Polyphase Blog

Full Disclosure/Sabbath Rest

2009-03-07T08:43:00.000-08:00

Have you ever bought into one of those network marketing things (aka MLM) where everyone is supposedly making all this money, only to find out after you signed up that the person who sold you on it is maintaining a facade lifestyle to make themselves look successful?

I hate that.

In the interest of full disclosure, all has not gone perfectly with polyphasing. Running a side business, managing another one full-time, taking kids to/from school, going to martial arts and church, and just life happening has caused my schedule at times to become mixed up... sometimes my wake-periods are stretched to 6 hours. Other times I have 3 or 4 five-hour periods. Other times, I just can't get to sleep because of a workout rush.

So things have not been perfect. In the past 2 weeks, I've had about 4 nights in which I slept a couple extra hours. Last night was one of those. It was a combination of almost all the conditions above - plus I watched a 2 hour movie right before my nap time. As far as I'm concerned, that's self-sabotage right there! 2 hours of TV just flat out fries the brain. Every time I do that, my entire next cycle is shot. Up till last night it has usually cost me 2 hours. But last night it was 4. Oh well, life goes on.

Come to think of it, this seems to happen every Friday night. Can you say "Sabbath Rest"? :)

(c) 2009 Tim Corey

.......BOOOORing.........

2009-03-07T08:37:00.001-08:00

This particular blog is likely of VERY LITTLE interest to anyone except myself and others who are thinking about polyphasing. And even at that, there are far better blogs about that. I'm just one teeny tiny microscopic spec of the blogosphere on polyphasing.

In the slightest chance you are an interested person reading this, I'm going to be scaling back this blog to get back to other tasks (and maybe blogs) at hand. I consider myself fully adapted. I mostly was keeping this blog so in the future I can refer back to it and see where the finish line is for adaptation. I would say this is the first time I have ever "broken through" the adaptation barrier.

From this point forward, I will be only blogging whatever is important regarding polyphasing... Or logging when/if I do finally have to switch back to a "regular" monophasic sleep cycle.

(c) 2009 Tim Corey

2 Weeks and all is well

2009-03-07T08:26:00.001-08:00

Night 14 / Day 15

I raced right past my prior record of 11 days. This probably will sound crazy, but even on my worst days of polyphasing, I haven't been nearly as tired and groggy as I usually am trying to cram everything into a full day and only getting 5-6 hours of sleep in a night.

A few weeks ago, I was taking my grandmother to visit my grandfather's resting place. I had been trying to catch up on stuff and had only been sleeping about 6 hours a night. I nearly drove off the road I was so overtaken with sleepiness.

While polyphasing, I haven't once even felt tired while driving. I still maintain my disclaimer though for anyone who wants to do this... You should not try this if you have to drive a lot. Until you know how your body will do with this, you probably shouldn't drive or operate equipment *at all* while your body is adjusting.

(c) 2009 Tim Corey

Learning to Ride a Bike (Day/Night 10)

2009-03-03T05:09:00.001-08:00

Today was a real test of my schedule. I had one scheduled 5-hour period, but I ended up having a total of two 5-hour periods and one 5.5 hour period. Out of all that, I ended up losing one of my sleep cycles. Speaking of cycles, my the sleep loss was totally worth it. It happened because instead of hitting my nap target, today I taught my youngest daughter how to ride a bike :)

Actually, she was so stoked and mentally prepared I practically just had to give her a couple shoves and she was zooming down the street! It's a pretty small bike, just so she can maintain stopping control in case she feels like she's going to crash... all she has to do is put her feet down. She only kinda-crashed once, and it really wasn't bad due to the bike's size.

As I watched my daughter struggle with starting and stopping, and maintaining balance, it reminded me so much of how today went for my new schedule. I had my first day of serious workout in the morning, and on top of that ran about a half mile alongside my daughter while she rode.

Between my body being taxed, losing an entire cycle, and two of my naps getting abruptly cut short, I knew I wasn't going to get away with it when night fell. I kinda-crashed once also last night. Slept an extra 2-3 hours.

The good news, though, was that I was able to get right back on and keep trying. I'm really in fresh waters now. As I catch-up type this, I'm about to enter Day 11. The only other time I ever made it to day 11, I was so delirious everyone around me knew I was doing some weird sleep thing and couldn't wait until I was "over it".

