Polyphasic Sleep, Day 20 – Wednesday, 3/29/2006
Today was much more poly-successful. I nap at midnight, and am up and back at it. 4 AM doesn’t phase me either – 25 minutes and then back up and reving my engine. I decide I’m going to reformat my computer to WinXP. I already have a Win2000 machine, so my dual-processor machine will be my potential gaming/memory intensive application machine. Photoshop, Premiere, Maya, things like that. It has 2 GB of memory, so can handle things a TON better than my single processory machine with 768 MB RAM. Oooh, tech-speak. I’m sure you’re all drooling now. I also continue the tech part of my research – parsing a file of Phosphorylation sites in embryonic mouse brain proteins. YUM, more geeky fun.
At 8 AM I nap again, get up, and shower. I decide to work from home today, as it is POURING out, and I also have some things to do in SF. I work until 11, then go to DHL and pick up a hard drive I ordered. Then my noon nap, and then off to Big O tires, where I drop some cash on fixing the flat tire I got on Monday and getting everything aligned. Amusing story – while ordering a (decaf!) mocha at the coffee shop across the street where I waited for the tire repairs to be done, the guy behind the counter asked me if “this was my hair,” indicating … my hair! I inquired as to whose hair he thought it might be, and he said it looked like a hat – “like one of those russian hats they wear in russia, or mongolia, or somewhere very cold.” I replied that it was indeed my own hair, and that my russian ancestors would be proud. Weird. 
Was also able to get more work done in the 90 minutes I waited there (yay 12″ powerbook).
I make it home on my new tire, and take my 4 PM nap. All’s well. More work until it is time to go over to Stephanie and Dina’s for LOST. Doug and I go over there, picking Stephanie up at Safeway on the way over. I take my 8 PM nap a bit late – 8:45. But it goes well, and then LOST is pretty good. Back home, and some puttering around until my midnight nap.
OVERSLEEP WARNING #2: PolySleep, Day 19 – Tuesday, 3/28/2006
Well, I didn’t reset my alarm, and I didn’t get out of my room. Instead I appear to have crawled back into bed and slept for 6 hours 
I think I am learning lessons I ought to have taken from Ted and others already – I CANNOT skip naps (well, I knew this) or delay them significantly or repeatedly. This is NOT your father’s sleep schedule. On monophasic sleep you can go to sleep at 10 PM, or midnight, or 1 AM, and adjust your wakeup time on the fly (or not, and just reduce sleep time). Not so with polyphasic sleep. You can shift one nap by, say, 30 minutes, or an hour. But this incurs a sleep debt that makes you more sleepy during the next cycle. If you delay napping again in your next cycle, that debt mounts, and there is a serious risk of oversleeping. I need to be a little more humble in front of the sleep gods, and more diligent in keeping to the schedule. Remember – it’s for the kids.
That in mind, there is no way I can nap at 8 AM, since I slept 6 hours and have only been awake for 2+ hours. So I decide noon will be the next nap. And, it actually works out ok. I make some food for lunch, bring it with me to campus, I get settled in again, and am actually feeling slightly droopy come noon. So I trundle on over to the computer room, lay my mat down, and set my alarm for 28 minutes (I gave myself a few extra minutes leeway to try to fall asleep). And, I do actually manage to lose consciousness. Not sure for how long, or how deeply, but it is good to get back into the swing of the naps. I’m up and back downstairs working at 12:35. Can’t wait for 4 PM, hope I am droopy then too!
I get a fair amount done in the next 3+ hours, and go back upstairs at 4 PM. This nap is even better, falling asleep more easily than at noon. I finish up in lab and take the 5:24 train back to San Francisco. I make it back at 6:15, go to Kragen to get a bulb for my car’s brake lights, and then go pick up some free computer gear at 8. I know, I know, I am supposed to nap at 8. Well, I make it home at 8:30, and try to nap then. AGAIN FAILURE!! I just can’t sleep. So, I wait it out, get up, and take the ribs out of the oven. Yeah, I had a hankering to make my dad’s chinese ribs. They turn out great, and I don’t actually eat any – I wrap them up and stick them in the fridge. Then I clean up the computer area, get rid of unused devices, and go down for my midnight nap. I’m pretty tired at this point, so I figure this will be a successful nap… Same nap time, same nap channel. Yeah, I wanted to say that. Sue me.
