Day 5

I seem to have slept in two 90 minute blocks. It was supposed to be a 1.5 + 4 day, but when I went to bed for my 10:00 am nap, I didn't wake up until 11:30. I suppose today was an experiment in split-core Everyman. It worked beautifully. I took/will take all my naps on schedule, and there were no sudden waves of grogginess. If I should have a class early in the morning next quarter (with about two hours until the next class), this is exactly what I'll do.

Day 4

Day 4 was a 3 + 3 day; I had an exam, so I only had time for three naps.

My dorm played a game of broomball in the evening (the opposing team, incidentally, was Caradoc and Aethelwine's dorm, although only Caradoc actually played). Broomball is essentially ice hockey in sneakers with "broomsticks" and a foam ball (two, in this case). It was incredibly fun; I've never played anything like it in my life! Of course, since I didn't really know what I was doing, and was slipping like crazy on the ice, I ended up spending half the game stickfighting on my knees. I have a few mashed fingers and some enormous purple bruises on my knees, but it was worth it. I can't wait for the (tentative) rematch!

And the only real relevance of the above is that I swung my nap by about an hour and a half (half an hour more than recommended maximum) -- I slept in the car on the way there. Did not affect my (nonexistent) broomball skills.

It occurs to me that I haven't checked my sanity in a while. Here are today's results.

Short term memory tests
Numbers: 11.31
Letters: 13
Words: 33

Day 3

Today was another 1.5 + 4 day. I was sorely tempted to make it 3 + 3, when I had to make the decision at 6:00 am, but considering I really do have to adapt, I forced myself out of bed. (Willpower, I haz it. (sometimes)) This core sleep business can be very aggravating at times; it's twice as difficult to wake up from during adaptation, and presents the temptation of "just one more REM cycle, it's only 6:00". It's way too easy to be tempted at 6:00 am.

I had quite a frightening dream at 11:30 pm. I was on a battlefield, in the thick of the fray, with a long, blood-soaked pike I clearly snatched off the ground; I could barely lift the thing. The field was slick with dew and blood, the mist so thick that no one could see more than a few feet in front of their noses. I could hear the piercing, shrill screams of horses as they were cut down (Was it horse blood on that pike?), the clash and scrape of blades and armor, the groans of dying men, and the shouts of the living. I could only really see the few men immediately next to me, all pikemen from the broken line, gathered in a tight half-circle, a desperate last stand against a mass of cavalry we could not see -- but we could hear them thundering towards us. I brace the pike against the ground as best I can, unwieldy though it is. The head and shoulders of the first horse breaks through the mist. The rider raises a bloody sword, slashing a wide arc into the huddled infantry. I duck -- and slip, and fall into the wet grass -- and a body falls across me. The horse's ironshod hooves descend -- the alarm rings, and I wake up.

Day 2

I decided that I should restart the day count for Everyman; hence, it is day 2.

I had a normal 1.5 + 4 schedule today. I was running maybe 10% in the morning (7:00ish) -- it seems harder to get up from core sleep than it does from a nap. Although I suspect it has a lot to do with the time of day. I used to absolutely hate mornings; now, I do enjoy them -- I just wish my body would change its mind!

I also swung one of my naps about 20 minutes, with no discernible ill effects. So far so good.

Day 1

Just finished my first day on Everyman. I had my core sleep at 4:30, intending to wake up at 6:00, but overslept and woke up around 9:00. Bummer. But the great thing about Everyman is that I can compensate for oversleeping by cutting the number of naps I take the rest of the day; on Uberman, there was no correcting for slip-ups. Because I had stuff to do (and wasn't tired), I just took the last two naps of the 1.5 + 4, rather than shifting to a 4.5 + 2 schedule for the day. Went admirably. Bounced right up from both naps.

Now I have to core sleep. Good night (morning?), all.

Day 19: A Decision

My sleep schedule as of now is a right mess. It's somewhere between Uberman and 3 + 4 pseudo-Everyman, and in defiance of logic, that's nothing close to 1.5 + 4 Everyman. This needs to be fixed. Ergo, I have come to a decision two days in advance. Looking back at my "Thoughts on Everyman" posts, the pros heavily outweigh the cons. I'm switching to 1.5 + 4 Everyman.

Schedule as follows (+/- 30 minutes' flexibility):
4:30 - 6:00 am -- Core Sleep
6:00 - 10:00 am -- Morning Block
10:00 - 10:20 am -- Nap
10:20 am - 2:30 pm -- Noon Block
2:30 - 2:50 pm -- Nap
2:50 - 7:00 pm -- Afternoon Block
7:00 - 7:20 pm -- Nap
7:20 - 11:30 pm -- Evening Block
11:30 - 11:50 pm -- Nap
11:50 pm - 4:30 am -- Night Block

Day 18.2: More Thoughts on Everyman

One fascinating thing I've discovered about Everyman is that once adapted, you can vary your core-to-nap ratio day-by-day to fit your schedule. You could literally decide on the number of naps you want to take/would be convenient on a particular day, and adjust your core sleep to fit. You could even go monophasic (eight hours) one night with little consequence, as long as you went back to Everyman for the next week or so. I like the sound of this! This means that I can pretend to be biphasic, or even monophasic, over Parents' Weekend. (Note: my parents have somehow figured out that I've been "sleeping less", though they don't know the whole deal, thank goodness. I just got a talking-to over the phone last night.)

One significant downside to Everyman that just occurred to me is jetlag. I fly quite a bit, and I'm not sure how jetlag would affect my core sleep. See, under Uberman, I would never get jetlagged; I'd just have to match the timing of my naps to Pacific Standard Time, wherever I happen to be. For instance, if I spent a few days on the East Coast, my naps in EST would be one hour earlier than they were in PST, but would actually be happening at the same absolute time. Presumably, my core sleep under Everyman would be short enough that even though it would be matched to a PST absolute time, it wouldn't conflict with whatever I'm doing locally.

I suppose I should work out the 3 + 3 and 4.5 + 2 schedules as well; they'd be good to have on hand. The 2:30 nap, of course, is fixed, unless I skip it all together. On the other hand, the core sleep period shouldn't change dramatically; I should be adding to the original 90 minutes, rather than moving the entire thing. The naps, though, are extremely flexible +/- 1 hour on 3 + 3, and +/- 2 hours on 4.5 + 2.

3 + 3 = 2:30 pm, 7:30 pm, and 12:30 am naps; 4:30-7:30 am core
4.5 + 2 = 2:30 pm, 10:30 pm naps; 4:00-8:30 am core

Wow, just looking at that... 4:00-8:30 feels almost sinful.

Day 18.1: Thoughts on Everyman

I messed up again this morning! 45 minutes, from about 9:30 until the "almost naptime" alarm at 10:20. This core sleep just isn't going away, is it? (A pox upon ski trips!) It just kills me to know that had it not been for ski trip, I would probably be on Uberman right now. I was doing well that first week!

