Polyphasic Sleep, Day 27 – Wednesday, 4/5/2006
Ah, sweet! A good night of no oversleeping. Just what nobody ordered. My 12:30 naps is good. I’m not OVERLY energetic, but I feel fine. I work until 4:30, and nap til 5. Good again. This time, I get very sleeping during my awake period 5 AM+. I work until 7 AM, and my eyes start closing. DANGER!! So instead of passing out on the couch, I go down for a 7 AM nap. I wake and 7:30, and realize all of a sudden that I have to catch the 8:12 train in order to make it to campus in time for my 10 AM class. Eeek!
I sprint from bed to shower back to bedroom, pack up, drive to the train, and just make it. Phew, all is well. I nap again at 9:20 on campus, go to my 10 AM class, nap again at 12:30, go to my 2 PM class. Nap again at 4 PM (back on my 4/8/12 schedule) – this time I have a little trouble getting up. I think I am down an extra 10 minutes or so, but then I rouse myself and get back to lab. I work until 5:30, when Andrew picks me up and we grab dinner in Palo Alto.
After dinner I hustle to make the 7:10 train, get back to SF, pick up keys at my cousin Kim’s place to leave for my parents when they arrive this weekend, pick up an extra pillow so I can keep one in lab to use, and make it back to my place at 8:45.
Hmmm, I am late for my nap, and people have already gathered to watch LOST. What to do? I decide to watch LOST and then nap. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, watching is slow – there are a couple breaks, and the food hasn’t even arrived yet. 1/2 way through I decide to nap, and I tell Stephanie not to wake me if they start again. However, Steve comes in and wakes me up, asking if they should start. ACK! I try to continue my nap, but end up having to start over. This is not good – nap delayed 90 minutes, and then interrupted. This is usually a recipe for an oversleep. I’m up again after they finish, and I wait for them to leave. I then finish the episode myself, but am still groggy. I go down for my midnight nap at 12:30, unsure how this will proceed…
Polyphasic Sleep, Day 26 – Tuesday, 4/4/2006
Here we go again. One day I’m great. The next… I sleep 7 hours. Why? Big meal? BAH! I hurredly do some more checking on classes to take, as this is the first day of the quarter. I had intended to do it late-night, but the long sleep killed that possibility. I find an interesting stats class that no one in my department seems to have taken – it might be relatively new. That and a Human Behavioral Biology class means I have classes on Mon/Weds/Fri, 3 hours each day. Not too bad. I believe the afternoon lectures are broadcast on tv/network as well, so I can skip out friday afternoon if need be and not miss the class.
I get to campus, and get to work. Surprise, I’m not really tired for my noon nap, so I hold off until 12:30. I actually am tired by then, and have a strong nap. More work, and then a 4:30 nap as well. We’re having a researchome at 6:30 on the use of our department wiki, so I go there and have a slice of pizza, and then am “outed” on my polyphasic sleep schedule! I explain to the group (~15-20 people) what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and where they can get more information (like HERE). They of course think I am kookie, but I have to run before I can receive the brunt of their curiosity, as I have to get the 7:20 train back so that I can pick up a package at UPS, and my computer at Good Guys from being repaired after our power surge last month.
I try to take my 8:30 nap, but I can’t fall asleep 
So, I do some more work, and then go back down at 9:30. This time it works ok. I’m trying to decide if I need to shift my nap schedule, maybe a 1/5/9 would be better… I’m supposed to “listen” to my own sleep rhythm, to see if there are times when I fall asleep easier, but I haven’t been able to hear it very well. I cruise through until midnight, and go down for my nap at 12:30.
Polyphasic Sleep, Day 25 – Monday, 4/3/2006
I have a lot to do, which I make sure to imprint upon my subconscious before I head to sleep. As a result, I get up easily at 12:30 AM and get back to work. 4 AM comes quickly, and I fall asleep rapidly. This time I have more trouble getting up, as our internet access is out, limiting my ability to work on my research. I take a double-nap, resetting my alarm after the first nap, and then manage to sleep while the alarm goes off for an additional 45 minutes. I guess that makes an hour and 45-minute nap. Not too bad, but not ideal. Stoopid internet…
I clean my room and put away a ton of stuff until 8, take my nap just fine, then up and off to campus. There’s a small snack reception to welcome Jessie back from her fellowship time in D.C., and I nap at noon just before it at the Med School office building on a decent couch. After the reception I work some more, and then nap again on the same couch. All’ss well.
I head home at 6 and pick up Orange – we’re gonna make some dinner. After a trip to Albertson’s we get to my place, and it is time for my 8 PM nap. O is well-prepared for my schedule and has a good Christian-propaganda novel to immerse herself in while I micro-sleep. It’s an O.K. nap, and I’m back out at 8:30 for a dinner of salad and chicken, with a chaser of ice cream sandwich ice cream. I had personally pushed for mint chocolate chip, but the look of disdain on O’s face was priceless 
The ice cream is excellent, however, so it’s all good.
At 10 I drive her back to the mission, and cruise on home for some TV, protein research, and my midnight sleepy-time.
