I am starting to realize that I am not making enough use of my time at night. I really need to start actually knocking off major items on my to do list cause right now its starting to feel like wasted time. This won't be happening much over the weekend though because I am going to be joining a buddy up near meadow lake to do some chilling and spear fishing.
This situation will be rather interesting as I will be staying at his place. He does know and supports my sleep schedule but I still don't know how weird it is going to be being awake in someone's house all night.
Today I have been very alert and have had good energy. This is probably because of the long sleep I had yesterday. So far there has not been a crash period but if I were to guess I think it will be tonight. If I can make it through the night the spear fishing should be able to keep me going even if I am sleepy.
The drive up was pretty rough. I only made it part way there in the night. I stopped for 3 naps in one 4 hour period then decided to just stop because I was way too tired. The last nap I overslept by 1 hour.
Friday, 29 June 2012
Day 10: feelin sore
Day 10:
I am starting to get really sore from yesterday. It spreads across my back and core before thoroughly taking root in my legs and shoulders refusing to give way even with stretching and massage. I usually am not sore like this but I have been on a break so that might be part of the cause. I will continue full Muay Thai training for the next 2 weeks before changing my sleep schedule or adding weight lifting.
The majority of the day had normal energy levels, I found it very easy to stay on track and all of my naps actually went very well. I threw in an extra nap at 3am though I didn't really need it. It was done mostly because I wanted to have another lucid dream. Although I was sore it was very easy to get through the day. maybe exercise actually helps with polyphasic sleep.
I am starting to get really sore from yesterday. It spreads across my back and core before thoroughly taking root in my legs and shoulders refusing to give way even with stretching and massage. I usually am not sore like this but I have been on a break so that might be part of the cause. I will continue full Muay Thai training for the next 2 weeks before changing my sleep schedule or adding weight lifting.
The majority of the day had normal energy levels, I found it very easy to stay on track and all of my naps actually went very well. I threw in an extra nap at 3am though I didn't really need it. It was done mostly because I wanted to have another lucid dream. Although I was sore it was very easy to get through the day. maybe exercise actually helps with polyphasic sleep.
Day 11: What?!?... I thought I was done adaptation
Oh God was I wrong. I think that yesterday was the calm before the storm. My muscles are still sore but are feeling a bit better. Muscle soreness is not the issue however. Today was the hardest day for me since the beginning to stay awake. All day at work I was almost falling asleep. At one time I was standing beside a scanner, I closed my eyes and almost hit the floor. My only guess to why this is happening is my body is trying to shut down for recovery. I am going to continue to push through though I am completely useless. It honestly feels like I have not slept in 2 or 3 days.
The entire work day was as described above, I would have a brief maybe 30minute reprieve after a nap but then it was right back to zombie x 1000 mode. I even threw in an extra nap at 3:30, still nothing. When I got home I had a little bit to eat and then it was off to Muay Thai.... this should be interesting.
When I got to Muay Thai my energy level started to pick up. I think this was more out of necessity then anything else. My body realized you need to do this or you will get hurt. We warmed up like usual and then just spared for the whole time. Once I was actually fighting all the tiredness and exhaustion disappeared. I am pretty sure that my cardio was worse than usual but not strikingly so. I got punched up pretty good and took a really hard knee to the elbow nerve (thats going to take at least 3 days of recovery so it should be interesting to see how it heals).
After getting home I felt pretty good, went to have my 9pm nap (around 9:45) and next thing I know its 3am. SHIT! thats the worst oversleep I have had so far. I have no idea how this is going to affect me in the long run, possibly throw me through a second round of adaptation or something. Either way it should be interesting. I really couldn't understand why I slept through my alarms and then I realized that I had set my phone to power save mode. This means that it doesn't vibrate (real smart carl, real smart).
When I woke up I was not as groggy as I usually am after oversleeping. It's probably because I woke up at the proper point in my sleep cycles. I was able to work from 3-5am very effectively (except for the shame :( )
The entire work day was as described above, I would have a brief maybe 30minute reprieve after a nap but then it was right back to zombie x 1000 mode. I even threw in an extra nap at 3:30, still nothing. When I got home I had a little bit to eat and then it was off to Muay Thai.... this should be interesting.
When I got to Muay Thai my energy level started to pick up. I think this was more out of necessity then anything else. My body realized you need to do this or you will get hurt. We warmed up like usual and then just spared for the whole time. Once I was actually fighting all the tiredness and exhaustion disappeared. I am pretty sure that my cardio was worse than usual but not strikingly so. I got punched up pretty good and took a really hard knee to the elbow nerve (thats going to take at least 3 days of recovery so it should be interesting to see how it heals).
After getting home I felt pretty good, went to have my 9pm nap (around 9:45) and next thing I know its 3am. SHIT! thats the worst oversleep I have had so far. I have no idea how this is going to affect me in the long run, possibly throw me through a second round of adaptation or something. Either way it should be interesting. I really couldn't understand why I slept through my alarms and then I realized that I had set my phone to power save mode. This means that it doesn't vibrate (real smart carl, real smart).
When I woke up I was not as groggy as I usually am after oversleeping. It's probably because I woke up at the proper point in my sleep cycles. I was able to work from 3-5am very effectively (except for the shame :( )
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Day 8-9 A couple "normal" days
Just short updates as these two days were not very significant. Still feel like I am getting closer and closer to full adaptation.
Day 8:
Today went pretty well other than first thing in the morning. I was very tired as I accidentally took a short sleep before heading off to work.
Near 3 oclock instead of gettting tired I started getting a little bit antsy. I didn't like sitting in my desk doing work I really wanted to go and do something else.
Overslept again but this time it was very odd as I wasn't tired. Big tip in getting through the adaptation and this is even good for even monophasic sleep is to not stress yourself out when your sleep doesn't work out like planned. Take whatever lessons you can from the experience like my first two I learned that I needed to more properly set up alarms. You can't beat your self up it you oversleep though, just move on and keep sticking to the schedule. Same if you miss a nap or unable to sleep. The negative effects are going to be much more pronounced if you become stressed because of it. The thing you have to do is stick to your schedule and you body will do the rest.
Day 9:
I switched cars with my brother so that I could have air conditioning as it said it could feel like 38 today. This morning I instantly went lucid at my 9am nap. I didn't wear ear plugs like I usually do in the car and I also didn't have the ac on (I am specifying this in case these factors effect my ability to lucid dream).
At my one pm nap the ac didn't really work but somehow I still managed to get to sleep. It was an experience for sure as it must have been >40 degrees C and I had never napped in a sauna before.
I had monophasic energy levels for the majority of the day. That night was my first return to full capacity Muay Thai. Muscle fatigue seemed to fit in more quickly but this also could be from the break and the fact it was still extremely hot and humid. I don't think I have every sweat so much in my life as I did this night. My shoulders and Quads were worked the hardest.
I have a pretty bad headache which is very unusual for me as I usually never get headaches. I think this is because I could have gotten partial heat stroke from training in the intense heat and humidity. The headache persisted into the night and subsequent naps. It continued feeling better until my 5am nap when it was mostly gone. Muscle soreness started to creep in slowly all over my body however.
Day 8:
Today went pretty well other than first thing in the morning. I was very tired as I accidentally took a short sleep before heading off to work.
Near 3 oclock instead of gettting tired I started getting a little bit antsy. I didn't like sitting in my desk doing work I really wanted to go and do something else.
Overslept again but this time it was very odd as I wasn't tired. Big tip in getting through the adaptation and this is even good for even monophasic sleep is to not stress yourself out when your sleep doesn't work out like planned. Take whatever lessons you can from the experience like my first two I learned that I needed to more properly set up alarms. You can't beat your self up it you oversleep though, just move on and keep sticking to the schedule. Same if you miss a nap or unable to sleep. The negative effects are going to be much more pronounced if you become stressed because of it. The thing you have to do is stick to your schedule and you body will do the rest.
Day 9:
I switched cars with my brother so that I could have air conditioning as it said it could feel like 38 today. This morning I instantly went lucid at my 9am nap. I didn't wear ear plugs like I usually do in the car and I also didn't have the ac on (I am specifying this in case these factors effect my ability to lucid dream).