Polyphasic Sleep, Day 18 – Monday, 3/27/2006
I finally go down at 1 AM for another nap. Up again, work til 4:30 AM, down again til 5:00. That’s more like it. I clean/work/organize until 8:30, when I go back down again. Trying to get back to the 4/8/12 schedule. i want to hit the DMV and good guys before I head down the peninsula… I take a double-nap (nap, up for a few minutes, nap again) – my body is still readjusting. I feel good when I get up though. I call Zach and decide to stay in SF for the day. I get a few errands done, get back to work. My noon nap is pushed til past 1 again – I’m going to have to work harder to shift back to 4/8/12. I work until 4, and then try to nap, but it eludes me again, and it isn’t until 5 PM that sleep comes to me. I make some dinner, and try to figure out how I’m going to fit my naps in tonight. I venture out to Sadie’s, on Potrero, for Amy F.’s birthday. I get a flat tire on the way, so AAA comes to change it while I hang out inside. They fix it in time for me to drive to the airport and retrieve Danah. We go back to Sadie’s for 15 minutes for her rock-star appearance (mwuah!), and I give her and Stephanie rides back to their respective abodes. I get home around 10:15, late for my nap again. This isn’t good… I get up at 11 PM, but my brain is completely non-functional. I barely remember getting out of bed to turn off the alarm. I think I should re-set the alarm for another nap. Maybe? Purrrrrhaps? Instead what I do is…
OVERSLEEP WARNING: Polyphasic Sleep, Day 17 – Sunday, 3/26/2006
My midnight nap goes marginally better than my 8 PM nap, insofar as I actually do get some sleep. But it is short, 10-15 minutes I’d guess, and not as restful as I’d like. But, what to do? Again, the 20/20 call is to go back down until a real nap has been had. Given that I actually did fall asleep but got woken by the 25-minute alarm, I likely could have gone back down for a nap. But, with games night already in its 4th hour I decide to hustle over into the presidio to Alexis’ place. Some people have already left, and two people are solidly passed out on the couches, but Alexis, Sean, Laura, Derrick, Tim, Gina, Erika and Jesse are still battling it out in a mean game of Cranium. I join team CAW rather than team ROAR, and we proceed to dominate the action, giving up a little ground before we finally put the wildcats out of their misery. My brain seems to be functioning a bit more slowly than usual. Perhaps the missed nap and the 1/2 nap have something to do with it, hrmmm?
We break out the dice and play Liar’s Dice. I end up winning in a tight, 1v1 battle with Laura, who could have put me away but was nice to me and/or confused. By this time it is 3 AM, my eyes are drooping, so I head to the car and back home before I lose consciousness. Home, and then to bed.
It’s 4 AM, I get in bed, having set my alarm for 5 am. Since I have missed naps, I don’t want to rob myself of sleep if it is slow in coming, and if I sleep 1.5 or 2 cycles, so be it. Well, sleep comes quickly – VOOOSH. I remember getting up at 5, and barely being able to turn of the alarm once I’m out of bed. I walk around for a minute, and almost walk into a wall. So I again make the semi-conscious decision that, under 1 1/2 missed naps, and since I have to referee at noon for the first time since starting polyphasic sleep, I should do the unthinkable: sleep without an alarm set! Yup, I’m working without a net, and with no idea of what my body will do. Well, guess I’ll find out in about …
7 HOURS! That’s how long I slept. And I only woke up when I heard Doug come through the front door. SHITE! I have to referee in 1 hour in Daly City. I jump up, take a 5 minute shower, try to make sure I have all my referee stuff, and head on out the door. I make it in time, get a quick stretch in, and have to head out with my fellow referees for a boys U17 match. I’m the 1st Assistant Referee, so I have the teams’ side of the field. It is strange, being back out there after not refereeing for months. All my games have been rained out the last few weeks, so this is actually a good way to get back into it. I run the sideline for 80 minutes, and feel good at the end of it. I felt my concentration flagging briefly, but that subsided and all went well. That was the only match they needed me for, so i head back home and have lunch. I try to get back on schedule at 4 PM, but just am not sleepy yet. Perhaps something to do with the 7 hours of sleep I got last night – that’s more than 2 days’ worth! So I just get up and get back to work, blogging, etc. Ann-Marie comes over around 5:15 and we watch 3 episodes from last season’s West Wing. Gotta catch up before the final episode in May/June.
