Archive for the ‘Sleep’ Category
Dan on January 7th, 2007
I’ve been keeping a journal of my dreams since December 16th. The goal is to have better recolection of my dreams and increase the frequency of lucid dreaming. Prior to logging my dreams I would remember a few a week. I almost never had a lucid dream, and the few that I do remember were only partially lucid. I realized I was dreaming but didn’t choose to take control. Typically the characters in my dream would do whatever I wanted but I wouldn’t try something outside the realm of the current dream. Whenever I wake up and remember a dream I write it down, along with the time I went to bed and the time I woke up.
Within a few days I started remembering more of my dreams and the memories were more vivid. Now, almost a month later, I always remember at least one dream when I wake up or something about it. Sometimes I remember two or three dreams from that night. Sometimes I’ll remember the dream I was having when I woke up and then later in the day something will trigger my memory and I’ll remember another dream I had that night. For the most part the dreams themselves haven’t seemed to change. The only problem I’ve had is that my handwriting seems to get 10x worse right after I wake up and the journal can be tough to read at times.
I had one partially lucid dream on Christmas eve. I was the main character in a video game with GTA type style. I was following the plot for a while but then realized it was a game (dream) and could do whatever I wanted with no consequences. I started going wherever and doing whatever I wanted. I was still constricted to the realm of the game and the laws of physics. I hope to have a fully lucid dream at some point.
If you want to remember your dreams more vividly and more frequently I strongly recommend a dream journal. Going back and reading what you dreamt about earlier in the week can be fun as well. I find that I often remember what I wrote about when I reread it.
Dan on December 17th, 2006
About 35 hours into polyphasic sleep I realized I wasn’t prepared well enough. I didn’t have enough to keep me busy and the motivation to pull through. I woke up from my 2AM nap today very tired. I had trouble falling asleep for most of my naps and hit REM in very few of them. I could have kept going as I managed to make it to 5AM before giving up. At that point I made the decision that I need to prepare better before continuing.
I want to work on my new website idea but I still haven’t come up with a domain. I have a few in mind but I’m being very indecisive. I have a few other things I want to do but they require reading and learning, both of which are very hard when you’re awake at 3AM and feeling very sleep deprived. I have the first season of the X-Files and the game Farcry to keep me distracted from sleep but they only go so far. I want to use at least some of this extra time constructively but I just didn’t have things ready to go.
I’ll be starting again sometime this week. I want to spend the next few days getting things together and planned out before the next round. I also want to start taking frequent naps to get used to them again. Last year when I did polyphasic sleep for the first time I had no trouble falling asleep. I’m not sure what has changed this year. Overall it was going pretty well until I took that 2AM nap. I wasn’t feeling very tired beforehand but I knew it was going to be tough to get up. By having a short core sleep at night (4.5-6 hours) and taking a few naps during the day I hope to eliminate my napping troubles. I don’t mind sleep deprivation during adjustment due to having less than 3 hours of sleep but I don’t want poor napping to extenuate it.
Structure and routine make the adjustment period easier and I didn’t have that in place. Today I’ll be coming up with a plan for all of my free time during the first week of adjustment. It will be designed to be as constructive as possible while allowing me to pull through the tough 2AM-6AM time period without much thinking.
On a side note the dream journal is going well. I haven’t had much to write in it but I make sure to record if I don’t remember dreaming anyway. I’m logging when I go to bed and when I get up, any dreams I have, and how I feel after waking. At first I wasn’t very clear in my recording. For example, last night for my 10PM nap I wrote “Started dreaming about being on a ship.” I think my recollection of that dream was poor but I could have been less vague. The problem is that when I wake up I may recall the dream well but translating those thoughts onto paper isn’t easy for me to do when I’m half asleep. I write a few things and feel like it will be enough to remember the dream again but it’s gone a few minutes later. I’m learning what works as I go. I hope to get to the point that I’ll automatically wake up and write down the time and a detailed description of my dreams.
Dan on December 15th, 2006
It’s that time of the year again. The birds have flown south, nice cars are packed away in garages, and winter vacation is upon us (or more specifically me). I have 5 weeks off of school with some projects I want to start and TV / movies I want to watch. It’s time to polyphasic sleep again! I learned a lot the first time around so I’m trying to avoid making the same mistakes twice. I will not be taking any extra naps or extending them. Instead of slowly phasing it in with core sleeps and naps I’m jumping in head first. Last night I slept 6 hours and I took my first nap at 6pm. I got some light sleep but not much. I’ll be following the same nap schedule I started with last time on the 2, 6, 10 hours. Meals will be an hour or so prior to naps. This is so I can exercise and drink my post workout shake right afterwards.
