Polyphasic Sleep: Update 4

Well, I almost can't believe it. I've lived for over a week on a bit more than 4 hours of sleep per day and I feel good.

I don't know if it's continuing adjustment or the nifty iPhone app I blogged about (that's the problem with multiple variables in an experiment), but waking up this morning was really easy. I never thought that waking up before 3AM would be easy.

My naps are getting easier as well. About half of the time, I wake up about 3-4 minutes before the alarm. I don't remember my dreams quite as well as when I started, but I still have them. The idea of having full dreams during a 20-25 minute nap still seems strange.

Unfortunately, I've mentally adjusted to the idea of being awake for the extra 4 hours of the day. It's not a novelty like it was when I first started. It's just become part of my routine. And I'm kinda sad about that. I enjoyed that feeling of "cheating".

Polyphasic Sleep: Update 3

Well, yesterday didn't work. For some reason, I completely missed my alarm that was set for around 1:30AM and didn't wake up until almost 4:30AM. It felt strange to sleep that late. And since I had already screwed-up the day, I took a leisurely afternoon nap. (why not?)

Today, I'm back on my schedule. But I tried a new iPhone application that functions as an alarm clock.

The interesting thing about this application is that it uses the iPhone's accelerometer to sense how heavy you are sleeping (by how much you move) and wakes you up during your lightest period of sleep during a 30-minute window of when you set the alarm.



It worked well this morning. I set the alarm for 3:30AM and it woke me around 3:25AM. I was still pretty groggy until my first cup of coffee, but I didn't feel the need to hit the snooze button or go back to bed. That's an improvement that's easily worth the $0.99.

Polyphasic Sleep: Update 2

I'm still continuing to adjust. At this point, I feel like I'm at about 90% of the energy level of when I get a full 8 hours of sleep. I think a few more days and I'll be at or near 100%.

It's been about a week now, and I'm functioning just fine on almost half my normal sleep. There's no way I could have lasted this long if there wasn't some kind of truth to this methodology.

If I understand the process correctly, my brain is doing a good job of adjusting to getting quickly into REM sleep during my naps. In just 25 minutes, I often have full dream sequences and often remember them when I wake up. (I've never had that before)

My naps are getting easier and more integrated into my regular schedule. My biggest concern is still how I'll integrate them into my life long-term. When it's Sunday afternoon and nothing is going on, it's easy to sneak in a nap. But taking 3 naps a day, every day is a different thing.

Still, the most pervasive influence on the quality of my sleep is the food I eat. If I eat heavy or unhealthy food, my naps really suck and I have a hard time waking up after 25 minutes. If I eat light and healthy, I usually wake up feeling refreshed.

And speaking of food, I've started eating a forth meal. I really don't like eating another meal because I doubt I'm burning enough calories to justify it, but I keep getting hungry. I'm trying to eat something really light for at least one meal so not to gain weight. (bowl of fresh fruit or some Gorp)

So, while I can't yet speak to any long-term consequences, I have to say that I'm fairly convinced that polyphasic sleep works. I can't help think that the only reason--and it's a good one--it hasn't been more adopted is because it's hard to integrate naps into a busy life. But if you can, this might be something interesting to try.

Polyphasic Sleep: Update 1

Ok, it's been 3 or 4 days. (I'm haven't been counting)

So far, the sleep deprivation hasn't been as bad as I thought it might be. The only real problem I've had is the tendency to not want to wake up from my mid-day naps. (I wake up and am so tired that I want to take another 25-minute nap)

This morning was the first time I've woken up after my 3 hours of core sleep and felt really awake. It's 3:30 AM and I had my morning cup of coffee about 20 minutes ago. Right now, I feel like I got a full night's sleep. I think I'm adjusting.

Now that I've talked about the cause, let me talk a bit about the effect.

It's really strange to have an additional 4 hours every day. After 30+ years of being awake for only 16 hours a day, it's a very strange sensation to increase that to 20 hours.

The first day, it felt like the day would never end. (I'm sure half of that was just because I was tired) Now it just feels like the day goes very slowly. Actually, it feels like the world is moving in slow-motion. (I assume this is because of how the brain is rationalizing changes to my schedule)

One of the other things I've noticed is how much the quality of the food I eat affects the quality of my mid-day naps. If I eat something heavy that's hard to digest, it's much more difficult to wake up from my nap and consequently, I feel groggy until the next nap. To help avoid this, last night I went to the store and bought a bunch of fruit and had that for dinner.

So, I'm pretty happy so far with this experiment. If I continue to adjust and more mornings are like this, I'll definitely continue this for a while.

My Mortal Enemy

As it sometimes happens when you're sitting around having a few drinks with friends, the conversation moves to a hypothetical one of "what superpower do you wish you had?"

My answer has always been quick and easy: the ability to fly. That's easy and a somewhat expected answer from me. But what I don't say is my followup. What I'd really like to be able to do (that is somewhat more realistic) is never have to sleep.

I've always hated sleep. It steals 1/3 of my life and that seems unfair. But sleep is just part of being a member of the animal kingdom, and I don't really expect to get out of it.

