Day 8 - Close to Giving Up

I overslept 8 hours, so it was basicly a nights sleep. I wont be napping again until next morning. This time it wasn't phone's fault, it was only my fault. For some reason I didn't get up right away and therefore fell asleep again. After three and a half hours I woke up and realizing that I overslept, I sulked in the bed for some time and in the end fell asleep again.

I will give myself one last change. Next oversleep and it's over. It's do or die. If this fails, I'll be trying it again maybe at the end of the summer, or maybe never. Summer would be easy I guess since it's never dark. But let's think about that if I fail again. I don't want to give up, it's just that I can't stay whole spring doing this. I've been functioning decently while I've been on this experiment, but pretty much never 100 %

Here's my naps so far:
-Dymaxion-

Day 1:
Nap 1: 10 min sleep
Nap 2: 30 min
Nap 3: 2 h 30 min
Nap 4: 0 min

Day 2:
Nap 1: 25 min
Nap 2: 2 h
Nap 3: 5-10 min (?)
Nap 4: 5-10 min (?)
Extra-nap: 10 min

Day 3:
Nap 1: 15 min
Extra-nap: 15 min
Nap 2: 3h
Nap 3: 0 min
Nap 4: 20 min
Nap 5: 15 min

-Schedule Change to Uberman-

Day 4:
Nap 1: 20 min
Nap 2: 2 h
Nap 3: 25 min
Nap 4: 20 min
Nap 5: 30 min

Day 5:
Nap 1: 4h
Nap 2: 10 min
Nap 3: 0 min
Nap 4: 25 min
Nap 5: 15 min

Day 6:
Nap 1: 25 min
Nap 2: 25 min
Nap 3: 15 min
Nap 4: 25 min
Nap 5: 25 min
Nap 6: 20 min

Day 7:
Nap 1: 5 h
Nap 2: 20 min
Nap 3: 20 min
Nap 4: 25 min

Day 8:
Nap 1: 8h

I also consider this the end of this attempt. Next nap will be fourth attempt, day one.

Day 7 - Readjusting

Five hours is such a long time for an oversleep, that it got my cycles a bit messed. I've only napped twice today and with longer intervals than usual, but I think I can now start the nap every four hours routine.

I'm getting some resistance right now from my parents, but it's not that serious. I know I'm not harrassingtheir sleep or anything, they just think that I'll go insane if I don't sleep. I doubt I could get any more insane that I already am.

-Dymaxion-

Day 1:
Nap 1: 10 min sleep
Nap 2: 30 min
Nap 3: 2 h 30 min
Nap 4: 0 min

Day 2:
Nap 1: 25 min
Nap 2: 2 h
Nap 3: 5-10 min (?)
Nap 4: 5-10 min (?)
Extra-nap: 10 min

Day 3:
Nap 1: 15 min
Extra-nap: 15 min
Nap 2: 3h
Nap 3: 0 min
Nap 4: 20 min
Nap 5: 15 min

-Schedule Change to Uberman-

Day 4:
Nap 1: 20 min
Nap 2: 2 h
Nap 3: 25 min
Nap 4: 20 min
Nap 5: 30 min

Day 5:
Nap 1: 4h
Nap 2: 10 min
Nap 3: 0 min
Nap 4: 25 min
Nap 5: 15 min

Day 6:
Nap 1: 25 min
Nap 2: 25 min
Nap 3: 15 min
Nap 4: 25 min
Nap 5: 25 min
Nap 6: 20 min

Day 7:
Nap 1: 5 h
Nap 2: 20 min
Nap 3: 20 min

Day 7 - Forget About Yesterday

I fucked it up again. I heavy overslept for 5 hours. It's back to square one for me. Amazingly I did just what I was afraid - lifted the dumbbells of the box and opened it - while asleep.

So now it's back to thinking a ways to avoid oversleeping, but right now I feel pretty helpless. That was so long oversleep that it throw's me off my schedule as well.

I managed to notch up a 10 successive naps.