Something I mentioned to Caradoc last night: It would have been so much easier had I had someone else to do it with. The idea behind polyphasic support groups is that you prod each other and keep each other awake, providing external stimuli to stave off sleep. It's terribly hard to fight the sleep monsters when I'm stuck being very quiet alone in the dark, with my roommate asleep a few feet away, and the entire dorm also asleep throughout the hall. (The lounge doesn't helps much; the couches are soft enough to be tempting.) Being very quiet in the dark is easier with someone else.

Anyhow, let me work out an Everyman schedule, because from the way things are looking now, I'm going to need it...

The 2:30 pm nap cannot change, because of my class schedule. Ergo, I would have to shift my other naps, to make slightly longer blocks between naps. I would have one at 10:00 am, one at 7:00 pm, and one at 11:30 pm. Some of these might become a tad inconvenient, because I had originally planned my schedule to fit Uberman, not Everyman. Ah, well, I can swing it about half an hour either way. Core sleep would be 4:00-5:30 am, or 4:30-6:00 am, depending on when I got tired. I'll end up tweaking it; Everyman, being non-equiphasic, is more about feeling out your circadian rhythms than about sticking to a rigid, periodic schedule.

Oh, and before I forget...

Short term memory tests
Numbers: 11.67
Letters: 13
Words: 29

I'm doing fine on these, but I sure hope there aren't any more sudden amnesic moments.

Day 18: An Assessment

Temporary bout of amnesia aside (I knew I jinxed it yesterday!), I think need a better plan. Or rather, a plan, of any sort, to replace my current nonexistent one. I've been stuck in a rut ever since snow trip, and this needs to change.

Major Development: I am considering the Everyman schedule.

What is the Everyman schedule?
The main difference between Uberman and Everyman is core sleep. That is, under Uberman, I should never sleep more than 20 minutes at a time. On an Everyman schedule, there is a core sleep (sometimes two) of at least 1.5 hours, in addition to naps throughout the day. It is based on the fact that one normal REM cycle is 90 minutes long. A monophasic sleeper getting 8 hours (really 7.5 hours) a night is getting 5 REM cycles. The idea is that a nap can replace a core sleep REM cycle, by compressing the non-REM stages of sleep. Everyman is the classification of any schedule between Uberman and biphasic that involves a multiple of 1.5 hours of core sleep, and the corresponding number of naps (4.5 hrs + 2, 3hrs + 3, or 1.5 hrs + 4).

Uberman vs. Everyman, a comparison
Uberman: more waking hours, more rigid schedule, more severe sleep deprivation to adapt, more difficult adaptation, shorter adaptation phase
Everyman: (the differences between this and Uberman grow more pronounced with longer core sleep/fewer naps) fewer waking hours, more flexible schedule, lighter sleep deprivation to adapt, easier adaptation, longer adaptation phase
One blogger who has done both (I forget which, but I think it was Puredoxyk), summed it up nicely: On Uberman, you adjust your life to fit your sleep schedule; on Everyman, you adjust your sleep schedule to fit your life.

Uberman or Everyman?
Other than satisfaction of curiosity, what I hope to get out of a polyphasic schedule is more awake time. We already know that once fully adapted, the quality of my waking hours should be equal to, if not greater than they were in high school or last quarter (I was chronically sleep-deprived in high school). But I want a few more hours, too, mostly in my weekdays (I don't mind hibernating on weekends). I know that I can survive and be functional on about five hours of sleep on weeknights. I'd say, therefore, that totaling any more than four hours a day isn't worth it, because there wouldn't be an increase in waking hours. Thus, the Everyman schedules I'm considering at the moment are 1.5 hrs core + 4 naps (total sleep = 2 hrs, 50 mins) and 3 hrs core + 3 naps (total sleep = 4 hrs).
It appears that I have been unintentionally adapting to a 3 hr core + 4 naps schedule. Not quite Everyman (one nap too many), but just about. The easiest course of action at this point is just to cut one nap and finish adapting to this. But I don't want to settle for easier (never have, and never will). Recall that one of the main attractions of Uberman is its maximal efficiency. The only real appeal of the 3hr + 3 schedule is its flexibility; once adapted, I would be able to swing naps +/-1 hr, whereas on the 1.5hr + 4, I would only have +/-30 min leeway. Still, compared to Uberman, +/- 30 minutes is divine; the rigidity of the schedule is starting to wear on me. I think I'll wait until the end of week 3 (day 21) and see if the situation improves before I decide if I want to switch.

Day 17.1

A quick post -- two things:
1. I had dinner today! Seriously, two (cafeteria) meals in one day hasn't happened since... at least ten days ago. It feels like such an accomplishment.
2. It's getting more difficult to motivate myself to get out of bed after naps. Possibly indicates a decrease in enthusiasm for the experiment (the novelty was definitely part of what got me out of bed the first few days). Also likely has to do with the "unadapting" that I've done.

Day 17

That was very odd. I just woke up to my 6:20 "almost naptime" alarm. The thing is, I have absolutely no idea how I ended up asleep in bed in the first place; I distinctly remember getting up at 2:50. My phone wasn't even next to the pillow, which is where I put it directly before each nap -- it was on the desk several feet away. And I had my bathrobe on; I would hardly sleep in a bathrobe! My best guess is that I must have woken up at 2:50 to the second alarm, thinking it was the first, and thinking, "one-minute snooze", fell asleep again. But then a) the robe? and b) how'd the phone get over there?

However it happened, very frustrating. I was halfway to breaking the ski trip core sleep, I thought!

Day 16

I love doing laundry during the dawn/morning blocks; I have the laundry room all to myself. It's also terribly difficult to actually fall asleep while loading and unloading washing machines. The physical mass of cold, wet cloth in one's hands is quite effective stimulus. I'm certain if I had to hold a live fish for three hours straight, I would have no trouble staying awake for the duration. And then afterwards, folding clothes is the sort of mindless physical task that's just perfect for near-zombie levels of consciousness. I'll be doing dishes tomorrow morning.

I'm starting to break the core sleep; mornings are just terribly difficult around now.

Short term memory test
Numbers: 14
Letters: 12.5
Words: 29

Day 15

I didn't oversleep today! Of course, I was quite tired the entire day, and was a complete zombie for most of the morning block (I'm talking maybe 2% full, with frequent bouts of microsleep). Still, this means that things are looking up. Here's to hoping the sleep schedule doesn't take another nosedive.

I also had lunch today, for the first time in weeks! Admittedly, considering that I had planned to skip dinner today, that's not quite the accomplishment it seems. Oh well.

This is the third week, isn't it? Day 15. By now, the adaptation phase is supposed to be largely over -- bummer. I was doing well, too! I'll stick it out for another week; I shouldn't have been set back more than that, methinks.

Short term memory tests
Numbers: 11.4
Letters: 13
Words: 30

I forgot about this yesterday, didn't I? Well, seeing as there doesn't seem to be much of a change, I don't think it made much of a difference. I'm not an amnesiac yet, so it's all fine and dandy.

Day 14

I missed the inauguration! Of course, I got the speech transcript, and found it on Youtube later, but it's terribly disappointing nonetheless. I really need to break this oversleeping-during-morning-block habit before I get stuck in a rut. I think what's happening is that I've unintentionally adapted myself to core sleep + 4 naps over the past few days. So now I really need to break out of it, considering it's already become a habit. The upside is that I'm less tired most of the time, but that's not really an upside; it will all go away once I start readjusting to Uberman.