At my one pm nap the ac didn't really work but somehow I still managed to get to sleep. It was an experience for sure as it must have been >40 degrees C and I had never napped in a sauna before.
I had monophasic energy levels for the majority of the day. That night was my first return to full capacity Muay Thai. Muscle fatigue seemed to fit in more quickly but this also could be from the break and the fact it was still extremely hot and humid. I don't think I have every sweat so much in my life as I did this night. My shoulders and Quads were worked the hardest.
I have a pretty bad headache which is very unusual for me as I usually never get headaches. I think this is because I could have gotten partial heat stroke from training in the intense heat and humidity. The headache persisted into the night and subsequent naps. It continued feeling better until my 5am nap when it was mostly gone. Muscle soreness started to creep in slowly all over my body however.
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Day 7: A week in review, Thank-Gad adaptation is over.... I hope
Day 7:
I was getting kind of sleepy which would sometimes happen from my 1-5 naps and today rather than slowing down and just trying to keep myself awake I chose to add another 20 minute nap. Before this nap I didn't really have any overly vivid dreams. I kind of remember a few but nothing out of the ordinary. This 3am nap, though only lasting 15 minutes, allowed me to instantly become lucid. It has probably been 4-5 months at least since the last time I had a lucid dream. As well I woke up feeling extremely refreshed before the 20 minute alarm went off. I am probably going to keep adding this nap because it made me feel much better at night and hopefully it will allow me to continue becoming lucid in my dreams.
If this lucid dreaming continues I am going to attempt something I have always wondered. Can you learn something new in a dream. I am confident in my ability to consolidate knowledge and have insight to allow you to solve problems in a dream, but can the acquisition of a totally new skill be learned in a dream. If I get the opportunity I am going to try to teach myself to juggle 4 balls at once. I have been able to do 3 for a long time but I am not able to do 4 and I have never practiced for any significant time or looked into how it can be most easily done.
The rest of the day I would say was the first day I felt true adaptation throughout. It felt just as natural for me to be up in the night as it did during the daylight. For this next week I am going to add full muay thai training. I still will not be lifting but plan to go to the gym in mornings just to keep my schedule on track and to stretch and sauna (which should help with the muscle recovery). As well this next week I am going to be recording in depth data in excel of my exercise, physical effects, diet, how i felt (tired or not), nap quality, and water intake. I will attach this to the blog at the end of the week in case anyone is interested in data or more in depth details.
What I've noticed this week:
So its been a week and my body has managed to keep itself together thus far. I assume I am pretty much through the adaptation phase. Like 90% of the time I feel like I would on a regular day with sleep except I am often more alert as I get nap breaks. Only once in a while at night do I feel waves of sleepiness and a strong urge to hibernate.
I am starting to accept the time dilation and altered consciousness effects now. What I am referring to is the fact that when you only take 20 minute naps you really don't have days but instead time flows continuously. As well this goes along with a perpetual awareness, the world wakes up and goes to sleep but I remain to observe. It's also pretty easy to get into a weird head space because of the number of hours you spend alone.
Other major changes in this first week are a difficulty controlling my core body temperature (though this has gotten much better in the past couple days). Swings in tiredness and sexual drive (always interesting feels like I am in high school again). Increased alertness during monotonous work. Increased muscle soreness.
Effects on diet and cravings. This I feel was the most interesting because I did not have these effects during my first attempt in Hong Kong. It seems like I now hang in a very delicate balance. This seems to have put my much more in tune with other things my body needs like proper nutrition. I crave healthy complex foods, I also am leaning towards raw food more and more. My current favorite thing to eat is spinach with blueberries and almonds. Before I started Uberman I ate rather healthy but it was because I knew I should rather than I craved it. Now my body actually wants these foods, its kinda like this
-is it food?
-is it healthy? (I get that this is fairly objective)
-is it within reach?
-why aren't you eating it?
At some point during this experiment I may become vegetarian for a while to see the effects that it has as well. I was interested in trying this because I read an article about how Carnivores need the most amount of sleep and it is taken usually at once, omnivores less, and herbivores the least with a sleep pattern that was more polyphasic. My complete lack of craving for alcohol or drugs was extremely interesting as well, even avoiding caffeine has not been difficult.
Overall I honestly feel healthy than before I started. I have more energy during the day and am starting to get it at night as well. I hope this continues and I get more accustomed to planning my days for 20 minute naps every 4 hours.
I will leave you with a quotation from the book I am reading which seems to be one of the very few well written and researched book on polyphasic sleep. To purchase a hard copy its something ridiculous like $200 but its available online free at the following url
http://sleepwarrior.com/Claudio_Stampi_-_Why_We_Nap.pdf
" the recuperative value of sleep on performance may not be linearly correlated with sleep duration; this is suggested by many studies presented in this volume. Indeed, even under sleep deprivation, short naps normally produce remarkable recuperative effects, disproportionate to their duration. Rather, nap recuperative power could be best represented by some sort of exponentially decaying (in time) function, providing high recuperative value at the beginning of sleep, which is gradually reduced (exponentially) as sleep continues. This function may be analogous, and perhaps parallel, to the exponential decay observed in delta wave (or SWS) activity during sleep (Feinberg, 1974; Borbely, 1982)."
- "Why We Nap" Claudio Stampi
I was getting kind of sleepy which would sometimes happen from my 1-5 naps and today rather than slowing down and just trying to keep myself awake I chose to add another 20 minute nap. Before this nap I didn't really have any overly vivid dreams. I kind of remember a few but nothing out of the ordinary. This 3am nap, though only lasting 15 minutes, allowed me to instantly become lucid. It has probably been 4-5 months at least since the last time I had a lucid dream. As well I woke up feeling extremely refreshed before the 20 minute alarm went off. I am probably going to keep adding this nap because it made me feel much better at night and hopefully it will allow me to continue becoming lucid in my dreams.
If this lucid dreaming continues I am going to attempt something I have always wondered. Can you learn something new in a dream. I am confident in my ability to consolidate knowledge and have insight to allow you to solve problems in a dream, but can the acquisition of a totally new skill be learned in a dream. If I get the opportunity I am going to try to teach myself to juggle 4 balls at once. I have been able to do 3 for a long time but I am not able to do 4 and I have never practiced for any significant time or looked into how it can be most easily done.
The rest of the day I would say was the first day I felt true adaptation throughout. It felt just as natural for me to be up in the night as it did during the daylight. For this next week I am going to add full muay thai training. I still will not be lifting but plan to go to the gym in mornings just to keep my schedule on track and to stretch and sauna (which should help with the muscle recovery). As well this next week I am going to be recording in depth data in excel of my exercise, physical effects, diet, how i felt (tired or not), nap quality, and water intake. I will attach this to the blog at the end of the week in case anyone is interested in data or more in depth details.
What I've noticed this week:
So its been a week and my body has managed to keep itself together thus far. I assume I am pretty much through the adaptation phase. Like 90% of the time I feel like I would on a regular day with sleep except I am often more alert as I get nap breaks. Only once in a while at night do I feel waves of sleepiness and a strong urge to hibernate.
I am starting to accept the time dilation and altered consciousness effects now. What I am referring to is the fact that when you only take 20 minute naps you really don't have days but instead time flows continuously. As well this goes along with a perpetual awareness, the world wakes up and goes to sleep but I remain to observe. It's also pretty easy to get into a weird head space because of the number of hours you spend alone.
Other major changes in this first week are a difficulty controlling my core body temperature (though this has gotten much better in the past couple days). Swings in tiredness and sexual drive (always interesting feels like I am in high school again). Increased alertness during monotonous work. Increased muscle soreness.
Effects on diet and cravings. This I feel was the most interesting because I did not have these effects during my first attempt in Hong Kong. It seems like I now hang in a very delicate balance. This seems to have put my much more in tune with other things my body needs like proper nutrition. I crave healthy complex foods, I also am leaning towards raw food more and more. My current favorite thing to eat is spinach with blueberries and almonds. Before I started Uberman I ate rather healthy but it was because I knew I should rather than I craved it. Now my body actually wants these foods, its kinda like this
-is it food?
-is it healthy? (I get that this is fairly objective)
-is it within reach?
-why aren't you eating it?
