh and yah possibly hallucinations!

So, what are the results? Well, if you are one of those theoretical people who sleep 8 hours a week then you could find yourself with around 35 more hours on your hands. That’s almost the equivalent of a standard American workweek!

So I mentioned that I read about this over 2 years ago. Why am I doing this now? Scheduling! Due to me finally quitting my job, I suddenly have a lot of free time. =D This means I’m going to play with polyphasic sleeping.

Now, some people have asked why I’m doing this. From a productivity stand point it would be easy to point toward those 35 hours because that alone is pretty cool. Still, that is not my driving motivation.

Much like how Pavlina answered the question : I’m CURIOUS. In particular I recall him describing a mindset difference while he was a polyphasic sleeper. He describes how the days began to flow together because there was no longer a definitive end to them. It was as if time took on a completely different meaning. Now, that is but one observation. How else will life be different with this one change?

Another good reason I’m doing this is purely for the challenge. Based on other peoples’ experiences, this isn’t an easy thing to do. As I’ve stated, most people fail. One of my biggest realizations in my work with personal development is that I’m not that aware of my limitations. So, part of that means I like to test myself to see exactly what I’m capable of.

I’m posting this about 32 hours since I woke from my last deep sleep. Theoretically I should be beginning to enter the challenging parts of the polyphasic adjustment. I’ll continue to keep posting updates!

The time is nearing
We will depart
My tears come pouring
For I will miss you dearly

I’m conflicted you see
I want to feel freely
I want to feel it with all my soul
I want to know losing you
I want to know it deeply
I want to cry in deep and bitter sorrow
I want to experience the wholeness of that sentiment

And yet
And yet
There is too much seriousness to that
What if I you really did mean that much to me?
What if you really were that essential?

I know of attachment
I know of two souls coming together
I know of souls being ripped apart
I fear not either

I will cry with all my heart
For I have lost
Ripped in half
Left to limp away