Day Five - Shifting Schedule and Hitting Trouble

Day 5.1
Naptime: 2:20 - 2:40, 20 min
Mental: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tiredness: 0 1 2 3 4 5
REM: No
Time since last proper sleep: 105h 40 mins
Succesful naps in a row: 11
Time since last oversleep: 60 hours

I don't remember REM from that nap either, but I'm almost certain that I'm just not remembering then. I just can't stay this well focused completely without REM.

My plan for today is to not play poker. I'll be having couple days of break from that, especially since it's expected that today and tomorrow will be the hardest days so what. I have overall little less stuff planned to do.

I feel really weird. Like constantly I'm thinking I'm forgetting something. Like this can't be true, I can't have gone so long without oversleeping etc. It's like it's all just a one long dream.

After next nap, I'll be hitting my record on successive successful naps. Or tying with it to be exact. I've already been up without oversleeps longer than ever. I know I haven't really been challenged yet (and I'm hoping I wouldn't be - narcolepsy sucks), but I can honestly say that I'm closer to success than ever before. I just wish I'd start remembering REM to be sure of it. I'm pretty sure I've had it.

Day 5.2
Naptime: 6:25 - 6:40, 15 min
Mental: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tiredness: 0 1 2 3 4 5
REM: Maybe
Time since last proper sleep: 109h 40 mins
Succesful naps in a row: 12
Time since last oversleep: 64 hours

I slept a bit under a quarter of an hour, I know because it was 6:25 when I last checked before passing out. Once again I don't remember dreaming or any other stuff about this, just this sorta feeling that I did have a REM. I'm feeling more tired that on previous phases. Next nap will take me to the new depths, at least when it comes to purely numbers. I'm still waiting eagerly to be zombified.

I've been thinking about my current schedule a lot and I'm not sure if it is the best. I feel like 14, 18, 22, 2, 6, 10 would work better, on exact hours - going sleep of course, waking ups 20 minutes later. This would work especially considering my wednesday's possible footie match but even if I didn't have that I feel that my current program was a little rashly designed. If possible though 10 minutes earlier would work even better, I mean 13:50, 17:50.. etc.

But I know that shifting my schedule now will disrupt my adaptation. So I'll probably save it for later when I'm more established and keep hoping that there's no game in wednesday. If there is I'll probably shift the nap to 18:10-18:25 - meaning I would have to make it shorter. That really seems like a spot that this effort could culminate to - me getting less sleep and disturbing my rhythm combined with extra tiredness from football that has caused me to oversleep even before.

On the other hand, I don't know if I could slowly shift my schedule. There's still time and I could always aim just to fall asleep couple of minutes earlier etc. That would manage to shift my schedule probably enough, but how much would it exactly mess up my adaptation? Hard to say. I really don't know how much there is to spare in uberman. I mean you'd think that you can flex for couple of minutes, but it really isn't as straightforward. I already feel lot more tired than usual now that this morning's nap was shorter than usual due to me failing falling asleep instantly. So I won't be making any shifts yet. Once I'm couple of weeks in I'll start tweaking it five minutes / week. That's my plan. There's room for some messing up then as my sleep dep should be dealt with already by then. Not that I have that bad sleep dep at the moment.

Or hell, plans just changed. I need to be awake just now around my next normal naptime. So I'm going to go to bed earlier and just do at least part of the shift right now. I don't know how much it will affect me, but well know soon enough. Here's the plan:
I'll go to bed 9:50 and aim to be awake 10:10. I'm not playing around, let's do the whole shift at once. If I don't get to sleep immediately, I'll shift the waking time later. After that no changing the schedule for (hopefully) few months.

Again I lost two naps worth of data. Here's what I remember:

Day 5.3
Naptime: 9:50 - 10:10, 20 min
Mental: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tiredness: 0 1 2 3 4 5
REM: No
Time since last proper sleep: 113h 10 mins
Succesful naps in a row: 13
Time since last oversleep: 67 hours 30 mins

Huge struggles as I shifted my schedule. Near falling asleep many times.

Day 5.4
Naptime: 13:50 - 14:10, 20 min
Mental: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tiredness: 0 1 2 3 4 5
REM: No.
Time since last proper sleep: 117h 10 mins
Succesful naps in a row: 14
Time since last oversleep: 71 hours 30 mins

Success continues but only just. I'm constantly near falling asleep. Well now I guess I have woken just enough to stay awake without too much effort. I've been super-cranky and irritable the whole time, therefore I'm not really good company at the moment. It's really frushtrating - I've gotten past the worst symptoms of narcolepsy, but I'm not enjoying myself at the moment. The euphoric feel of say last night is gone. I hope next nap will see another emotional reset and hopefully this sleep dep eases off.

Day 5.5
Naptime: 17:50 - 18:10, 20 min
Mental: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tiredness: 0 1 2 3 4 5
REM: Yes.
Time since last proper sleep: 121h 10 mins
Succesful naps in a row: 15
Time since last oversleep: 75 hours 30 mins

I've somewhat recovered from that change in schedule now. I'm still tired, but situation has improved. Now I just have to motivate myself to exercise I and stuff. I planned this as off-day, but my productivity has been totally killed in a way I didn't intend to. Oh yeah, I finally had a REM that I remembered - I remembered the REM, not what happened in it. Frushtrating not to really recall stuff, but I knew I had dreamed.

I've been trying to watch a poker video, but I just keep nodding and nearly falling asleep. I stop for a moment and read bunch of other stuff - then back to the video and nodding. Watching passively seems to put me to sleep in these deeper stages of adaptation.

Day 5.6
Naptime: 21:50 - 22:10, 20 min
Mental: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Tiredness: 0 1 2 3 4 5
REM: No.
Time since last proper sleep: 125h 10 mins
Succesful naps in a row: 16
Time since last oversleep: 79 hours 30 mins

Talk about zoning out. I've been watching the first half of ManU - Newcastle and I keep nodding. Short microsleeps I guess. Nothing bad, I can still reconstruct some kind of idea what happened during first half, but I still kept zoning out for many seconds every now and then. Half-time ought keep me activated enough to stay awake. I guess I should be keeping myself constantly activated even when watching some stuff.

It's kinda weird. I'm not super-tired, but if just passively watch something, I start doing that passing out routine. Like I have no trouble when I'm writing stuff etc. My eyes don't feel heavy or anything. I don't have a strong urge to got to bed. Even if I'd fall asleep I usually wake up when something happens in the game. It's hard to know what these kind of micro-sleeps do to your adaptation, but I guess I should be avoiding them. Therefore I'll be more active for the second half.

It worked.. But this day is just about done. See ya tomorrow.