At some point during this experiment I may become vegetarian for a while to see the effects that it has as well. I was interested in trying this because I read an article about how Carnivores need the most amount of sleep and it is taken usually at once, omnivores less, and herbivores the least with a sleep pattern that was more polyphasic. My complete lack of craving for alcohol or drugs was extremely interesting as well, even avoiding caffeine has not been difficult.
Overall I honestly feel healthy than before I started. I have more energy during the day and am starting to get it at night as well. I hope this continues and I get more accustomed to planning my days for 20 minute naps every 4 hours.
I will leave you with a quotation from the book I am reading which seems to be one of the very few well written and researched book on polyphasic sleep. To purchase a hard copy its something ridiculous like $200 but its available online free at the following url
http://sleepwarrior.com/Claudio_Stampi_-_Why_We_Nap.pdf
" the recuperative value of sleep on performance may not be linearly correlated with sleep duration; this is suggested by many studies presented in this volume. Indeed, even under sleep deprivation, short naps normally produce remarkable recuperative effects, disproportionate to their duration. Rather, nap recuperative power could be best represented by some sort of exponentially decaying (in time) function, providing high recuperative value at the beginning of sleep, which is gradually reduced (exponentially) as sleep continues. This function may be analogous, and perhaps parallel, to the exponential decay observed in delta wave (or SWS) activity during sleep (Feinberg, 1974; Borbely, 1982)."
- "Why We Nap" Claudio Stampi
Day 6: Bachelors party and temptation
I found the previous night to be very easy as I was hanging out with a friend till about 4am which made the time pass much more quickly and kept my attention away from lack of sleep.
I had a bachelors party today out at a friends cabin so I spent the majority of the morning just packing stuff up and getting ready. I felt very alert and normal all morning until I got on the road. Driving in the morning was making me rather tired.
When I arrived we went boating and road Styrofoam surfboards behind the boat. Holding the tow rope made my arms sore a lot more quickly than it normally would. I can see how the lack of sleep is at least partially effecting my muscular endurance. I have a feeling I may be sore as my biceps were very fatigued.
********Update***********
I did not actually have any muscle soreness :)
*************************
Another interesting point that really become clear when I was in the water was my increased sensitivity to temperature. I have found that my body has much more difficulty regulating its core temperature. The water was reasonably warm, my friend saying it was much colder the day before, but still I felt freezing. It was sunny and hot, but in spite of this I was shivering after being in the water for 20 minutes.
I didn't have a crash period during the bachelor's party, instead I felt like I normally would in that situation. I wasn't super high energy but was still having a good time. It was very interesting psychologically to have to walk away numerous times during the day to go to bed. At the start I didn't tell many people and instead just snuck off. Some of the guys knew I was doing this though and pretty soon they all were asking "hey how was the nap", "sleep well etc." You generally will receive one of two responses when people find out your doing this. The first being genuine interest, "what? really that's cool man tell me about it" usually followed by some good natured joking. The second thinks your trying to kill yourself and its their duty to stop you. "don't you understand your body NEEDS 8 HOURS A DAY", "why can't you just be NORMAL" (ok the last ones from my dad haha). It is interesting that so far nobody has been able to notice that I am tired or have in any way changed my sleeping patterns before I tell them. This means that even if I have become sleep deprived its not to the point where it is overtly noticeable.
Finally comes the temptation. After we got off the boat and more people showed up we decided to tap the keg. I started out the day saying that I was not going to drink at all because of my polyphasic sleeping pattern. Most people were ok with this I think mostly because they didn't really understand it and didn't want to look further. There was some social/peer pressure but I think it was mostly internal. Most likely habitual, either way this pressure built up till I caved and grabbed a beer. This is the second time I have tried to drink while on the Uberman and both times this is what happened.
The beer looked great and smelled great too, that frosty head and tall body who wouldn't want to drink you? Me, as soon as I took my first good sip I was done. I just didn't want to drink it at all. It didn't make me feel sick, it just didn't feel right. I think this has something to do as well with it always feeling like morning. Its pretty hard to start drinking in the morning unless you are on a major bender, looking for some hair of the dog hangover cure, or are thinking of attending meetings at AA. So I nursed that single beer for the entire day and left half of it in the cup.
I drove home before my 1 am nap. This was interesting because usually after a long day like this with plenty of activity and sun I would be very tired and have trouble driving through the dark. Instead I was pretty alert even though it was getting near my nap. A couple small bouts of sleepiness but they passed quickly and I was home.
I had a bachelors party today out at a friends cabin so I spent the majority of the morning just packing stuff up and getting ready. I felt very alert and normal all morning until I got on the road. Driving in the morning was making me rather tired.
When I arrived we went boating and road Styrofoam surfboards behind the boat. Holding the tow rope made my arms sore a lot more quickly than it normally would. I can see how the lack of sleep is at least partially effecting my muscular endurance. I have a feeling I may be sore as my biceps were very fatigued.
********Update***********
I did not actually have any muscle soreness :)
*************************
Another interesting point that really become clear when I was in the water was my increased sensitivity to temperature. I have found that my body has much more difficulty regulating its core temperature. The water was reasonably warm, my friend saying it was much colder the day before, but still I felt freezing. It was sunny and hot, but in spite of this I was shivering after being in the water for 20 minutes.
I didn't have a crash period during the bachelor's party, instead I felt like I normally would in that situation. I wasn't super high energy but was still having a good time. It was very interesting psychologically to have to walk away numerous times during the day to go to bed. At the start I didn't tell many people and instead just snuck off. Some of the guys knew I was doing this though and pretty soon they all were asking "hey how was the nap", "sleep well etc." You generally will receive one of two responses when people find out your doing this. The first being genuine interest, "what? really that's cool man tell me about it" usually followed by some good natured joking. The second thinks your trying to kill yourself and its their duty to stop you. "don't you understand your body NEEDS 8 HOURS A DAY", "why can't you just be NORMAL" (ok the last ones from my dad haha). It is interesting that so far nobody has been able to notice that I am tired or have in any way changed my sleeping patterns before I tell them. This means that even if I have become sleep deprived its not to the point where it is overtly noticeable.
Finally comes the temptation. After we got off the boat and more people showed up we decided to tap the keg. I started out the day saying that I was not going to drink at all because of my polyphasic sleeping pattern. Most people were ok with this I think mostly because they didn't really understand it and didn't want to look further. There was some social/peer pressure but I think it was mostly internal. Most likely habitual, either way this pressure built up till I caved and grabbed a beer. This is the second time I have tried to drink while on the Uberman and both times this is what happened.
The beer looked great and smelled great too, that frosty head and tall body who wouldn't want to drink you? Me, as soon as I took my first good sip I was done. I just didn't want to drink it at all. It didn't make me feel sick, it just didn't feel right. I think this has something to do as well with it always feeling like morning. Its pretty hard to start drinking in the morning unless you are on a major bender, looking for some hair of the dog hangover cure, or are thinking of attending meetings at AA. So I nursed that single beer for the entire day and left half of it in the cup.
I drove home before my 1 am nap. This was interesting because usually after a long day like this with plenty of activity and sun I would be very tired and have trouble driving through the dark. Instead I was pretty alert even though it was getting near my nap. A couple small bouts of sleepiness but they passed quickly and I was home.
Monday, 25 June 2012
Day 5
I don't know what's up today but something magical is happening. I was at the gym and all I did was walk the track then ten minutes of light rowing and a good 30 minute stretch. From what I could tell there were two really cute girls eyeing me up while I stretched. Maybe this whole not sleeping thing is emiting some sort of super pheramone cause it gets better. I got to work and went to Subway to grab some chocolate milk for my protein and this cute girl said she had a big order and that I could go ahead. Then she starts chatting me up asking me where I work and what not. I was in total shock. I have determined that there are 1 of 2 posibilities. #1 I am so sleep deprived that I am hallucinating. In this scenario I assume that cute girl at subway was a cardboard cutout that you often see.....Still she totally was interested. #2 Girls like guys who look so incredibly tired they might drop dead at any time lol. I seriously walk slow like a zombie have bags under my eyes and actually one of my eyes has become a little bit lazy (this happens whenever I am sleep deprived otherwise it goes away.)
While I was rowing the pain in my left shoulder returned. It was a very sharp pain like my shoulder was injured rather than just sore. I kept rowing however and found that it only bothered me when I made sudden pulling movements and when it was at a certain angle.
