poly mono

I'm going back to monophasic for a while. I was noticing a decrease in my memory and I was trying to deny it for a while. Last week it got really bad, with people telling me stuff like: "Jesus I just told you that 2 minutes ago". I usually have a pretty bad memory, but now I think it's getting out of control, and I need to be careful because I'm supposed to be getting good grades on my exams and I'm not cause I forget everything.

I will try polyphasic later though, and if it happens again then I'll definitely know what the cause is (first I should see some memory improvement now that I'm going back to monophasic, to be able to prove my hypothesis)

Messing up

I've been messing up big time lately. School is starting to get a bit overwhelming and even with all the free time I'm supposed to get I still don't have enough time.That plus the fact that I've been sleeping more, getting more headaches (stress), etc, etc. I don't know if I really want to fix anything though, I feel like I wanna go monophasic-ish for a couple days but at the same time I know I won't have time to do all the stuff I'm supposed to be doing. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (frustration)

1.5-hr core everyman

I tried to switch to 1.5 hour core sleep the other night and it didn't work out that well. I think that since I would need to take 4 naps instead of 3, what I should do is to first, take the 4 naps to get ready and then sleep 1.5 hours less. I was reaaally tired and napping felt like 20 minute deaths. Also I had a horrible headache but I don't think it had anything to do with less sleep, but it was hard cause all I wanted to do was to crash for hours. It eventually went away and I didn't feel like crashing anymore and just switched back to my faithful 3 hour core. I don't know if I'll be able to pull this off one day but I think it'll be easier if I don't have school going on.

I forgot to mention that it took me a good week to recover from the post-U2 mess up. I kept oversleeping. Now I'm back on track with no intentions on missing naps and/or sleep times.

still messed up

This is I think the first time this happens to me. I have no recollection of getting up, turning off 2 alarms, not caring about the wonderful smell of fresh coffee, going back to bed. This is scary. I used to think I would always be aware of these things, or that I would make the conscious decision of getting back in bed. So I was woken up at 5... great, there goes 2 extra hours of sleep that might potentially keep messing me up. I took a nap at 2ish and I'll be having dinner at 7ish so I don't know how I'll make my evening nap happen. Maybe I'll just sleep in the car while my fiance (I need to get used to this one) drives.

uh-oh

On tuesday, I completely messed up because I didn't take my afternoon nap plus my evening nap. It was all for a good reason though, I was going to the U2 concert and the excitement got me. Also I didn't go to sleep at my now usual midnight. So I did this: I went to sleep at like 2ish in the morning but only for 20 minutes, as if taking a nap. Why? because I had an exam that day and had to study somehow. The result was that I overslept at all my naps yesterday. I think it was like doing 1.5 hours each (I've noticed that if I oversleep I always wake up at 1.5 hour increments, I guess b/c that's how long my sleep cycle is). Today I haven't napped yet (4:12 p.m) so I'm about to do that right now. I'll take this one, bump up the next one to 8 and then sleep from 12 to 3. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back on track.

I'm also starting to get mentally ready for my switch to 1.5 hour core. I think I should set a date so that I force myself to do it as opposed to keep putting it off. We'll see.

ZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZ

nap mess up

So last night, I skipped my 7ish nap completely and today felt a bit like crap when I woke up at 3. But it was all worth it. I missed it because I was out celebrating my birthday with friends and my now fiancee. He proposed last night! I'm so happy I don't even think about how tired I am. I'll probably get back on track after my 2ish nap.

:) :) :)

Follow-up on test results

I'm so happy. I actually got 100% on my cell bio test. I still don't want to attribute this to polyphasic sleep until I know how many people in my class got the same grade.Still, it feels pretty cool. Hooray for me. On the other hand though, I completely forgot to do my Epidemiology homework. Dang.

biggest brain score: 2952

who has the biggest brain

Since I want to keep track of my mental abilities and make sure I'm not making my brain shrink with this sleeping pattern, I started playing who has the biggest brain? on facebook to have a somewhat accurate way of measuring how stupid this might be making me.
Apparently I'm doing alright:
09/21/09: @ 11:44 a.m: 2727
09/23/09: @ 3:53 a.m: 2735/ @ 5:40 a.m: 2677/ @ 11:57 p.m: 2722
09/24/09: @ 5:43 a.m: 2920--> still not my high score but better than 2 days ago.