Day 13

I overslept this morning. I think I actually woke up about halfway, turned off the alarms, and went back to sleep. There's the willpower slipping, I suppose. The thing is, I don't think this would have happened had I not overslept the previous two days. I've accustomed myself to oversleeping -- bad news. Now I have to break the habit. I hope that doesn't take too many days. I should be adapted already!

The rest of the day was fine. I just need to keep myself awake late in the dawn block and most of the morning block.

Snow Trip: Days 11-12

Day 11.1
There is nothing terribly exciting to report (no news is good news, here) for the rest of the day. I think I've learned a bit about sleeping with lots of noisy drunk people all around me. The polyphasic soundtracks I blogged about before came in handy; they're not noise-cancelling, but it's much easier to fall asleep when there's just enough fuzz such that you can't make out what people are saying.

Day 12
More oversleeping happens. I fall asleep while writing a paper on the couch (I know, the couch was a terrible idea), at 8:30 am or so, and don't wake up until my "almost naptime" alarm rings at 10:20. Yes, that's another two hours of extra sleep! I skip the next nap, figuring that the oversleep counts as a swing (I swing naps within a ten-minute cushion on either side). Even so, my schedule has been seriously thrown off -- and I was getting close to the end, too!

I've discovered a rather frustrating, pervasive sense of misplaced sympathy in the dorm. That is, most of my dormmates are very concerned about this experiment, and think it's a tremendously bad idea. Hence, when they see me passed out on a couch, even when I'm not supposed to be asleep at that hour, they think that I need the sleep, and so take care not to wake me up. They don't understand how harmful it is for me to oversleep; the more strictly I cleave to my schedule, the quicker this adaptation phase will go. The sleep schedule went smoothly the rest of the trip, but I'm probably physiologically back in day 5 or something.

Snow Trip: Days 10-11

So... the blogging into a text file during ski trip never quite happened; I was having too much fun, to be honest. I did end up going skiing, despite the concerns of one of my RAs. He actually sent me an e-mail the morning before we left, saying something along the lines of "the high altitude and your sleep schedule won't mix well; it'd probably be too dangerous for you to ski". But I did, and I'm fine, and it was so much fun!

Unfortunately, my sleep schedule was blown to bits. Here's what happened, and then we'll see how many pieces I have to pick up.

Day 10.2
We left sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 pm. We pull into a rest stop for dinner at 6:15; we're given about 45 minutes on the ground. I buy my food in a hurry, and then conk out at 6:30 against the wall in a booth in a fast food place. It's the first time on this schedule that I've napped outside of the dorm (which usually means my bed or a lounge sofa). It takes me a little longer than my usual two or so minutes to fall asleep, but otherwise, that nap was fine.

We arrive in front of the house in Tahoe at 10:20 pm, but don't actually start unloading until fifteen minutes later, I'm told, because the RA who'd gone to get the keys hadn't gotten there yet. I take my nap right on schedule at 10:30, and am the last one off the bus at a little before 10:50 (with the friend upon whose shoulder I was sleeping). That was uneventful; so far so good.

Day 11
Trouble, in the form of oversleeping, strikes. I sleep on a couch at 2:30 am. I wake up around 5:00. Two hours of oversleep! Two hours! I panic when I can't find my phone, but a controlled panic, because everyone else is asleep. I do work, I think, with the intention of calling my phone from someone else's phone when people start waking up to go ski. My phone sounds muffledly (is that a word?) at 6:20; turns out, it had slipped between the cushions of the couch. That was probably why I overslept, though at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if I started sleeping through alarms.

I sleep at 6:30 anyhow, because accustoming oneself to a pattern is important. I am woken up a minute or two early by the convening of skiers in the kitchen a few feet away. I turn off the alarms and change into ski gear.

The next nap is tricky, because by 10:30, we would already have completed rentals and hit the slopes with all our gear. Fortunately the timing worked out exactly; the gondola ride up to the top of the mountain is 17 minutes long, which served admirably for my noon block nap. I'm surprised at how quickly I can fall asleep in ski boots in midair.

I took it easy this time; though flying down the slopes at breakneck speeds is great fun, actually breaking my neck is not. I didn't want to get hit by a wave of tiredness on the mountain and have to fight it coming down. Instead of taking blues and blacks as I would normally have done, I taught two of my friends how to ski, and we stuck to greens and blues. (That was an adventure in itself. One of them took 2/3 of a slope on his belly.)

The 2:30 nap happened in the ski lodge, since it was around lunchtime anyhow. I can fall asleep in noisy crowded rooms on hard tables in minutes! Then again, I can also fall asleep standing up on the subway, so it is perhaps not such an accomplishment.

Day 11 to be continued...

Short term memory tests (Day 13)
Numbers: 12.13
Letters: 15
Words: 29

It doesn't seem as though the two day hiatus has had any real effect on my scores. The letters one is surprisingly high, but that doesn't seem terribly significant.

Day 10.1

Before I forget, I must warn you that there will be no internet access in the ski cabin, ergo, I won't be posting for the weekend. Just so you know I haven't died or anything. I'll "blog" into a text file, and back-date them when I get back to the dorm.

It seems that I have a part of one block a day where I turn into this lethargic zombie-creature. Today it was the middle of the morning block. A lot of times, it's the end of the dawn block or the beginning of the morning block. Is this just my body bucking the last vestiges of its practically non-existent circadian rhythm, I wonder?

I had a semi-lucid dream this time! Of course, I've learned to be suspicious of any dream that involves flying. It's strange -- I'm willing to accept most dream-logic when dreaming, but flying has been a recurring dream, so much so that I can almost subconsciously recognize it as a dream. It involves sort of swimming through the air (though nothing quite as vigorous as, say, a freestyle stroke). I dreamt that a friend of mine from home lived in a creepy, dinghy apartment building, the top floor of which was a museum. She happened to be the curator, by the sole coincidence of living on the correct floor. The elevator was one of those hand-crank types with a folding grille, and I recall bobbing up and down therein, while it was stuck. I had to catch my flight across the country -- I was going back to college, it seems -- and having tea one last time before I went. I discovered I lost my passport somewhere along the way (possibly while flying up an escalator). I managed to sort of tell my dream-self where in the suitcase I usually keep it in real life, but when we looked, it wasn't there. I remember flying through a series of tunnels and bridges to get back to the museum-house to look for said document, and ending up in the roof garden, where I observed two of my friends in a heated dispute over a parking ticket. I never did find out what happened to my passport, though I believe the official explanation at the airport was that one of the museum artifacts ate it.

Day 10

The dawn block has been quite interesting (if frustrating) thus far. I got into a debate with a drunk person. Never a good idea, especially, methinks, when you're a debater like me. I tend to take it a bit more seriously than is warranted, even when it's not a formal debate. I really should have learned not to by now, especially considering that this isn't the first time I've had drunken (on his part) debates with this particular person. He too easily gets under my skin; lack of logical coherency will do that.