I was feeling quite sleepy in the office today and my stomach was starting to get sore. By sore I mean Gastritis. For those who don't know gastritis is the inflammation of the stomach lining. It seems my body is confused as to when it is supposed to release acid into my stomach. This makes sense as I am usually eating every time that I wake up. It seems like my body just keep producing stomach acid however and now it is leading to this inflammation. I am going to take a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) as it will decrease the amount of stomach acid produced.
Thinking more about this, it's actually kind of a good sign. It means that my body realizes that it has to make changes. That the old system of just releasing stomach acid when I eat doesn't work cause I am constantly eating now. This means it is trying to adapt, unfortunetly its overcompensating.
I hit a wall at about 3:30pm and was the most tired I have been since I started my polyphasic sleep pattern. I had trouble keeping myself awake at the desk. I got up and walked around, went to grab some food, tried my yoga stretches. Each time when I went back to my chair I just wanted to fall asleep. The only thing that kept me up was sheer will.
After this I had a poor 5 pm nap which surprised me as I was so tired. The nap was in my office which I had never done before. I did not have a pillow or blanket, I was just laying on the floor using some coveralls as a pillow. Oddly however I did not remain tired when I went for my mandarin lesson at 5:40pm. I was able to stay very alert and was not drowsy though again I did have some trouble focusing.
My 9pm nap was again in the office but this time I brought in my pillow and blanket from the car. I ended up oversleeping this nap by 40 minutes, waking up at 10pm and being completely and utterly disoriented. First I didn't understand why I was in the office, I thought I might have been dreaming. Then when I realized I didn't know why I was still in the city but felt the compelling need to go back for some reason. I did this and the remainder of the night was fairly average.
I have started to feel like I get extremely varient energy swings. I would feel like I had too much energy then I would be dead tired. I find these happen due to whatever stimuli was around me. For example when I was chatting with my Mandarin tutor I was extremely engaged even after the lesson we just talked about life for a couple hours and not once did I feel tired at all. These same swings have been apparent in my sex drive. For a vast majority of my time awake I would say I have a lower sex drive than usual (This does seem logical as sex drive will decrease with sleep deprivation). There are times where I have a very strong upward swing in my sex drive. This could be important because of the link between testosterone, sleep, sex drive, and working out (muscle recovery).
While I was rowing the pain in my left shoulder returned. It was a very sharp pain like my shoulder was injured rather than just sore. I kept rowing however and found that it only bothered me when I made sudden pulling movements and when it was at a certain angle.
I was feeling quite sleepy in the office today and my stomach was starting to get sore. By sore I mean Gastritis. For those who don't know gastritis is the inflammation of the stomach lining. It seems my body is confused as to when it is supposed to release acid into my stomach. This makes sense as I am usually eating every time that I wake up. It seems like my body just keep producing stomach acid however and now it is leading to this inflammation. I am going to take a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) as it will decrease the amount of stomach acid produced.
Thinking more about this, it's actually kind of a good sign. It means that my body realizes that it has to make changes. That the old system of just releasing stomach acid when I eat doesn't work cause I am constantly eating now. This means it is trying to adapt, unfortunetly its overcompensating.
I hit a wall at about 3:30pm and was the most tired I have been since I started my polyphasic sleep pattern. I had trouble keeping myself awake at the desk. I got up and walked around, went to grab some food, tried my yoga stretches. Each time when I went back to my chair I just wanted to fall asleep. The only thing that kept me up was sheer will.
After this I had a poor 5 pm nap which surprised me as I was so tired. The nap was in my office which I had never done before. I did not have a pillow or blanket, I was just laying on the floor using some coveralls as a pillow. Oddly however I did not remain tired when I went for my mandarin lesson at 5:40pm. I was able to stay very alert and was not drowsy though again I did have some trouble focusing.
My 9pm nap was again in the office but this time I brought in my pillow and blanket from the car. I ended up oversleeping this nap by 40 minutes, waking up at 10pm and being completely and utterly disoriented. First I didn't understand why I was in the office, I thought I might have been dreaming. Then when I realized I didn't know why I was still in the city but felt the compelling need to go back for some reason. I did this and the remainder of the night was fairly average.
I have started to feel like I get extremely varient energy swings. I would feel like I had too much energy then I would be dead tired. I find these happen due to whatever stimuli was around me. For example when I was chatting with my Mandarin tutor I was extremely engaged even after the lesson we just talked about life for a couple hours and not once did I feel tired at all. These same swings have been apparent in my sex drive. For a vast majority of my time awake I would say I have a lower sex drive than usual (This does seem logical as sex drive will decrease with sleep deprivation). There are times where I have a very strong upward swing in my sex drive. This could be important because of the link between testosterone, sleep, sex drive, and working out (muscle recovery).
Day 4
This day started off badly as the start which I defined as my 5am nap was again visited by an oversleep :(. These things really suck. Anyone who is out there who thinks "oh you slept more that should make you feel better"Your dead wrong. Oversleeping these naps makes you feel pretty shitty for at least 4 hours. I overslept this time because my phone became dislodged from my waistband while sleeping so I couldn't feel it vibrating. Now I have a third backup alarm that is the alarm clock I used to use to wake up. This thing gets ridiculously loud so no way I will be sleeping through it.
During the day I was tired because of the oversleeping until my 9 am nap. After this I felt pretty normal regular energy and attention still a little zombie but that is going away slowly. I had a spike in energy around 11am felt hyperactive almost, this passed in about 20 minutes. 1pm nap went normally though it was really hot in my car today. I came back in with just the meanest back sweat going on and one of the secretaries said "oh were you exercising on your coffee break, you must be really committed". I didn't want to be "no, I was just sleeping in my car instead of being at work" so naturally I lied and said "ya its all about commitment" ;).
The rest of the day I felt just like I would normally, until around 4 pm. I just seemed to crash at this point, my head started to bob at my computer and was having a really hard time staying awake. To combat this I googled some office yoga stretches and got a little 10minute Yoga break. After doing this it wasn't bad making it until the end of the work day. This was the first time that I really had a "crash" episode during the day though. Every once in a while I would get that very fatigued tired feeling at night but this was new territory.
I went to Muay Thai again today, we just did some light training outside. I just did skipping and shadow boxing but also warmed up my legs with 50 kicks a leg. One thing that I found was that I have zero muscular endurance. 50 kicks a leg usually was a decent warmup but my hip flexor felt very exhausted today. As well I skipped probably a total of 30 minutes and my calfs were just burning and sore. When I got home I took a bath and just let my legs soak in the nice warm water as I knew they wouldn't really get any other recovery time.
Another strange thing was that while shadow boxing and just throwing techniques to the air I felt my left shoulder start to hurt. It felt a bit like I had moved it wrong and possibly pulled something. This pain was only there when I threw punches though so after coming home I never noticed it.
That night I wasn't tired as I feel the exercise helps me stay alert and awake but it was really hard to focus any particular task. For example I was trying to study mandarin, which is another one of the reasons I wanted the extra time that polyphasic sleep offers, but I just kept re-reading the same exercises with little improvement. I still feel its hard to make efficient use of my extra time, though I don't believe polyphasic sleep has has had any effect on the efficiency of my daytime hours.
During the day I was tired because of the oversleeping until my 9 am nap. After this I felt pretty normal regular energy and attention still a little zombie but that is going away slowly. I had a spike in energy around 11am felt hyperactive almost, this passed in about 20 minutes. 1pm nap went normally though it was really hot in my car today. I came back in with just the meanest back sweat going on and one of the secretaries said "oh were you exercising on your coffee break, you must be really committed". I didn't want to be "no, I was just sleeping in my car instead of being at work" so naturally I lied and said "ya its all about commitment" ;).
The rest of the day I felt just like I would normally, until around 4 pm. I just seemed to crash at this point, my head started to bob at my computer and was having a really hard time staying awake. To combat this I googled some office yoga stretches and got a little 10minute Yoga break. After doing this it wasn't bad making it until the end of the work day. This was the first time that I really had a "crash" episode during the day though. Every once in a while I would get that very fatigued tired feeling at night but this was new territory.
