Hey guys, long time no post.
So since day 8 I've had 2 more oversleeping incidents which have hindered my progress HUGELY! So day 6 was my first oversleep where I got 6 hours instead of 3 for my core.
After that incident I began setting 4 cellphone alarms 5 minutes apart for each nap but that didn't stop me sleeping 9 hours on day 11. That massive oversleep made me get out my ipod dock/radio and now I have it blast some tunes so oversleeping is impossible as long as I get out of bed before I disable the alarm.
The day after the 9 hour oversleep I woke up easily at 7, then I turned off the alarm instead of snoozing, rolled over for a quick 30 second rest then it was suddenly 9am. This has had a big impact over the last 3-4 days as it felt like I'd more or less started from day 4 again. Since that incident I haven't overslept and have had good discipline and can't see that changing now that I'm on a roll with a good alarm.
Please if you're attempting this don't rely on a puny cellphone alarm. Clock radios can output much bigger sound so I strongly suggest doing that because even if you have perfect "discipline" which I did until the oversleeping incidents you will sometimes not even wake up from the cellphone alarms.
The past few days since the last oversleeping incident have had quite a few hours of decent mental awareness and I've put in quite a few hours of poker to try and make up for the lost time from this experiment.
Day 15:
So I had my first dream nap at midday today! I was mega tired for it and was in the perfect state for sleep.
I was in this kind of desert, there was a road though and I had just escaped from this facility of some sorts. I was running around ES4: Oblivion style hitting people with gun or arrows or something, then I realised I was dreaming which was really weird and something that rarely happens for me. I continued for a bit then I accidentally commanded my eyes to open with 8 minutes of nap to go, stupid me ;(
My 5:40 nap was meh and my 11:30pm I don't think I slept at all but when it was time to wake up I felt in the perfect state for napping so my body is still a bit pwned from the oversleeps.
That said apparently the Everyman needs a level of customisation that isn't required in the Uberman. I'll keep going for a while on this schedule then maybe adjust my naps later if I'm never tired at a certain point or earlier if I'm mega tired at some point.
Thanks for reading and take heed to my alarm advice if you don't want to prolong the torture ;)
Alex
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Everyman : Days 7-8
Day 7
So yeah,
After my oversleeping incident on Day 6 which resulted in being pretty alert all day I had a teeeeerrible day on day 7. I woke up feeling about a -9001 / 10 because of being shocked back into polyphasic but I realise it didn't set me back too much. I was more tired than I've ever been and more nauseous, worse than when I quit the uberman the first time. The positive effect to this was that I felt so bad, I don't think I could have gone back to sleep without eating/drinking and fixing my physical state so I just lay there until I had the motivation to make some food, at which point my condition improved. Back to work I guess ;)
To be honest I can't remember crap from yesterday except copious (read: unhealthily excessive, but then again I'm getting 4 hours sleep a night) amounts of Anno 1404 aka Dawn of Discovery so I'm not going to bullshit you with numbers, I just know that I felt the worst out of the days so far on the Everyman but I also came closest to sleeping during a nap.
I was in the perfect state to begin sleeping 1 minute after I lay down, my eyes were heavy and my thoughts were calm as I drifted ever closer to that sweet state....Then my home phone starts ringing. I'm still calm at this point so I decide to let it ring out, then it starts ringing again. Now mood swings are pretty crazy during adaptation as you know how people get cranky if they miss an hour or two out of their night, and I've slept for around 30 hours in the past week.
Anywho I have to get out of bed or I'm going to punch a hole in the wall so I pick up the phone and its josh, a non polyphasic friend (i'm literally clenching my fists just thinking about this)calling to check if I'm awake cause apparently I should be. The first nap where I've felt sleep is a forgone certainty and can't wait for the feeling afterwards. I tell him to politely refrain from disturbing me during nap times and he said he thought my nap was 30 minutes earlier.
Why do people even have phones? Skype solves.
Anyways so I'm irritated as hell and return to bed only to arise 20 minutes later feeling like a bag...no a sack of shit, an 85kg sack of shit. Here the josh, have a trophy!
