Day 4, ready for more! 4:06 AM

My roommates have been trying to grind my gears about this whole polyphase thing for the last day or so. They started recording video blogs claiming to be doing polyphase when they obviously do not. Something about getting "polyphasic babes" I think... I guess they are trying to reap the rewards without putting up with the pain. One actually stayed up, took one 20 minute nap, then went to sleep at 5am and slept in until noon. Obviously they are not going to put any serious effort into adapting.

At this point I am getting used to taking naps. My body is able to fall asleep very quickly and waking up is not a problem at all. However, I have still not had a single dream since I started polyphasing, nearly 90 hours ago.

I noticed this morning that the eye lag and dryness is starting to get pretty bad. It was taking all my effort to focus my eyes and started getting pretty painful. It was even to the point where I found myself with one eye opened to avoid the energy needed to focus without falling asleep.

The feelings of time distortion and transience are starting to get interesting. Now that I am sleeping more soundly for the naps, the feeling of time passage has increased during them. This past weekened seemed like it was about 2 weeks long, so going back to work today felt like I just returned from a vacation.

Day 3, Chee Hee! 3:15 AM

Still at it with the Uberman adaptation. I noticed some decrease in mental function this evening. I will not be taking the additional 1am nap tonight as I did last night, and see if that affects my tiredness level.
So far I have not really experienced any level of tiredness that I could not withstand. No real danger of uncontrolled sleep yet. However, I am still not dreaming in my naps so there is a good chance it will get worse. Tomorrow morning after the 7am nap is going to be the real test. That nap is always hardest to wake up from.
I am considering going to work tomorrow, though I am afraid of accidently falling asleep or doing something stupid. If I am very tired tomorrow morning I will call in sick and hope that I adapt soon and can continue work.

2nd Day, ready to play! 9:05 AM

The 2nd day was one of the longest days I have experienced. From the time of my last blogging, I took my 7am nap and became very tired after I woke up. From 7:30-9:00 I was extremely tired but was able to will myself to stay awake. During this time I also became very sensitive to cold. I was freezing this whole time and had to wrap myself in multiple blankets.
Once my roommates woke up and there was more activity, the extreme urge to sleep passed and I felt OK. I spent the entire day with friends doing various activities, so it was somewhat difficult to fit in naps. I did not sleep at all for my 3pm nap because I was riding in a car. The 7pm nap worked out well and everyone decided to take a 20 minute "interval."
The rest of the night was very long and involved a lot of driving on my part. My 11pm nap was a completely failure (30min late and in a parked car) so I decided to add a 1am nap. After taking my 1am and 3am naps without incident, I felt more rested and able to handle the rest of the night. Never during this time was I overly tired or worried about driving. I even got $30 for driving some friends around at these normally extreme hours.
It is now 6am and I am getting ready for day 3. So far I have been able to sustain myself with these naps, even while doing lots of activities and sleeping in various places. There is no way I would have been able to do this much without being completely exhausted at this point. Even before adaptation is complete I am reaping some benefits of the Uberman schedule. Hopefully the rest of my adaptation goes as well...

Day One, Having Fun! 8:33 AM

Video Entry after Day 1 of my adapation:



Day 1:
Did not really sleep much during my naps during the day. Maybe just dozed off for a few minutes. After my 7:00pm nap, I went to a get-together at a friend's house where I had a couple of drinks. Tried to take my 11:00pm nap there, but did not manage to really sleep with music playing and whatnot.
We then went to a bar where I had one more drink, but did not really get drunk at all. I set my timer for 3:00 but apparently it was set for 3:25pm. I woke up at 4:25 when by 25minute timer went off (now sure how that's possible). So I overslept for exactly 1 hour. Hopefully this will not happen anymore, I will try to be more careful when setting my alarms.
No real sleep deprivation yet, even after the 1.5 hour nap. No dreams that I remember in any of my naps yet.

The Plan... 9:26 PM

Polyphasic sleep involves breaking up your sleep pattern into multiple smaller phases. Unlike monophasic sleep (which most humans are accustomed to), on a polyphasic sleep schedule a person can get the needed amount of rest with much less overall sleep. The average person needs 7-9 hours of sleep per day sleeping monophasically (roughly 1/3 of the day). On a polyphasic system, however, it is possible to get by with as little as 2 hours of sleep per 24 hour period (1/12 of the day).

There are several different polyphasic systems used, each with different pros and cons. I chose the so-called "Uberman" sleep schedule. This schedule involves taking a 20 minute nap every 4 hours, for a total of 2 hours of sleep per day. My sleep will be broken up into 6 naps per day at the times:

7-7:20am
11-11:20am
3-3:20pm
7-7:20pm
11-11:20pm
3-3:20am

The first week is considered to be hell, with roughly 98% of people who attempt it dropping out and going back to monophasic. The sleep-deprivation during this first week is considered to be almost unbearable, yet once you make it through this transition, your body will supposedly adapt and begin to gain the needed rest.

I will try to post my daily experiences during adaptation and record videos when possible. Despite all the nay-sayers out there, I think I can successfully adapt and accomplish infinitely more things with all the extra time!