I went to Muay Thai again today, we just did some light training outside. I just did skipping and shadow boxing but also warmed up my legs with 50 kicks a leg. One thing that I found was that I have zero muscular endurance. 50 kicks a leg usually was a decent warmup but my hip flexor felt very exhausted today. As well I skipped probably a total of 30 minutes and my calfs were just burning and sore. When I got home I took a bath and just let my legs soak in the nice warm water as I knew they wouldn't really get any other recovery time.
Another strange thing was that while shadow boxing and just throwing techniques to the air I felt my left shoulder start to hurt. It felt a bit like I had moved it wrong and possibly pulled something. This pain was only there when I threw punches though so after coming home I never noticed it.
That night I wasn't tired as I feel the exercise helps me stay alert and awake but it was really hard to focus any particular task. For example I was trying to study mandarin, which is another one of the reasons I wanted the extra time that polyphasic sleep offers, but I just kept re-reading the same exercises with little improvement. I still feel its hard to make efficient use of my extra time, though I don't believe polyphasic sleep has has had any effect on the efficiency of my daytime hours.
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Day 3
I am continuing to feel better than normal during the day time. It seems that when the sun starts to come up I start to become alert again. I remember this feeling from my first attempt. I had a great day felt more awake than I usually would. My brain is still not working at pre-poly sleeping capacity as I am sleep deprived. Before I started however I used to get sleepy after lunch or around 2 pm and now I don't feel that.
I started to notice a couple things that I should probably keep watching. The first is that my eyes are really sore. This is due to spending 8 hours on a computer at work and then another 8 at least at night. This is defininetly a serious concern with polyphasic sleeping if you work infront of a computer all day. Not only are you taxing your eyes extra hard but your not giving them the recovery time that they need. So do preventative eye care, take lots of breaks and do eye exercises like cupping. This all can be found with a quick google.
I was feeling some general body soreness as well. This probably is a combination of the little bit of Muay Thai from yesterday and spending 18+ hours in the seated position. I can feel it my back especially. I also started to feel this weird itch under my eye that felt like something was under the skin. I just ignored it and it went away after a while.
Tonight from 1-5 I was extremely alert for some reason. I had some of the same zombie episodes where I just kinda lost focus and found myself either staring at something or holding a random object and looking at it but I never really felt tired or like I wanted to get into my bed.
I was like what did I do that night then? I remembered I had spent most of the night working on my first post of the blog. I didn't realize how poor I was at writing until I started writing this blog. I am not saying that I can't produce a decent (by being in engineering standards) piece at the end of my process. Its that my process is just shitty. This could be partially a sleep deprived thing but thats probably wishful thinking. I will just look at the page and think of what I want to write, running it through my head like 8 times till it sounds correct. Like there is some ultimate way of writing that is the single right way. Finally when you get that one sentence that just sounds like your such a knowledgeble pretentious douche (you know, exactly the sound you have been gunning for) and then you start to write it get two words in and forget just how it was worded. Like Fuck common man that took me 20 minutes, so you end up doing what you do in the other aspects of your life. You end up settling with the less attractive friend of a sentence cause it's last call and realistically its still going to get the job done.
I started to notice a couple things that I should probably keep watching. The first is that my eyes are really sore. This is due to spending 8 hours on a computer at work and then another 8 at least at night. This is defininetly a serious concern with polyphasic sleeping if you work infront of a computer all day. Not only are you taxing your eyes extra hard but your not giving them the recovery time that they need. So do preventative eye care, take lots of breaks and do eye exercises like cupping. This all can be found with a quick google.
I was feeling some general body soreness as well. This probably is a combination of the little bit of Muay Thai from yesterday and spending 18+ hours in the seated position. I can feel it my back especially. I also started to feel this weird itch under my eye that felt like something was under the skin. I just ignored it and it went away after a while.
Tonight from 1-5 I was extremely alert for some reason. I had some of the same zombie episodes where I just kinda lost focus and found myself either staring at something or holding a random object and looking at it but I never really felt tired or like I wanted to get into my bed.
I was like what did I do that night then? I remembered I had spent most of the night working on my first post of the blog. I didn't realize how poor I was at writing until I started writing this blog. I am not saying that I can't produce a decent (by being in engineering standards) piece at the end of my process. Its that my process is just shitty. This could be partially a sleep deprived thing but thats probably wishful thinking. I will just look at the page and think of what I want to write, running it through my head like 8 times till it sounds correct. Like there is some ultimate way of writing that is the single right way. Finally when you get that one sentence that just sounds like your such a knowledgeble pretentious douche (you know, exactly the sound you have been gunning for) and then you start to write it get two words in and forget just how it was worded. Like Fuck common man that took me 20 minutes, so you end up doing what you do in the other aspects of your life. You end up settling with the less attractive friend of a sentence cause it's last call and realistically its still going to get the job done.
Friday, 22 June 2012
Day1-2
I didn't start this blog till day 3 on the suggestion of a friend so I am a little behind as it is currently the night of day 4 for me but hopefully I can catch up. Also I will be posting about my first experience at some point when I have more time haha (if your awake 22 hours as day its really funny[what I really mean is more time when your actually productive]).
Here is a link to my plan if you don't know what I am doing. You can also see it in the sidebar of my blog history.
http://polyphasicandexercise.blogspot.ca/2012/06/plan.html
I started the Uberman Schedule on Sunday night starting to nap at 9pm. What I am considering day one though is Monday from dawn. So the start of day two was Tuesday at dawn. This usually coincides roughly with my 5am nap.
First day at work was actually better than normal because I was able to take naps during the work hour and really I was only deprived from one nights sleep. I am no stranger to sleep deprivation as I have spent almost 4 days awake consecutively and slept 3-5 hours for the entire first semester of university( I will be returning in the fall for my 6th year of electrical engineering). My naps during the day seem to come at just the right times. As soon as I got to work I was feeling a little tired and groggy but then 9 rolls around very soon and I am off to nap.
Here I should take a second to explain my work situation. To begin a huge shout out and thanks to my boss who gave me the go-ahead for doing this (even though he will most likely never read this). The only downside is I have to take the naps in my car. I have subs in my trunk so I can't lie the backseat down and make a bed that's half in the trunk. My car is much to narrow to lie across the back seat (its a 97 Civic ya I know ladies settle down), as a result I am left with reclining the drivers seat. This seems to work alright as long as it is not too hot out as the car also doesn't have air conditioning. I have a pillow and a blanket and my naps were really easy the first day. I fell asleep within my 20 minutes. I seem to wake up from my naps feeling kinda groggy and out of it, usually takes me about another 20 minutes till I feel re-energized from them.
When I got home I spent my time trying to keep busy. I made some meals for the next couple days and just hung out with my family. I was not able to fall asleep at my 9pm nap but I still laid in bed for my 20 minutes. After this I was feeling a little more tired but nothing too crazy. At my 1am nap I forgot that there was a pm/am (who invented that stupid system anyways) so I set it for 1pm. This led to me oversleeping by 3hours...... Not off to a great start on this one. I woke up feeling super disoriented didn't know when it was even after looking at the clock like 3 times. I knew though that no matter what happens just stick to the schedule and ride it out so in another 40 minutes I took another nap. This took a crazy amount of will power to get up from. I felt extremely fatigued and just wanted to roll over in bed.
This next 4 hour block (start of day 2) was the start of my zombie phase. All I did was clean my room because I thought if I sat or lied down I would fall asleep. I managed to stay up and I came up with a great system for making sure that I get out of bed. I set two alarms on my phone that vibrate, before I was using just 1. I would tuck the phone into my underwear band on my hip to make sure i felt it. The second alarm was set 2 minutes after the first and how it worked was if I was able to get out of bed before the second alarm went then I would get to "reward myself"(take that as you will, remember I am trying to be as open and thorough as possible. Also dire times call for dire action)
When I got to work I was fairly zombie like but it was still ok cause I could bank on those two naps that I never used to get. They turned out to be super refreshing. I am actually sleeping better in my car then I am at home in my bed. I am not sure if this is due to their timing or if it is because of the location. Surprisingly enough I came up with a solution to a problem at work that would let me knock about 1/3 of the time off a month long project I have been working on (maybe I just had to look at it from another angle, a very sleep deprived angle). For the most part though I would say that my mental capacity was below normal for sure. During this stage you get a kind of mental quite though that is really relaxing. I would find myself staring off into space and usually when this happens I would be day dreaming or thinking about something but now it was just blank.
