EveryMike : Bad Decision 2

I was planning on coming back to Boston on Saturday but it turned out that if I stayed until Sunday, I could go back to Boston with a Loveseat, Dresser, Table, and Fishtank so I figure it was in my best interest.

My day was pretty lazy.  I took a quick trip into the woods, drank a bit with my mother, ate dinner, and watched the movie “Next”.  At around 11pm I figured I’d take my core sleep since I had nothing better to do.

I slept fine, and woke up fine.  Refreshed at around 3ish.  Picked up a videogame to play quietly since I had left all of my school-work in Boston but the  battery was dead.  Got out of bed and tried to dick around on the internet for a while, but Verizon basically told me to fuck off.  Sitting at the computer desk, in the dark, with litterally NOTHING to do I decided to sleep out of boredom.

This was no ordinary sleep either.  I slept and slept and slept until my mother told me it was time to get the furniture and head back into the city.   This totaled TWELVE HOURS OF UNNEEDED SLEEP.  In my mind, I’m pretty much starting back from scratch with this thing.

EveryMike : Socially Unexceptable

I find it funny how a slight deviation from something as socially accepted as sleeping can nearly enrage people. Everyone on this planet sleeps. And almost everyone on this planet sleeps with the same daily schedule, and even though it doesn’t effect others for the most part, people seem put off when the concept of polyphasic sleeping is explained to them.

So after slightly failing at my new sleep schedule, I tried to get back on track. Lillian explained the sleep schedule I was on to my mother, and surprisingly she didn’t seem to think much of it.

I went to inquire about the possibility of obtaining some new furniture for my place in Boston, so the three of us hopped into a car and drove to Topsfield. Eventually it was time for my nap, so I figured I’d sneak off to the car for a few minutes of REM.

When I came back, my cousin and her husband seemed almost insulted about what I was doing.

Comments exchanged:

Cousin:  “So what, you get to stay awake in the middle of the night?”

Me: “I get to go to bed late AND wake up early!”

Cousin: “So what can you do with the extra time in the middle of the night?”

Me: “The same stuff that I can do at home in the middle  of the day”

Cousin: “You’re a weirdo.”

Me: “Probably”

EveryMike : Bad Decision One

It’s been a few days since the Everyman’s update. Well, the short story is that I’ve been failing at keeping my proper schedule for a few days.

It started when I went home to Wakefield. Friday night I went out to party with friends. I didn’t drink a lot, but I drank enough to feel it. I also felt as though my tolerance for alcohol has been lowered considerably.

Well my core sleep was obviously interrupted due to the party, considering that I did not even show up until approximately 11pm.

Since I predicted this, I tried to put off my last 20 minute nap for as long as possible, but waiting until the last minute just seemed to cause stress. I felt as though I was running late so the whole sleep was rushed. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get anything out of the nap.

After the party I was dropped off at my mother’s house with my girlfriend Even after crawling into bed, it was probably about an hour before things calmed down and I was able to actually get some shuteye.

I awoke 4.5 hours later, (%50 more sleep than I should have) groggy. The sun was starting to peek in through the windows, I picked up a videogame, and poked around on that for a while. It wasn’t long till the GF woke and started moving around.

This was the first slip-up I’ve had on the schedule, but the drastic change in both schedule and sleep time really messed me up.

UberMike: That damn 10:30PM sleep

I just read back through this blog, and my suspicion is correct: I have yet to have a good 10:30PM sleep. Tonight was no exception.

The staying awake trouble starts after the 11PM phase. This could very well be related to the lack of 10:30PM sleep.

Two options, so far as I can tell:

• If I don’t sleep during 10:30PM, try again at, say, midnight.
• Stay with 10:30PM, with the assumption that staying up properly for the early AM phases will force the 10:30PM phase eventually.

I have about six minutes to decide this. I’m currently leaning towards the second option.

UberMike: Standard sleeping, but off schedule

After two weeks I suspect that I need to re-evaluate my scheduled sleep times, to see if other times would help other people interact with me better. For examples:

My 2:30PM to 3PM was delayed until 3:15PM because I was trying to fix my mom’s computer. I think I broke it even more instead. As I was just rolling out of bed at 3:45PM Sarah sent “Oh, I have to go back to class now”; I entirely missed her by a minute, and I haven’t been able to get in touch with her for two days because of scheduling issues.

My 6:30PM to 7:30PM was delayed by an hour: Sarah and I finally managed to talk, but she had to leave at 7PM for more class, so I delayed my 6:30PM. When she, sadly, left I caught up on all the stuff I had intended to do, then got into bed by 7:30PM.