EDIT: Well, I figured out an another way. As it was the psychological factor that got me with the cardboard-box until I got too used to it, I'm targeting that side again. I'll just put computer's alarm on with sound to the max or anywhere loud and set it couple of minutes after my phones alarm. If I don't wake up to the phone's alarm then I and pretty much whole house is waken up by the loud sound. I hope the fear of that happening will be enough to get me up any time.

Day 6 - The Hardest Day So Far, The Best Day So Far

Every nap today was spot on. However I did experience some sleep deprivation and there was couple of moments I was in the risk of falling asleep. There's not really much else to say. The cardboard box did the job beautifully - the psychological effect was all that was needed, I always woke up instantly to the sound of the alarm, not while I was figuring out how to get phone out of box. I'm going to use

It's only going to get more challenging from now on. I'd suspect the overslept days also help me a bit now while adaptating.

I've played some accuracy demanding games and noticed that my performance has dropped in them. Also I won't be playing poker anytime soon. My thoughts aren't clear enough. I need to be fully adaptated before thinking about that, otherwise I would only be losing money.

And lastly, here's once again the naps so far in a convenient list:

-Dymaxion-

Day 1:
Nap 1: 10 min sleep
Nap 2: 30 min
Nap 3: 2 h 30 min
Nap 4: 0 min

Day 2:
Nap 1: 25 min
Nap 2: 2 h
Nap 3: 5-10 min (?)
Nap 4: 5-10 min (?)
Extra-nap: 10 min

Day 3:
Nap 1: 15 min
Extra-nap: 15 min
Nap 2: 3h
Nap 3: 0 min
Nap 4: 20 min
Nap 5: 15 min

-Schedule Change to Uberman-

Day 4:
Nap 1: 20 min
Nap 2: 2 h
Nap 3: 25 min
Nap 4: 20 min
Nap 5: 30 min

Day 5:
Nap 1: 4h
Nap 2: 10 min
Nap 3: 0 min
Nap 4: 25 min
Nap 5: 15 min

Day 6:
Nap 1: 25 min
Nap 2: 25 min
Nap 3: 15 min
Nap 4: 25 min
Nap 5: 25 min

Day 6 - First Real Test Passed

I was expecting to have the first problems of the day during this first nap like in earlier days. But I actually woke up pretty easily (guess my subconcious didn't like the thought of the alarm). The real trouble however is just starting. But I'm getting repetitive, so instead of always talking about the same things, I'm going to move on.

I feel slightly groggy again.

One observation I have made is some kind of weird switch in the state of mind when I go to sleep. After I've laid there for a couple of minutes I almost feel this switch inside my head go off. I really can't tell yet what it does, but I'll usually fall asleep few minutes after the switch goes off.

Day Five's Last Two Naps

I had finally two solid naps at the end of this day. First was pretty great, long and refreshing and then just now I woke up from the second. I guess the second one was a bit shorter.

Now it's time to start anxiously waiting for the next day and hoping that I finally would be able to avoid oversleeping. I have a following plan: I put the phone in the cardboard box I was talking earlier and then I put the dumbbells on it. If I can clear the dumbbells and open the box while sleeping.. Then I salute myself.

Let's hope we can finally really start the adaptation phase.

Day 5 - The Daily Dose of Missed Naps

I had short nap earlier today, but now I miss another nap. Fact is that I'm not tired at all. That's because of earlier oversleep. I mean, you could practically handle one day with only four hours sleep without naps, it isn't a miracle that I don't feel like sleeping. Even two hours would be too much.

That's why I'm still at the starting point when it comes to adaptating. I simply have to stop oversleeping. I figure putting my phone into hard-to-open cardboard box would force me to wake up to shut it down. We'll see. I'll start using it tonight, but not yet on the next two naps. I'm confident I don't have any problem with those.

Day 5 - The Daily Dose of Ovesleep

This was my worst oversleep so far. I overslept full of 4 hours. This was simply down to extreme laziness, as I remember waking up normally to the alarm, but I'm not sure. I had trouble with this nap since it was scheduled for 3:20, but I managed to finally get to sleep little before six o' clock.

Pretty desperate feeling right now. This constant oversleeping will just not do, despite me being fairly refreshed and making some extra time. I want to fully adjust! I guess my next alternative is to hide my phone inside a cardboard box. If that doesn't work.. Then I'll have my work cut out.