After work I went to muay thai. I know I am not supposed to be exercising till after the adaptation but my plan was just to go and do a light warm up, throw some kicks and then just do slow technique practice. I did this but didn't end up leaving till 9:05 pm so I went to the parking lot and slept in my car. Again i couldn't sleep during this nap time but I stayed there anyways.
This night was surprisingly easy I felt really good not tired at all though I was still kind of in the Zombie not thinking state. Sometimes I would find myself picking up objects and just looking at them without any thoughts just observing lol. I think the night was easy to stay awake because of the exercise, it got my blood flowing and my core temperature up.
Here is a link to my plan if you don't know what I am doing. You can also see it in the sidebar of my blog history.
http://polyphasicandexercise.blogspot.ca/2012/06/plan.html
I started the Uberman Schedule on Sunday night starting to nap at 9pm. What I am considering day one though is Monday from dawn. So the start of day two was Tuesday at dawn. This usually coincides roughly with my 5am nap.
First day at work was actually better than normal because I was able to take naps during the work hour and really I was only deprived from one nights sleep. I am no stranger to sleep deprivation as I have spent almost 4 days awake consecutively and slept 3-5 hours for the entire first semester of university( I will be returning in the fall for my 6th year of electrical engineering). My naps during the day seem to come at just the right times. As soon as I got to work I was feeling a little tired and groggy but then 9 rolls around very soon and I am off to nap.
Here I should take a second to explain my work situation. To begin a huge shout out and thanks to my boss who gave me the go-ahead for doing this (even though he will most likely never read this). The only downside is I have to take the naps in my car. I have subs in my trunk so I can't lie the backseat down and make a bed that's half in the trunk. My car is much to narrow to lie across the back seat (its a 97 Civic ya I know ladies settle down), as a result I am left with reclining the drivers seat. This seems to work alright as long as it is not too hot out as the car also doesn't have air conditioning. I have a pillow and a blanket and my naps were really easy the first day. I fell asleep within my 20 minutes. I seem to wake up from my naps feeling kinda groggy and out of it, usually takes me about another 20 minutes till I feel re-energized from them.
When I got home I spent my time trying to keep busy. I made some meals for the next couple days and just hung out with my family. I was not able to fall asleep at my 9pm nap but I still laid in bed for my 20 minutes. After this I was feeling a little more tired but nothing too crazy. At my 1am nap I forgot that there was a pm/am (who invented that stupid system anyways) so I set it for 1pm. This led to me oversleeping by 3hours...... Not off to a great start on this one. I woke up feeling super disoriented didn't know when it was even after looking at the clock like 3 times. I knew though that no matter what happens just stick to the schedule and ride it out so in another 40 minutes I took another nap. This took a crazy amount of will power to get up from. I felt extremely fatigued and just wanted to roll over in bed.
This next 4 hour block (start of day 2) was the start of my zombie phase. All I did was clean my room because I thought if I sat or lied down I would fall asleep. I managed to stay up and I came up with a great system for making sure that I get out of bed. I set two alarms on my phone that vibrate, before I was using just 1. I would tuck the phone into my underwear band on my hip to make sure i felt it. The second alarm was set 2 minutes after the first and how it worked was if I was able to get out of bed before the second alarm went then I would get to "reward myself"(take that as you will, remember I am trying to be as open and thorough as possible. Also dire times call for dire action)
When I got to work I was fairly zombie like but it was still ok cause I could bank on those two naps that I never used to get. They turned out to be super refreshing. I am actually sleeping better in my car then I am at home in my bed. I am not sure if this is due to their timing or if it is because of the location. Surprisingly enough I came up with a solution to a problem at work that would let me knock about 1/3 of the time off a month long project I have been working on (maybe I just had to look at it from another angle, a very sleep deprived angle). For the most part though I would say that my mental capacity was below normal for sure. During this stage you get a kind of mental quite though that is really relaxing. I would find myself staring off into space and usually when this happens I would be day dreaming or thinking about something but now it was just blank.
After work I went to muay thai. I know I am not supposed to be exercising till after the adaptation but my plan was just to go and do a light warm up, throw some kicks and then just do slow technique practice. I did this but didn't end up leaving till 9:05 pm so I went to the parking lot and slept in my car. Again i couldn't sleep during this nap time but I stayed there anyways.
This night was surprisingly easy I felt really good not tired at all though I was still kind of in the Zombie not thinking state. Sometimes I would find myself picking up objects and just looking at them without any thoughts just observing lol. I think the night was easy to stay awake because of the exercise, it got my blood flowing and my core temperature up.
The Plan
So, here is my bottom line. I felt that Polyphasic sleeping was very interesting from both a psychological and a social point of view the first time that I did it. It gave me more waking hours which I personally never have trouble filling. But it had a strict schedule and more importantly I didn't think it would allow me to really exercise.
This final problem the lack of exercise is the reason for this second round of Polyphasic sleep. I can't seem to find anywhere online people who are trying to integrate any higher intensity exercise with as little sleep as possible. This is my goal.
I am going to start off with the Uberman sleep schedule. I will be taking my naps at 1-5-9 both am and pm for 20 minutes each time. During the adaptation phase I do not plan to do any exercise as your body needs to focus on shifting your schedules. Once I feel that I have overcome the zombie-like signs of sleep deprivation I will start to phase exercise back into my program. If my training becomes too difficult and I feel that I am unable to properly recover I will try increasing my sleep.
This sleep increase will be attempted in at least a couple different ways. First I am going to try something I haven't read of people doing very much. This is add a couple longer naps at spaces in the night. For example I could have an hour nap at 2:40 and 6:20. This would add a total of two hours, doubling my total sleep time and hopefully increasing my recovery. Like I said though I really have no idea how that will go :) (super excited). I will play with both length of time and frequency of these naps to see what works best. If this fails and I still am feeling sore and fatigued consistently then I will try option 2. This option is adding a single core sleep like in the Everyman sleep schedule (probably from 1.5-4 hours depending what I find I need to take till I am able to recover).
A typical week of exercise for me:
This is going to be what I will work towards being able to complete consistently on a polyphasic Schedule. So you all know, I am not a power lifter or have ever really tried to put on large amounts of weight at any time (sorry if you thought that's what you thought this blog would be about. Though I would be really interested in seeing the results of polyphasic sleep on either of these so if someone out there decides to try please toss me an email letting me know how it worked :)). Here is a picture of me the night before I started the Uberman so you can kind of see my body type.
What I do during most of the year is a simple lifting and cardio schedule but what I have been doing for the first couple months of summer has focused mostly on high intensity circuit training.
*I always warmup and stretch before all exercises and after every workout I do a good 20 minutes of stretching then use foam rollers.
Basically my workouts take two upper body muscle groups three times a week and lower body once on the weekends. They all have this form:
exercise 1 muscle group 1 straight to exercise 1 muscle group 2 straight to 80 meter sprint straight to 1 min of skipping last ten seconds as fast as I can straight to 80 meter sprint straight to a minute of 1 of 9 ab exercises. Thirty second to 1 min break and repeat.
I do three sets of this for each set of exercises. I have 3 exercises for each muscle group so a total of 9 sets.
Monday: Chest and Shoulders:
Wednesday:Back and Abs
This day is a little different, I still do the same circuit with my back for a total of 6 sets but I also include hanging core exercises before hand and weighted core exercises after.
Friday: Arms
Weekend: Legs, this is in more of a traditional lifting style with set then 30sec-1min break and repeat.
In addition to this, I train in muay thai on Tuesday and Thursday nights. This can become very intense with 30+ minutes of continuous high pace activity without breaks. Compared to my time in the gym I would say that Muay Thai is sometimes much more demanding as I often finish lying on the ground barely able to move. This does not create as much muscle growth and development as it does muscular endurance and stamina as it has lots of cardiovascular training. Also there is full contact sparing involved so it should be interesting to see how polyphasic sleep effects that ability.