So yesterday was crapness personified and because my memory is so bad all I can remember is the very very recent past, so it seems my whole adaptation so far has been crap. Well this changed today!
Day 8
Yeah I lied about being able to remember the very recent past, I literally can't recount what I did this morning, but I sure can make a guess, games. So the day progresses as normal, I feel good approaching the 12pm nap, afterwards feel tired for an hour then after eating lunch I have passable alertness.
I'm pretty sure I slept during my 5:40 nap, not because I remember anything but because I felt a 6.5/10 up until my 11:30 nap where honestly, I didn't feel tired at all (compared to earlier days) maybe like I had a full monophasic sleep but got woken up once in the night and haven't been feeling that hot.
So I played poker throughout that time period because I gotta start trying to fit in some work into my most lucid time periods to make up for the 5 days or so of no poker whatsoever.
It's 12:52am now and I feel pretty decent, probably about as I would feel if I had simply stayed up to 12:52, maybe even a bit better because I was used to going to bed before 11.
For dinner, got some chicken and chopped it up, added some dark soy sauce and mixed it in with some chinese style rice risotto, was pretty damn tasty.
Kinda afraid tomorrow will be sucky, not sure why but it just seems like anything can happen on this schedule.
Oh and some sad news, as of this moment adrian has pulled out of the experiment citing no appreciable improvement and not a huge amount to gain from adaptation to the schedule which is understandable with the possibility of retrying if he ever has an activity to motivate him enough. If it weren't for poker I can't think of a possible use for the extra time unless I was playing SC2 for a living or something.'
So I'll leave it there for today, I will post every day from now on just because I forget important happenings along the way and it might just help you in the future!
Ballin' out of control, 20/7/365
Alex
So yeah,
After my oversleeping incident on Day 6 which resulted in being pretty alert all day I had a teeeeerrible day on day 7. I woke up feeling about a -9001 / 10 because of being shocked back into polyphasic but I realise it didn't set me back too much. I was more tired than I've ever been and more nauseous, worse than when I quit the uberman the first time. The positive effect to this was that I felt so bad, I don't think I could have gone back to sleep without eating/drinking and fixing my physical state so I just lay there until I had the motivation to make some food, at which point my condition improved. Back to work I guess ;)
To be honest I can't remember crap from yesterday except copious (read: unhealthily excessive, but then again I'm getting 4 hours sleep a night) amounts of Anno 1404 aka Dawn of Discovery so I'm not going to bullshit you with numbers, I just know that I felt the worst out of the days so far on the Everyman but I also came closest to sleeping during a nap.
I was in the perfect state to begin sleeping 1 minute after I lay down, my eyes were heavy and my thoughts were calm as I drifted ever closer to that sweet state....Then my home phone starts ringing. I'm still calm at this point so I decide to let it ring out, then it starts ringing again. Now mood swings are pretty crazy during adaptation as you know how people get cranky if they miss an hour or two out of their night, and I've slept for around 30 hours in the past week.
Anywho I have to get out of bed or I'm going to punch a hole in the wall so I pick up the phone and its josh, a non polyphasic friend (i'm literally clenching my fists just thinking about this)calling to check if I'm awake cause apparently I should be. The first nap where I've felt sleep is a forgone certainty and can't wait for the feeling afterwards. I tell him to politely refrain from disturbing me during nap times and he said he thought my nap was 30 minutes earlier.
Why do people even have phones? Skype solves.
Anyways so I'm irritated as hell and return to bed only to arise 20 minutes later feeling like a bag...no a sack of shit, an 85kg sack of shit. Here the josh, have a trophy!
So yesterday was crapness personified and because my memory is so bad all I can remember is the very very recent past, so it seems my whole adaptation so far has been crap. Well this changed today!
Day 8
Yeah I lied about being able to remember the very recent past, I literally can't recount what I did this morning, but I sure can make a guess, games. So the day progresses as normal, I feel good approaching the 12pm nap, afterwards feel tired for an hour then after eating lunch I have passable alertness.