Conclusion: this is not making me stupid (I hope! :) )

polyphasic sleep put to test

So all this time, I've been adapting while going to school. Tomorrow I have my first big test and this will give me a good sense on how good or bad I'm doing. I already know that I've been doing alright in the short quizzes, but this will be the real deal...FOR REALS.
It's my first Cell Biology exam and I hope I can do well. I pushed back my core sleep by an hour yesterday and will do the same tonight. So I will be going to sleep at midnight and getting up at 3. That gives me plenty of time to finish reviewing for the test.

About the naps, I had 3 really good ones today, I remember dreaming for the first 2. The weird thing is that for both (and this has happened before but I did a poor job at documenting) I woke up before the 20 minute mark. So I wake up but don't open my eyes and realize because of the sleeping track that I use, that I'm awake before I'm supposed to. I hope this means my body got all the rest it needed and therefore woke me up. I don't know. I'm going to look into it.

Good luck to me!

headache

The headache I started getting from the mojito night decided to continue on until I slept for many  many hours. This is the most I've slept since I went polyphasic: almost 8 hours. My headache is not even completely gone that's the worst part. I don't feel like my head will split in 2 any minute, but still, it hurts. I hope these are not the signs of disease :s

beer + mojito = polyfail

Damn. I had one beer and a mojito mix drink thing last night and when I got up at 4 a.m. as usual I had a major headache and felt like crap. I was hoping those long threads about polyphasic sleep and alcohol were made up. Well, it turns out they were not. Dang!

Now I have slept for an extra 5 hours. Not proud at all.

sleep track report

I used a sleep track that has 26 minutes of white noise + annoying noises at the end to make sure you wake up. It was awesome. I used it first during my 9ish nap. It was alright, but I didn't sleep much mainly cause there's people coming in the classroom and talking around me and moving my table. I used it again for my 2ish nap and it was great. There's a moment of silence between white noise and rooster, and that's when I got up, because of the lack of sound. Same thing happened for my 7ish nap. Great. This is actually turning out to be very interesting. I'm done studying for my quiz today and have some extra time to maybe watch hell's kitchen. Yay!

sleep track

Thanks to this polyphasic forum I visit now, I got this sleeping track thanks to the suggestion of another polyphaser.There are many tracks with different durations and they all start with some white noise (I think there's brown and some others maybe I'm not sure) and end with a series of annoying noises to help wake you up at the end of a nap. There's a rooster, a pig, and some other farm noises I believe. I downloaded it to my iPod and I should give it a try right before my biochem class for my 9 a.m. nap which has to take place at the classroom, otherwise I can't find a decent seat. I have to give credit to the person who shared this online though, so here's the link: http://www.placebo.serv.co.za/?page_id=7

I'll be posting my results later today. I'm actually pretty excited about this!

Rested

After taking my afternoon nap post-heat tiredness episode, I was still a bit sleepy for about half an hour. Then I took my evening nap but I was stupid and one alarm I had set a few days ago went off right in the middle of my nap. So I pretty much took 2- 10 minute naps in a row. I then suffered from mild muscle pain which makes sense, cause it's believed to have a relationship to sleep deprivation. My core sleep from 1 to 4 worked out great and I'm done with my lab notebook for class later today, I studied and I finished typing my resume and I'm doing laundry. All these, while my boyfriend snores away right next to me. I'm so proud of myself for managing to resist the urge of crawling back in bed with him. Points for me!

lack of sleep + heat + driving = bad combination

Today I had to drive for like half an hour and I felt soooooooo sleepy. My trips are usually around that length but today, the fact that I couldn't take a proper 9ish nap, plus no 2ish nap and the heat that was driving me insane, I was almost to the point of falling asleep behind the wheel. This is, of course, not safe. But I blame it mostly on the heat. If I start seeing a pattern, I might reconsider this whole sleeping thing for the sake of safety.

weekend

I failed big time over the weekend. Once again, I'm going to blame my boyfriend hehehe. Just the fact that he's there makes it really hard for me to get out of the warm bed without looking back.