************************
Update just found this out:
There is a Spartan Sprint going on in Calgary, Alberta which is close enough to where I live that I could make the drive for it. I am probably going to be shifting my lifting schedule into more specified training for this event. If you don't know what a Spartan race is check out this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4aM0fpS0IU) and here is the official site (http://www.spartanrace.com/)
Diet:
I am restricting all drugs (this including alcohol, caffeine, etc.). In the beginning I won't be taking my pre-workout mix either. Instead I will be sticking just to protein and a multi-vitamin as supplements. Once I have gotten used to polyphasic sleep I will re-introduce these drugs to see the effects they have on me and my naps. Not using any intoxicants is going to be extremely difficult though as I have a bachelor party this weekend. However being sleep deprived is almost like drinking right?.....right? oh well I could use a break anyways.
Before I started this I was eating 5-6 small meals a day with a protein shake with fruits and vegetables as well. I am going to be following a very similar schedule now as well eating after each of my naps. I stick to fairly healthy foods, I am not crazy about it but I definitely won't eat fast food burgers or garbage like that. I am a bit of a sugar freak however and have done terrible things in the name of sugar cravings lol. examples being eating a pound of chocolate in a sitting, chugging a chocolate fountain and eating candies from the garbage (hey back off I am not proud of it but it happened and I want to get used to writing every in here whether or not it looks or sounds good).
This final problem the lack of exercise is the reason for this second round of Polyphasic sleep. I can't seem to find anywhere online people who are trying to integrate any higher intensity exercise with as little sleep as possible. This is my goal.
I am going to start off with the Uberman sleep schedule. I will be taking my naps at 1-5-9 both am and pm for 20 minutes each time. During the adaptation phase I do not plan to do any exercise as your body needs to focus on shifting your schedules. Once I feel that I have overcome the zombie-like signs of sleep deprivation I will start to phase exercise back into my program. If my training becomes too difficult and I feel that I am unable to properly recover I will try increasing my sleep.
This sleep increase will be attempted in at least a couple different ways. First I am going to try something I haven't read of people doing very much. This is add a couple longer naps at spaces in the night. For example I could have an hour nap at 2:40 and 6:20. This would add a total of two hours, doubling my total sleep time and hopefully increasing my recovery. Like I said though I really have no idea how that will go :) (super excited). I will play with both length of time and frequency of these naps to see what works best. If this fails and I still am feeling sore and fatigued consistently then I will try option 2. This option is adding a single core sleep like in the Everyman sleep schedule (probably from 1.5-4 hours depending what I find I need to take till I am able to recover).
A typical week of exercise for me:
This is going to be what I will work towards being able to complete consistently on a polyphasic Schedule. So you all know, I am not a power lifter or have ever really tried to put on large amounts of weight at any time (sorry if you thought that's what you thought this blog would be about. Though I would be really interested in seeing the results of polyphasic sleep on either of these so if someone out there decides to try please toss me an email letting me know how it worked :)). Here is a picture of me the night before I started the Uberman so you can kind of see my body type.
What I do during most of the year is a simple lifting and cardio schedule but what I have been doing for the first couple months of summer has focused mostly on high intensity circuit training.
*I always warmup and stretch before all exercises and after every workout I do a good 20 minutes of stretching then use foam rollers.
Basically my workouts take two upper body muscle groups three times a week and lower body once on the weekends. They all have this form:
exercise 1 muscle group 1 straight to exercise 1 muscle group 2 straight to 80 meter sprint straight to 1 min of skipping last ten seconds as fast as I can straight to 80 meter sprint straight to a minute of 1 of 9 ab exercises. Thirty second to 1 min break and repeat.
I do three sets of this for each set of exercises. I have 3 exercises for each muscle group so a total of 9 sets.
Monday: Chest and Shoulders:
Wednesday:Back and Abs
This day is a little different, I still do the same circuit with my back for a total of 6 sets but I also include hanging core exercises before hand and weighted core exercises after.
Friday: Arms
Weekend: Legs, this is in more of a traditional lifting style with set then 30sec-1min break and repeat.
In addition to this, I train in muay thai on Tuesday and Thursday nights. This can become very intense with 30+ minutes of continuous high pace activity without breaks. Compared to my time in the gym I would say that Muay Thai is sometimes much more demanding as I often finish lying on the ground barely able to move. This does not create as much muscle growth and development as it does muscular endurance and stamina as it has lots of cardiovascular training. Also there is full contact sparing involved so it should be interesting to see how polyphasic sleep effects that ability.
************************
Update just found this out:
There is a Spartan Sprint going on in Calgary, Alberta which is close enough to where I live that I could make the drive for it. I am probably going to be shifting my lifting schedule into more specified training for this event. If you don't know what a Spartan race is check out this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4aM0fpS0IU) and here is the official site (http://www.spartanrace.com/)
Diet:
I am restricting all drugs (this including alcohol, caffeine, etc.). In the beginning I won't be taking my pre-workout mix either. Instead I will be sticking just to protein and a multi-vitamin as supplements. Once I have gotten used to polyphasic sleep I will re-introduce these drugs to see the effects they have on me and my naps. Not using any intoxicants is going to be extremely difficult though as I have a bachelor party this weekend. However being sleep deprived is almost like drinking right?.....right? oh well I could use a break anyways.
Before I started this I was eating 5-6 small meals a day with a protein shake with fruits and vegetables as well. I am going to be following a very similar schedule now as well eating after each of my naps. I stick to fairly healthy foods, I am not crazy about it but I definitely won't eat fast food burgers or garbage like that. I am a bit of a sugar freak however and have done terrible things in the name of sugar cravings lol. examples being eating a pound of chocolate in a sitting, chugging a chocolate fountain and eating candies from the garbage (hey back off I am not proud of it but it happened and I want to get used to writing every in here whether or not it looks or sounds good).
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Polyphasic Sleep
First and foremost this is my first blog and I really have no idea what typical blogs look like or how they are used. Instead of trying to conform to some structure I find on a how to blog website I will be doing what feels natural. This means it will probably change and evolve as I go on. In case you couldn't tell from the tone this is an apology :)
*most of my references to polyphasic sleep are referring to the Uberman sleep pattern unless otherwise specified.
Pushing my limits has always been something that I crave. As a result when I found out about the Uberman sleep pattern I was quick to jump at my first opportunity with enough 'free' time to weather the transition phase. This first bout with polyphasic sleep will be described in a subsequent post.
For those that don't know, the Uberman Sleep pattern is one of many types of polyphasic sleep schedules (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep). Polyphasic sleep is any sleep schedule that requires the person to sleep multiple times in the same 24 hour period.
The majority of people fall into either monophasic sleepers or biphasic sleepers. Monophasic sleep is the typical all your sleep in one chunk at night. Biphasic sleep has a core sleep at night and then a nap (or siesta) sometime during the day when onset daytime drowsiness sets in.
So comes the questions
"Why go polyphasic?"
Well, the majority of polyphasic schedules allow for significantly reduced amounts of sleep. The Uberman schedule allows the user to sleep just 2 hours a day. This sleep is split up into 6 twenty minute blocks that happen every 4 hours. Another popular polyphasic schedule is called Everyman. Everyman can be much less intense as it allows for a longer core sleep at night. This core sleep usually ranges anywhere from 1.5-5.5 hours. As well there are usually 1-3 naps during the day that can range in length. This means that assuming you are transitioning from a suggested 8 hour night (cause we all know thats what the average person gets) Uberman will give you 6 extra waking hours a day, and Everyman will give you 2-5.5.
Although the extra waking hours are nice, unless you have some serious plans in the works its going to be hard to continuously fill that extra time with even semi-productive activities. Other reasons to go polyphasic include increased alertness and energy. While this might not seem right at first, if you think about it, it kind of makes sense. You are almost always in that just waking up state and never more than 3 hours and 40 minutes from another nap. So you should never fall into the mid day or post lunch sleepiness. I can confirm this from my first attempt. Once I was adapted I very rarely was tired going into a nap, instead it became something I had to do like charging my cellphone.
Finally for those that are interested in dreaming, many people claim that these sleep cycles give them more vivid dreams and more lucid dreams. This is because you are only sleeping for a short nap so your chance of remembering your dreams are much higher.
"Don't we need 8 hours of sleep"?