I'm pretty sure I slept during my 5:40 nap, not because I remember anything but because I felt a 6.5/10 up until my 11:30 nap where honestly, I didn't feel tired at all (compared to earlier days) maybe like I had a full monophasic sleep but got woken up once in the night and haven't been feeling that hot.
So I played poker throughout that time period because I gotta start trying to fit in some work into my most lucid time periods to make up for the 5 days or so of no poker whatsoever.
It's 12:52am now and I feel pretty decent, probably about as I would feel if I had simply stayed up to 12:52, maybe even a bit better because I was used to going to bed before 11.
For dinner, got some chicken and chopped it up, added some dark soy sauce and mixed it in with some chinese style rice risotto, was pretty damn tasty.
Kinda afraid tomorrow will be sucky, not sure why but it just seems like anything can happen on this schedule.
Oh and some sad news, as of this moment adrian has pulled out of the experiment citing no appreciable improvement and not a huge amount to gain from adaptation to the schedule which is understandable with the possibility of retrying if he ever has an activity to motivate him enough. If it weren't for poker I can't think of a possible use for the extra time unless I was playing SC2 for a living or something.'
So I'll leave it there for today, I will post every day from now on just because I forget important happenings along the way and it might just help you in the future!
Ballin' out of control, 20/7/365
Alex
Monday, April 5, 2010
Everyman: Day 6
Fail.
Alex
I didn't awaken from my core sleep at 7 but slept through till 10 when I got a cell phone call from dad, faildrian failed (as faildrians do) to give me a ring after I didn't come on teamspeak or contact him for 3 hours citing "you're probably at stephs" as a reason.
To be fair our logical centres are really, really shot at the moment and I failed to call him after he overslept during our Uberman attempt however we've made a new rule where we always at least text the other person if they aren't on teamspeak within 15-20 minutes of the nap's end time and if they don't reply we give the other a call, we're gonna add each other for bestmate to save on call money ;))))
In a way, adrian is now my night boyfriend who has me for the other half of the day when my gf is sleeping which is kind of lol, or at least heh.
As for the day unfortunately the oversleep provided me with lots of energy but I was still tired after naps and didn't manage any sleep which I expected. SO frustrating given how I had been going so well and had even slept in a nap the day before.
As expected I have been pushed back in my adaptation, I'm guessing one or two days based on how I feel now (it's the morning after core sleep 7, I feel like I did after core sleep 5)
Right now I feel as I did in the morning of 2 days ago, after being woken up mid-core by my mousy friend. Basically tired as bitch, and I anticipate some excellent tiredness throughout the day but that's awesome for increasing the chances of sleeping during naps so I'm in a pretty good mood given the pain I'm in ;)
Time for an unproductive day of mindf**kkery and misery, but at least you get 1% happier reading about it.
Alex
Oh yeah almost forgot, NEW COMPUTER!!!! l33tness and m4dsk1llz.
For anyone that way inclined I got an i5-750, 5770, 2x2gb, p7p55d-e inside an antec 300.
M
When I try to make a heart it says HTML error so you're gonna have to settle with ..!.._o_O_..!..
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Everyman : Day 5
So yeah, today got off to a terrible start and didn't get much better until I went around to the gf's place for a swim and to catch up in the evening(i've been hermiting it up mostly thus far).
The psychological effect of the anticipation of having a good time took away the tiredness for a good couple of hours which was great as my emotions had been a rollercoaster that day. I'm coming to realise just how good the brain is at getting its way. It teases you with the sweet release of sleep, nudging and poking at you progresses into shoving and lead piping -> face'ing.
It's a war I'm winning though, even though I'm severely tempted by morning/evening snuggles etc. and luxurious 9 hour stretches of slumber I keep repeating to myself "After adaptation, I can say it's possible and viable for the future then evaluate whether I want to stay or change back" because it's an unfair fight to make a good choice whether to keep on going or halt the experiment due to the feelings of tiredness.
What I mean is that I feel like changing back right now more or less entirely because I am sleep deprived, I might think the benefits > the disadvantages once I'm adjusted and in a healthy state of mind. I suspect this will be the case because I was mega pumped before both attempts in a healthy state.