On saturday night I managed to get up at 4 a.m. and make myself some tea and do some homework. But I was too tired and going back to bed seemed so wonderful at the time. So I did. Meaning I slept an extra 3 hours. Dang.

Today I just turned off my alarm at 4 and went back to bed. Total extra 5 hours. Dang dang. Let's see how it goes today. I already forecast not napping for a while since I'm a the school library and left my iPod in the car. No iPod = no nap at public place.

Maybe I can go get it in a couple hours after I get some school work done.

naps

Keeping up with the naps is proving somewhat challenging. I skipped 2 yesterday and took what was supposed to be the 3rd at around 7ish. When I went to sleep at 1 a.m I was dying and waking up at 4 didn't really happen until I walked around and had coffee. I have to be more consistent about naps :S

Doing pretty good

I was doing almost perfect until yesterday when I went out with friends and skipped the 7ish nap. I thought it wasn't a big deal but when it was time to go to sleep at around 1ish I practically died. Next thing I know, it's the morning. Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrghhhhhhhhhh. As in the morning morning, when it's bright and clearly most other people are awake too, unlike 4 a.m. when it's dark, quiet, and I'm convinced I'm part of just a few. The weird thing is, I slept a lot more than my now usual and felt suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper sleepy. Even after my 2ish nap I still felt really tired. Conclusion-->this everyman shindig is awesome. I just have to make sure I wake up when I'm supposed to.

Yay!

I didn't post anything the last few days because I was waiting to first be able to get some sort of pattern successfully accomplished. And I can say that since Sunday night I've been following this schedule with no problems: 1a.m. to 4 a.m. , 9ish , 2ish , and 7ish. I say -ish because with this schedule it's true that you get some flexibility. I still haven't been able to remember my dreams but I did wake up a couple times right before my alarm went off, (at the 20 minute mark) which means that my body is getting used to the idea of getting all the rest it needs in 20 minute chunks, no more than that. I still use an alarm though, and I think I will continue to use it b/c I don't wanna risk oversleeping :)

One thing that I find incredible is that as soon as I wake up (to the smell of freshly made coffee, I've set up my coffee maker to start 5 minutes before I get up) I grab my book, start reading and taking notes, and by the time I get to class I have all the information clearly stored in my head and I know I'm all over whatever my professor's saying. Which means my memory skills have actually improved. When I first started reading about polyphasic sleep I noticed a lot of people complaining about their short-term memory taking a nasty dive. Apparently, this is not happening to me and I hope it never does.

So for now, I can say : Yaaaaaaaaaaayyyy! I am awake for 20 hours everyday!!!!

starting over

Since it's the weekend, I gave in to the arms of Morpheus big time. Not that I think if I were on a pretty well established schedule I would do the same. It's more like "I've been failing already I might as well just fail all the way". I must say though, this was not entirely my fault. I could not possibly take naps at all yesterday because I had to be with someone the whole time; and that someone doesn't know about my crazy sleeping plans and I don't want them to know. Soooooo, I just couldn't do it. That plus the fact that I was staying at my boyfriend's and he's already made a comment on how terrible it is that we go to bed together and then a couple hours later my alarm goes off and I get up and do stuff while he still sleeps. Oh well.

But this doesn't mean I've given up completely. I'm starting again tonight. I'll sleep my 3 hours and do my naps tomorrow. If it goes well I'll keep doing it into the work week which also happens to be the week I start school again. My experiment is not over yet. Muahahahahaha....

Everyman Schedule

I read some info about the everyman schedule and I think I'm gonna start with one and then switch to the other one which is more hardcore. The 3 hour core-nap will be between from 1 to 4 a.m. and then I'll have 3 naps : 9-9:20 a.m. ; 2-2:20 p.m. ; 7-7:20 p.m. I'll eventually switch to the hard-core everyman schedule in which the core nap is only 1.5 hours long. I've already thought of a good schedule in which the nap will be from 1-2:30 a.m. with 4 naps throughout the day. Hell, maybe I'll just go for the other one right away. I slept for 3 hours last night but since I was recovering from dymaxion, after I woke up I was pretty much useless. I've also skipped a nap already (9-9:20) so I'd better take the 2 p.m. one. I hope this works. I hope something works. Sigh.

