UberMike: Remembering to sleep

I wrote some simple code to remind me to sleep.

If anyone can throw hard technology at an easy problem, that’d be me.

UberMike: Boredom: The Consciousness Killer!

Oh man, at 7AM I got up, ready to take on the day! … only to find that my (stolen) Internet was down and that my eyes hurt too much to read. So I slept, because my bed was warm and, really, I had nothing else to do.

Here is my new goal: go 60 hours without oversleeping. That’s 15 phases without falling to boredom or cold.

To combat the cold I’ve discovered sit-ups. This was an easy discovery: I do at least one sit up each time I get out of bed. In fact, the colder it is, the more I naturally do—one to discover it’s cold, another when I’m motivated to get up, and some more until I finally manage to get out of bed.

So that was then; now, I plan these sit-ups. I don’t count them because counting is for people who want to improve, but I do as many as I can. After maybe ten of these I’m warm enough to pull some blankets off; after I’ve done the most I can, I’m warm enough to jump out of bed.

To combat boredom I reload 4Chan non-stop. This only works while I have Internet; I need to devise an anti-boredom agent for when my stolen wireless goes down.

UberMike: The 24 hours of bad microsleep

6:30AM: overslept by an hour.

10:30AM: overslept until 1AM, missing the meeting I had at noon. Turns out it was canceled, though.

2:30PM, 6:30PM, 10:30PM: just rested my eyes, couldn’t sleep.

Now, as of 12:30AM, I’m exhausted. I need to stop oversleeping.

In other news, here’s a theory (and only a theory) on why I’m so cold sometimes: my body expects to be asleep once I reach a certain amount of tiredness and a certain time of day. When I am asleep my body isn’t as warm, since it can get away with that. Currently my body expects me to be asleep; thus, it is cold.

UberMike: Another 24 hours of good sleeping

According to EveryMike and his girlfriend, I sleep with my eyes open. Freaky!

I’ve been cold immediately after awakening, even if it’s warm in the apartment. I hope my body adjusts soon.

Since EveryMike’s apartment is the center of all noise, Corey let me sleep in his room. Thanks, Corey!

In general I am more awake overall, even in the early mornings.

UberMike: Sleeping next to a video game

Sleep at EveryMike’s isn’t trivial: he has roommates, those roommates have friends, those friends like beer, and the beer likes shouting. I think I got some of my 2:30AM to 3AM in, but I’ve yawned a few times and am looking forward to my 6:30AM.

However, I’m much, much less tired than I have been in the past. Is it all the oversleeping? Here’s a theory: if you keep nodding off during the adjustment period, oversleep once. That will give you the energy to power through the rest of the phases for a few days.

UberMike: Some quality time with my bed

2:30PM to 3PM, 6:30PM to 7PM, and 10:30PM to 11PM go without any issues, and both leave me relaxed and awake. I think I only got 15 minutes of sleep from the 2:30PM, but that doesn’t matter.

EveryMike had an idea for a good use of teamwork: let’s hang out during our hardest hours (2:30AM to 10:30AM for me) and keep an eye on each other. That’s where I’m blogging from right now while he’s enjoying his core.

UberMike: Questioning my motives

Out of bed at 11AM, with a half hour sleep, I start thinking to myself: I work at home, next to my bed, alone for the most part. I can sleep whenever I want. Why am I only sleeping for two hours each day?

Then the feeling is gone; I’m fully awake again. And I remember: I enjoy being awake.

UberMike: Determined? More like “oversleeping” amirite?

Another night, another oversleep.

This time it was the 2:30AM to 3AM sleep. Went fine, slept well, awoke on time. Then I stuck my hand outside the blankets to discover that it’s cold out there! So I stayed in bed, trying hard not to fall asleep, trying to figure out how to stay warm and get out of bed at the same time.

Then it was 8AM. Hm.

UberMike: More determined than ever

My theory is that it will take approximately two weeks (84 phases) for my brain to adjust to Uberman. Also, I theorize that oversleeping and ignoring the schedule limits my brain’s ability to adjust. Therefore, no more of this oversleeping crap.

Sarah asked me today when I’ll call it quits. I hadn’t really thought about it—to be sure, the real answer is “when I’ve had enough”—but the answer that makes the most sense is that I will give up and consider Uberman not for me if I cannot get my brain around it by two days before Thanksgiving. Sarah comes to visit the day before Thanksgiving and her presence would pleasantly destroy any attempt at Uberman in the critical not-really-working-yet stage.

So I started my schedule back up at 6:30PM. That one was hard to get up from; apparently my alarm went off for 11 seconds before I actually managed to turn it off (typical was 3 seconds). However, after I was up, I was quite awake.

My 10:30PM was also hard to get up from, but the more notable event is that I slept a 10:30PM to 11PM sleep correctly and only 10 minutes off schedule (10:40PM to 11:10PM). Progress!

UberMike: Oh what the fuck.

Seriously.

I just awoke at EveryMike’s at 5:10AM. I fell asleep at 10:30PM. His alarm just didn’t make any noise.

That’s seven hours.

I’m not even going to bother blogging the other, perfectly fine sleep in the past 24 hours.

In fact, I’m not going to sleep for 24 hours. That’s my strategy to get on this fucking schedule: next sleep is at 6:30AM, 25 hours from right now.

Update: Now that I think of it, it doesn’t make sense to skip 24 hours of sleep. Not only is that time arbitrary, it also fails to re-enforce the new sleep schedule.