Today in a way was good because the sleep deprivation hit me so hard, which means I'm bound for sleep during naps in the near-near future which is the next step towards adaptation.
Now, I *think* I slept during a nap an hour ago (11:30 pm), but I'm not 100% sure and it was a really weird phenomenon.
1. I remember turning out the lights, setting my alarm to 11:50, rolling over onto my right side no less and trying to think of calming thoughts.
2. Next thing I know is I'm lying there, conscious and I can't remember if I set it to 11:50 am or pm so I check my phone again and its already 11:49. Wtf? I thought, wait a second is my nap meant to be at 12? What is going onnnn you crazy bastard! Either my memory is shot (this is a certainty, but not certainly the cause) or I slept, albeit dreamlessly for nearly 20 minutes (possible w00t!).
Will report on my next naps which will be tomorrow!
Alex
The psychological effect of the anticipation of having a good time took away the tiredness for a good couple of hours which was great as my emotions had been a rollercoaster that day. I'm coming to realise just how good the brain is at getting its way. It teases you with the sweet release of sleep, nudging and poking at you progresses into shoving and lead piping -> face'ing.
It's a war I'm winning though, even though I'm severely tempted by morning/evening snuggles etc. and luxurious 9 hour stretches of slumber I keep repeating to myself "After adaptation, I can say it's possible and viable for the future then evaluate whether I want to stay or change back" because it's an unfair fight to make a good choice whether to keep on going or halt the experiment due to the feelings of tiredness.
What I mean is that I feel like changing back right now more or less entirely because I am sleep deprived, I might think the benefits > the disadvantages once I'm adjusted and in a healthy state of mind. I suspect this will be the case because I was mega pumped before both attempts in a healthy state.
Today in a way was good because the sleep deprivation hit me so hard, which means I'm bound for sleep during naps in the near-near future which is the next step towards adaptation.
Now, I *think* I slept during a nap an hour ago (11:30 pm), but I'm not 100% sure and it was a really weird phenomenon.
1. I remember turning out the lights, setting my alarm to 11:50, rolling over onto my right side no less and trying to think of calming thoughts.
2. Next thing I know is I'm lying there, conscious and I can't remember if I set it to 11:50 am or pm so I check my phone again and its already 11:49. Wtf? I thought, wait a second is my nap meant to be at 12? What is going onnnn you crazy bastard! Either my memory is shot (this is a certainty, but not certainly the cause) or I slept, albeit dreamlessly for nearly 20 minutes (possible w00t!).
Will report on my next naps which will be tomorrow!
Alex
Saturday, April 3, 2010
FML (Everyman Day 4 and morning of 5)
Day 4
Oh snap,
Today I woke up feeling the worst I have thus far in the experiment and didn't really perk up all that much during the day except maybe after lunch in the afternoon, this seems to be the best time for me.
I've also noticed a trend that at my 5:40/11:30 naps I don't really feel tired at all but afterwards I feel like total crap, I'm spending 20-25 minutes getting into a sleep-worthy state. I guess that makes sense, I've never been able to get to sleep easily/fast in my life but hopefully the sleep deprivation will take over and make it happen, that's the whole theory behind this thing isn't it?
Morning after 5th night of sleep:
Oh christ, I think the only reason I didn't throw in the towel straight up was the sheer sense of nausea brought on by hunger, i.e. I couldn't just roll over and go back to sleep and be done with it I needed to get up and eat and afterwards (now) I just feel really tired, which is infinitely better.
Gonna have to take some extra effort to do sleep-inducing activities before each nap like spacing out and staring at the wall or reading. I can't really take much more of this, but that might be a good thing because it means my nap sleep is 1 step closer.
Got some social interaction today so hopefully I get some sleep and aren't a total zombie.
Ho hum, it seems like I've been on everyman for weeks but I guess that's what happens when your days are really really long.