Day 1:
Nap 1: 10 min sleep
Nap 2: 30 min
Nap 3: 2 h 30 min
Nap 4: 0 min

Day 2:
Nap 1: 25 min
Nap 2: 2 h
Nap 3: 5-10 min (?)
Nap 4: 5-10 min (?)
Extra-nap: 10 min

Day 3:
Nap 1: 15 min
Extra-nap: 15 min
Nap 2: 3h
Nap 3: 0 min
Nap 4: 20 min
Nap 5: 15 min

Day 4:
Nap 1: 20 min
Nap 2: 2 h
Nap 3: 25 min
Nap 4: 20 min
Nap 5: 30 min

Day 5:
Nap 1: 4h

I'll just have to be stricter with myself. No more missed naps and then just no more oversleeping.

Day 4: Tired

I'm exhausted. I finally stood awake for about 5 hours and got my nap at 23:20. So next nap is at 3:20. The longer interval didn't do for me much good.

This is the part where nervousness kicks in regarding to morning - will I oversleep again? That would suck so much ass. I have the night to figure out a way to avoid that.

Day 4: Missed Naps

I tried twice to nap, first with the three hour delay and then again when four hours had passed since the previous nap. Both attempts failed and I didn't sleep. I'm going to nap once I get tired and try to re-set my schedule with that with four hour intervals.

I don't feel particularly tired. In fact, I keep feeling great. It's amazing since I haven't have any adaptation phases and I have slept under four hours every day. I just can't wait how great it will be after I adapt.

Day 4: The Fast Nap

I napped like I said hour earlier than normally. I fell asleep soon enough and woke up five minutes before the alarm. I didn't have dreams though, so I guess there's more adaptation to face.

I'll try still another nap in 3 hours, just to see if this is sustainable.

Day 4 - First REM

Nap worked perfectly as usual after oversleeps so far, but this time I also had a dream - first time I have a dream on nap in this experiment. But it's nothing to get carried away. It's probably still side effect to the oversleeping earlier. I've had this kind of stuff before. I got near second REM probably in my over 2 hour nap earlier this day, so my body just started the new nap on the part of the cycle that it was when waking up previously. The funny thing was that I actually kind of knew I was asleep and the dream ended when I realized that "SHIT I MUST BE OVERSLEEPING" and seizured awake.

If I will have dreams in my next few naps too, then I'd say that I'm adapting. But that's very unlikely. I feel pretty refreshed after that nap. There's a bit of drowsiness, but I don't feel like I want to go back to sleep instantly. In fact, I just laid in my bed for about 10 minutes after waking up without fearing that I would fell asleep again (bed is so warm and there was a cat on my lap).

But I'd like to test something and continue 'going with the flow' as I have so far. I'd like actually to shorten my nap interval to press on with this sudden REM. I feel that the shorter the time between naps, the easier it would be to have another REM-nap and then keep chaining them together. Once that happens I could start increasing the nap interval again to at least normal uberman levels, maybe beyond.

I don't know whether this even could work, but I want to try it out. I don't know enough of polyphasic sleep to tell if it possible, but my intuition would say that it could be done. So I'll take the next nap hour earlier I planned or once I get tired, which might happen even earlier.

Day 4 - Oversleeping For A Living

Everything was fine until the 10 o'clock nap. I was expecting so trouble with oversleeping so I moved to sofa and hid my phone. But no. I wake up 2 hours later with my phone beside me. It's frushtrating, but at least I didn't oversleep any longer. I just gotta keep trying harder. I won't probably oversleep again today.

I'm pretty tired also. You'd think more sleep = more rested feeling, but no, I've been more tired the whole time I've had the extra naps added.

