2012/02/21
2012/02/18
Is it my birthday?
This post is posted at 12:06 and 40 seconds, on February 18th 2012. This is my 1,000,000,000 seconds' birthday!
Is it more meaningful than having a birthday every year (except of course that the number is easier to remember)? Having a yearly birthday is tied to the Earth's orbit around the sun - what good is that?
On the other hand, having a birthsecond (?) at different milestones of counter increment is closely tied to the arbitrary definition of a second, relative to the Caesium-133 atom. Add to that the fact that the said milestones would be defined according to decimal base-10, which has been itself arbitrarily chosen a long time ago from how many fingers we have.
If we colonize other planets, it would become complicated during intergalactic conversations to talk about Earth-years. If we encounter aliens, they may well not have 10 fingers on their hands, if hands they even possess. So far, the inherent characteristic of Caesium-133 should be pretty much constant in different parts of the universe, so the second would be a safe bet to start with. Of course, the definition of a second was decided in 1967, much later than it was approximated for 60 of them to make up a minute, 3,600 to make an hour, and
86,400 to make a day, which itself is tied to the rotation of the Earth around its axis. But let's suppose for argument's sake that the scientists on Earth have enough intergalactic power to impose this ridiculous definition of a second as the universal standard.
From here, the only possible milestone would be in decimal base-2 (binary). This has the benefit of not being tied to biology nor astronomy - it's only a set of digits, true or false, on or off, open or close, up or down... This would mean we would have a long celebration in the beginning, but would become increasingly separated. These examples give an idea, with their rough equivalent in Earth-time:
Age 0 - 1 second - 00:00:01
Age 1 - 2 seconds - 00:00:02
Age 2 - 4 seconds - 00:00:04
Age 3 - 8 seconds - 00:00:08
Age 4 - 16 seconds - 00:00:16
Age 5 - 32 seconds - 00:00:32
Age 6 - 64 seconds - 00:01:04
Age 7 - 128 seconds - 00:02:08
Age 8 - 256 seconds - 00:04:16
Age 9 - 512 seconds - 00:08:32
Age 10 - 1,024 seconds - 00:17:04
Age 11 - 2,048 seconds - 00:34:08
Age 12 - 4,096 seconds - 01:08:16
Age 13 - 8,192 seconds - 02:16:32
Age 14 - 16,384 seconds - 04:33:04
Age 15 - 32,768 seconds - 09:06:08
Age 16 - 65,536 seconds - 18:12:16
Age 17 - 131,072 seconds - 1 day, 12:24:32
Age 18 - 262,144 seconds - 3 days, 00:49:04
Age 19 - 524,288 seconds - 6 days, 01:38:08
Age 20 - 1,048,576 seconds - 12 days, 03:16:16
Age 21 - 2,097,152 seconds - 24 days, 06:32:32
Age 22 - 4,194,304 seconds - 48 days, 13:05:04
Age 23 - 8,388,608 seconds - 97 days, 02:10:08
Age 24 - 16,777,216 seconds - 194 days, 04:20:16
Age 25 - 33,554,432 seconds - 1 year, 23 days, 08:40:32
Age 26 - 67,108,864 seconds - 2 years, 46 days, 17:21:04
Age 27 - 134,217,728 seconds - 4 years, 93 days, 10:42:08
Age 28 - 268,435,456 seconds - 8 years, 186 days, 21:24:16
Age 29 - 536,870,912 seconds - 17 years, 8 days, 18:48:32
Age 30 - 1,073,741,824 seconds - 34 years, 17days, 13:37:04
Age 31 - 2,147,483,648 seconds - 68 years, 35 days, 03:14:08
Age 32 - 4,294,967,296 seconds - 136 years, 70 days, 06:28:16
There is a number of benefits to this:
Is it more meaningful than having a birthday every year (except of course that the number is easier to remember)? Having a yearly birthday is tied to the Earth's orbit around the sun - what good is that?
On the other hand, having a birthsecond (?) at different milestones of counter increment is closely tied to the arbitrary definition of a second, relative to the Caesium-133 atom. Add to that the fact that the said milestones would be defined according to decimal base-10, which has been itself arbitrarily chosen a long time ago from how many fingers we have.
If we colonize other planets, it would become complicated during intergalactic conversations to talk about Earth-years. If we encounter aliens, they may well not have 10 fingers on their hands, if hands they even possess. So far, the inherent characteristic of Caesium-133 should be pretty much constant in different parts of the universe, so the second would be a safe bet to start with. Of course, the definition of a second was decided in 1967, much later than it was approximated for 60 of them to make up a minute, 3,600 to make an hour, and
86,400 to make a day, which itself is tied to the rotation of the Earth around its axis. But let's suppose for argument's sake that the scientists on Earth have enough intergalactic power to impose this ridiculous definition of a second as the universal standard.