It actually began as a question of the effects of alcoholic intoxication versus sleep deprivation, which I feel somewhat justifies my blogging about it (also, it might provide some entertainment). See, he argued that my current level of sleep deprivation impaired my mental faculties to the degree that alcohol would. I disagreed, of course, and volunteered to take a (surprise!) short term memory test with him, and he assented.
I brought him to the same website I've been using throughout the experiment (I happened to click on the letters one.). I thought thusly: I did not want to comb Google looking for a reliable one when I already had a perfectly good one. He, upon seeing the page, rather reasonably asked if it wouldn't be unfair, because I had taken it before. So far so good. I assured him that it was randomized, that I had taken the same test for over a week with no appreciable increase in score. He begins the test. I immediately regret not logging out; he was going to tank my score for today! He made his first mistake at six! Having been victim to many careless errors myself, I allow him two more mistakes (He bottoms out at ten letters with a score of 7.25). Then, things get hairy.
"It's not a fair test," he says. "You probably just have a better memory than me."
Umm... (First sign that this will not end well.) My rebuttal shapes up thusly: a) It's a completely objective test; it's as fair as it gets. If I did in fact have an inherently better memory, it is no reflection on the quality of the test itself.
b) You agreed to a memory test in the first place. To renege upon the agreement with "but you're better than me" is unfair and distasteful. If you're afraid of losing, don't play.
He says, "I didn't know it was testing English letters! You're probably just better at English letters! That's why you picked it!"
My rebuttal: a) You have the nerve to question my honor (perhaps a little less eloquently, but I got the point across). Dear readers, if you know anything about me, know that there is little I value more than my honor. Given that my fuse seems to be a bit shorter with sleep deprivation, I think it was a good thing he was drunk when he said it; I don't generally make drunk people answer for their words, especially considering their severe disadvantage. But I digress. Just know that I wasn't beginning this debate in the best frame of mind; I don't take kindly to this sort of challenge.
b) Questions of honor aside, if you thought I would take unfair advantage, you need not have agreed to the test in the first place.
c) Would you prefer a test of Arabic numerals?
He says, "I didn't know it was going to be letters! And you're probably better at those too!"
Rebuttal: a) It's a flipping memory test -- what the hell did you think it would involve, if not letters or numbers?
b) If you think that my memory is superior in the majority of testable areas, then why did you agree in the first place? Recall that the specific purpose of this exercise was to test sleep deprivation versus inebriation -- this comes with the tacit assumption that our memories are somewhat comparable in a sober, rested state.
He says, "Well, what about shapes or something? How was I supposed to know that you would pick English letters [implication: when you're better at those]? You never asked me! What if I picked Gujarati [his ethnic background]?"
Rebuttal: a) Shapes would be valid; unfortunately, this website does not offer the option. (I have my reservations about testing "shapes" at a college level of mathematical skill, but that is a different kettle of fish, which I did not bring up.)
b) (This one is so obvious, I can picture you rolling your eyes.) If you had chosen Gujarati, that would have been entirely unfair, seeing as I don't speak the language. That is not an analogous situation, because we both speak English.
c) I never asked you what type of memory test you prefer, but I have the decency (perhaps unlike yourself) to select one in a field with which I assume we're both familiar.
Things rapidly spiral down the drain. He smugly latches onto the word "assume" as if it were the Achilles' heel of my case. "Oh, you assume," he says patronizingly, leaning in. Keep in mind that he is two feet away from me, breath reeking of alcohol -- I am not inclined to be charitable.
"Yes. It is a valid assumption that we both speak English, considering the language in which we are debating." Annoyed with his (drunkard's) tactics, I add, "Raising your voice and talking over me do not help your case." I really should just learn to walk away from this sort of thing. Several minutes later, speaking in a stage whisper, he accuses me of being loud. I kid you not.
Now, the debate goes on for a while, and it doesn't get any better. He raises the amusingly irrelevant example of "What if you picked Chinese?" (I wouldn't.) He said, less irrelevantly, that if two people have inherently unequal memories, then the comparison no longer works. (True, but you seemed to think the comparison was fine until you saw your results.) He seems to think that repetition will make his comparison of Gujarati to English somehow more valid, and argues that my talking in a normal tone of voice while he whispers clearly indicates that I am deranged. He accuses me of cheating because I'm looking at the screen while he takes the test (as if I would let a drunk person use my computer unsupervised). Finally, thank goodness, my roommate has the good sense to declare that she needs her sleep, and he leaves.

I suppose the (only) good thing to come out of this is that it kept me awake and alert the entire block.

Short term memory tests
Numbers: 12
Letters: 11.04 (skewed results; just think about how long it took me to get it up from 7.25!)
Words: 28

Day 9.1

At the risk of this turning into an dream diary (though I maintain that the quality of the dreams is somehow relevant), I had a dream involving a frozen swimming pool and acrylic paint. There was apparently an auction being held in a toolshed in the wilderness, and the two most eye-catching items involved were large canvasses done in acrylic. (They also happened to be the work of a college friend of mine, who, as far as I know, does not paint in real life.) Now, this little whitewashed shed doubled as a locker room for people who used the swimming hole not far away. I'm not sure what happened, but at some point, there were Asian ladies in bright floral print swimsuits climbing up the shelves of the toolshed, and the paintings were thrown into the water, which then promptly froze over, to prevent us from retrieving them. And then it rained packing peanuts. Indoors.

I woke from this dream rather groggy, and understandably a tad disoriented. (Wait... where'd the styrofoam bits go?) I was at about 75% for ten minutes or so, but now am at 90-95%. It appears that it takes ten to fifteen minutes for me to "recover" from a nap (that is, to get myself up and running at my maximum capacity for that block). If I don't recover by the twenty minute mark, then I spend that block running half-empty, or worse.

We depart for ski trip tomorrow afternoon. Here's to hoping it doesn't destroy my schedule!

Day 9

Today, I zombified out during the dawn block, rather than the morning block. Hence the lack of post/test results; that's when I usually take the tests, if you hadn't noticed. Here they are, much delayed.

Short term memory test
Numbers: 12
Letters: 12.5
Words: 28

These things are quite time-consuming. Not whinging or anything, of course.

Day 8.1

I was an absolute zombie this morning. You may think you know what being zombified feels like after an all-nighter or two -- you have no idea. I've been there, and this was twice as bad. If the aftermath of two consecutive all-nighters is 10% functionality, I was at maybe 2%, where 0% would be brain-dead. It took an astonishing amount of willpower not to crawl into bed and hibernate. I probably spent three hours just staring at the wall before my 10:30 nap. I had my laptop open and everything -- I just could not focus on it for any length of time. I had actually meant to post the very strange dream I had, but again, just was not physically capable of typing it out. That post read, "I had the weirdest dream jus t now. It wassssn;r luciid pwewsonne i and folledo'nt finmmmmm" at which point I clearly gave up. I'm not sure what the second sentence is supposed to mean...