Polyphasic Sleep, Day 24 – Sunday, 4/2/2006
The hot tub is so pleasant, it is very hard to keep my eyes open. After about a half-hour I head back to the room, and get my camera for some long-exposure nighttime photopgraphy. They’ll be up on Flickr soon I imagine. At 4 AM everyone finally falls asleep, and I take my nap. I awaken, but am really sooooo relaxed from the hot tub and comfy in bed, I can’t convince myself to get up. It would have been difficult anyways, with the other 3 asleep in the same room, but that is just a convenient excuse as to why I stayed in bed for 3 hours It was quite enjoyable.
We all get up at 8 and hit breakfast, then some walking, my noon nap, over the see the seals, and then back to San Francisco. My 4 PM nap doesn’t happen til 6:00, and then dinner with a crowd for Seany’s birthday at Little Star pizza. They all go out to a bar after, but I beg off to go get my 8 PM nap. It goes well, and I am up and working from 8:30 until midnight. Not bad… hope my messed up schedule for the day hasn’t put me in a bad spot.
Polyphasic Sleep, Day 23 – Saturday, 4/1/2006
My midnight nap goes ok. I oversleep a bit – maybe 2 hours. This would worry me, but the headache I’ve had since my beer at the comedy club is slightly more annoying. I take some advil with more water, and hope for the best. I nap at 4 am again, but just briefly, probably due to the oversleep plus mild headache still. Then, things turn around. I get my first “Sam is up at all hours, so he won’t mind a late-night phone call”! Stephanie and Dina are home after Get Freaky and at 5 AM are still entertaining themselves when they call me for additional entertainment. After doing my best phone dance I head over there in my pajamas and document the hilarity. They have some air-brush tattoos and have pasted a big set of lips onto dina’s cell phone. I got some good pix and even a 1-minute video of some strange echoing cell-phone interactions. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5EESb_ftoE
By 8 am the kids have calmed down and I curl up for a nap on the couch. I don’t set an alarm, but luckily awaken 35 minutes later. After moving to the living room so as not to disturb S&D, I catch up on my blog a bit, and then make plans to meet Ann-Marie to go for a walk at Crissy Field. She wanted to go for a short run, but settles for the walk as I am not quite ready to push myself yet. It is overcast, but a pleasant enough day for a walk. We walk to the point under the Golden Gate Bridge and check out the surfers riding the waves in for a while, and then head back. We decide lunch is in order, and even though it pushes my noon nap back, we have a very tasty meal at the BlueJay Cafe on Divisadero. I make it home and nap at 1 PM. When I get up, Doug is preparing to watch the Final Four, which makes for good distractions while I catch up on some research. Lindsay almost makes it over to watch the first half with us, but as usual life intercedes.
I hit my 4 PM nap on the button, and wake up in time to see Florida pull away from upstarts George Mason in the last 10 minutes of the game. Then Mary comes to pick me up for our 24-hour getaway for Sean’s birthday. Sean, Lo, and Mary and myself head down to Costanoa, a sweet little cabin-camping site on the coast right by Año Nuevo where the elephant seals occupy the beaches. It’s a relaxing time for walks, banter, some board games, James Bond in the background, and a bit of hot-tubbing. My naps are somewhat crunched, with my 8 PM being pushed til 9+, and then my midnight also being a bit late. I take that nap on the couch in the gaming lodge, right before we head to the hot tub at 2 AM.
Polyphasic Sleep, Day 22 – Friday, 3/31/2006
My midnight nap goes swimmingly, though I am a bit groggy when I wake up. That passes though, and I settle into some late-night workin’. All goes well, and my 4 am nap is fine too. I’m slightly more tired when I wake up though, hrm. I’ve timed the morning out so that I can make it to group meeting on time – take my 8 AM nap slightly early (7:45), up at 8:10, shower, get to my car at 8:40, catch the 9:12 train from 22nd street, and get off a stop early in Menlo Park, where I left my bicycle the night before. I bike to campus, getting there at 10:15 – plenty of time til my 11 AM group meeting. I split some HeLa cells, and realize that I am quite sleepy. The cycle has come around, and today I am not as chipper as I would like. Group meeting runs past noon, and I have a hard time keeping my eyes open. As soon as we are done, I head upstairs to nap. I crash hard, falling asleep immediately. I also have trouble waking up, though I do manage to get up while the 1-minute timer alarm is ringing. I finish out the week working on the phosphorylation project until Zach is ready to go. It is pouring rain, so I gratefully accept a ride back to San Francisco, leaving my bike at the lab.
At home I grab a quick bite and take my 8 PM nap. This goes fine, and I pick up Scotty Barnard and we go to a comedy improv show at Canvas in the inner sunset. Show is fine, but we’re more concerned with catching up since it has been WAY too long since we last saw each other. Especially considering we now live 2 blocks away from each other. No, not 2 looooong blocks. After the show I drop him off and head back home. I have a slight headache from the one beer I had at the show, which I try to stave off with a couple glasses of water. My midnight nap gets pushed a bit because of the headache, but I finally get into bed at 12:30.