From here, the only possible milestone would be in decimal base-2 (binary). This has the benefit of not being tied to biology nor astronomy - it's only a set of digits, true or false, on or off, open or close, up or down... This would mean we would have a long celebration in the beginning, but would become increasingly separated. These examples give an idea, with their rough equivalent in Earth-time:
Age 0 - 1 second - 00:00:01
Age 1 - 2 seconds - 00:00:02
Age 2 - 4 seconds - 00:00:04
Age 3 - 8 seconds - 00:00:08
Age 4 - 16 seconds - 00:00:16
Age 5 - 32 seconds - 00:00:32
Age 6 - 64 seconds - 00:01:04
Age 7 - 128 seconds - 00:02:08
Age 8 - 256 seconds - 00:04:16
Age 9 - 512 seconds - 00:08:32
Age 10 - 1,024 seconds - 00:17:04
Age 11 - 2,048 seconds - 00:34:08
Age 12 - 4,096 seconds - 01:08:16
Age 13 - 8,192 seconds - 02:16:32
Age 14 - 16,384 seconds - 04:33:04
Age 15 - 32,768 seconds - 09:06:08
Age 16 - 65,536 seconds - 18:12:16
Age 17 - 131,072 seconds - 1 day, 12:24:32
Age 18 - 262,144 seconds - 3 days, 00:49:04
Age 19 - 524,288 seconds - 6 days, 01:38:08
Age 20 - 1,048,576 seconds - 12 days, 03:16:16
Age 21 - 2,097,152 seconds - 24 days, 06:32:32
Age 22 - 4,194,304 seconds - 48 days, 13:05:04
Age 23 - 8,388,608 seconds - 97 days, 02:10:08
Age 24 - 16,777,216 seconds - 194 days, 04:20:16
Age 25 - 33,554,432 seconds - 1 year, 23 days, 08:40:32
Age 26 - 67,108,864 seconds - 2 years, 46 days, 17:21:04
Age 27 - 134,217,728 seconds - 4 years, 93 days, 10:42:08
Age 28 - 268,435,456 seconds - 8 years, 186 days, 21:24:16
Age 29 - 536,870,912 seconds - 17 years, 8 days, 18:48:32
Age 30 - 1,073,741,824 seconds - 34 years, 17days, 13:37:04
Age 31 - 2,147,483,648 seconds - 68 years, 35 days, 03:14:08
Age 32 - 4,294,967,296 seconds - 136 years, 70 days, 06:28:16
There is a number of benefits to this:
- Reaching 100 years old is not a challenge anymore - reaching age 32, now, would be something.
- Less birthdays to celebrate means less money wasted on gifts.
- When someone is born, people celebrate for a few days anyway.
- Could be used on other planets too.
- Less parties in a lifetime could mean that when they do happen, it's really something to celebrate.
- My age 30 is only in 73 million seconds.
- Infant before age 25, baby at age 25, toddler at age 26, child at age 27, teen at age 28, adult at age 29, wise adult at age 30, senior at age 31, and genetically-modified android at age 32 and up. This is an awesome scale, you have to admit!
- Dating someone would be easier, in the case when both are the same age, but are clearly born far apart in time. Age is merely a number, but knowing someone's age would give you a good idea of that person's maturity.
- You would have a pretty good idea of what age someone exactly is.
- Some people have difficulties counting up to a hundred - limiting the age to 32 may help a mentally disabled person feel smarter.
- You wouldn't live to whine about how being in your forties is boring, being in your fifties is making you look old, being in your sixties is great when you retire, being in your seventies is boring, being in your eighties makes you a lot of friends at the hospital, being in your nineties is making you wait for death, and being in your hundreds is awesome only if you are conscious enough to brag about it. Now there would only be age 30 and 31 to whine about. If you would live to age 32, you could brag about it all day - people will make human sacrifices for you daily.
- If you're alone, you have less birthdays to remind you of how alone you are.
There are, however, a problem to this:
- Forget it, there is nothing wrong with this age system - it's so awesome I'm eager to reach age 30 in a couple years!
- No seriously, it's a perfect system. I'm going to run for president next year.
2012/02/17
Polyphasic Sleep - Addiction
Even one week of polyphasic sleeping was too much.