But I found a way that I might be able to "tweak" it a bit. I ran across a mention of polyphasic sleep the other day and I've been doing some reading.

The basic version is this: sleep in much smaller, but more frequent intervals. The assumption is that you can train your body to slip into REM sleep faster and time how long you sleep as to maximize the amount of time in REM sleep and minimize the time spent in other sleep phases.

I've read a few blogs where people have successfully made the switch. (including one guy who successfully lived for about 6 months on ~2.5 hours of sleep per night and loved it) Everyone who succeeded seemed very happy with the results. The assumption is that because you are forcing your body into quickly reaching REM sleep, you are getting the same amount of "restorative" sleep, so you feel just as rested as if you'd had a full 8 hours of sleep.

So, I'm trying a variation of the "Everyman" schedule--3 hours of sleep at night and 3-25 minute naps equally spaced throughout the day. That means a total of 4 hours of sleep per day. That's literally half of the usual 8 I try to get.

There are a couple of obvious potential problems with this. First, the adjustment period is supposed to be pretty rough. Until your body learns how to enter REM sleep quickly, you are a bit sleep deprived. (that should last about a week or so)

Secondly, that means that I have to interrupt my day to fit in some naps every day. Right now, that's not a problem. But if/when I get another regular job, I'll have to find a way to get in a 25 minute nap around lunchtime. I'm not sure how realistic that is.

But I'm very excited about the prospect of getting 4 more hours every single day. I started today, so that means that I went to bed at 11PM and woke up at 2AM. I had 2 naps today (6AM and 11:30AM). My last nap will be at around 6PM.

I gotta admit that I'm pretty darn tired. But that's to be expected. If I can get through the adjustment period, this could be a sweet setup. It's currently 4PM and my internal clock says that it should be about 9PM. (based on my wake time) Having 4 extra hours make a heck of a difference.

P.S. I took my "extra" time today to read the new Dan Brown book. Meh. I don't read a lot of fiction, so I need to focus on stuff better than this.

Enjoy the crazy

One Year Later

For those of you interested, Boston.com has a good entry for the 1 year anniversary of Hurricane Ike in Galveston. I know it's something I won't forget.

More Pictures

If anyone is interested, I’ve uploaded my pictures of my trip to Playa del Carmen / Tulum and Caye Caulker.

Cruise

I made it back after being gone for a little over a week. That was a great vacation and was just what I was hoping for.

Most importantly (to me), I got to do / see a lot of stuff I've never done before. I got to:

...take a cruise

This is the most obvious. I'd recommend a cruise to most people. It can be not-too-expensive and most things are taken care of for you. You just have to show up.


Empty deck about an hour before sunrise

A cruise is generally what you want to make of it. They have plenty to do on the ship if you want to be active, or you can just lounge.

As for off-ship activities, they have a ton of pre-selected activities for everyone. Of course, I ran from those as fast as possible to create my own adventures.

...be far enough out to sea that I can't see land

This is obvious as well, but I've never done it before.


Sunrise on day 3

...visit Mayan ruins

This was my first individual outing. Part of the excitement was that I only had a few hours to do this and get back. If I didn't make it in time, the boat would leave without me. (they don't hold a boat with ~2,500 people for one idiot that can't read his watch)


Beaches of Playa del Carmen

That was compounded by not even docking on the same landmass that I wanted to visit. To get where I wanted to go, I had to:
1) Take a taxi to another port
2) Take a water taxi from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen (~30 minutes)
3) Get to the Tulum ruins (~45 minutes south of Playa del Carmen)

Of course, I could have taken a bus for that last step. Instead, I used a common form of public transportation in Mexico--the local van.

This is how it works: a company drives several minivans from one location to another. If you want a ride, you just flag them down and get in. When you get to your destination, you tell the driver and get off.

It's the same general theory as a bus, but they run all the time and are very cheap. My ride from Playa del Carmen to the Tulum ruins was about 45 minutes and only cost about $3.


Main temple at Tulum

The ruins were amazing. Very well preserved, but you aren't allowed to climb through them.

One of the other reasons I wanted to visit these particular ruins was for the beach and swimming. That beach was beautiful and the water was perfect.


Beach at Tulum ruins

I made it back to the ship 15 minutes before departure. That's a little close, but that was my schedule.

...visit a tiny, secluded island

This was the adventure I was most looking forward to. Via Lonely Planet, I learned about a key off of the coast of Belize that sounded like somewhere I wanted to visit.


Caye Caulker

Caye Caulker is a 45-minute water taxi ride from Belize City. There are only about 1,000 residents on the island and it's small enough that there aren't any cars.

This is a tiny little island that generally only well-traveled backpackers visit. I don't think I've ever visited a more quiet and relaxing place.


View of west coast

I walked up and down the length of the island in about 20 minutes and then laid in a hammock at the Lazy Lizard for a couple of beers. I think I'll go back there.


My new favorite spot

I was able to do several other things new to me (snorkeling, airboat ride through the Florida Everglades, hold baby alligator and croc), but I probably need to wrap-up this overly long post.

I'll just say that this has strengthened my resolve to travel more and take more risks. It was the risky parts of this trip that I'll remember forever.