Dan on December 30th, 2005
I know it hasn’t been a week yet but I feel that now is a good time to update how my sleep has progressed. As planned Monday was full of family obligations. I took a 6h sleep period Sunday night and no naps on Monday. Monday night I again slept 6 hours in prep for Tuesday’s 5.5 hour drive back to Rochester. I took one nap on Tuesday prior to leaving. By the time I got to Rochester I was tired but not more than normal. Tuesday night I resumed 4h/25min sleep … sort of. When I woke up from the 1AM nap I realized I was quite tired from driving and needed some extra sleep. I ended up taking two longer naps that night.
Since then I have taken every nap. Unlike other people I’ve had no trouble falling asleep quickly. This came as a surprise since I never napped prior to this experiment. My body seems to be adjusting quite well. No oversleeping at all! I frequently hit REM and remember dreams.
That’s not to say everything is going perfectly. There are a few things I’ve noticed that aren’t right. Whenever I wake up from a nap I am very confused and disoriented. When I wake up I can’t seem to grasp the concept of time. I look at a clock and almost always think it is much later than it actually is, or I just can’t understand time at all. It usually takes 5-10 min before I regain a sense of time. It is a very strange mental state! This seems to be improving on every nap, so hopefully it will be gone soon.
Another thing that comes and goes is some minor pressure in the front of my head. It’s so slight that I won’t even call it a headache, but it comes and goes. Last week it was much worse than it is now. This seems to be fading with time as well.
After nearly every nap I feel awake within a few minutes. However, there have been a few times where I was very tired towards the end of the 4 hours. I haven’t given in and slept early and I think that has helped. The strange thing is how my body is telling me that I’m tired. It’s not the normal drowsy feeling I get. I never yawn anymore. When extremely tired I can’t seem to focus on anything for very long but my thought processes are fine. I haven’t noticed a slowing of mental ability that I used to have when tired. It’s more of a physical condition now than mental. My head starts drooping and my eyelids begin shutting. It’s a very strange state that I can’t exactly describe. The only other way I can think of is that my brain isn’t foggy like it normally is when I am very tired.
Speaking of my physical state, I seem to always be cold. This is strange because my apartment is quite warm, usually around 72-73 F. Prior to polyphasic sleep I was almost always warm wearing a short sleeve shirt and pants. Now I have goosebumps all the time and am never quite comfortable. This is how I would have felt prior to changing my sleep in a 68 F room while wearing short sleeves. My theory is that it is related to being in a state of sleep dep where the body wants to rest. It is prepared to sleep so my core temp may be lower than normal. I don’t have a thermometer to check so I have no idea if this is true. I’m hoping it will go away once I become more adjusted.
The last negative thing is that I don’t feel mentally 100% normal, more like 85-90%. My guess is that testing wouldn’t show a big difference. I feel like I can still function as normal, but there is something in my brain that doesn’t feel quite right. I’m hoping that it’s due to the sleep dep during this adjustment period. I’m not sure if I could live knowing that somewhere my thoughts aren’t at the same level as they were with 8h of sleep. If I continue to feel like this after 30 days I will probably switch back to 6h core with 1 nap.
Overall I’m impressed with how well it is going. The only change I’ve made is shifting my sleep times to fall on the 2, 6, and 10 hours. It just fits into my schedule better that way.
One thing I found that works great at keeping me awake is watching the TV show 24. I got season 3 for Christmas and watching it always keeps me focused. It’s such a great show!
Dan on December 30th, 2005
What are your fears? Take a moment to think about it. Do you have a phobia? Do you fear being alone or losing your job?
Far too many people allow fear to run or interfere with their life. If you have a strong fear of something, step back and evaluate it. In order to become the best person you can be you must overcome or control your fears. If not kept in check they will be a negative influence and hold you back. The general method of overcoming fear is to face that of which you are afraid.
