Life Experiment 01 - Day 6 remainder

I waited to post the days events as it was quite a day of learning.

Woke up great... energized... and at 6:30 was prodding Julia to go out for breakfast. Amazingly she obliged, as she herself is trying to start her days earlier. by 7:30 we were customers number 1 and 2 at the coney across the street.

I had a nice big Sausage Omelette with corned beef hash inserted. Now I know that certainly violates the "no processed foods" rule (it doesn't really get MORE processed than CBH), but I was in the mood for some celebration. I was feeling great on 3 hours of total sleep in 36 hours. I ate just over half the omelette. I had no caffeine.

By the time we got back to the loft, I was seriously feeling sleepy, unmotivated, and unfocused. Being a Saturday, I wistfully started longing for some lounging in bed. Ignoring whatever possible judgement I should have had, I laid down. Mind you, while I WAS experiencing certainly some food coma effects from breakfast, in no way did I FEEL like I was responding to my body trying to get sleep on it's previous schedule. This felt much more like I was missing the LUXURY of being able to enjoy not HAVING to be up.

Well... this whole mistake I'm really glad I made. Today yielded more revelation than any day so far.

First though... the consequences of my actions. I DID fall asleep... from roughly 9a to 10:30ish. I felt horrible. I stayed in bed until my next naptime. Awaking from that I felt even worse. I was TIRED. I was lethargic... poorly thinking... The most notable feeling, however, is that I felt EXACTLY like I did getting monophasic sleep. I hadn't felt this for almost a week now, but as I was focused on dealing with the challenges of acclimating to this new way of life, I was only noting that I certainly felt much better, but, as my good friend Jack commented, I've been tempering any excitement so that I stayed on my guard so to speak against complacency.

So now the revelations. And mind you... I'm not drinkin koolaid here... I've some sobering thoughts about polyphasic sleep too...

one) Monophasic sleep SUCKS. I'm sure there are some of you out there that after your hours and hours of hibernation, wake up perfectly refreshed, ready and rarin to go. I was never one of those. Even on those days that I didn't get up to an alarm or any other intrusion, I always woke up groggy. I always was slow. I longed for a refreshing, energetic start to my day, but honestly I felt like that must mean that the energy and freshness occurred not too far after I got up. And that's pretty much the best I ever achieved with monophasic sleep.

I want to quickly interject something here. I am not the kind of person that requires avoidance for an hour or two after getting up so I can have a couple cups of coffee and such. I'm personable and capable in the mornings. I don't require sacrifices from the people around me to interact. I can be quick to get ready. I'm not moody. BUT. These personality traits don't come from the fact that I wake up energized. They come from inside me and my belief that people around me shouldn't have to suffer because I don't call myself a "morning person." For the people that really know me, they know I'm much more of a night person than a morning one. I still don't believe others should suffer.

On polyphasic sleep so far, I've been getting up so well after that 25-30 minutes of sleep that I was initially doubting I COULD be getting much in terms of quality sleep, but that I would acclimate. NOW I believe I have been getting decent sleep, and that I AM acclimating. If I weren't, I don't think I'd be very energized at the end of 36 hours where I saw 3 hours of sleep. If that's all true, I am so much MORE of a conscious, happy, energetic person when I awake from that nap. It's truly amazing.

two) I think I am acclimating well. Despite some missteps, and I'm still going to ACT as strict as possible, I seem to have recovered from my morning a couple naps later. It's 3 friggin 45 in the morning and I'm clear as a bell. Don't get me wrong... the DAY today kinda sucked because of poor choices this morning... but it sucked cause of the extended sleep I stupidly got.

three) While I certainly think this applies to all of us, being on a polyphasic schedule I think makes it much more noticeable, WHAT you eat has a huge impact on your body and your energy level. This sounds kind of stupid to say, but I think that breakfasts like the one I had today really created that lethargic desire to just go lie down and enjoy some downtime. When I was on a monophasic schedule, I would (probably I'm guessing) come home after a breakfast like todays and plop down for a nap. It would be later in the day cause I wasn't UP at 6a on a Saturday... and I would have still felt so groggy and bad afterward, but it was hardly noticeable as I was ALWAYS feeling groggy and bad after sleep in general. Having that be the norm for me I never realized how much extra I was losing in my day because of a poor meal choice.

four) I have realized a downside to polyphasic sleep. It MAY be what the other writers/bloggers have meant when they talk about a new way of life, and a lot of you monophasics are gonna jump all over this, which is fine, but today made me realize that when you choose this lifestyle, you can't temporarily just go back to enjoy some of the now-and-then niceties of the old one. I don't really mean this from the standpoint of the mechanics of short vs long sleep. Yes... if you sleep for a couple hours, you'll mess yourself up and it takes a couple naps to recover blah blah blah. I mean, if you WANT the benefits of the energy and time and focus from polyphasic sleep, you really have to give up on taking a break from life and reality. There really is no shut down. I'm not really talking about the unconscious time when you're hibernating either... I think I'm more talking about all the time where you're in bed, moving in and out of sleep... enjoying the warm covers, enjoying the removal from the world in which you live. If you're not sleeping deeply, as you're often not when you just decide to sleep in... you CAN consciously appreciate just being in bed as you drift in and out of some semblance of sleep. From my experience today, the downsides of sometimes doing this were NOT worth the hedonistic benefits I received. As busy as I am... with as much as I feel there is to do out there in the world... it's still kind of nice sometimes to flip the switch to OFF. Now... it's CERTAINLY possible that once I'm fully acclimated I'll change how I feel on this point. I'm in no position to feel like I'm expert on anything pertaining to this subject, except that I don't like how I feel on monophasic sleep, now that I've experienced an alternative.

If I have to make a commitment to a lifestyle where there is no real break from the world, and that's a very serious commitment to make... much more so I believe than the commitment to go through the pain of acclimation, then I will. I think that will be more to adjust to than anything else though.

five) no bed head. :) It's kind of a giveaway though... If I come outta the loft groggy with bed head... someone's been a naughty boy. But yea... 25-30 minutes is just not enough to press that hair into interesting directions and shapes.


So... I feel great (now at 4:11). I have a bridal show today and no one to help me at the booth, so it will be interesting to see how I do. It's the first real test of having to work my nap into inflexible events in my life. Basically, I'll be setting up my booth and then leaving it at 11:20 to 12:10 to go take a nap in broad daylight in my car, leaving my booth unattended. Is it a big deal... I really don't think so. We'll see.

I took the day off from the bike to give my legs and butt a rest. Tomorrow I'll be back at that. I'm a little sad that I haven't seen ANY weight loss really after a week of 3-4 times a day on the bloody thing... but I have people to help me figure that part out.

Til the next block.... stay well all you little hibernators out there.