Oh God

After feeling great for like an hour I suddenly started feeling like I was about to die. I was falling asleep wherever I was if I was at the same spot for 30 seconds or more. I'm officially leaving the dymaxion experiment and switching it to everyman. I'll probably be taking naps at 9 a.m. , 2 p.m. and something else around 9 p.m. again. My core sleep would probably be from 1 a.m. until 3. Apparently, there's a lot more flexibility with this schedule. I want to at least try it before giving up completely and rejoin all the losers that sleep 7-8 hours a day hahahaha.

Day 4 Nap 2

I switched this nap to half an hour earlier and it worked! I was tired enough to do it and I guess the only thing I need to worry about now is being able to still take my noon nap. I think I'll be OK.

I found the best music to fall asleep to. I listened to Jack Johnson yesterday, but still I get very alert in between songs, so I figured having one song play after the other is not a good strategy regardless of how soothing it is. So this morning I chose one song that I would have my iPod repeat over and over. I picked Return to Innocence by Enigma. Awesome.

I can't believe it's only Thursday. It feels like it should be Saturday by now. I'm gonna make some coffee :)

4:18 a.m.

I'm feeling good! I've swept the floor of the hall outside my bedroom, switched coffee makers in my room, put away and counted jewelry that was just laying around (I have roughly 115 pairs of earrings), read some more of chapter 1 of my Biochem book and done all my nails. I'm considering taking my nap at 5:30 as opposed to 6 because I've already been interrupted twice during that time. It's too noisy starting at 6, which might just make it easier to wake up. I'm gonna read some more.

Day 4 Nap 1

Yay!!! No oversleeping this time! The 2 alarm method proved successful. I'm guessing I fell asleep maybe 5 minutes after hitting my pillow. I did feel like sleeping some more but was OK with the idea of staying up. I'm bummed I don't remember dreaming though, but hopefully I will next time. I'm now drinking coffee (just cause, caffeine doesn't affect me in the slightest) and playing brain games to check if I'm failing in any areas. I do seem to have even worse short-term memory than before (I didn't think it was possible) but my cognitive skills are A-OK. I actually have this weird "high" feeling, whatever it is. I feel like if I laid down I would probably go to sleep just fine but I'm excited about all the things I can do if I stay awake! I hope I can get a lot done :)

Day 3 Nap 4

It probably took me a good 10 minutes to fall asleep, but when I woke up I felt perfectly fine. It's 8:41 and I feel pretty good still. Let's see what happens after next nap. I'm implementing a new plan in which I have 2 alarms going on so that I MUST leave my bed. It better works.

Day 3 Nap 2(but for practical purposes Nap 3)

This was supposed to be nap #3 but because of my oversleeping last night I didn't take the 6 a.m. nap. I fell asleep after a couple minutes and I remember dreaming! It was a very nice dream too. But I don't know if I just don't remember the rest of the dream or it just lasted a couple minutes. I hope I can remember my dreams better from now on.

Comments: My energy is intact. I'm doing a lot of things at the same time without feeling like I have to compensate with eating. All I had to eat today was 2 pieces of toast w/ peanut butter, coffee, and cantaloupe with yogurt. Nice :)

Day 3 Nap 1 (oops)

It went ok. I got up when I was supposed to but, oh what a mistake, I stayed in bed "for a couple more minutes". Next thing I know it's 5:00 a.m. Crap. Now I'm not taking the next nap as a punishment :D . Let's see if it works. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh I'm so mad at myself.

Day 2 Nap 4

One word: awesome. I feel rested, full of energy, alert and I only slept for the allowed 30 minutes. I'm forecasting a better night than last night. Let's hope so at least.

Comments: Don't recall dreaming. I really want to start dreaming (and/or remembering) to make sure I'm getting the right kind of sleep.