Complete log so far:

Day 1:
Nap 1: 10 min sleep
Nap 2: 30 min
Nap 3: 2 h 30 min
Nap 4: 0 min

Day 2:
Nap 1: 25 min
Nap 2: 2 h
Nap 3: 5-10 min (?)
Nap 4: 5-10 min (?)
Extra-nap: 10 min

Day 3:
Nap 1: 15 min
Extra-nap: 15 min
Nap 2: 3h
Nap 3: 0 min
Nap 4: 20 min
Nap 5: 15 min

Day 4:
Nap 1: 20 min
Nap 2: 2 h

Day 4 Starting

Didn't accomplish much during last phase. The feeling of tiredness got away eventually, but I wasn't my sharpest and got tired just in time for the next nap.

It was a great nap. I fell asleep quickly and woke up before the alarm - though I stayed in bed until the alarm because it just felt so warm in there! I'm bit groggy again, so for some reason more naps seem to equal more grogginess. But I hope this is a positive sign, as in, I'm finally starting to adapt. Ow, little bit of headache actually now (and I never have headache).

I guess I'm going to once again let myself to get fully awake, then I'm going to jump into some streching. After that, who knows, maybe I'll just pass time for another 3 hours.

Day 3 Still Going On

The concept of day is really interesting while on dymaxion/whatever polyphasic sleep schedule. It feels like I've been on this forever and we're still officially only at the end of day 3. I guess new days starts at next nap, which will be on 6:10 now that I'm transitioning towards more naps.

I actually slept during my last nap. Wow! We'll see if the same pattern continues - the early night / morning naps go swimmingly and the trouble starts in the noon / afternoon. I'm really trying to fight that in what ever way I can.

So rest of my nap times are following:
6:10
10:20
14:30
18:40
22:45

Notice that I decided to put 10 mins extra to get it in sync with my original schedule, where all the naps started :45 and ended :15. I like that space (I'm thinking of the footy matches - I'd rather miss 15 minutes from the end and 15 minutes from the beginning of the next rather than one 30 minute part of one game.).

I'm feeling really tired now despite waking up before the alarm. Just gotta give myself some time to awaken properly.

Day 3 - What I'm Trying To Achieve

Okay so I guess I slept for a short while during my nap just now.

Thing is that because I'm oversleeping, I'm getting some REM-sleep that I need. Once I stop oversleeping, I really start adaptation (and regretfully, feeling shit, but that's what you gotta do to fully adapt).

I didn't have a clear vision of where I'd like this to go when I started this so I didn't talk about what is my real goal in this. Hell, I don't even remember what I wrote in those first couple of posts. I better check before posting this.

Anyway, now the image is slowly starting to form. Here are my main objectives:
- Only 2-3 hours of sleep in 4-6 naps. Like I'd said I'm leaving door open for uberman, in fact I'm leaving it wide open. I guess with the extra naps my 'dymaxion experiment' will be more like uberman. I'd be glad if that worked out too, really glad. If that works out, maybe I'll try to slim it down to dymaxion, maybe I'll test out some own stuff, we'll see. That part is still fuzzy.
- Starting to have lucid dreams pretty much every nap. Even half would do. Or third. Let's say one lucid a day? Not aiming too high, though what I've read from people's experiences is that these start coming in once you're fully adjusted. Right now I'm pretty mediocre lucid dreamer, getting those 3-8 in a month, depending on how hard I'm trying. The ones I do get tend also be a bit poor quality with poor control. Whereas polyphasic dreams are very vivid and I'd expect to have better control over them.
- Have some flexibility over nap times. I already have one if I need, though I'm not really sleep into the sleep deprivation yet, so I'll stay cautious of saying anything
- In may (hopefully I'm succeeding by then) I'd like to experiment with some really hard training and see how my body takes it. If it seems not able to recover, I might consider dropping polyphasic for the summer (because I'm training soccer a lot and I don't want to burn myself out), but if it works out.. Maybe I'll keep on doing this for the rest of my life.

It's early days but I already feel great about the time increase. My mind is not yet as clear as with normal sleeping, but I'm not the mess I was at the some points in first and second attempt. Hopefully I don't turn into one once I finally get a couple of days without oversleeping. But I could live with this state of mind for the rest of my life considering all the extra time gained. I feel I'm functioning with 90 % efficiency while gaining at least 30 % more time every day. That seems like a fair tradeoff. The best thing here is that it's only going to get better once I adjust. My effieciency might even rise from the original and If I manage to mantain strict sleeping schedule I'll be gaining 38 % more time (if I think I used to be awake 16 hours a day and it would turn to 22h).

