Steve Pavlina's 60 Day Update
Steve Pavlina has posted his (pretty beefy) 60 day update on his polyphasic sleep experiment.
Reading through it, I can't help but notice a lot of parallels of his status and observations to some of my own. For those keeping score, I'll be hitting 35 days (5 weeks) tomorrow.
Like him, a lot of my close friends and relatives are getting used to the idea that I'm awake as much as I am. My wife is happy about it because of the extra time we can spend together, plus the fact that I can focus on just being with her. Previously, I've had to focus on other projects and whatnot during time we were together, since I didn't have much other time, so I didn't always get to really be with her.
More parallels - to quote:
The big challenge I’m facing right now is how to put all this time to use in a balanced and sustainable way.
I'm running into the same problem. Instead of cleanly paritioning my extra time equally towards the extra pursuits I wish to er, pursue, I'm mostly throwing myself into my work towards financial freedom. I can feel sometimes that I might be leading towards burnout on this.
Things that are helping me combat this:
My goals are clearly written. Rereading them always serves to revitalize me and refocus me.
Time off. When I feel like it's getting to be too much, I take a break between naps, and spend 3-4 hours just doing something fun, e.g. video games. Previously, when I monoslept, things like video games and such were a big problem for me - I couldn't pull myself away from them and would play for hours upon hours. If and when I did get away, though, I was fine. Now, though, I can't really play more than a few hours, as a nap quickly encroaches. This serves as the severance I need to get back into a productive mood.
Clear breaktimes. It's hard to argue with my body when it needs to sleep, so it's more difficult to work myself into exhaustion. Naturally, this is a better idea in the long term.
Even still... I do tend to want to work for huge amounts of time.
Steve also mentions how time seems so different for him now that he doesn't have sleep dictating his day schedule. He mentioned at some point in his initial 30 days that time seemed to move slower, and how his concept of days is somewhat broken... I can't say I feel it as well. This is probably largely because I'm still attached to a day job, so I have a strong regulator to my schedule. Plus, I'm pretty solidly booked during the extra time I have, so I tend to be busy. Time seems to actually pass faster for me! (I mean... 5 weeks???)
He's definitely right, though:
Polyphasic sleep is NOT the same thing as monophasic sleep plus a few extra hours a day. Not even close. It’s a much, much bigger change, one that is both intoxicating and disturbing.
It's a little hard to describe. While I would be unmotivated to do things as a monosleeper because I did not want to be involved in so much time, now I'm just diving in left and right. This may just be that I've decided to jump right in on more new things in general, but it does help me get going on projects.
It's still more than that, though. There is a fundamental change in my approach to life. Before, I was a creature of habit and routine. My wife had even poked fun at me for the meticulous level of routines I had. I had rigorous routines for all my simple, day to day tasks - dressing, bathing, cleaning etc. Mostly, it was compensation for my notoriously bad memory, so that I would perform all the necessary tasks and not forget anything important. It was going on autopilot so my mind could worry about other things.
Anyway, many of the routines were based on the sleep schedule. With the monophasic sleep removed, it consequently stripped away a lot of those routines. It feels a little like cutting the safety line and a little like opening the cell door. Yeah, I could fall and fall hard, but I'm also free from them. Well, some of them, anyway. :)
It's a weird sort of deep-seated feeling. It's like I can feel my neurons reconnecting and rewiring, working at getting a handle on this new world. It's like my brain trying to figure out how to grapple with this foreign thing, but it's just shooting it's feelers ridiculously far out... It's not used to this because I was so contained in my safe little box. I'm working without a net here.
Of course, I could just be feeling what it's like to go insane from sleep deprivation. ;) I dunno.
It's just... weird.
-sean
Reading through it, I can't help but notice a lot of parallels of his status and observations to some of my own. For those keeping score, I'll be hitting 35 days (5 weeks) tomorrow.