I can still remember parts of the dream, though not as clearly as at eight in the morning, if I was at all capable of remembering anything then. Interestingly, it wasn't a completely lucid dream, but one wherein I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't real, but I was too caught up in the situation to really do anything about it. I was being chased through an abandoned warehouse, and some homeless guy pops out of a filing cabinet. He was terrifying; he had a massive, dirty grey beard, crooked teeth, and these absolutely feverish, murky yellow eyes in an otherwise expressionless face. I jumped out of a window.
Fortunately, it was snowing outside, and I landed in a snowdrift. It was getting dark out, and the only real light came from the orangy-yellow streetlamps. For some reason, I decide that instead of running away, it would be a better idea to try and hide in a pile of snow that was all of two feet tall. The people who were chasing me come into view; one of them is this pale, dark-haired lady in a black fur coat, carrying a walking-stick sort of like Lucius Malfoy's in the films. I seem to find that stick more frightening than the knives and pistols everyone else was carrying; she poked it into the snowdrift and I burst out of the other side, flat-out sprinting. She cries "After her!" and "Off with her head!" in a distinctly Queen of Hearts way.
I end up in the middle of a highway; I leap onto a passing taxi and somehow fall through its (open?) moonroof. All the cars start bottlenecking, and I know I'm being chased, so I yell, "Hurry up! Don't stop!" or something along those lines at the driver. He turns around -- and it's the homeless guy!
And that's all I remember. Wow, my subconscious is one messed up place.

Day 8

I'm finally starting to get tired at the right times -- a little before when I'm due for a nap -- which is a very good sign. That's me telling myself I should probably catch some shut-eye soon. Doesn't stop me from getting tired at the wrong times, but I expect (hope!) that will change as I adapt further.

Short term memory test
Numbers: 11.5
Letters: 12.33
Words: 30

Day 7.2

This nap was rather easy to wake up from; it feels like I've slept an hour, rather than only 20 minutes. And I had a dream! There were these mice (like the ones from Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of NIMH) living in a little underground town, and they ate cockroaches. They packaged live cockroaches in white cardboard tubes, and one would make a meal. I got to watch them being packaged in this lavender colored room; the machine looked like those baggage scans at the airport. At some point, the mice turned into people, except they looked like animated, cartoonish, mouse-sized people rather than real live people. One of them popped the lid to her tube of lunch, and the roach poked her in the eye! And then her friends lamented the fact that she could no longer go to the ball, since she needed eye surgery. Odd.

Speaking of lunch, it just occurred to me that I forgot to eat breakfast and lunch today. I think what happened was: I was thrown off by the extra sleep I got this morning, and forgot to eat breakfast. I then told myself that I would make up for it by eating lunch instead. Then lunchtime came and went, and I'd completely forgotten that I had vowed thusly, and assumed that I should skip lunch, as usual. Hmm... I'm not hungry, either. I'll remember to eat dinner though; I usually eat dinner.

Day 7.1

I definitely lost half an hour this morning. After my morning block nap, I did a bit of stretching and computering, and then settled down on the couch to do some reading. Next thing I know, I'm sort of curled up sideways against the armrest, I can't breathe, and it's 8:00 am. I gasp (surprise? lack of air?) and leap off the couch and finish my reading sitting on a table.

I don't even think I woke up particularly tired from that nap. I suspect it's the cold; my immune system's probably complaining and/or conspiring to throw me off this schedule. It's not my fault the bug's coming around before I've adjusted, sheesh. Although, in some weirdly ironic way, I likely only woke up after half an hour (as opposed to sleeping through classes) because of that cold wreaking havoc on my sinuses.

I wonder how far this will set me back?

Day 7

Feeling icky and a bit groggy after that last nap, but I'm not sure whether it's the sleep deprivation or the cold. I've moved past the sneezing phase into the itchy throat and sinus drainage problems phase. It's a major nuisance when napping; it takes longer to fall asleep, and I'm waking up to a very dry mouth. Running 75% full, or something thereabouts.

Short term memory tests
Numbers: 13
Letters: 12.75
Words: 25

I definitely had some trouble focusing during the words test, considering it's 90 seconds long (the others run multiple 10 second intervals). Sleep deprivation, anyone?

Day 6.3

Dashing this off quickly before I go to class:

That was the fastest I've ever fallen asleep. I literally pulled the blanket up to my chin, put a t-shirt over my face, and conked out. I was super tired going in, kind of average waking up (didn't want to), now running on 80-85%. The previous nap was similar, but less extreme. I think the sleep deprivation is starting to catch up with me. This is when the willpower needs to engage...

Day 6.2

Not about polyphasic sleep, per se, but... Wow, I had forgotten how wonderful it is to be outside early in the morning. I don't mean just awake, I mean out of doors. It's sunny today, blue skies, not-too-cold weather (that's somewhere between lukewarm and sockless-ankles-are-freezing), and campus is just beautiful before rush hour. Having lived in a big city all my life, I can certainly appreciate large swathes of green grass, fountains, and low buildings with wide-open skies in between.

It's not that I've never been outside early in the morning before; I was out the door at 7:00 am every morning in high school. It's not even that my cold seems to be going away (orange juice + green tea + cough drops). It's just that I've never really been this awake at eight in the morning, on the other side of the day. Usually, if I'm awake enough to appreciate the squirrels at this hour, it's because I haven't gone to bed yet. It's somehow different, having just woken up. I'm really getting to like this being-up-in-the-morning business, not just for the extra time in my day, but also for its own sake. I think I'll make this my running-errands-on-bike time, because a beautiful morning, however awe-inspiring, isn't quite enough to replace efficiency.

Day 6.1

I have discovered a remarkable, remarkably simple new concept -- the mini-snooze!

Now, the iPhone has its snooze function preset at nine minutes. Obviously, a nine-minute snooze would be devastating for an Uberman sleeper. But the effective time for these "20 minute" naps is actually somewhere between 18 and 23 minutes, depending on the person, the time of day, and a whole host of other factors -- so it's not completely inflexible, either. Enter the one-minute snooze.

Remember how I've set two alarms, spaced a minute apart, for each nap? Rather than waking up at the first one and turning both of them off as usual, this time, I switched each of them off as they sounded. I had another minute of horizontal time, during which I was awake (fiddling with a touch screen slider will do that) but not quite out of bed. The gradual wake-up (as gradual as a minute can get) is wonderful, the 100% full brand of wonderful; so much better than forcing myself upright as soon as the first alarm goes off, for fear of the comfy bed/couch/sleeping surface luring me back into the snares of sleep.

Oh, and I had a dream! Not only was it a dream, it was a semi-lucid dream! I've always wanted to have more lucid dreams. (I've only ever had a few.) I recall thinking, quite distinctly, I would be so amused by this, were I awake. I should try to remember it, so I can have a good laugh later! Unfortunately, I seem to be having some difficulty remembering what exactly it was that I found so funny in my dreamscape. There was a lot of dark green, and at least one other person, but that's as far as it goes. O, ye gods of irony, pick on someone your own size for once!

EDIT: Mini-snooze = wonderful; both feet falling asleep, not so wonderful. I managed to get off the couch (yes, half an hour later; the laptop is a foot away) and fall like a sack of potatoes onto the floor. Probably a better wake-up call than any number of alarms.