I’ll use myself as an example. When I was young I was afraid of the dark. I would visualize criminals hiding in the shadows, waiting to hurt me. As I grew older I decided that I needed to eliminate the fear. I knew that it didn’t make any sense, yet I still felt the emotions when in many dark situations. I decided the only way to get rid of my fear was to face it. If I needed to go into a dark room I would do it, despite being afraid. I would tell myself how stupid the fear was and how there was no one waiting to hurt me. I saw instant results! While the fear wasn’t gone immediately, I had it in check and could deal with it. It wasn’t long before I managed to eliminate the fear.
First, you need to think about what you fear. What has caused you to fear it? Is it a valid reason? Does this reason outway the positives about it? Think about it in a logical manner. Next, put yourself in a controlled situation where you can face your fear without being overwhelmed. Look at the fear in context. For example, if you’re afraid of heights start by standing on a chair. That’s not high off the ground right? You haven’t even doubled your height. Next stand on a deck or porch near the railing. It’s not that high as compared to the roof of your house right? Continue moving to higher and higher objects, comparing them to even larger ones. When you feel the fear on the verge of overwhelming you stop. Evaluate the situation. Focus on rational thoughts, not on the fear. Think, don’t feel.
Of course, this is easier said than done. However, by repeating this process over and over most people can eliminate their fears. As “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” states, “Don’t Panic.”
Dan on December 29th, 2005
I received cash from most of my relatives as Christmas gifts. I decided to use all of the money, plus some of my own, to open a real Forex trading account. I will be starting with a whopping $200. If the account is up after a month of trading I’ll start adding more on a regular basis.
My Oanda demo account had a very interesting day today. I started with two gains totalling around $400 (0.4% gain), then followed that with a $2000 loss (2%). I finally ended the day up almost $500 (0.5% gain). As I refine my BoxOptions strategy I find it easier and easier to make money with them. Taking advantage of the lagging volatility factor in BoxOptions pricing shifts probability in my favor. I hope to contine to hone this method over the next few months. If I continue to make reasonable gains I may write an ebook or seek out other investors in family and friends. That may be jumping the gun but it’s always good to plan ahead.
My North Finance demo account dropped a bit more today. I had two losing trades. I started trading this account in the afternoon, after the majority of the day’s movement had taken place. A lesson learned.
As always, graphs of my demo accounts (and soon my live account) can be found at http://www.thedanexperiment.com/forex-trading/.
Dan on December 25th, 2005
It’s the end of my first polyphasic week. I have to say that it went extremely well. I started with 3 days of 6h core and one day nap. Then I moved to 5h core and 2 30 min naps. In both cases I woke up from all of my cores without an alarm. I was pleasantly surprised how well my body did that. For the past two days I followed the 4h awake/30 min asleep pattern (on the 1, 5, and 9 hours) - sort of. Thursday went perfectly, all 6 naps without a hitch. Last night and today were a bit different. I was doing fine and wasn’t very tired. At 3AM I was bored and decided to take an extra nap. I was tired but that wasn’t my motivation. I figured I could use the extra sleep in case I skipped a nap today due to family obligations.
After waking up from the 3AM nap I felt horribly tired. I sat at my computer and couldn’t concentrate on anything. After trying to read some investment info for 10 min I gave up and decided to take a long nap. That way I would be able to skip at least one nap on Christmas. I woke up around 5AM. I was still a bit tired but it was more sleep inertia than anything else. I ended up taking only one nap today at 10AM. I’m a bit tired now but nothing horrible. As planned I’ll be taking a full night’s sleep tonight due to family obligations tomorrow. I’ll probably take a core sleep Monday night since I will be driving 5.5h back to Rochester from my parent’s house.
So far I’m very impressed with the results. The only time I felt extremely tired was after the extra nap. Once I’m back in Rochester I’ll be back to full polyphasic sleep. Watch for future updates.
Dan on December 24th, 2005
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Polyphasic sleep has given me time to finally attend to some photoshoots I’ve had sitting around on my computer. These were taken on November 20, 2005 at Letchworth State Park here in New York. I added them to the Letchworth State Park section of the gallery.
Watch for more photos and entries soon. I may start posting even more frequently since I have more time.