To me, the best thing about all this is that now I know that after adaptation, the schedule is flexible. I'm now back on nap-track and fully alert, ready to ride!

(c) 2009 Tim Corey

Some people sound really smart... (Night 9)

2009-03-02T05:28:00.000-08:00

... and some people just really are smart. To tell the difference is genius.

So, I couldn't remember exactly what all this less sleep stuff does to the body and I googled it. The first decent thing I ran across was this article at medscape.com. Just for the record, I'm not feeling clumsy anymore. My typing is probably about 95% what it usually is (I think it's 100%, but I'm allowing for the fact that I probably haven't fully adjusted and my self-perception may still be a bit skewed).

According to this crockpot blend of PhD's, here's what is happening to me (Keep in mind, they've been published in a fancy Neurosomthing journal, so they're smart). I'll spare you all the "sympathovagal balance cohort studies" jibberish:

Human Growth Hormone (HGH) doesn't hang out so much anymore
Cortisol is my new tag-along pal
A bunch of Leptins are replaced by more Ghrelins. (Gizmo took my Lucky Charms?! Maybe somebody will get it...)
Thyroid loses balance and trips (this is actually the cause of 1-3)

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

I'm going to want food more often - and not just enough to compensate for my increased activity. I'm going to want DOUGHNUTS and BREAD and POTATOES in mass quantities. (For the first week, yes, I did. And it's showing.)
My body will not process sugar very well. If I eat a lot of sugars, it could make me pre-diabetic.
I'm going to have to work harder to lose weight and keep it off (yay! I get to exercise more with all my newfound time!)

Since I'm a non-sugar eating near-vegan, I think I'm OK... I had a bit of a lapse the past week (more carbs - corn, tortillas used for burritos, toast, etc.) but I feel like I'm balancing out.

The longest of these tests was 6 days. They also were still assuming monophasic sleep (1 chunk of sleep at night). That deprives the mind of its REM, whereas polyphasing forces the same amount of REM. I'm curious to find out how things go for me now that I'm balanced and will be getting back to my physical routine this week.

(c) 2009 Tim Corey

Day 9... Uber Insomnia?!

2009-03-02T01:27:00.000-08:00

Well, I've started experiencing something altogether new... an Uberman version of insomnia! I go to lie down for my nap, but I cannot turn off my brain! I set my alarm, try to sleep, and still 15 minutes later, I'm wide awake. This is what lots of people said the beginning of adaptation would be like. Not even during adaptation have I ever had trouble falling asleep.

The times that I cannot sleep, my brain is usually thinking of something from the past 4 hours. I kind of wonder if in lieu of the "defragging" that usually goes on during a classic (monophasic) sleep cycle, my brain is instead taking time on-the-fly to do its regular maintenance.

I have absolutely no signs of fatigue during the daytime now. I think I've almost fully adapted. My brain and body are giving me very little grief at nights, too. This is going better than expected!

(c) 2009 Tim Corey

Night 8 - Now I'm stoked!

2009-03-01T02:07:00.000-08:00

I've set my Myspace mood to SAVAGE! That's exactly how I feel about this whole thing right now. I've just crossed a major threshold in my polyphasing - I think I'm gonna throw myself a party! Woohoo!

I've said farewell to the idea of lack-of-sleep buzz. It really is a good thing, actually, because it means I'm not sleep deprived - which is the whole goal of this thing, right?! But that's not why I'm ready to throw a party!

I never did explain the pre-loading thing, did I? I'll blog that separately.

So... What am I so stoked about?

NIGHT EIGHT! I've only made it this far one other time - and never feeling this great!
Every other time that I went 3-5 days and overslept, I was never able to get back on track. It was always downhill fast with no brakes.

Night 7/Day 8 (Oops I did it again)

2009-03-01T01:59:00.000-08:00

Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry. I just couldn't help it. It was the first thought that popped into my head... How did that go? You're not supposed to say everything you think?

Well, last night I ended up not setting my alarm for my 2:30am nap and slept till 7ish. At first I was crazy disappointed, but got over it quickly when I realized that I felt great! Maybe it was just God's shabbat gift to me, who knows? But I continued my naps today anyway and maintained a good energy level.

I was kinda looking forward to the buzz... Sadly, no buzz at all this round of polyphasing :/

Day 7 - 1 week into this

2009-02-27T14:33:00.000-08:00

Today has been one of the best polyphasing days I think I've ever had. This time around, I've experienced

No sleep deprivation headaches (usually days 4-7)
No cold symptoms
No lower back soreness
No buzz (sadly)

I feel way more normal than the first time I ever did this and made it to day 11. If this is how it can be, I could really live like this.

