I have a little (big) problem...

In my last post I mentioned as to how I overslept once. Well since that time I over slept twice. Once for 3 hours, and the second time (I just woke up) for 12 hours. As you can see, this brings up a problem in "Poly-Phasic" sleep. Another thing to note, is the fact that all three times that I overslept were at the same time, 6am.

The reason why this keeps happening is because usually when I was a "mono-phasic" sleeper I would get to bed around 6am and sleep about 6-9 hours. So trying to wake up at 6:20am creates a problem for me.

The way I look at it is, I have two options.

1) Say that poly-phasic sleep is way too hard to adjust to and return to mono-phasic sleep (ah. How great would that be? Sleep.)

Or

2) Think of my oversleep as something to learn from and realize that every problem/mistake is not a problem/mistake unless dealt with. I decided with the latter.

I'm thinking about either switching my sleep times, which would be difficult. I chose them based on the fact that they fit my schedule. So that's not a choice.

I could set up more alarm clocks. So far I have 1 set up on my phone. I think I'll set up one of those old clocks that sounds as loud as a "bomb alert" during WWII in Great Britain. Quite possibly it would work.

Or the second is I can ask someone from my household to come and wake me up physically at that time. This might work as well. However it is based on the idea that I can trust them to do so...but then again I don't trust myself, cause I know I can sleep through anything. So what's a person to do in this world?

Well to cover what I've been able to get done for the last 73 hours. I got about enough work done that usually would take me 2-weeks to do. Here I'll list a few:

• Edited a Wedding from beginning to finish. (By the way for those who don't know, I'm a Wedding Videographer as well as a Film Director. That's how I make a living.)
• Clean up my PC of all old files/things I needed to get to.
• Cleaned up my MAC from about 700GB worth of stuff. (A lot of it were film scripts/film articles that I got about 2 years ago.)
• Cleaned up my office space (looks good now).
• Did quite a bit of physical work around the house.
• Finalized three Wedding DVD sets (25 dvd's, about to be sent out).
• Started a Blog.
• Cleaned up 8 of my e-mail accounts, which is = to 3,000 e-mail messages! You know, I think I should close about 5 of those.

Now those are just some of the things I did. All of those things take time, and in some interesting way I was still able to focus on all these tasks (which do require mental labor).

What do you guys' think I should do about my little (big) problem? Any suggestions/tips? How do you wake yourself up in the morning?

PS I would like to welcome the first two followers of my blog: Konstantin Kurkov, and Michael Breton. I look forward to continue sharing my experiment with you (If you would like to subscribe (click on "become a follower on the right"). Also, one more thing. Comments have to first be approved by me. That's why if you post a comment it doesn't go up right away. I'll approve it within 24 hours.

New Time Management Structure...

As of Sunday September 27th 2009, at exactly 2pm PST, I began my first Time Management switch from "mono-phasic sleeping" to "poly-phasic sleeping."

Before I go on about my progress, I would like to begin by explaining the difference between "mono-phasic" and "poly-phasic" sleep.

Mono-phasic: Sleeping 6-9 hours a day during one single period (what probably 99% of the population does).

Poly-phasic: Taking six, 20-30 min naps throughout the day at an exact time, every day. Which results in 2-3 hours of sleep a day = 14-21 hours a week worth of sleep.

If you're a mono-phasic sleeper it takes about 90 minutes to enter into what is called REM (Rapid Eye Movement, "Deep Sleep") sleep. With poly-phasic sleep you gradually "train" your body to enter into REM sleep within just minuets of falling asleep instead of over a large time period. So this way you still have the vital REM sleep you need in order to survive.

The reason REM is important to you, is during this process your brain repairs itself from the strenuous task of sending commands (your boss probably complains about that too and how he needs a vacation) and repairing the body during the day. So pretty much REM is the brains alone time. If the brain doesn't receive this alone time over a prolonged period (known as "sleep deprivation) it just blacks out. It forces you to completely shut off, until it can heal itself. If this doesn't happen for some reason....you cease to exist. You start pushing up daises.