To anyone thinking of trying this, I guess everyone is different and maybe it'll turn out my body can't handle the adaptation, this is really hard. Try to learn from my mistakes
Time to man up,
Alex
Oh snap,
Today I woke up feeling the worst I have thus far in the experiment and didn't really perk up all that much during the day except maybe after lunch in the afternoon, this seems to be the best time for me.
I've also noticed a trend that at my 5:40/11:30 naps I don't really feel tired at all but afterwards I feel like total crap, I'm spending 20-25 minutes getting into a sleep-worthy state. I guess that makes sense, I've never been able to get to sleep easily/fast in my life but hopefully the sleep deprivation will take over and make it happen, that's the whole theory behind this thing isn't it?
Morning after 5th night of sleep:
Oh christ, I think the only reason I didn't throw in the towel straight up was the sheer sense of nausea brought on by hunger, i.e. I couldn't just roll over and go back to sleep and be done with it I needed to get up and eat and afterwards (now) I just feel really tired, which is infinitely better.
Gonna have to take some extra effort to do sleep-inducing activities before each nap like spacing out and staring at the wall or reading. I can't really take much more of this, but that might be a good thing because it means my nap sleep is 1 step closer.
Got some social interaction today so hopefully I get some sleep and aren't a total zombie.
Ho hum, it seems like I've been on everyman for weeks but I guess that's what happens when your days are really really long.
To anyone thinking of trying this, I guess everyone is different and maybe it'll turn out my body can't handle the adaptation, this is really hard. Try to learn from my mistakes
Time to man up,
Alex
Friday, April 2, 2010
Everyman : Day 3
So yeah, today I was shocked to wake up almost instantly, seemingly seconds before my alarm went off from my core sleep and I felt perfectly awake. It's probably a mix of luck and REM taking hold at the end of my core as that's the sleep that has you feeling refreshed when you wake up during it so I think in any case it's a good sign.
Anyways, I felt okay all day which was pretty nice, it allowed me to get some decent poker in and go out for dinner. My brother and I went to pick up dad from the airport ~5:30ish and the plan was to go straight from there out to dinner (my nap time is 6:40 at the moment, will 5:40 post DST).
I took the nap while on the way to the airport and in the parking lot. While the car was stationary, I felt like I was nearly falling asleep and had the typical imagery before sleep occurs but then my naptime was up. My brother commented that for a few minutes my breathing changed, so I think I might have gotten a few minutes of sleep which is encouraging.
It's quite a weird sensation though, not being able to tell if you're sleeping, and hopefully this doesn't lead to any oversleeping related difficulties.
I don't know if it's related to taking my nap an hour earlier but after my 12:30 nap I felt really crappy compared to the decentness of the rest of the day. It also could have been that I had nandos for dinner & had a coke at the movies (meant to stay away from caffeine and "heavier" meals) but meh, I'll definitely avoid it for the next while ;)
Day 3 alertness summary :
Woke up at 8am feeling great, was quite perky for the rest of the day until my 12:30am nap which was an hour ago, I've eaten and I still feel tired but then again I'm getting quite a bit of daytime functionality, definitely not the same quality as pre-polyphasic but I'm lucid enough to drive a car safely and get in some poker volume but I'm getting almost the same quantity as before at this stage in the adjustment, which is nice because it mitigates somewhat the work down-time I expected from this attempt.
I don't however want to jinx it, today might have just been a lucky alignment of factors but we'll see over the next few days how it all pans out.
Time to go kill 3 reasonably useless tired hours while the rest of the world is hibernating :P
Alex
Anyways, I felt okay all day which was pretty nice, it allowed me to get some decent poker in and go out for dinner. My brother and I went to pick up dad from the airport ~5:30ish and the plan was to go straight from there out to dinner (my nap time is 6:40 at the moment, will 5:40 post DST).
I took the nap while on the way to the airport and in the parking lot. While the car was stationary, I felt like I was nearly falling asleep and had the typical imagery before sleep occurs but then my naptime was up. My brother commented that for a few minutes my breathing changed, so I think I might have gotten a few minutes of sleep which is encouraging.