It's been nearly a week since I stopped this, but I still remember the taste of the forbidden fruit. I remember it keenly, and can't stop thinking about it - I'm intoxicated by what it felt like during the nights. For someone like me, it's an addiction that is haunting me, however brief the contact.
On a side note, I have to admit that my sleep has been changed during the last week. In particular, I can remember most of my dreams when I wake up, while I used to never remember them.
This week, I continued reading articles and study reports on the internet. I have come to realize that the object of study is sleep deprivation, and not light- and deep-sleep deprivation. They say that deep-sleep is essential to the human body, but it has never been studied in isolation, by itself - I can't find any that doesn't turn out to be generic sleep-deprivation. What if the body only needs REM sleep?
I also learned (today, actually), that the amount of deep sleep decreases with age. I don't know if older people don't sleep as well as younger people, or if their lives are more at risk, but they seem fine to me. That gives me a small idea that maybe, just maybe, deep sleep is overrated.
What about sleep debt? What if it really is an REM-sleep debt? Would it make sense? Sleeping a shorter night can cut a whole sleep cycle from your night, and along with it, its REM section. Since an average sleep cycle lasts 1.5 hours (mine is closer to one hour), and an average night lasts 7 to 9 hours, that gives you an average of 5 or 6 cycles during the night. And what do you know? The uberman polyphasic sleep schedule gives you 6 naps every day, and every nap gives you a whole REM section (which itself lasts 15 to 20 minutes).
If what the body really needs is REM sleep (and only REM sleep), you get as much of it as a normal person in a whole night. And if this turns out to be the case, my strongest point against polyphasism (Con - Lack of Deep Sleep, and Sleep Debt (7/10), in my last post), is rendered invalid. This section was the tipping point in my list, and helped me make my decision to stop this schedule.
So what should I do? This is a rhetorical question to myself, but if you have any insight that would help me...
It's been nearly a week since I stopped this, but I still remember the taste of the forbidden fruit. I remember it keenly, and can't stop thinking about it - I'm intoxicated by what it felt like during the nights. For someone like me, it's an addiction that is haunting me, however brief the contact.
On a side note, I have to admit that my sleep has been changed during the last week. In particular, I can remember most of my dreams when I wake up, while I used to never remember them.
This week, I continued reading articles and study reports on the internet. I have come to realize that the object of study is sleep deprivation, and not light- and deep-sleep deprivation. They say that deep-sleep is essential to the human body, but it has never been studied in isolation, by itself - I can't find any that doesn't turn out to be generic sleep-deprivation. What if the body only needs REM sleep?
I also learned (today, actually), that the amount of deep sleep decreases with age. I don't know if older people don't sleep as well as younger people, or if their lives are more at risk, but they seem fine to me. That gives me a small idea that maybe, just maybe, deep sleep is overrated.
What about sleep debt? What if it really is an REM-sleep debt? Would it make sense? Sleeping a shorter night can cut a whole sleep cycle from your night, and along with it, its REM section. Since an average sleep cycle lasts 1.5 hours (mine is closer to one hour), and an average night lasts 7 to 9 hours, that gives you an average of 5 or 6 cycles during the night. And what do you know? The uberman polyphasic sleep schedule gives you 6 naps every day, and every nap gives you a whole REM section (which itself lasts 15 to 20 minutes).
If what the body really needs is REM sleep (and only REM sleep), you get as much of it as a normal person in a whole night. And if this turns out to be the case, my strongest point against polyphasism (Con - Lack of Deep Sleep, and Sleep Debt (7/10), in my last post), is rendered invalid. This section was the tipping point in my list, and helped me make my decision to stop this schedule.
So what should I do? This is a rhetorical question to myself, but if you have any insight that would help me...
2012/02/14
Simplicity in the Kitchen - Fruit Sauce
I think it's time I start blogging about a different subject that's been on my heart for a while.
I see people in the restaurant adding salt to their meal like it's the end of the world, and people adding cupfuls of milk and as much sugar as can be dissolved to their coffee. I see people pushing aside some food they blatantly don't like, even though if they would really try it, they would find it tastes like a mouthful of awesome-rainbow. I know people who deep-fry too much, or add cream just because it tastes good. They disregard their health for what? Two minutes or so of taste?
Too many people are not open to change, to new ideas. What I'm trying to talk about here is to eat food as close to the source as possible.
I'm actually not going to talk about nutrition, but will once in a while post a recipe that can replace something you buy and take for granted. These recipes will be very simple, only using basic ingredients.
For example, I'm not buying jam anymore. Did you look at the ingredients? That's crazy! Please check the following recipe:
That's it. It takes a total of 10 minutes to prepare, you have some delicious jam-sauce that will last you about two weeks if you're alone, you know what's inside, and you can be proud that you made something.
