Hello again, audience! This is a groundbreaking week for me in the realm of blogging, as I have now posted three blogs within three days. I forgot my early amusement with blogging and how much fun it was to just rant on and on at people I couldn't see and would probably never meet. But here I am again, with more things to say concerning my experiment with polyphasic sleep.
The last two days have gone by pretty uneventfully, as the experiment is going as planned, meaning one step at a time and with very little frustration. Wednesday, I had trouble napping at noon due to a lot of light in the room, and I ended up just drowsing for the planned half hour, then slipping into accidental sleep for around 30 minutes after staring at the ceiling for a while. I chalked it up as success, as it basically counted as a nap taken later than I planned. The same thing happened later at my 6pm nap, as I was not properly tired when I tried to sleep because my nap was coming early. I ended up taking that nap closer to 7:40pm, and still slept for only half an hour or so before awaking naturally.
My midnight nap went off as planned, and I fell asleep smoothly after reading for the hour or so beforehand. After that, I had a long night of struggling to want to do anything. Thus far, I had spent every night of the experiment with other people around or a preplanned period of things to do. Last night, my plan was to begin writing a short story Poncho and I came up with earlier this week. The plot basically consists of a fumbling young necromancer in modern times who breaks into a morgue and resurrects a body as a thrall, only to find that the guy is completely aware of what is going on and is confused. Hilarity ensues. I eventually got around to starting, and I ended up the proud author of five handwritten pages before my 6am nap. Unfortunately, all of those pages were written in the last hour of the awake cycle, as I spent most of the cycle half conscious and drowsing on and off.
After my 6am nap, which also went off without a hitch, I took my lesson in motivation and turned into a productive human being! I showered, ate breakfast, did laundry, listened to August Burns Red for a good long while and practiced screaming to myself in the bathroom, and planned out my next cycle, all before noon. My noon and 6pm naps also went wonderfully, and now I'm closing in on my midnight nap.
Observations:
As each day passes and my body becomes more accustomed to very little sleep, I have noticed that my grogginess has lessened with just about every cycle since the end of the second day. After waking, I feel refreshed but still a bit fuzzy for ten or fifteen minutes, and then I feel awake and aware like I do after a normal night of sleep. This short waking up period is a wonderful change as opposed to how I feel after monophasic cycles, as I usually spend the next hour or so fighting to find motivation to move or speak so I can shuffle off to the kitchen and eat.
Another notable event is my return to sleepiness in the last hour or two before my next nap. My body becomes tired much like it does after staying up for very long hours, but I've only really been awake for four or five. This leads me to believe that my body is indeed adapting to the cycle and is starting to work on 6 hour cycles rather than 14-20. And, as I mentioned before, the sleepiness only lasts until my nap and for the first ten or so minutes after, and then I feel at about maximum, considering how early into the experiment I am and the fact that I have only had a maximum of 12 hours of sleep in the last four days.
The last thing to note at this point is how hungry I am. All the time. I read about this occurrence in blogs of other sleepers, and it makes sense. My body is now conscious and at full metabolism for around 22 hours of every day. This means that I am consuming and digesting food and then using the energy at a more rapid pace than normal. Following that, I've been waking up hungry and eating a full meal just about every cycle so far, and still feeling hungry after. I have a naturally high metabolism, being that I am 18, stand 5'11", weigh 125lbs. average, and have a BMI of 12 at last calculation. I can eat anything and everything I want to and not worry that it is affecting my weight or my ability to engage in activities throughout the day. So an increase in hunger and need for food is shocking, and it makes me worry that I am not going to be able to keep up with my body's increasing need for nutrition all the time. Good healthy meals are not always available to me, so it's going to be difficult to keep myself nourished if this continues. I'll have to come up with a meal plan as to how I'm going to get my Daily Values each day, spread between the four cycles.
I'm really happy with my results thus far, and I'm excited for the days to come. I believe I have conquered the problems I've had in the last few days with just a few simple resolutions to keep in mind every time a problem arises. Getting out of bed immediately; planning out activities for my next cycle before I nap; not worrying about being unable to fall asleep in some locations or situations; and, following that, taking naps up to an hour later than scheduled to accommodate the situation; all of these have made today the most successful day of my experiment yet. And it will only continue to get better. :D
Stay tuned, my beloved audience. There is more to come in the days ahead, and my time dedicated to polyphasic sleep updates will dwindle as interesting news becomes less and less of a happenstance. But, be assured: I will continue to maintain my blog more fervently than before. I really do enjoy writing here, as much as I thought I wouldn't in the first place. Look forward to hearing from me more often and about a greater variety of subjects in the coming days and weeks. And thank you for allowing me a small portion of your lives to entertain you, if even for a moment.
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