At 8:30 PM I try to nap again. Again no luck. I decide to get up, and try again every hour. It doesn’t take long: at 9:30 I am sleepy, and get my nap in. I get up, and decide another nap is in order. Who knows what schedule my body thinks it is on? Then I am able to get up and work, but I push my midnight nap off a bit…
Polyphasic Sleep, Day 16 – Saturday, 3/25/2006
Dancing was fun! Fun apartment with dance floor, 2 kitchens, BIG hammock suspended 10 feet in the air. Music was good too, with Alxndr and Breakbeat Buddha convincing my legs they should move some. At around 3:30 I went up into the hammock with my earplugs, and probably would have napped there, but Orange was ready to leave, so I drove us back to the her place in the mission. I took my early AM nap on a platform COVERED in pillows. It was quite comfy. The surprising thing was I actually got up immediately to my watch alarm, even though I was so damn comfortable. Drove home, called Bizott, who was fighting her own sleep demons. We congratulated each other on how strange/cool it is, being able to call someone at 5:45 AM and not worry about waking them up
Before my 8 am nap though, the dancing started to catch up with me. I went down to nap at 7:30, and woke up to my alarm, but decided to get back into bed. Now, how much it was a conscious choice, and how much was my brain stem issuing the cease-and-desist order, I don't know. But 2 hours later I got up, and felt better for it. It might be the case that with great exercise come great fatigue that requires more than a 25-minute nap. But Ted says his naps are the same, regardless of whether he has worked out or not. Hrm.
I spend the rest of the afternoon with Puk, and am actually pretty tired again for my 4 PM nap. I take it at his place (no oversleeping), and he is actually napping when I pack up and leave a bit later. Various plans shape up – an art show and potential dancing after with Orange and crew. Alexis is hosting game night, which was a lot of fun last time. Perhaps I should try to do it all! I lay down for my 8 PM nap, but…
For the FIRST TIME, I fail to nap! I had a bit of a headache, which I'm sure played a role, but I just failed to fall asleep in the 25 minutes. I considered trying again, which in retrospect would have been the wiser course of action. But instead I decide to plug on with the evening, and just nap at midnight. I meet up with Orange, Trichter and Mary, Alxndr, Miranda, and Brendan, and we walk down the block to an art show. It was a'ight. My headache has gotten worse, so I bid farewell to those that are left – O and Brendan – and head home. Maybe my midnight nap will set things right. O please o please…
Polyphasic Sleep, Day 15 – Friday, 3/24/2006
Midnight is my magic no-hassle nap time. I go down to sleep quickly, and wake on time and don't relapse. Is allll good. During this waking cycle I watch the Seinfeld episode, The Friars Club. Kramer has decided to live like Leonardo di Vinci ("FROM Vinci!"). At one point he wakes Jerry in the middle of the night b/c he is bored and wants to hang out. I understand that point, though for most of my 15 days I've been tired enough that it is all I can do to not curl back up into a comfy little ball and sleep for a day. Although, when I have overslept, it has almost always been of the 30-90 minute variety, and not the 4-6 hour kind that I have read about in other discussion groups and blogs. So I got that going for me, which is nice. So, since things are going well, I thought I'd reiterate some of the key points I have established over the past two weeks. These are important things for helping the conversion over to polyphasic sleep. Some of these I had read in other Blogs, but hadn't taken them to heart. If you are going to try this at home, TAKE THESE TO HEART!
- NO caffeine. This should be obvious, but it is hard to nap if you've just had coffee, or even caffeinated tea.
- Get a LOUD alarm, and place it NO WHERE NEAR YOUR BED.
- Once out of bed, DO NOT GET BACK IN BED. Not for a quick rest,
not to save a child from being trapped in a bed-fire in your room.
Start moving right away to extricate yourself from sleep. - Have projects ready and waiting. It is too hard to think of
things to do at 4 AM – with a list of things ready to go, I am able to
focus on them and not how tired I may be. - If you need an extra nap, try to make it as close to equidistant from the last nap and the next nap.
So, I catch my 10:30 am flight back to San Jose, and take the train to Palo Alto and campus. I get there at 1 PM, an hour late for my noon nap, so I quickly hide myself away in the computer room and catch my Zzzz's. The rest of the afternoon is meetings and research planning, and I'm lucky enough to catch a ride back to San Francisco with Zach. After finishing up some details in the car, I get my 20+ minutes of nap before we reach San Francisco – Zach was surprised by how easily I fell asleep, and woke up during the ride. The weather is poor – heavy rains coupled with heavy traffic – only my stuffed-up nasal passages keep me from having a blissful sleep though. I pick up my car at the soap factory where it was parked after being driven back from LA, and make it back to my place.
My cat Tina is ecstatic to see me, and I make time to play with her while I unpack, decompress, and organize my room. I then head back to the soap factory for the first False Profit burning man planning\ meeting of the year. Logan lets me curl up in his room for my 8 PM nap, and then the meeting procedes smoothly and quickly. Afterwards I meet up with Orange, Alexander minus all but the first vowel, and Piotr at O's place. A plan is hatched for dancing at a ¿dustfish? party. Since I'm in jeans, and will need a nap beforehand anyways I take off for home, get my midnight-ish nap in, and change into more comfy pants. Here we go again – dancing/physical activity has thus far been hard for my body to take on polyphasic sleep. We'll see how this attempt fares…