Missed My Nap Again!

This is crazy. I'm missing my naps all the time. It's understandable though now since the oversleep was so short time ago.

I've been thinking into transitioning into uberman pattern at least for some time. It's common sense that it would be easier and faster to adapt with it. I gotta research how even more naps would work. I'd think adapting would be easier when putting in more naps. When you finally start to hit REM with your naps, you could lower the amount as much as you like. That's something I'd like to do.

My schedule has been all over the place due to commitments, oversleeping and extra naps.I'm going to nap now, so it would be just natural to start transitioning for more naps now. I can always lower then once I've established a beachead.

Day 3 - Oversleeping vol. 3

This time I overslept 3 hours. Like any oversleeping incident, I don't remember a thing and just looked at my phone confused when I finally woke up. I don't even remember the time I went to sleep. It was around 12 and I woke up 15:15. I had some dream about dogs, so I got my REM fix.

This is not horrible situation, I'm not sleeping more than 5 hours and I'm avoiding turning into a zombie, but if it would quicken the adaptation I'd turn to zombie for couple of days pleasantly.

My complete naplog so far:
Day 1:
Nap 1: 10 min sleep
Nap 2: 30 min
Nap 3: 2 h 30 min
Nap 4: 0 min

Day 2:
Nap 1: 25 min
Nap 2: 2 h
Nap 3: 5-10 min (?)
Nap 4: 5-10 min (?)
Extra-nap: 10 min

Day 3:
Nap 1: 15 min
Extra-nap: 15 min
Nap 2: 3h

I'm easily mantaining under 4h / day. It's kind of everyman schedule now with core sleeps and all.

What I'm going to do now is to put my phone to weird places and maybe sleep somewhere I don't usually do, just to keep my body from getting used to anything, so I don't turn alarm off asleep.

EDIT: One thing I realized soon after posting this was the fact, that the oversleeping seems always to occur right after physical stimulation. I was doing heavy manual labor this morning and the afternoon oversleeping is in tune with my exercising. It might be just a coincidence, but I'd still pay extra attention to naps after physical load.

Day 3 - Some Random Thoughts

I started the third day with a nap that was a bit delayed from the normal time because of some work stuff, but only for 10 minutes. The good thing was that I was already feeling tired despite the extra nap. I woke up prematurely because my dad needed more help. I guess I slept like fifteen minutes. I still felt quite refreshed after the nap anyway. The sleep I get from the naps is really weird and I can't grasp where's the line between awake and asleep. The second the alarm sounds I'm instantly alert (unless I'm oversleeping), so it's like dog's sleep in a way.

I sure hope this would finally be the first day I didn't oversleep. I'd consider that major step closer to success. We'll see if I grab another extra nap during this phase. While I did freshen up during the short nap I'm still a bit drowsy so I might need the extra nap. Enough guessing, we'll see.

Some random stuff I've noticed during this experiment:
- The bed feels really, really warm. When I get out of it, I start shivering from coldness. It's crazy. I guess this is more sleep deprivation related, 'cause I've noticed that during sleep deprivation I often feel cold even when there's so warm that I'm sweating.
- No dreams so far, but I haven't really stopped to try to remember one. I guess it would be too early to expect one anyway. If I'd stay on the bed trying to remember a dream I'm afraid I would fall asleep again. I'm not ready for dreams yet..
- I'm eating like an elephant, and unhealthily too. Now usually people go for healthier food on instinct when doing polyphasic sleep, but not me. In my case it's simply function of what there's in the fridge.. Damn you mom. Perhaps I should have a talk with her. Perhaps. Or just grow some discipline.

See ya.

Quick Nap

So I took the quick nap as I was getting more and more tired. I got just up at 5:15, so it was exactly in half between two of my main maps. I'm not sure if I slept again. I guess I did, I just don't recognise it as it's so light sleep. Also I only slept probably for few minutes, as it took pretty long for me to fall asleep again. I'm feeling a bit tired. But I'll make it for next 3 hours with this sleep.