Day 6

This nap (dawn block) was somewhat easier to get up from. Actually, I thought I was running at >90% when I first woke up, but after a few minutes, it feels more like 80-85%. I was quite tired going in, and really looking forward to that nap! I think the sleep deprivation is starting to noticeably build up, though that should have happened a few days ago, methinks. Hmm... we'll see how it looks after the next nap.

Short term memory tests
Numbers: 11
Letters: 12.5
Words: 29

Day 5.2

This nap (night block) should not have been nearly so difficult to wake up from. The alarm did wake me up, but the physical act of getting out of bed was practically impossible. Would that be a result of today's crazy messed-up nap times, I wonder? I'm kind of scared that I reset my body clock today, in some odd way, so I would need to start over (as in, tomorrow would be day 1 again). That would be awful; I would be losing five days of adaptation! I need those five days! I'm going on a ski trip with my dorm this coming weekend, and microsleeping while hurtling down a mountain is just a fundamentally bad idea.

Day 5.1

I'm back in my room now, and feeling rather disoriented. Clearly have learned a lesson about intensive messing-about-with my sleep schedule, at least during adaptation phase. My naptimes thus far today looked something like this:

normal until parents came to get me at 10:15 am
10:20 - 11:00 am in the car (I was anticipating not sleeping during the day.)
4:10 - 4:20 pm, also in the car
6:15 - 6:40 pm, on the way back to school

I'm not sure what sort of an effect this will have. It might have thrown me off completely. Ah well, tomorrow will still be day 6 of the experiment. Almost a week.

Day 5

I think I'm coming down with some sort of cold. It's rather sudden; I didn't even feel sick yesterday. I don't think the polyphasic sleep schedule had much to do with it, aside from perhaps the sleep deprivation chipping away a bit at my immune system. Let's see how quickly I can recover from this on a polyphasic schedule; monophasically, it never takes more than a week.

Today is the day of the funeral (my grandmother's, if you were curious). Any emotional imbalance aside, it should wreak havoc on my sleep schedule. Naps will have to shift to "whenever convenient" (i.e. whenever we're in a car), and one or two might not even happen. We'll see how it goes.

Short term memory tests
Numbers: 11.38
Letters: 12.3
Words: 32

Day 4.2

I definitely had a dream this time. (Huzzah for REM sleep!) I'd suspected I've been having sort of mini-dreams these few days, but this time, I actually sort of remember parts of it. I was in the cafeteria of my high school (which was a very bright white before it was renovated) where one of my former art teachers was having class. We were making these grey styrofoam things with wires sticking out of them (explosives?). I was working across from a blond boy I didn't recognize, who had a sprained wrist in one of those black padded velcro gloves, and was having some difficulties with a giant pair of scissors; he was holding them at a very awkward angle, and he looked liable to stab someone with them. There were also all these broken raw eggs. I'm not sure where they came from or how they related to anything. Maybe he stabbed them?

I woke up at 6:40 feeling like I'd just slept for an hour, and I thought I'd overslept before I looked at the clock. I went back to sleep when I realized I had ten minutes to go, and now I'm a bit groggy. Running at about 90%, I'd say.

Day 4.1

Overslept (by about half an hour) on the 10:30 am nap. I never sleep through alarms -- and I mean never. What I do sometimes is, I take a peek at the time, and make the conscious (often very bad) decision to snooze/turn off the alarm. So I was terrified when I found that it was 11:30, and I didn't remember ever hearing the alarm go off. But then I checked my phone, and the alarm wasn't there. As in, I probably accidentally deleted it! And threw myself off again! WHY???

I set an extra alarm for each nap, a minute off, so I don't do that again. My primary alarm sounds like, as a friend put it, a nuclear bomb alert, and my secondary is my father's very obnoxious ringtone, both of which should be able to wake me up, even when I'm absolutely miserably sleep deprived. Which I'm not, probably because of that half hour. I'd say I'm running 95% full right now, and that's sitting in front of a chemistry textbook.

Day 4

I did end up getting some food in me after all; I went some of my dormmates off campus to In-n-Out. Not the healthiest stuff, but at 11:00 pm, you take what you can get, especially when someone is offering to drive. It was actually kind of strange; I was in the middle of my 10:30 nap when my roommate comes in to grab her wallet or something. I hear her key turning in the lock, and immediately wake up. She says, "We're going to get food, now. You still haven't eaten, have you. You should come with." I glance at the clock, which now reads 10:46. I say, "Sure, could you get them to wait five minutes?" I promptly fall back asleep, wake up a few seconds before the alarm goes off, change clothes in the remaining minute, and meet them in the hallway. All that happened in five minutes. I'm more than a little surprised that I managed to fall asleep and wake up in the space of four minutes.

Short term memory test
Numbers: 13
Letters: 12
Words: 26

I really think I'm just starting to learn the test at this point, even though the content is randomly generated. I'm only running 70% full right now.

Day 3.3

I survived Wushu (武术, Chinese martial arts) practice during evening block. Actually, I didn't observe any great difference in functional capacity -- granted, I'm a little more sore than I usually am after Wushu, but that's probably more to do with my lack of practice over break than the sleep schedule, methinks. But then again, I'm not very good at Wushu, so it's really more that my ineptitude has not increased, rather than that any (nonexistent) ability remaining intact.

I left practice about 15 minutes early to ensure that I got back to my room in time for my night block nap, and gave myself 30 minutes instead of 20, because the floor, despite the rug I bought, isn't very comfortable to sleep on. (I hadn't had time to shower, so there was no way I was going to sleep in my bed!) Unfortunately, because that nap ended at 7:00, I missed dinner. Talk about remembering to eat, eh? I'd forgotten all about dinner when I was setting that alarm!

Day 3.2

I've been thinking about the slip-up this morning, and I can venture a guess as to why that happened. It's because of Late Night, or rather, the lack thereof.

I'd said that I'd be having three meals a day, one of them during the night block, remember? Well, I haven't really been going to Late Night. A confluence of factors, namely dormmates not going, and my forgetting. This is fine under a monophasic schedule, but under this one, I think I do really need those three evenly-spaced meals. Without Late Night (even though I do have apples and things in my room), my metabolism probably slows down right around 4:00-8:00, which is directly before my getting breakfast. Hence the tiredness and sleepiness occurring around then. This basically boils down to: I need to remember to eat at night. Hmm...

I definitely zonked out a bit in math today. It was some dreadfully tedious stuff (half the class was spent reviewing material from the previous lecture), so I'm not terribly surprised. It's just... one would think that the extra hour I'd gotten would have helped.

Day 3.1

Fail! I came back from my morning nap all groggy and decided to do some stretching to wake me up. Next thing I know, I'm flat on the floor (very awkwardly, mind) and it's 8:12 am. I've just lost an hour of my life, and that's a setback of half a day or so. How frustrating!

I suppose it's good that I didn't spontaneously fall asleep for four hours or more. I can take all my subsequent naps on schedule and basically pretend that this never happened. I've lost a significant amount of that sleep debt I'd accumulated, but oh well. Let's see the sort of havoc this plays with my internal clock.