Three things different this go-around:

Our family schedule isn't quite as hectic so I'm more on-schedule with my naps.
Staying away from heavy training/exercise during adjustment period
Pre-loaded my deprivation

Just to show that even as good as today was, it's still not perfect... I couldn't remember item #3, and it was pretty major to my strategy this time. I keep forgetting things in a series. These 3 changes are very specific and deliberate, yet I lost track of it... (Had to come back the next day after remembering)

Night 6

2009-02-27T05:45:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe I made it through night 6 without a glitch! It was a very productive night. Got some household stuff done, worked on my business some, worked on dayjob backlog, and did some calendar scheduling.

I'm still way behind schedule, though. I know this is no great mystery, but it really is true that even if we had 48 hour days, we'd still not have enough time. Managing time and money are practically the same skill. There are no quick fixes to poor management of either one - just honest, hard digging yourself out.

That said, I decided that beginning tonight, I need to start making time for my personal prayer time in my polyphasic schedule. It flat out doesn't make sense to have 20 hours a day and no time to spend with the One who created both the time and the day!

Symptom-wise, I'm pleasantly surprised. I'm not insanely groggy. I have no mouth sores. My back isn't sore like in the past. My nose isn't stuffy/runny. I do have a very slight sore throat, but my oldest son, his friend (who is at our house a lot), and my office assistant have been sick this week, so I can't really say if it's even related to my polyphasing. So far the worst thing has been my hand-eye coordination suffering a little bit. Specifically, I'm typing slower and less accurately.

Will update with Day 7 later :)

(c) 2009 Tim Corey

Night 5/Day 6

2009-02-26T14:35:00.001-08:00

Night 5

I had a lot to do tonight, thankfully. It would have been a pretty tough night otherwise, I think. As it was, I had a college paper due, some client files to work on, and backlog from my day job.

BUT I broke my own rule about watching stuff. I ended up catching up on a couple tv shows that I haven't indulged in for awhile. I can't stress enough how much this will sabotage the adaptation phase! After watching 2 shows, I overslept by about 45 minutes at my 6am nap.

Day 6

I also set my alarm for the wrong half of the day. At 11:45am, I set my alarm for 12:15am. An hour after I laid down, my 12:30 appt. was waiting in the office and a staff member had to go looking for me. That was just a little bit awkward, to say the least. Not to mention that sleeping more than 25 min. puts you in a deep sleep phase. It took me at least an hour to shake off the groginess.

I don't know why I keep mixing AM/PM. When I lie down for a snooze, I'm fully awake and coherent. Today, in fact, I couldn't get to sleep. Usually by day 6, getting to sleep is the least of my concerns.

My mental awareness is down. My office assistant found herself completing my sentences for me. My polyphasing is no secret from my staff, but today it was a bit embarrassing. If I didn't need to break through on this so badly to keep my life balanced, I would once again throw in the towel tonight.

Keeps Gettin' Better

2009-02-25T13:15:00.000-08:00

Well, after so many rounds of brief polyphasing, I can list the effects during the first five days like a shrink can list the five phases of grief.

Night 1: Business as usual, no real effect.

Day 2: Decrease in mental response time

Night 2: HUNGRY. Mostly normal if busy enough.
Day 3: Groggy, sluggish, difficult to focus on mental activities. Physical activities are fine. Start to lose track of days due to the mind's perception of being awake two extra days.

Night 3: Very tired. High possibility of overleeping.
Day 4: Mind begins to feel "floaty". Sometime between days 4 & 5 a sense of warm euphoria begins to set in. This is actually a symptom of sleep deprivation and does go away after your body adjusts its clock to the new schedule.

Night 4: Dog-tired, wiped out, lethargic, unmotivated. This is often when I throw in the towel. Forget making it through this night if you don't have a lot of physical or high-stress mental work to do.
Day 5: Forgetful. Only at about 60-75 mental capacity. Difficult to problem-solve or make quick decisions.

Night 5: Cold-like symptoms develop - sore throat, stuffy nose, sores in the mouth. This lasts about 2-3 days then subsides after your body recalibrates. Nights start to become easier.
Day 6: Soreness. For me, this is usually due to not moving enough while polyphasing.