Check out his other one:
Do you notice a trend? You take random fruits, blend some of it, and heat. What you get is a sauce that is delicious on toasts in the morning.
You can make pretty much any fruit sauce that way. I recently made a strawberry-kiwi sauce, and a strawberry-grape sauce. Just try different variations - fruit combinations that you may frown upon may turn out to be very good.
One note about water. You may need to add some, because some fruits have a lower water content. For example, strawberries, raspberries, and cranberries have a lot less water in them than apples, oranges, melons, and pineapples. Just add 1/2 cup to 1 cup, as you feel it.
People will probably hate these sauces, because they are too used to the foods on the shelves. Too much sugar, too much salt, too much fat, too unhealthy. You're losing your sense of taste. Get used to lighter and healthier foods, no preserving agents, and eat as close as possible to the source.
I see people in the restaurant adding salt to their meal like it's the end of the world, and people adding cupfuls of milk and as much sugar as can be dissolved to their coffee. I see people pushing aside some food they blatantly don't like, even though if they would really try it, they would find it tastes like a mouthful of awesome-rainbow. I know people who deep-fry too much, or add cream just because it tastes good. They disregard their health for what? Two minutes or so of taste?
Too many people are not open to change, to new ideas. What I'm trying to talk about here is to eat food as close to the source as possible.
I'm actually not going to talk about nutrition, but will once in a while post a recipe that can replace something you buy and take for granted. These recipes will be very simple, only using basic ingredients.
For example, I'm not buying jam anymore. Did you look at the ingredients? That's crazy! Please check the following recipe:
- 2 cups blueberries
- 1 cup pineapple
- Blend 2/3 of the fruits, and cut the rest in small pieces.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, add everything, stirring once in a while.
- Remove after about 20 minutes, and let thicken.
That's it. It takes a total of 10 minutes to prepare, you have some delicious jam-sauce that will last you about two weeks if you're alone, you know what's inside, and you can be proud that you made something.
Check out his other one:
- 12-oz pack of fresh cranberries
- 1 orange
- 1 cup water
- Blend 2/3 of the fruits, and cut the remaining orange part in small pieces.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, add everything, stirring once in a while.
- When most of the cranberries are popped, remove from heat and let thicken.
Do you notice a trend? You take random fruits, blend some of it, and heat. What you get is a sauce that is delicious on toasts in the morning.
Yes, it can be more expensive than buying a bottle of jam. Just remember that health doesn't have a price. You know exactly what you put in, and when you get back home later on, there is a pleasant fruit fragrance in the air. In a bottle of jam you purchase at the store, you really don't want to know how the fruits looked like.
You can of course tweak the recipe to your liking. You can add a bit of sugar (but please try not to get used to it too much), if you feel the taste is too bland, or that the cranberries are too acid. I personally enjoy it very much on a toast, and since it's more liquid than a jam, it moisten the bread a bit.
You can make pretty much any fruit sauce that way. I recently made a strawberry-kiwi sauce, and a strawberry-grape sauce. Just try different variations - fruit combinations that you may frown upon may turn out to be very good.
One note about water. You may need to add some, because some fruits have a lower water content. For example, strawberries, raspberries, and cranberries have a lot less water in them than apples, oranges, melons, and pineapples. Just add 1/2 cup to 1 cup, as you feel it.
People will probably hate these sauces, because they are too used to the foods on the shelves. Too much sugar, too much salt, too much fat, too unhealthy. You're losing your sense of taste. Get used to lighter and healthier foods, no preserving agents, and eat as close as possible to the source.
2012/02/10
Polyphasic Sleep - Introspection
Yesterday evening, I wrote a post that was pretty much pep talk in order to convince myself to continue on the uberman polyphasic sleep schedule. I have tried to be honest with what I felt.
Yesterday evening, I had a conversation with my sister on facebook, and went to bed for my 22:00 nap. My plans for the night were to increase my work on this blog, continue a program for my web site, and go for a nightly run at around 00:30-01:00. I woke up at 05:00.
This isn't me. I think I can count on my ten fingers how many times in the past I have really overslept like that. Even though I woke up great as usual, I was disappointed. The experiment had started so perfectly, and had gone downhill - should I say free-fallen? - near the end of my first week. I was not mad, just very disappointed that I had been so careless in the first place to let that happen.
I now need to rethink my motives, rethink what this sleep schedule means to me. Why am I doing this?