Day 3

And now begins the descent into hell (on earth). According to Aethelwine, whose experiment lasted for about 20 days, days 3 through 10 are absolutely miserable. That's about a week when I'm expected to be basically a zombie. Oddly enough, I feel incredibly awake right now. I can sit on the bed without any temptation to fall asleep. Definitely 10/10.

Regarding the out-of-ten system I've been using... I don't like it very much. Firstly, it's easy to forget whether I'm measuring alertness or tiredness (i.e. mixing up the two ends of the scale). Secondly, it's not very precise. (I know, measuring tiredness isn't very precise to begin with, but I like as much precision as I can get.) Halves would be annoying, but acceptable; any more decimals would be pushing it. Therefore, I think I'll switch to (whole number) percentages. Not only would it be out of 100, but when I comment that I'm running on, say, 85% full, it's self-evident that I mean 85% of maximum capacity.

Short term memory tests
Numbers: 10.85
Letters: 13
Words: 32

This is really strange. My "numbers" result for today has gone back done to approximately my day 1 number (though it's still a smidgen bigger), but my "letters" result is definitely greater, and my "words" result is a whole five words more! It shouldn't be happening like this; it's day 3! I'm supposed to be a great deal more sleep deprived now than I was two days ago. I'm less tired than I was at this time yesterday, to be sure, but day 1? Perhaps I am learning the test, so to speak. Even though the content is mostly randomized and changes each time, the format remains the same. Hypothesis subject to change, mind. We shall wait and see.

Day 2.2

I just took my evening block nap. The afternoon block went quite smoothly; I had three back to back classes, and was running mostly full in all of them. I zoned out for a few minutes in one of them, a lecture class, probably with a smattering of very short microsleeps (not more than 15 seconds each, I'd say), but I caught that pretty early. Besides, the lecture was quite good, so it wasn't hard to make myself focus on the professor. The rest of the time was definitely 10/10.

Day 2.1

It just got quite a bit more difficult. Towards the end of the dawn block, I was hit with this massive wave of sleepiness. I sort of had my eyes half-open, and was walking in circles in the small space that is my dorm room, because I knew if I sat down, I'd fall asleep. (3 out of 10 for the drowsy wave. It would be even lower, if I had not started walking.) There were definitely moments when I sat at my desk, doing absolutely nothing because I was completely drained of motivation, zoning out and staring at the wall, and then microsleeping a few times (I'd guess no more than 30 seconds each), and realizing I need to stay awake, and the knitting dangling from my fingertips just isn't doing it, leading to my getting up and pacing up and down the room. (Whew, run-on sentences!) But then I took my 6:30 am nap, and things got better.

The morning block nap was a bit of an adventure. I went out to the lounge, where someone had switched off all the lights (the lights are often on at night). I thought perhaps it was to conserve energy, and thought nothing of it. I went to the couch I took last night, and found that it, and a number of other couches, all had sheets and piles of blankets on them. My first thought (remember, I was tired) was Oh, how nice! Let me find the biggest, softest pile! And I almost sat on the poor guy before I realized that they were actually a bunch of drunk people who couldn't make their way back to their own dorms last night/this morning, and so had to stay over. The dorm had a party on a Wednesday night; can you believe it?

Anyhow, so I napped on a couch in the foyer instead. It was probably the shortest it has ever taken me to fall asleep. And I had a dream! I don't remember it very well, but I know my mother was in it, and something happened in the dream that caused me to wake up a few minutes before I was supposed to. I went back to sleep, and let the alarms wake me up.

Morning block has been fine. A little grogginess at the beginning, but that's mostly from waking up. After the shower (no mishaps this time!) I was really very awake (I'd venture a 10 out of 10). Showers are wonderful for waking me up. I might end up showering twice a day, when I get tired enough to need constant waking up.

Day 2

I'm starting to feel the drowsiness. I woke up from my 2:30am nap rather groggy, and this time, it didn't go away nicely like it did last time. I'm not having too much trouble staying awake; as long as I don't lie down, I should be fine. I can sit in a chair in front of the computer without too much difficulty; I don't need to resort to jumping jacks out in the cold or anything. Occasionally getting up and pacing around the room seems to mitigate most of the sleepiness. I'd call it a 6 out of 10, on the same scale as yesterday.

Short term memory tests
Numbers: 12
Letters: 11.57
Words: 25

Those results don't differ significantly from yesterday's. Actually, the "numbers" score even went up, which is odd, considering I'm definitely more tired now.

Day 1.3

I just finished the last nap of day 1. I actually snuck out of house meeting early to take my nap; I suppose my dorm will just have to get used to my scurrying off at 10:25.

Today went very smoothly; except for those few minutes in chemistry, I was completely awake and alert throughout. 9 out of 10 for the day, I'd say, 10 being least sleepy (quantitative system for measuring fatigue borrowed from Aethelwine's journal). I expect things to go downhill from here. After all, I am used to pulling all-nighters, but not consecutive ones (I've only done that once). Biking should get more and more interesting, methinks.

Funny how the length of each post decreases as the day goes on.

Day 1.2

I just took my afternoon block nap (2:30-2:50 pm). It's taking me less and less time to fall asleep, even with people puttering about in the hallway. I was actually somewhat tired when I laid down, having just come from a rather dull chemistry lecture. I zoned out a bit towards the end of the lecture, possibly with some microsleep, but I'd guess not more than 30 seconds each, nor 5 minutes total of zoning out. I didn't expect that on the first day (I am used to pulling all-nighters without ill effect), but I think I know why it happened. I use my phone as an alarm clock, see, and I had it right next to my ear. Eight minutes into my 10:30 am nap (I checked the time), somebody called me, and the phone woke me up! Interrupted naps are a terrible thing to have happen during adaptation phase. At least it wasn't several days in.

Day 1.1

Note(s) to self:

1. Wear socks when sleeping in lounge. My feet were cold when I woke up.
2. Clock timer not nearly loud enough. I was given this cute red clock for Christmas (It's egg-shaped, and weighted on the bottom so it doesn't fall over. It wobbles!), and I didn't want to have to keep reprogramming the alarm, so I used its countdown timer instead.

I'm starting to feel it, now, though I suspect it's because I woke up five minutes ago.

EDIT: A few kicks and stretches later, I'm completely fine again. Off to shower, and then perhaps I will scrounge up some breakfast at some point during this block. 3:40 is a hefty chunk of time! (I am imagining the space-time continuum breaking down into chunks, like stew. Mmm... space-time stew. Tastes like turtle. And four elephants.)

EDIT #2: I accidentally put body wash in my hair. (Go ahead, laugh; I don't mind.) It's not the first time that's happened, but it might be significant somehow. I have observed that body wash is less goopy than shampoo, but more goopy than conditioner. (Yes, I just spent a paragraph discussing hair-care products -- someone smack me now!)