However, both of those sleeps were excellent.

UberMike: Warm bed + cold floor = oversleep

I overslept, again.

This time from 6:30AM to 11AM. My timer’s alarm went off correctly at 7AM; I turned it off, put my glasses on, and started to get out of bed. This is when I discovered that it’s cold outside my bed! Surprised, I jumped back under the blankets, thinking to myself “I need to get out of bed; I’ll fall asleep if I stay in here!” I tried concentrating on the objects around the room in an attempt to keep myself awake. The next thing I knew I was waking up again, with my glasses already on this time.

The interesting part is that I awoke at 11AM, the start time of the next phase.

UberMike: Good sleep

My 2:30AM to 3AM sleep went quite well. Once out of bed I was feeling rather awake and energized. However, I am worried about the cold floor; I really want to stay in bed, not to sleep, but just to be warm. If I stay in bed, though, I’ll fall asleep.

Some thoughts:

• The timed alarm is good for the first few weeks of adjustment, but do not accurately map to your brain’s real REM cycle. The ideal is that I will start to awake before the alarm, and can eventually never use it again.
• I am hungry once per phase. This makes sense now that I think of it: we digest while we sleep, and I sleep between each phase. As a result of this, I need to find more varied foods to expand my diet beyond bread, pasta, and cereal. Maybe I will take up cooking in my newly-acquired spare time.
• I read on the polyphasic mailing list that Uberman is supposed to be 20 minutes of sleep, not 30. I’ll stick with 30 for now and try to bring it down to 20 once adjusted.
• Now that I understand how, it’s obvious how to find the distance to a given point from the origin in a three-dimensional space.

UberMike: Catching up on the schedule

No doubt about it: it’s hard to maintain a strict schedule while having fun. Fortunately, I think a not-super-strict schedule will work as well.

I skipped my 6:30AM; to “make up for this” I moved my 10:30AM to 9:30AM and slept for an hour, with an alarm after 30 minutes to break it up. I awoke from this feeling awake but no more so than I remember feeling before the sleep.

My 2:30PM, on schedule, seems to imply that 30 minutes is not the right time for me to get REM. I awoke tired and feeling interrupted. Perhaps, I suspect, I entered a second round of REM.

After this I went to Chessie’s per her request that I keep her entertained. I took my 6:30PM in her living room, only to discover that her clock is off by an hour; so, my 6:30PM became a 7:30PM. Before the sleep I was growing tired; after the sleep: wide awake.

Due to the shifting schedules, I pushed my 10:30PM to midnight. Again, I felt interrupted upon awakening, and am currently yawning after just 30 minutes from the alarm.

UberMike: Totally screwed up

I get tired during the old nighttime phases, so to make sure I wouldn’t oversleep I set an alarm. However, in my tired stupor, I mixed AM with PM, and set my alarm for 7PM.

The story seems to go that I nodded off around 4:30 or 5AM, then awoke myself at 10:20AM. I was rested, sure, but no more rested than if I had just gotten the 30 minutes.

Annoyed, I immediately restarted my schedule: at 10:30AM I turned the useless alarm off, started the timer, and slept until 11AM.

From 11AM to 2:30PM I was awake and well-rested; my 2:30PM to 3PM sleep did not happen, but the half hour in bed did give me time to think away from any need to think of some specific topic, which is nice.

After 3PM I went to hang out at EveryMike’s; seems his schedule was also screwed. I attempted my 6:30PM to 7PM there, using his cell phone’s alarm functionality, but his apartment was too loud for me to sleep.

He and I shared a 10:30PM to 11PM rest; again, I did not sleep, but it could also be that I was not tired due to the oversleeping mistake.

We got caught up in Super Smash Brothers, so my 2:30AM was pushed to 3AM; he and I shared it. However, after awakening, he decided to go for another 30 minutes, and I figured that it couldn’t hurt to join in.

Neither he nor I heard the alarm at 4AM, if it even went off. I awoke at 5:30AM—two hours and 30 minutes of sleep. I’m rested, but still off schedule.

I’m going to try for 6:30AM to 7AM on schedule and alarmed correctly.

UberMike: Neighbors make night microsleep tough

Just as I climbed into bed to enjoy my 10:30PM sleep, various neighbors blasted their music. Damn.

Seems that I eventually did sleep, but it was not restorative sleep. I am currently yawning and anxiously awaiting 2:30AM.

Also, a timer is much, much easier than an alarm clock.