Polyphasic Sleep, Day 20 January 20, 2007
Posted by The Probabilist in : [News], Sleep, Blogging , add a comment
The snow melted temporarily so I did some more running for a couple of days. I took the same run as previously but this time I broke into the 18-minute range. Contrary to earlier, I ran at 4 pm instead of 4 am. However, once night came along I started feeling really sleepy dreading that I would oversleep, and indeed I did. I’d call it somewhat of a complete crash because I slept for 5-6 hours straight.
Naturally, I couldn’t sleep well on the naps the following day and seeing as I felt normal on the physical level, I did the same run again at the same time. The next night I overslept again by 2-3 hours. So, now I’ve come to an intersection where I should either try to outlast and outperform my body’s need to recuperate from the physical activities while still sticking to the schedule and not oversleep or go back to walking and such. It’s not that I feel drowsy or sleepy overall from this change of rhythm, but I’ve felt more like a monophasic sleeper during these last days than a polyphasic sleeper.
Another common pattern in my behaviour is that once I get a new point of interest I’m bound to start slacking on the previous one. This time it’s my blog optimization and promotion that has taken my biggest interest. No harm in that I say, because it’s what I’ve planned to do. So, even though I’ve identified myself as being a polyphasic sleeper for a few weeks now, I’m still reminded to stay sharp and keeping at it to my best ability. Having a core sleep period every 24-hours just hasn’t and won’t be a part of my plan since I’ve only had dreams on those and none on my naps. It’s not a foolproof way to measure REM, but it’s the closest one I’ve got, and it’s sub-optimal to me.
On a side note, I’ve received 10 entries to the upcoming carnival, which is a very adequate rate and I’d like to give you some heads-up. The most common category has been Motivation & Productivity with already five submissions while Blog optimizing & monetizing, Health & Exercising plus Widgets & Software are blank. I’ve decided to keep the current category structure for at least the two first carnivals and depending on the feedback, make some alterations from there. It also looks like the amount of feed readers is on a healthy rise, so remember to subscribe through any of the links on the sidebar.
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Polyphasic Sleep, Day 16 January 16, 2007
Posted by The Probabilist in : [News], Personal Growth, Sleep , 6 comments
The past two days were a step in a worse direction due to a change in my schedule. I decided to just follow the napping schedule and let my body and inspiration do the rest. The result was positive in the way that I’ve made great progress in the design and technicalities of this blog. On the downside however, I’ve been spending little time outdoors, reading books, my appetite dropped and I’ve slept more. In general I’ve just felt lazier, less inspired about myself and equipped with less determination of getting things done.
I decided to try this approach because the weather has been windy, snowy and hostile while the sidewalks are slippery enough to take lives. This website was also due for a facelift, some new visitors and the start up of generating some income. Instead of eating six times per day I ended up eating about four times instead. I also overslept daily and this summed up to about three or even four hours of sleep per day, which is totally unacceptable. 
Safe to say, I’ve simply discovered another way that doesn’t work in getting closer to my goal. On last week’s Friday and Saturday I actually slept a wee bit under two hours per day, but a major issue is still that I didn’t fall asleep on every scheduled nap. This is quite vital in the sense that it’s a total waste of time just lying there in bed without serving any purpose. While this issue vanished during the past two days, the cost was too high. A healthy and systematized dose of exercise, food, work and other activities is my best bet on generating most optimal sleeping habits also when living polyphasically.
The fact that I’m currently doing no other work than work on my own well-being, success, prosperity and understanding can be a big leap for some. In the past tense, I’ve always faced difficulty in whipping myself to do something, so this project is a great way to break that old habit of having others tell me what to do. The thing is that I’ve never found anything wrong or repulsive about that approach. Becoming more selfishly successful and purposeful comes with its ups and downs. For the rest of this week I’ll be strictly following my schedule no matter what the weather, how sleepy, how hungry, how motivated or how happy I feel about it. Sleeping for 3-4 hours per day might be an inconceivable productivity shift for some, but since I’ve chosen the path of continuous personal development, I can’t find myself feeling truly satisfied until I’m down to only two hours - indefinitely.
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