Published 24 Jun 2012 14:29
Published
Oops. I set my alarm for my 10:30 PM nap, but my phone's battery died while I was sleeping, so my alarm never actually rang. I slept straight through to exactly 6:30 AM. Instead of continuing to rage about my mistake (as I did initially), I'll take this opportunity to reflect upon this experiment so far:
First, my saving grace here is that I woke up right when my 5 - 6:30 AM nap usually ends. I really hope it's indicative of a lasting sleep/waking habit, which will minimize the damage of this full-night's rest.
Second, upon waking from my long rest, my energy levels are comparable to every other day's thus far. It is only morning, so I suppose I will feel the difference (if any) in the wee hours after the midnight nap.
Until then, my body surprisingly seems to have reacted negatively to the 8-hour sleep. I woke up with a slightly stiff neck, and my eyes feel itchy and fatigued, along with having a slight redness which I used to receive the morning after a long night spent looking at a computer screen. Unless I feel marginally better than usual throughout the next 24 hours, I may take this as evidence that our 8-hour sleep habits are unnatural and perhaps not as healthy as some alternatives.
Lastly, I'm starting to take more seriously the lack of extreme sleep deprivation thus far. My schedule was designed to coincide with the body's natural needs. Before the experiment, I thought this was a plus. It is, in some senses - it means anyone can switch to it and not suffer a debilitating adaptation period. However, it's not the kind of schedule I think I was looking for: there's nothing for my body to really adapt to. It's not the exercise in self-discipline I thought it'd be, nor is it yielding different sleep tendencies (falling asleep faster, more/less dreams, ect). If I had known this beforehand, I wouldn't have considered this to be a daring experiment - it's just sleeping at different times.
With this in mind, I'm going to continue sleeping on this schedule until I have a sufficient reason not to, in hopes that I can master the art of napping and fully adapt to what little needs to be changed. By doing this, I would like to be able to adapt to this schedule quickly and painlessly in the future, should I decide to (assuming, of course, I ever switch back to monophasic in the first place).
However, I've starting to think about giving the Uberman sleep schedule a go (six 20-30 minute naps a day). I still have another 2.5 weeks until my next obligation, and I think that's plenty of time to sufficiently adapt to another schedule. This would have the benefit of saving even MORE time per day, and shorter naps means I can nap on the run (car, couch, bench, you name it), which isn't really possible (or, at least, desirable) for 1.5 hour naps.
The disadvantages are that I would (potentially permanently) change the timing of my sleep cycles (to 20 minute increments), which could make sleeping monophasically or even triphasically difficult, as well as making the rest of the time spent sleeping on my current schedule moot. I also wouldn't ever receive non-REM sleep like I do now - the Uberman causes people to slip directly into REM - which could be proven to be detrimental, if new science ever proves that this sleep is necessary.
Not to mention that it would be hard as the Dickins.
So, I'm faced with a decision to make: Continue triphasic, revert to monophasic, or progress to Uberman. I'll be researching this throughout the next day or two to make a decision. Feedback would also be appreciated!
Go biphasic. 6 to 7 hours in one session with a 30 minute nap will meet your sleep requirements without jeopardizing the rest of your health. Things to keep in mind:
Will your roommate(s) go along with keeping quite during your nap sessions? Will the ones next door? Above & below you? College is often quiet, but it can also be very, very noisy, not like home.
Long distance driving (from home to college or vice versa) is conducive to causing sleepiness and micronaps. Polyphasics are even more prone to this hypnotic effect.
http://www.menshealth.com/spotlight/sleep/8-hours.php
Deep sleep & Rem sleep are important. Deep sleep for the body & Rem for the mind.
http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm
Even submariners (away from natural light cycles) are more efficient with the normal 24 hour cycle. http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/04/navy_sub_hours_042509w/
Personally I don't think the few extra hours of wake time would be worth the possible risks. College can be daunting enough on its own, and all your learning is consolidated in your sleep, so less sleep could result in poorer quality memory. Be safe and go with the biphasic. You can always try the polyphasic experiment again after college when you'll have more control over roommates, schedules, and there'll be less massive info input to worry about consolidating.
Either way, Gemma and I will continue to keep you in prayer.
Thanks for the input, Mr. Foster! You're definitely right about dorms being noisy. I think, though, that I'll have to adjust to the noise on any sleep schedule. One way of coping would probably include using a sleep mask and ear plugs, if I did indeed choose a schedule so out of phase with the rest of college students'.
You're also right about the necessity of deep and REM sleep, and the danger of sleep deprivation. But my hope with polyphasic sleep isn't to deprive myself of those stages; rather, I aim to get the necessary parts of sleep more efficiently - less time spent falling asleep, moving more quickly out of the early transition stages of sleep, ect.
Good point about learning and memory. I think I'll need to try an experiment this summer to keep track of my learning abilities on this schedule as opposed to monophasic. I certainly don't want to compromise higher-level thinking and learning, especially while in college.
I decided I'm simply going to remain on this schedule till the end of summer, when I can make a more informed decision for college. For now, though, I've got lots of time and no real external obligations, so might as well use this time to learn about the pros and cons of certain sleep, as well as my own limits.
Chase Hamilton
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