Like him, a lot of my close friends and relatives are getting used to the idea that I'm awake as much as I am. My wife is happy about it because of the extra time we can spend together, plus the fact that I can focus on just being with her. Previously, I've had to focus on other projects and whatnot during time we were together, since I didn't have much other time, so I didn't always get to really be with her.
More parallels - to quote:
The big challenge I’m facing right now is how to put all this time to use in a balanced and sustainable way.
I'm running into the same problem. Instead of cleanly paritioning my extra time equally towards the extra pursuits I wish to er, pursue, I'm mostly throwing myself into my work towards financial freedom. I can feel sometimes that I might be leading towards burnout on this.
Things that are helping me combat this:
My goals are clearly written. Rereading them always serves to revitalize me and refocus me.
Time off. When I feel like it's getting to be too much, I take a break between naps, and spend 3-4 hours just doing something fun, e.g. video games. Previously, when I monoslept, things like video games and such were a big problem for me - I couldn't pull myself away from them and would play for hours upon hours. If and when I did get away, though, I was fine. Now, though, I can't really play more than a few hours, as a nap quickly encroaches. This serves as the severance I need to get back into a productive mood.
Clear breaktimes. It's hard to argue with my body when it needs to sleep, so it's more difficult to work myself into exhaustion. Naturally, this is a better idea in the long term.
Even still... I do tend to want to work for huge amounts of time.
Steve also mentions how time seems so different for him now that he doesn't have sleep dictating his day schedule. He mentioned at some point in his initial 30 days that time seemed to move slower, and how his concept of days is somewhat broken... I can't say I feel it as well. This is probably largely because I'm still attached to a day job, so I have a strong regulator to my schedule. Plus, I'm pretty solidly booked during the extra time I have, so I tend to be busy. Time seems to actually pass faster for me! (I mean... 5 weeks???)
He's definitely right, though:
Polyphasic sleep is NOT the same thing as monophasic sleep plus a few extra hours a day. Not even close. It’s a much, much bigger change, one that is both intoxicating and disturbing.
It's a little hard to describe. While I would be unmotivated to do things as a monosleeper because I did not want to be involved in so much time, now I'm just diving in left and right. This may just be that I've decided to jump right in on more new things in general, but it does help me get going on projects.
It's still more than that, though. There is a fundamental change in my approach to life. Before, I was a creature of habit and routine. My wife had even poked fun at me for the meticulous level of routines I had. I had rigorous routines for all my simple, day to day tasks - dressing, bathing, cleaning etc. Mostly, it was compensation for my notoriously bad memory, so that I would perform all the necessary tasks and not forget anything important. It was going on autopilot so my mind could worry about other things.
Anyway, many of the routines were based on the sleep schedule. With the monophasic sleep removed, it consequently stripped away a lot of those routines. It feels a little like cutting the safety line and a little like opening the cell door. Yeah, I could fall and fall hard, but I'm also free from them. Well, some of them, anyway. :)
It's a weird sort of deep-seated feeling. It's like I can feel my neurons reconnecting and rewiring, working at getting a handle on this new world. It's like my brain trying to figure out how to grapple with this foreign thing, but it's just shooting it's feelers ridiculously far out... It's not used to this because I was so contained in my safe little box. I'm working without a net here.
Of course, I could just be feeling what it's like to go insane from sleep deprivation. ;) I dunno.
It's just... weird.
-sean
posted by Sean @ 12/20/2005 12:31:00 AM
3 Comments:
Dear Sean,
You honestly depict your struggles and perhaps should now honestly admit that #35 is a bit of a stretch. Your recent 8:00-12:00 sleep was an example of a nice healthy well-timed normal night sleep. It only came a bit later. As such, it falls out of the polyphasic definition.
