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Polyphasic Sleep Log - Uberman Day 8

When I wake up from my upcoming nap exactly 7 full days will have passed since I started the uberman schedule. I’ve messed up my naps many times, oversleeping embarrassingly often, but it still worked out. With only one hard night that I couldn’t handle, the transition wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be.

Some thoughts so far.

Despite other people’s blogs, I didn’t ever feel like a ‘zombie’. The bad night was definitely not ‘zombie’. To me, zombie implies a kind of mindless drudge. This was more like drowning. The entire time is actively spent fighting the sleep dep pressures from all angles, but it always finds another to push down on you from. Nothing is directly painful or anything, but there is no escaping it - you just can’t get away from the pressure (without sleeping). At the worst of it I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I was walking around trying to stay awake, and I couldn’t keep my balance very well. My speech was slurred and my typing was impossibly bad. I had to go back and edit my posts from that night because words were missing up to 3 letters at a time. But, as you may have read, I slept 3 hours that night and felt much better without affecting my schedule at all.

Reiterating the buddy system - my girlfriend and roommate are the ones who got me through the transition. Sleep deprivation is so much different than other things — it isn’t just a matter of willpower. I was falling asleep wherever I was without noticing it. They helped keep me out of these and, more importantly, they made sure I woke up on time. Extra thanks to Al for waking up at 2:30, 4:30, and 6:30 to wake my sleeping ass up, and extra special thanks to Jess for letting me sleep in the good bed and waking her up with the alarm every 4 hours.

Diet - Before I started the change I revamped my diet, cutting down on red meat and eliminating caffeine, soda, and alcohol. I also bought a bunch of fruit and veggies and have been eating them round the clock. I don’t know how much of an effect this has had. Obviously the caffeine and alcohol are important (can’t have uppers or downers), but I ate a bunch of hamburger and ribs at Jess’s parents house on Monday and slept immediately after with no problems. I suspect they do help though, but even if they don’t, it’s nice to be eating more healthy.

Alarms - My bedroom alarm is a bust. I turn it off without being fully awake, and oversleep. On top of that, I mis-set it (it’s a terrible design) and its pretty easy to accidentally set the volume too low to hear. I’ve overslept probably half the times I’ve used it. On the other hand, the alarm program I wrote is awesome. At this point it reads my alarm directory and allows me to pick any of the sound files in there. Then it mutes my system so I can turn up my speakers without random instant messages etc blasting me awake and shows the countdown. When it’s done, it puts the system at full volume and loops the sound until I get up and turn it off. Simple, but extremely effective. I haven’t missed getting up yet since the system volume changes.

Health - I’m looking forward to the point where I don’t need to worry about laying down. I’m functional mentally, but my body is tired from not getting much physical rest. The allergies are still as bad as ever - they haven’t been affected either way. Other than that I feel good. The worst I felt was when I slept most of the night like a normal person — for some reason this REALLY dried out my throat and sinuses.

Mental Clarity - I spent the wee hours of tonight coding, so I feel like I’m back up to speed mentally. I wouldn’t go so far as to say 100%, but I’m functional enough to do abstract mental work like programming without it putting me down like an anorexic on horse traquilizers.

Schedule - My schedule is still borked. I don’t have any natural timing thoughts about brushing my teeth, showing, or even getting dressed. I’ve mostly just tried to associate those with the 6 am and 10pm naps to try to keep them in line with before. I’d probably do more things in the middle of the night if there wasn’t such a risk of waking up Jess.

Dreams - I’ve started having dreams I remember, which is uncommon for me. This only happened recently, so I’m hoping and expecting them to increase in severity and vividity (yes, that is a word).

Nap Timing - I haven’t found it that necessary to hit the naps right on the head for my personal rest. I have, however, found that it is much better to do so anyway, for the OTHER people in your life. At this point pretty much everyone knows I’ll be down for 30 min starting at 2, 6, and 10. But if, like now, I wait a few minutes to get started, the timing will be off for THEM and they might unwittingly wake me up mid-nap, even if they have tried not to. So, be punctual for your friends!

I’ll share more thoughts as I have them.