This time I may play with some stimulants to see if they help me get through the tough 2AM stretch. Caffeine may help since it tends to last 3-4 hours. Ideally I could take a 200mg tablet before my 2AM nap. Since it takes 30-35 minutes for it to take effect the caffeine would help me wake up and carry on to the next nap. This isn’t something I’ll be doing at first, possibly towards the end of the first week if I think it is absolutely necessary. I don’t want to have as many oversleeps as I did last year.
In my final sleep post back in June I mentioned that my monophasic sleep had been reduced to 6-7 hours a night. That lasted for months, up to the beginning of November or so. It slowly increased until it hit 8 hours a night again. I’m hoping this month of polyphasic sleep will get that hour back when I reenter monophasic sleep.
Another plus to polyphasic sleep is that I will again have plenty of free time to write in my blog. I’m also starting a dream journal today. This will be a written log of any dreams I experience and remember. I’ll be doing it the moment I wake up. I hope that it could help prevent oversleeping and extended naps and possibly improve the likelihood of lucid dreaming.
I will be posting frequent updates on how it goes, at least one update a week. The rest of the week I will be posting about fitness, investing, and whatever else is on my mind.
Dan on June 15th, 2006
I haven’t discussed polyphasic sleep for quite some time as I stopped it back in February. Since then I’ve followed a few different sleep patterns. While I was in school I followed a split 6 hour pattern, sleeping from 11PM to 2AM and then 3AM to 6AM. That worked fairly well but I frequently found myself quite tired if class was boring.
After school got out I returned to monophasic sleep. I don’t know if it’s because of my experimentation with polyphasic sleep, changes in my diet, or the exercise routine but now I sleep 6-7 hours a night. Before I tried polyphasic sleep I was out for 8 hours a night. If I wanted I could probably sleep that long again, but I’ve found that I function well on 6-7 hours.
I may try polyphasic yet again. One thing that I disliked about it is that it interfears with social gatherings that last more than 3 hours. I either have to leave or I have to find a place to take a nap. Now that it’s nice out that isn’t as much of a problem, but it still causes problems with my social life. When doing the 4 hour, 20 min pattern I also eat at the beginning of each eating phase. That means I have to make or buy food right after waking up.
With it being so nice out I have a lot of ways I can spend the extra time outside biking, exploring, hiking, etc. Plus the gym I joined is open 24 hours during the week which would allow me to workout there at night. I could do a split routine with lifting during one time period and cardio 12 hours later. It’s something I’m strongly considering. It would also help get me back into the groove of sticking strictly to my eating plan as I’ve been straying a bit recently.
I’m interested in hearing how other former or current polyphasic sleepers have delt with the social issues. Did you just nap at your friends (as I have)? Did you get your friends to do polyphasic sleep as well?
Dan on April 4th, 2006
I apologize for the lack of updates. Between school, projects, and extra sleep I haven’t had much free time. I’ve changed me sleep pattern yet again. I found that the pattern I was on (2 1.5h core naps, 3 20 min naps) just wasn’t cutting it. I was frequently oversleeping and was tired during the day. I slept monophasicly this past weekend and found something interesting. I woke up after 6 hours and had trouble falling back asleep. So maybe 6 hours is what my body wants. To test this I’m trying two 3 hour sleep periods, one 11:30PM to 2:30PM and one 3:30PM to 6:30PM. This allows me to maintain my eating schedule and have some extra time at night to shop, prep food, or do whatever. Last night was my first trial. I ended up adding an extra 20 min nap in there. Today I was wide awake all day. I had no trouble paying attention during class. I found it much easier to focus on the subjects. This may be the best solution for me. We’ll see how it goes.
My new car (92 Talon, as mentioned in the previous post here) is a lot of fun. I visited my parents this weekend. The 5.5 hour, 400 mile drive was quite enjoyable, especially the twisty roads on the way back. If you live close to the western part of MA try driving Rt 2 between North Adams, MA and Troy, NY. It is probably the most fun drive in the area, assuming you don’t get stuck behind slow drivers. Even then there are a lot of passing zones. I managed to make it though most of the twisty sections without interference from other drivers. The combination of coil overs and sticky tires make the car handle very well. I can’t wait to start the autox season!