Day 2 Nap 3

Like I said I was gonna go for my regular noon nap despite having overslept in the morning. Interestingly enough, I only slept for 20 minutes, again because of something stupid like the doorbell. I was very upset but then realized that those 20 minutes of sleep made a HUGE difference. I am now cleaning my whole house :D

I hope I don't get interrupted during my 6 p.m. nap or I should change the name of this blog to Tesla schedule instead of Dymaxion. The only difference is that all naps are 20 minutes long which means you only sleep for 80 minutes everyday as opposed to 120.

Day 2 Nap 2

I guess this would be the beginning of failure. I have to mention though, it might not be my fault entirely.I was woken up right at 6:15 a.m. and even talked to. I could kill right now, but am too tired. So what ended up happening is that I woke up at 7:30 a.m. I guess it's not too bad but maybe I'm gonna have to consider the everyman schedule (even thought the name itself is boring, as if there is no challenge to it). In this case I will be sleeping for like 3 hours during the night. I guess I would have to figure out the nap times which I think are only 3.

I'm still gonna go for the noon nap and see what happens.

Comment: last time I went to sleep I felt something weird, like I was sleeping but very aware at the same time, I don't really know how to explain it. This was also the first time I remember dreaming. My reflexes are good as usual (I could've really hurt myself with a blender blade).
Last night I cleaned my shower at like 3 a.m. while listening to Kings of Leon, then cleaned up some stuff from my room, finished folding laundry, went back to bathroom and cleaned some more, read a couple pages of a book, read online science articles, made a ton of money on restaurant city and did my best tf2 round ever. Because of these I want to keep doing it and have more time in my life. It feels awesome.

Tired

I thought for a moment I wasn't gonna make it until next nap (I might still fail) I'm soooo tired I'd better get some good sleep during next nap or I fear I'll be too tired during the morning. 40 minutes to go.

Day 2 Nap 1

Got up when supposed to but still feeling I bit tired. I'm going to play tf2.

Comment: This is the second time this happens today but I feel a little cold which is VERY unusual. Wearing a hoodie and munching on some raw almonds.

Day 1 Nap 4

This was officially my last nap of day 1 and it was awesome! I remember not falling asleep right away but I must've been in deep sleep cause when I woke up I felt refreshed, like if I had just taken a 4 hour nap. It's 9:23 p.m. and still feel great. I'm gonna check my restaurant in restaurant city, fold laundry, and read a book until midnight comes around and my day 2 starts. Can't wait!

Wired

I don't know what's going on but all of a sudden I have this urge to do 28379812374 things at once. Maybe my body's trying to drain itself from all energy available to get me ready for the 6 p.m. nap. I have to comment though that I think this is when my circadian clock originally determined I was supposed to be active. When monophasic I would usually feel pretty active around 5ish. I'm getting super excited about this now. Maybe by next monday I'll be Wonder Woman :)

Day 1 Nap 3

It went better than expected. I set my alarm for 12:30 p.m. and went to sleep right at noon. I remember not falling asleep right away but it must've been like 5 minutes when I did. The impressive part is that I actually woke up seconds before my alarm went off feeling a lot more rested than before. Weird. Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself on what a great idea this is and telling myself that I'm actually getting enough sleep from half hour naps.

Comments: It's 3:46 p.m. and I'm REALLY looking forward to nap number 4. I also have a slight headache but I couldn't know if it's sleep deprivation related or not.

So far I'm impressed with how well I'm sticking to the rules. Hope next nap is even better...

Day 1 Nap 2

I made it alright until the next nap which I scheduled for 6a.m. I am not exactly sure how much I actually slept but it must've been like 15 minutes. I would lay down earlier to make up for the time it takes to actually fall asleep but from what I've researched that is apparently a big NO NO.

It is 9:51 a.m. and honestly I could sleep some more right now, but I'm not going to :) Let's see if I make it until noon.

Day 1 Nap 1

I could say that it started with a failure. I determined my napping schedule to be at 12 and 6 a.m. and p.m. I went to sleep at 12 and my boyfriend woke me up at 12:15. There goes my attempt number 1. Wait....it's just the beginning, right? So I decided I could nap again but still take my next nap at 6 a.m. So I napped from 12:40 to 1:10 a.m. Right now I feel I can make it until 6. Let's see what happens.