I think you have found your rather comfortable pattern which maps well to your biphasic rhythm. This means that you might continue for much longer than originally expected. I believe now that the most likely factor that will crash your plans is ... catching a cold. Due to your experiment and the use of the alarm clock, your immune system is likely to be suppressed a bit. You will then be quite vulnerable to infection. When it comes, per force, you will need to seek your best sleep rhythm to recover fast. Then the whole truth about your needs will come out. If it happened today, my bet is you would sleep from 6 am to 3-4 pm :) and then more in the evening :)
I was very happy to see Pavlina update, but it came as a tiny disappointment. Naturally, he now focuses on the lifestyle issues, while I would still like to fish more details of his sleep physiology (esp. the hours of sleep, sleep length, alertness, etc.). E.g. he mentions the alarm clock as if by accident. To me that is a lithmus test for is or is he not entrained. If you both use the alarm, you are just not entrained. More! Were it not for his vegan attitude, I would sadly predict S.P. is running straight for a heart attack at an early age (polyphasic + productivity-crazy = soon-dead). No kidding.
Your "video game" benefit is a bit upside-down. You should reason it out. Give up the games or put a limit. With a clear mind and with a rational decision. Sleepiness is a wrong rod for that beast.
Ah yes. I totally disagree with "no caffeine" banner. It is well known to sharpen the sleep flip-flop when applied on the ascending edge. Transition from and to sleep is what wastes most time. Coffee after a nap should then make polyphasic life far easier (not healthier though, naturally). And also it is an adenosine antagonist hence should primarily affect homeostatic SWA build up, not REM. But that hurts BEFORE sleep, not AFTER.
... on second thoughts ... I might be wrong. Forgot that you want to sleep more often and with 4-8 h averge half-life, your AFTER SLEEP coffee is not much different from BEFORE SLEEP coffee ... after all you seem to be going for a nap all the time :)
mc
Steve,
I'm not going anywhere unless they've got broadband. ;)
mc,
To some extent, you might be correct. I'll discuss why I don't consider myself to be off the schedule in my next full post.
As for sickness, this, too, was one of my concerns. I've got a decent amount to say on it, so I'll address it in my post as well.
I undestand the guess that I have a problem with video gaming. "Hi, my name is Sean..." ;)
Really, though, it's more that I get involved doing whatever it is I'm currently doing. I resist changes of setting. I talk a bit about it in a previous post. It just so happens that video games also have a stronger attractive value to them, so that I am more likely to start playing them.
I disagree that using my nap schedule as a limit is an incorrect means of approaching it, purely because I do not stretch sleep around my game time. Rather, sleepiness becomes the timer that lets me know (despite my potential for being engrossed in the game) that my time allotment is up. It's just more compelling than using an external timer or alarm.
It's effective for corralling my compulsions to keep working for long stretches as well, which also could be unbalancing if I let them go unchecked.
And yeah, the "no caffeine" banner... I don't like it, but it's mostly necessary. Like you pointed out, the half life of ingested caffeine just does not mesh with a 4 hour scheduling of naps, unless the amounts are very small. I've gotten by with careful use of weak-brewed black teas, green teas, or hot cocoa (around 7 or 8 am), but even then it interferes with my lunch time napping. I have to use it sparingly. I do miss my regular cups of tea... :)
By the way, soda is mostly cut out of my diet at this point, so it's less of a concern.
-sean
If you go biphasic, some caffeine after the nap will give you a solid rocket booster through the night and work time. It would be a danger only if you had problems with falling asleep after work.
It is possible that regular drinkers paradoxically accelerate their homeostatic build up of SWA (the downregulation effect). (naturally only if drank on awakening) If that was the case with you, you might even increase your chances for a good nap in the night and for an early sleep after work? The best way to find out is to run two months on your crazy schedule. One with and one without caffeine and measure the effect.
p.s. you might be right that the trick to make yourself stop videogaming is more effective in practice, but the theoretically desirable solution would be to just make a decision and execute. That's the "perfect human being" theory, of course. Perhaps you could, instead, scare yourself with a visualization of Sean at 60 having spent 5 years non-stop playing (5/60 is just about 2 hours per day) :) :) (it worked for me and I play no longer :)
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