While it is true that 8 hours is the suggested time for monophasic sleepers, the same is not true in the polyphasic world. In a typical monophasic sleep cycle the sleeper goes through numerous stages of non-rem sleep before reaching rem (I am assuming if your reading a blog about polyphasic sleep and exercise that you at least have a vague understanding of sleep cycles and what rem is, if not, wiki and pretend to be an expert). Even then the first rem stage is usually very short with following stages getting longer in the night. Essentially what polyphasic sleep cycles do is remove the non essential(note its non essencial not non beneficial) stages of sleep. This means that on the Uberman schedule a person goes directly into Rem sleep rather than having to go through the other stages of sleep.
Increase free time.... more energy.... better dreams why the hell isn't everyone polyphasic?
Well there are unfortunately quite a few answers to this one. The most prominent being that it doesn't fit our monophasic culture. There are very few people who have the ability to take naps every 4 hours at work. As well you need a transition period of a couple of weeks where you don't have to do anything. This is because you are a zombie during the transition period. In order for you body to enter rem sleep directly you must become extremely sleep deprived. These first days are a testament to your self control and will. To be able to get out of a warm bed when thoroughly sleep deprived after only 20 minutes of sleep takes some real will power that not a lot of people have.
The schedule is also very inflexible especially at the beginning. You pretty much have to be hitting your naps every 4 hours give or take 20 minutes otherwise your transition period will be much longer. Once you are accustomed to the schedule you can start to shift the naps around, maybe place more closer to the night and fewer in the day. Still from the blogs I have read, most people can't have a gap of more than 5.5-6 hours without feeling the repercussions. I had 5 days after my transition period and I got up to a max of 7 hours between naps without negative repercussions.
One of the most famous and well blogged accounts of the Uberman sleep pattern was done by Steve Pavlina (http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep). He remained on the Uberman sleep pattern for just about 6 months before deciding to return. His reasoning
"The #1 reason I decided to call it quits is simply that the rest of the world is monophasic. If most of the world was polyphasic, I probably would have stuck with it. Obviously when you go polyphasic, you fall out of sync with the way other people live. You’re awake most of the night while everyone is asleep. If you sleep like most people, then the hours you’ll gain from polyphasic sleep will come in the middle of the night. And as I gradually learned, nighttime hours are not the same as daytime hours when you live in a monophasic world."
Steve Pavlina
I returned to monophasic sleep after just 15 days. My reasoning was that I was doing it in Hong Kong while on an exchange program and my life was no where near predictable enough to structure naps. As well you can't really party (drink or other drugs) as it will affect your naps. There was times where I would go out to the club at 10pm right after my nap. I would dance and have a couple beers, at 2am I would walk to McDonalds and nap for twenty minutes at a table, then return to the club making it home just before 6am for my last nap. The final reason I decided to quite was I didn't think I could work out. I knew that muscle recover was primarily done during sleep so any muscle tears would not have time to recover.
One of the main reasons I am doing this again is because I plan to find out if my final reason was correct. If so would a different polyphasic schedule allow at least moderate exercise. I will explain more about my plan and background on myself and my workouts in later posts.
*most of my references to polyphasic sleep are referring to the Uberman sleep pattern unless otherwise specified.
Pushing my limits has always been something that I crave. As a result when I found out about the Uberman sleep pattern I was quick to jump at my first opportunity with enough 'free' time to weather the transition phase. This first bout with polyphasic sleep will be described in a subsequent post.
For those that don't know, the Uberman Sleep pattern is one of many types of polyphasic sleep schedules (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep). Polyphasic sleep is any sleep schedule that requires the person to sleep multiple times in the same 24 hour period.
The majority of people fall into either monophasic sleepers or biphasic sleepers. Monophasic sleep is the typical all your sleep in one chunk at night. Biphasic sleep has a core sleep at night and then a nap (or siesta) sometime during the day when onset daytime drowsiness sets in.
So comes the questions
"Why go polyphasic?"
Well, the majority of polyphasic schedules allow for significantly reduced amounts of sleep. The Uberman schedule allows the user to sleep just 2 hours a day. This sleep is split up into 6 twenty minute blocks that happen every 4 hours. Another popular polyphasic schedule is called Everyman. Everyman can be much less intense as it allows for a longer core sleep at night. This core sleep usually ranges anywhere from 1.5-5.5 hours. As well there are usually 1-3 naps during the day that can range in length. This means that assuming you are transitioning from a suggested 8 hour night (cause we all know thats what the average person gets) Uberman will give you 6 extra waking hours a day, and Everyman will give you 2-5.5.
Although the extra waking hours are nice, unless you have some serious plans in the works its going to be hard to continuously fill that extra time with even semi-productive activities. Other reasons to go polyphasic include increased alertness and energy. While this might not seem right at first, if you think about it, it kind of makes sense. You are almost always in that just waking up state and never more than 3 hours and 40 minutes from another nap. So you should never fall into the mid day or post lunch sleepiness. I can confirm this from my first attempt. Once I was adapted I very rarely was tired going into a nap, instead it became something I had to do like charging my cellphone.
Finally for those that are interested in dreaming, many people claim that these sleep cycles give them more vivid dreams and more lucid dreams. This is because you are only sleeping for a short nap so your chance of remembering your dreams are much higher.
"Don't we need 8 hours of sleep"?
While it is true that 8 hours is the suggested time for monophasic sleepers, the same is not true in the polyphasic world. In a typical monophasic sleep cycle the sleeper goes through numerous stages of non-rem sleep before reaching rem (I am assuming if your reading a blog about polyphasic sleep and exercise that you at least have a vague understanding of sleep cycles and what rem is, if not, wiki and pretend to be an expert). Even then the first rem stage is usually very short with following stages getting longer in the night. Essentially what polyphasic sleep cycles do is remove the non essential(note its non essencial not non beneficial) stages of sleep. This means that on the Uberman schedule a person goes directly into Rem sleep rather than having to go through the other stages of sleep.
Increase free time.... more energy.... better dreams why the hell isn't everyone polyphasic?
Well there are unfortunately quite a few answers to this one. The most prominent being that it doesn't fit our monophasic culture. There are very few people who have the ability to take naps every 4 hours at work. As well you need a transition period of a couple of weeks where you don't have to do anything. This is because you are a zombie during the transition period. In order for you body to enter rem sleep directly you must become extremely sleep deprived. These first days are a testament to your self control and will. To be able to get out of a warm bed when thoroughly sleep deprived after only 20 minutes of sleep takes some real will power that not a lot of people have.
The schedule is also very inflexible especially at the beginning. You pretty much have to be hitting your naps every 4 hours give or take 20 minutes otherwise your transition period will be much longer. Once you are accustomed to the schedule you can start to shift the naps around, maybe place more closer to the night and fewer in the day. Still from the blogs I have read, most people can't have a gap of more than 5.5-6 hours without feeling the repercussions. I had 5 days after my transition period and I got up to a max of 7 hours between naps without negative repercussions.
One of the most famous and well blogged accounts of the Uberman sleep pattern was done by Steve Pavlina (http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep). He remained on the Uberman sleep pattern for just about 6 months before deciding to return. His reasoning
"The #1 reason I decided to call it quits is simply that the rest of the world is monophasic. If most of the world was polyphasic, I probably would have stuck with it. Obviously when you go polyphasic, you fall out of sync with the way other people live. You’re awake most of the night while everyone is asleep. If you sleep like most people, then the hours you’ll gain from polyphasic sleep will come in the middle of the night. And as I gradually learned, nighttime hours are not the same as daytime hours when you live in a monophasic world."
Steve Pavlina
I returned to monophasic sleep after just 15 days. My reasoning was that I was doing it in Hong Kong while on an exchange program and my life was no where near predictable enough to structure naps. As well you can't really party (drink or other drugs) as it will affect your naps. There was times where I would go out to the club at 10pm right after my nap. I would dance and have a couple beers, at 2am I would walk to McDonalds and nap for twenty minutes at a table, then return to the club making it home just before 6am for my last nap. The final reason I decided to quite was I didn't think I could work out. I knew that muscle recover was primarily done during sleep so any muscle tears would not have time to recover.
One of the main reasons I am doing this again is because I plan to find out if my final reason was correct. If so would a different polyphasic schedule allow at least moderate exercise. I will explain more about my plan and background on myself and my workouts in later posts.
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