So as far as I understand, during the period of adjustment you force yourself into sleep deprivation in order to get your brain to understand that it only has 20-30 minuets every 4 hours to heal itself. It usually takes the brain about 7 days to completely adjust/accept the new schedule.

A key thing is to not miss any of your scheduled naps during this adjustment period. People who have switched to this new sleep cycle report having higher alertness, more energy, more colorful dreams (as well as lucid dreams). And most of all more free time.

I read up on another bloggers site that the people who tried this and failed were ones that sometimes skipped naps or overslept, and so their bodies never adjusted to it. It also said that a side effect of poly-phasic sleep is you need to eat more, since you spend 21-22 hours of the day working/moving around.

One of the biggest cons of this sleep cycle is that it's not flexible. The blogger wrote about how you can delay naps by no more than an hour, but if you miss a nap it can cause a rapid crash that'll take a long time to recover from. Which means you have about 3.5 hours of time when you're actually awake, or 4.5 hours if you push it. But then again, the gain is you end up with more hours throughout the day. Is it worth the sacrifice?

Now on to me, since I started on 09.27.09 I overslept only once which that happened from 6:00am-10:50am. Apparently during that time (which I have no recollection of) I placed a phone call to someone, and then just hung up and got back to bed. So if over the next few days you receive a strange phone call from me, blame it on the adaptation process.

My schedule is as follows:

02:00am-02:20am: NAP 1

06:00am-06:20am: NAP 2

10:00am-10:20am: NAP 3

02:00pm-02:20pm: NAP 4

06:00pm-06:20pm: NAP 5

10:00pm-10:20pm: NAP 6

So as you can see it doesn't matter if it's in the am (anti-meridian) or pm (post-meridian) it's still the same hour.

Now to remember my experience, my first nap at 2pm on sunday was a very good one. I went into a lucid dream right away. Now the naps after that I either got barely any sleep or none at all. Then at 6:00am on the morning of the 28th I overslept (for six hours!). Now I'm more than determined to not do that again.

During the day today I skipped my 2pm nap, but took my 6pm, 10pm, and 2am ones. They weren't very rewarding. It appears my internal clock (that's been put in motion for a very long time) doesn't agree with my new time changes yet.

Right now it's 4:50am. My next nap is at 6:00am. So about an hour away. I hope I can get some shut-eye then. Otherwise to document how I'm doing. Well, I was able to operate a pick-up truck today without any problems (so far so good). Did quite a bit of physical work with almost half a ton of scrap metal (dropped it off at the junk yard). I feel quite fatigued and restless. Right before I get into bed I feel like I can fall asleep, as soon as I put one foot on the mattress I feel wide-awake.

One thing I did notice is that my appetite went down, I had some fried food today. BIG MISTAKE! Couldn't fall asleep because of it. I read that when you begin the transition you should eat light food more frequently, versus heavy food that takes longer to digest. So I'm thinking of going on a blended drink diet for about 5 days. I'll blend fruits/vegetables into drinks in hopes of better transitioning/boosting my metabolism and energy level.

I'll write about what I'm doing to stay awake (and a lot of the stuff I already got done) in the next entry as that will be pretty long.

What do you guys think of this whole experiment? Would anyone be interested in trying this out themselves? Let me know if so, that way I'll have a phone buddy to help me stay awake during those lonely hours of the night.

The Beginning...

I'm excited to announce the beginning of my Blogging journey. My goals for this journey are such:

• To blog my life's progress in the areas that I am personally developing myself in.
• Through the means of blogging, hear other people's opinions concerning certain matters.
• To be able to hopefully encourage readers of this blog to always aim towards the future.

Over the next few weeks I will try to customize the blog with user friendly features as well as familiarize myself with the features of this blog so I may use them to communicate with you much more freely.

I look forward to talking/sharing the future with you.

- David A. Kurkov