It's quite a weird sensation though, not being able to tell if you're sleeping, and hopefully this doesn't lead to any oversleeping related difficulties.
I don't know if it's related to taking my nap an hour earlier but after my 12:30 nap I felt really crappy compared to the decentness of the rest of the day. It also could have been that I had nandos for dinner & had a coke at the movies (meant to stay away from caffeine and "heavier" meals) but meh, I'll definitely avoid it for the next while ;)
Day 3 alertness summary :
Woke up at 8am feeling great, was quite perky for the rest of the day until my 12:30am nap which was an hour ago, I've eaten and I still feel tired but then again I'm getting quite a bit of daytime functionality, definitely not the same quality as pre-polyphasic but I'm lucid enough to drive a car safely and get in some poker volume but I'm getting almost the same quantity as before at this stage in the adjustment, which is nice because it mitigates somewhat the work down-time I expected from this attempt.
I don't however want to jinx it, today might have just been a lucky alignment of factors but we'll see over the next few days how it all pans out.
Time to go kill 3 reasonably useless tired hours while the rest of the world is hibernating :P
Alex
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Everyman : Day 2
Hello all,
It's been a decent day after my second core sleep. The most tired I was during the day was by far after my core sleep -> 1pm and immediately after 1pm.
I had lunch at around 1:30 and after that I perked up and till now (9pm) and I'm still feeling decent and thus have put in quite a few hours of poker today, trying to put to good use this adaptation time, leaving gaming to when I'm feeling crappy.
I should probably have a rating system for my tiredness in relation to my old monophasic ways.
1-10 where 1 is the worst I've ever felt and 8 is the best I felt during monophasic, 9 or 10 being my hopeful target once I've adjusted to polyphasic.
So far the best I've been at is a 6.5 due to the excitement of this schedule + straight after a decent tasty meal + having some hilarious times playing games at awkward hours with Adrian.
After core sleep I was at a 2.5, and really felt like going back to sleep and had similar thoughts before I failed previously but then I managed to tell my wimpy brain to shut up and was a solid 3.5 till midday.
Waking from my 1pm nap was tough but after I ate I was at around a 5 and didn't notice I had slept 8 hours over the past 2 nights.
Haven't been getting very hungry and have been very diligent about eating lots of small meals etc. and have stayed away from easter eggs....for now. I'm probably going to binge out on Sunday and crash but hell, if Easter is about anything, it's about mother-flippin' chocolate bunnies and Warehouse half-off, post-easter egg sales.
Will have to interact with human beings in real life tomorrow as my dad is flying in from Aus. so we'll see how I go there.
Go forth and multiply!
Alex
It's been a decent day after my second core sleep. The most tired I was during the day was by far after my core sleep -> 1pm and immediately after 1pm.
I had lunch at around 1:30 and after that I perked up and till now (9pm) and I'm still feeling decent and thus have put in quite a few hours of poker today, trying to put to good use this adaptation time, leaving gaming to when I'm feeling crappy.
I should probably have a rating system for my tiredness in relation to my old monophasic ways.
1-10 where 1 is the worst I've ever felt and 8 is the best I felt during monophasic, 9 or 10 being my hopeful target once I've adjusted to polyphasic.
So far the best I've been at is a 6.5 due to the excitement of this schedule + straight after a decent tasty meal + having some hilarious times playing games at awkward hours with Adrian.
After core sleep I was at a 2.5, and really felt like going back to sleep and had similar thoughts before I failed previously but then I managed to tell my wimpy brain to shut up and was a solid 3.5 till midday.
Waking from my 1pm nap was tough but after I ate I was at around a 5 and didn't notice I had slept 8 hours over the past 2 nights.
Haven't been getting very hungry and have been very diligent about eating lots of small meals etc. and have stayed away from easter eggs....for now. I'm probably going to binge out on Sunday and crash but hell, if Easter is about anything, it's about mother-flippin' chocolate bunnies and Warehouse half-off, post-easter egg sales.
Will have to interact with human beings in real life tomorrow as my dad is flying in from Aus. so we'll see how I go there.
Go forth and multiply!
Alex
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