Day 1

I am one nap into my adjustment period. Quite uneventful thus far. I didn't manage to fall asleep until the 20 minutes were almost over, but I'm not feeling at all sleepy. Heck, I'm sitting in my bed with a blanket over my shoulders, and I'm fine. It's sort of strange to think that back home (Eastern Standard Time Zone), my sister is already on the school bus. I would be getting to bed right about now, if I were still in vacation mode.

Several things have occurred to me...

1. This schedule may render the pyjamas in my wardrobe obsolete.
2. I can use the college website(s) at off-peak hours, even right before assignments are due. No more waiting ten minutes for a paper to upload!
3. I will have to find somewhere else to take my 6:30am nap, since I'm sure my roommate would not appreciate the multiple alarms all going off. Maybe I'll relocate to the lounge.
4. I should have saved my unpacking for the morning block. Oh well. It's the first day; it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference.
5. I may end up turning into a morning shower person. (Showers are good for staying awake.) I used to be a very late at night shower person. Off-peak hours, see. No one else showers at 3:00am.

Short-term memory tests
Numbers: 10.75
Letters: 12
Words: 27

Day 0

Yesterday night was my last night of monophasic sleep (if I manage to make this work). I am back at college, and will have my first polyphasic nap at 2:30 am. It's rather odd, thinking in terms of midnight date changes. I used to consider 2:30 am part of the previous day; for me, even if the sun had already risen, the date did not change until I'd slept a few hours. I'm sure that once this sleep schedule gets going, there will be quite a few paradigm shifts in store for me.

Two important factors to note

1. My little support group no longer exists. Caradoc decided not to try it, in the end. The idea was to let us go first, and ascertain that there were indeed no ill effects before trying it himself. A rather wise notion, that. And so our three became two. Aethelwine, if you will recall, started during winter break. He made a great effort, but could not make it through the adaptation phase. I do have a copy of his journal, which should prove quite helpful. From his account, it seems that had it not been for some traveling he did over break, which threw him off, he would have made it. There is hope for me yet! I should have fewer such disruptions, which leads me to...
2. I am attending a funeral on Sunday, January 11th (Yes, it is tragic, and yes, I appreciate your sympathies, but no, I really don't want to talk about it.) This may throw me off several days, is all.

I found these mp3s, which are soundtracks of white noise that's supposed to facilitate falling asleep, and then after a set amount of time, plays a series of increasingly unpleasant noises to wake you up. I suspect I'll be using the 20 and 23 minute ones a lot. The problem is, my headphones are the sort with two little round plastic bits on the ends of long insulated wires -- there's no guarantee that they'll stay in. Tape, perhaps? I'll set a bunch of alarms anyways, just in case.

The experiment commences...

Polyphasic Sleep: A Procedure

It is often said that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Hasn't stopped anyone from making them, though.

The schedule itself is quite simple: naps at 2:30, 6:30, and 10:30 (Pacific Standard Time). For simplicity of reference, let me name each four-hour period (the nap being the first 20 minutes of the period), as follows:
2:30 - 6:30 am -- Dawn Block
6:30 - 10:30 am -- Morning Block
10:30 am - 2:30 pm -- Noon Block
2:30 - 6:30 pm -- Afternoon Block
6:30 - 10:30 pm -- Evening Block
10:30 pm - 2:30 am -- Night Block

I will have classes mostly during the noon and afternoon blocks (with a scattered few in the morning block). Most of my extracurricular activities fall during the evening block. The other three waking periods... well, for the first time in many years, I will be able to say that I have copious free time, and mean it.

I had been warned of this. Those blocks, especially the dawn one, tend to be the most difficult during the adaptation phase. That is, those are the times when most people attempting the sleep schedule will be the most tired and sleepy, and will really have to fight to stay awake. In this, I have an advantage. In my current monophasic existence, I am significantly more nocturnal than most people are. During finals week, when we had, beyond our scheduled exams, virtually absolute flexibility of schedule, I found myself naturally going to bed at around 9:00 - 10:00 am, and waking up around 3:00 - 4:00 pm. However, I am also partially adjusted to a more normal daytime schedule because the rest of the world runs that way. This means that I shouldn't have any block that is significantly more difficult than any other block. At night, I'm used to being up and about; during the day, as long as I don't fall asleep in lectures, I will have external stimuli helping to keep me awake (including biking to and from class!). I guess I'll just have to sit next to friends with strict instructions to jab me discreetly under the desk when I start nodding off.

Still, once I'm far enough into the adaptation phase I will be so sleep-deprived that I will be in constant danger of falling asleep when I'm not supposed to, regardless of time of day. The literature recommends filling my time with physical and/or stimulating tasks. Things like reading are a poor choice, unless perhaps I try reading while pacing in circles out in the cold. Likewise, I'm not confident that even working on my own creative writing will be sufficient to keep me awake (but I'll try!). (It will be necessary to do homework, of course; I will simply have to find a most uncomfortable spot in which to do it.) What seems most effective, from said literature, are things like exercising and cooking, and I am a) not particularly athletic (and therefore unlikely to kill more than half an hour exercising), and b) unable to cook (well, or without setting off the fire alarms). I plan on making a daily trip to the post office during the dawn block, on my bike, despite the extreme likelihood of not getting any mail. I will also, for the first time in ages, try to eat breakfast, during the morning block. Actually, meal times warrant a separate paragraph (see below), but I digress. My to-do list contains several knitting and sewing projects, which I can do standing up if I need to, and have the additional benefit of painful stimulus (stabbing myself with a needle) if I drift off. I've a long list of rather mundane things to do, such as cleaning my (half of the) room, cleaning up my e-mail inboxes (perhaps too boring to keep me awake), etc. If you have any suggestions on activities to try (especially if you know me in Real Life), comments are very welcome.

Now, regarding meal times... given that I will have more total waking hours, I expect my consumption to increase. Hence, I plan on eating three meals per 24 hours, rather than the two-a-day I had last quarter (as noted above, I am not accustomed to eating breakfast). I will spread them evenly, one meal towards the end of every other block, so that I'll be having breakfast during the morning block, dinner during the afternoon block, and Late Night during the night block (Late Night is a supper/midnight snack type of thing offered by some of the dining halls at our school). Yes, I am completely aware that I've left out lunch; I often skipped lunch or grabbed a bagel between classes in high school. It's probably for the best, considering that my winter quarter class schedule allows only 20-or-so minutes for lunch on some days anyhow. I have a significant stockpile of ramen in my closet, and tend to accumulate fruit in my fridge under the bed, so if I really feel I need it (or if I'm too lazy/tired to make my way over to Late Night), I can eat whenever. I hope I don't forget. I have a distressing tendency to forget to eat, especially when I'm distracted and/or engrossed in something particularly interesting.

Now, to see whether and/or how my brain is being affected by all of this, I will take a brief online short-term memory test at least once a day, trying for approximately the same time each day. I found one I like here. I created an account, which lets me track how I've been doing over time. The best part, though, is that it has different tests using numbers, letters, and words, and hence should yield more thorough results. This will probably constitute the only really scientifically rigorous part of the experiment. The rest of each status report will consist mostly of personal observations (and some whinging, I'm sure).

I go back to school tomorrow. I'm excited!