I've made it to days 5 or 6 so many times, but only once have I made it beyond. Today is day 5 and so far seems to be going better than usual.

The whole process lends itself to weight gain because of extra snacking and the hormonal changes of the body as it's being tortured into submission to your new schedule. More than ever, I have to carefully watch my calories while I'm polyphasing or one week will net a 10-pound weight gain.

(c) 2009 Tim Corey

El Polifaso Loco - Night 3

2008-07-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

I didn't forget how to count. I'm not counting last night. After 3 days/2 nights, I got the am/pm wrong when setting my alarm. Later it doesn't matter 'cause my body wakes me up - but during adaptation it messes things up. Oh yeah, and I wanted to watch a movie with my wife.

If I was doing this to prove anything or run a fully scientific experiment, I would be upset... But so many polyphasers talk about how it affects their significant other in that you're not sleeping by each other anymore... So I'm trying to take every opportunity I can to hang out with my wife when polyphasing.

It's very important to make up for that by doing more things together during their awake time. My problem has always been over-focusing on getting "caught up", and my wife doesn't get any benefit out of it. That's like negative ten brownie points!

MSN Article Made me Laugh

2008-07-24T04:43:00.001-07:00

About a month ago on MSN, an article showed up in the main headlines about polyphasic sleeping. That article ended up pretty negative about the whole thing, but I did find some key problems with it.

Page 2 of the article, "I also had a ton of TV to catch up on..." Now, we all know how watching a ton of TV makes you feel when you're well-rested and in your regular sleep pattern. TV is the LAST thing anyone trying this should do. If anything, you should fast from any TV/movies. It will kill your Uberman schedule.

The reporter didn't have a good reason to push through the adaptation phase. All his activities involved new things to do, which are too easy to dismiss when you're adapting and unfocused. TV? Learning Spanish? Becoming cultured? Wouldn't be prudent. Not gonna do it. (anyone under 30 probably won't get that - sorry, dating myself).

He only allowed himself 20 minute naps. This just isn't enough during adaptation phase, and is barely enough once adapted anyway.

He did not wisely use his Uberman time to keep his mind active. Instead, he allowed himself to drift off into space, lounge around the park, and watch TV. Again, with the TV!

All that said, here is my guide to polyphasic sleeping:

First off, if you don't have a good reason to polyphase, then don't do it for cryin' out loud!
Don't watch more than a half-hour of TV a day, and definitely do not go to the theater during the adaptation period.
No junk food or alcohol, and definitely no caffeine, as it will mess with your naptime. Nutrition is of utmost importance. A side note: this was a factor in my choice to become a vegetarian, oddly enough. I do much better without the heavy nutritional stress on my body.
Do not indulge yourself in brainless activity. Exercise your will and pull yourself back into focus. If you aren't driven enough to snap out of "spacing out", then you don't have a good enough reason to do this.
Take 30 minute nap periods at first, and no shorther than 25 minute naps once adapted. 20 minutes just does not allow enough falling asleep time. I personally find it easier to adapt if I take only 1 or 2 naps the day leading up to it, rather than every 4 hours.
Any longer than 30 minutes, and you will start to go into a deeper sleep, which will cause you to feel very groggy and dizzy when you wake up. So don't set your alarm for 1 minute past 30 minutes!
I never had a problem with this, but I should put it on here anyway. Try not to drive if at all possible. Everyone's different, and I've heard that some can't drive during the adaptation.

There ya go. I didn't aim for it, but it's a perfect seven =] This is more about balancing life's demands out, and not about "conquering" it. Later, the whole thing becomes less scheduled and more of a biological rhythm anyway - so flow with it if you get knocked on your kiester now and then.

Re-intro to polyphasic sleeping

2008-07-24T03:29:00.000-07:00

This is a public journal more than it really is a blog. I sometimes sleep polyphasically to bring balance to my life. I've tried blogging several times in the past using a private site, but widespread use of apps that integrate with blogger make my own domain blog less appealing. Maybe in time I'll copy the old blogs over to here for whim's sake. It's night 2, which means I'm a little unfocused right now as I adapt - but maybe in a few days I'll post some links. Ah, what the heck, why not now?

I was first introduced to polyphasic sleeping by Steve Pavlina's self-experiment. As a disclaimer, I'm not a Pavlinite. I think he's got some good stuff, but it all has to be weighed out. Follow the link to his site if you want to know more.