Enliten's PROJECT EVERYMAN Sleep Experiment

What do I do?

enliten — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:05:19 +0000

So my boyfriend is getting upset at the number of times he is woken up in a night by me going for and getting up from naps. I feel for him, I do, but technically it was he who got me into this. In addition to the normal getting up with naps, see previous post for my new sleep antics that are also disturbing. I really doing want to give up polyphasic less than my trial month into it… what do i do?

I might try Dymaxion…. these will be my times: 3:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 4 p.m., 11:30 p.m. I have arranged these so, though not spaced equally 6 hours apart, I condense naps towards the nighttime when I feel more lethargic, unmotivated, and bored. My goal must now be to banish the idea that darkness equals sleepiness, and that I don’t need to do anything active. Sure, I can’t ride my bike or walk outside at night, but I can be up painting, doing laundry, minor cleaning, or schoolwork. I hope this, though my boyfriend will still be disrupted by two naps while he is sleeping, will help me stay calm and not fidgety and restless in my sleeps. How restless can I possibly get in a 20 minute nap?

My questions for the polyphasic community:

why am I fidgeting/talking so much during my core sleep?
should my naps be evenly spaced?
will my sleep-fidgeting/talking go away as i get used to polyphasic?
is anyone else having this problem or similar?

Can anyone help me?

enliten — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:53:45 +0000

Sorry I haven’t written in a while… my life just got crazy busy (which is why i wanted to sleep polyphasically to begin with) Just the other day, I was thinking about what it felt like to be a monophasic sleeper, and I found myself concerned over what a waste of time it is, and I don’t think I want to go back… not yet, at least.

Anyway, the PROBLEM. For a few nights now (last night was the worst) during my core nap my boyfriend will wake me up saying i’ve been talking, or shaking, or sitting up, talking AND shaking… Why is this happening? He wants me to stop sleeping polyphasically. I think I can cure this, because I’m pretty sure I don’t do it in my naps.

I wonder if my body gets confused with the length of the core sleep and I spend wrong amounts of time in different sleep stages? This is also the nap I have the hardest time waking from and the one that kept tripping me up when i overslept (which I did last night because I couldn’t turn my alarm off and was waving my arms around and shaking while my boyfriend was trying to direct me as to where it was). What if i eliminate the core nap and just do 4 x 20 minutes? What if I, heaven forbid, don’t sleep in bed, but on a couch? (Voluntary exile!)

Input? Ideas? Help!

Back to square one…

enliten — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:06:49 +0000

The other night I set the time for my alarm to go off for 5 a.m….. but I didn’t actually push the enable button to make it turn on…. ensuingly, I slept until 10 a.m. SHoot.

Since then, I haven’t been able to do this right… tired, lazy, headachy, grumpy… I feel like I’m starting all over again. I’m GOING to stick this out for a month, like I planned, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy!

I messed up…

enliten — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:34:21 +0000

So to celebrate early Canada Day, I had a few drinks yesterday… first it may be noted that alcohol affected me VERY heavily compared to normal… secondly, I came home around 7, went to bed for my ‘nap’ with clothes still on, and slept for…FOURTEEN HOURS!….

I don’t feel particularly sleepy now, but i think i do need a cup of tea. Let’s see how easy it will be to get back on track today…. maybe i’ll find i need a big sleep like that every once in a while?

* * *

11:36 p.m. the rest of the day went well, though I’m pretty sure I didn’t sleep for either of my later naps. I didn’t expect to, after that long sleep! I’m up for the majority of the night, and feel quite well. I’m going to try and get a lot of exercise tomorrow and get my sleep back on track!

TEA!

enliten — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:44:12 +0000

TEA! It’s the CURE! My headaches are gone, my eyes don’t hurt, I feel wide awake and my latest nap was great. All because of a little cup of (caffeine free!) peppermint tea!!

Yaaaay!

Although… I am still hearing things… did I mention that before? I’m hearing things! My phone ringing as if way in the distance (I know my ring-tone too well!). Right now I just hear a low humming pulsing louder and softer in my ears… tired, anyone??

Weird Feeling…

enliten — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:49:13 +0000

I feel soooo weird right now. I had a busy day: half hour bike to work, four hour shift, bike on some errands, and bike home uphill and into the wind with an added 30 lb. load on my back. Add to that the fact that all I’ve had to eat today was cereal, toast and a coffee, and my hands are shaking and I feel dizzy… I’m pretty sure this is how anorexics feel with not enough strength to perform simple tasks. I picked my 10 pound dog and twirled her around in the air and I felt like I was seeing stars… is this a lack of sleep, or lack of food?? Where has my appetite gone? The caffeine in the coffee (which I never drink, a co-worker brought it for me) made my hands tremble and I felt anxious and sweaty.

I’m going to get iron supplements, and fresh fruit, because I know I have a recurring problem with low iron. Hope that helps.

Other than those feelings, and missing my morning nap (but I overslept my core nap, anyway), I feel fine. I took my 4 p.m. nap at 5, and I’m not sure if i slept or not. I feel physically beat because of the biking, so I’m sure I crashed, but I have no recollection. The half hour went by fast.

I’ll be up tonight for sure busy with business stuff, so I hope I can stay awake and on task. Last night was hard because I was just copying and pasting addresses for hours on end, staring at my screen, wishing I could be in bed and not hunched over. Is anyone else having sore back problems and sudden poor posture???

Polyphasic Chat Room

enliten — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:58:45 +0000

There’s a chat room on meebo for polyphasic people to share experiences!

http://widget.meebo.com/mcr.swf?id=YhqFjycThR

Well, I’m up!

enliten — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:21:23 +0000

It’s 11:18 p.m. and I made it out of bed from my evening nap! I didn’t think I would do it today, seeing as I napped after watching a movie in bed and was deliciously comfortable. I’ve dragged myself up and now I don’t feel so tired… except for my eyes which feel achy.

I have a plan for what to do with the next few hours, and I need a snack. Yay!

So, I was SOOOO productive today! Right from 5 a.m. onwards I was a MACHINE… I think it drove my boyfriend and dog crazy that I felt I had so much to do and was ignoring them somewhat. I hope the movie evening made up for that.

Anyhow, off to enjoy some quiet time for myself!

I dreamt while I slept…

enliten — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:47:10 +0000

I actually HAD a dream while I (over)slept! I can only vaguely remember it had to do with hills, my mom showing me an easy way to mountain climb, garbage, moving houses, my old friend, and a bunch of horses one of which was coloured with horiztontal stripes made by yellow and pink dots….

But it’s the only time I’ve dreamed since I started this experiment!

As for the oversleeping, it was 20 mins, and after my alarm HAD gone off. I suppose that kind of makes up for the fact that I just could not sleep at my morning nap.

I almost missed my morning nap! 9:30 came and went, and it was 10:50 before I noticed! I was so involved in what I was doing!

Ah!

WOW

enliten — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:39:02 +0000

I just had the best few moments of euphoria. I was about to leave my computer and blog, and I looked out at the rain and almost felt like going to run in it! Or sing along to the music i have playing (which would wake everyone!)!

I have so much to do that I’m sure I can keep busy and un-bored.

Just wanted to let everyone whos blogs and stats I’ve read know how much they help encourage me and give me a comparison to make sure what I’m doing seems to be going as well.

THANKS!

Wahoo!!