rorowe

I’ve lost track of how long Cecily and I have been “doing” the Everyman Sleep cycle, but we’re both still at it, despite numerous shouts of “What a terrible idea this was!” and “Why’d we do this again?”

Anyway, we’re still going, and it is starting to get better. We’re using our time better, and still trying little mini-experiments as we adjust. 

A quick example, is binaural beats. Definitely check out the Wiki, as it explains them way better than I can! 

Cecily and I are now both a week in (at least) to our adaptation period for the Everyman cycle. Having a partner (whether a significant other, or roommate, or family member) taking the polyphasic adventure with you certainly makes things a little easier. We’re able to support each-other, keep each-other awake between naps (we’re both still sleep-deprived while we adjust), and make sure we don’t oversleep.  

Cecily, especially, seems to enjoy finding and reading blogs and articles on polyphasic sleep, and we’re able to make minor adjustments to our schedules, lifestyles, and activities based on some of the information we’re discovering. 

A big one for me is going to be journaling. I have a small moleskine notebook, that, in addition to this Space, will allow me to instantly record the results of a sleep session. It won’t be a long diary-like entry, but more on the lines of this:

1/8/12 Nap 8-3:30pm - trouble falling asleep, but woke up refreshed using iPhone alarm on a low volume setting. 

I’ll be able to keep multiple entries on a single page, and it’ll be simple, instead of relying on an app, or something.

Today was the first day of work since Cecily and I started Everyman. I was afraid of passing out at work (since it’s impossible to get a nap to break up the 8 hours), so I extended my core sleep. I’m not sure if it helped or hurt my adaptation period, but I made it through the work day without dieing so that’s good. 

Tonight, I discovered TryPolyphasic which looks like it not only hosts blogs, but has a forum section for polyphasic sleepers to help each-other. We also learned about SPAMAYL (Sleep Polyphasically As Much As You Like), which may be an easier cycle for us to adopt…we’ll see. 

We’re both still in the adaptation phase of the Everyman polyphasic sleep cycles, but today was fairly successful for me. I’ve learned that fruit is a wonderful thing (meals right after naps to help wake me up). I’ve learned to try to calm my activity levels for a few minutes before naps. And I’ve seen, both firsthand, and through Cecily, that failure is always right around the corner. 

We’ve both had periods during the day when we’re beyond tired, can’t stay awake through a single TV episode, and alarms are useless. But we’ve also seen how much extra time we get if we do it right. 

I’m worried about tomorrow. First day back at work after the long weekend, and I’m going to lose my 1pm nap. I haven’t decided whether I’ll stick to the schedule minus that nap, or if I’ll cave and make my core sleep extra long. (i.e. 2am-9:30am instead of 2am-5am, then 9am-9:30am). We’ll see!

Not only did I manage to stick to every nap, but I successfully did not oversleep on my core sleep!

Things I’ve been observing (remember, we’ve been building up to polyphasic sleep for a few weeks now, just poorly): 

• Appetite - My stomach’s felt a little off since we started, but we’ve been also been eating more. I still haven’t kicked caffeine, but we’ve substituted fruits (apples!) instead of chips.
• 25min > 30min - setting my iPhone’s timer to 25 minutes seems to be perfect, whereas 30minutes would cause us to both wake up groggy. 
• Electricity - I’ve noticed that since we’re awake more, we’re using more electricity. Forgetting to turn off lights is becoming a bigger problem than it used to be. It’s ashame we can’t leverage off-peak hours for things like our laundry.