This is one of these occasions when you need to build a list of pros and cons, even though you have already made your mind. Because that's what these lists are for - you already know, perhaps subconsciously, what your decision will be. Making such a list is only a medium to objectively see your thoughts on paper.
Here it goes, the pros and cons of the uberman polyphasic sleep schedule, as I see (and experienced) it. Also included are how important the point is to me, on a scale from one to ten.
Pro - Increase in Free Time (10/10)
This point is off the chart. As I said in the past, I can't even begin to express myself on how five more hours of free time a day felt to me. On monday morning, after my first week end, I felt like it was a whole week that had gone by. I felt like I had been on vacation. With five hours a day, the amount of things you can actually do is incredible, and this was exactly what was missing for someone like me - time for my projects. Now that I have lived it, I feel like I can't allow myself to go back. Without polyphasism, I will have to put my projects in a list, ordered by importance, and most will never be born.
For example, practicing on the piano has no real benefit in the long-term for me, compared to, say, reading a theoretical physics book. My reasons are that I probably never will play in front of others - my piano sessions will be for my ears only, and even though just playing the piano is fun and relaxing, learning things by reading increases my awareness of what is around me, and makes me a more knowledgeable person.
You can add the fact that I was starting to be interested in evening courses. I was starting to look for swing sessions, woodworking classes, and Toastmasters meetings. Having time during the night to do my personal projects left my evenings free to do different things.
Actually, ranting about my projects is worthy of a post by itself, so let me carry on with the list.
Pro - Increase in Attention (3/10)
Being different itself has pros and cons. For someone like me who is virtually invisible, having a conversation about polyphasism, even when more critical than constructive, is welcome.
Also, it makes me look like a geek, or at least like someone who is able to tweak his own life.
Con - Being Sleepy (4/10)
I'll be honest - my initial phase is not even over, but I have substantial reasons to believe that the worse I would have is that drowsy feeling behind the eyes.
There is also the matter of actually succeeding in getting up with the alarm. Whether what happened last night was an isolated incident or not, I don't know. What I know is that it very rarely happens to me because I'm a very light sleeper, and if I have to start struggling, using two different alarms, and a backup, and finding ways to make sure I get up, well I won't be enjoying the experience as much.
The fact that I overslept like this last night leads me to believe that my body was actively fighting something, not just passively fighting it.
Con - Lack of Deep Sleep, and Sleep Debt (7/10)
If the studies I read are true, I should give this point 10/10, since it's about my health. If it's true that Steve Pavlina did the uberman for 5.5 months without any side effect, should we understand that he is a special case, or is deep sleep overrated? Because that's what it boils down to - polyphasism gives the body REM sleep, but removes the other sleep phases. Do we believe blindly in such studies that say that deep sleep is as important to the body and mind as REM sleep?
What about sleep debt? They say that if you get less than eight hours of sleep per night, the missing hours will have to be slept sooner or later. People like me, who slept 6.5 to 7 hours for years, have a sleep debt of thousands of hours, which will never be repaid. Honestly, a sleep debt is easily believable in the short-term, but when you look at the long-term consequences, am I to believe that I am doomed to a higher risk of heart problems and other such western disease that is normally (and rightly) attributed solely to nutrition?
I felt fine with 6.5 to 7 hours of sleep everyday, and will not try going out of my way (read: hibernating) in order to pay the concept of a debt that may or may not turn out to be true.
I believe more in the implications concerning a lack of deep sleep. It sounds more right. Using a product like the Zeo Sleep Manager, I'll have a better view of what's happening to me when I sleep.
Con - Temporary Project Status (2/10)
I knew from the start that this was not something I would keep doing for a long time. Sure, if everything went incredibly well, I would consider sleeping like that for a long time, but I was not expecting it. It was merely an intellectual curiosity, but the knowledge that all this wonderful free time would disappear sometime soon was disconcerting.
Since I know I'll stop in a few weeks, why not stop right now? What's the difference, except having 30 more hours of time every week, when you calculate in the long term?
Con - Napping Outside (4/10)
I wasn't forced to take a nap outside my home yet, except at work. I could sleep in the server room, and had to put a jacket on because of the cold. I was slowly getting used to sleep there.
Sooner or later, though, I would have to take a nap somewhere else. For example, at my sister's place, in my car, or on a park bench. This can be irritating when you know you can't get back home before you really need your nap. Also, not being able to sleep anywhere can be tricky - if you have to take the car, it's a bad thing to drive while feeling sleepy. Just trust me on that one.
Anyway, there's a lot of planning necessary when you stray away from the day-to-day routine, and this would become burdensome quickly.
Con? - Strict Diet (1/10)
I don't know if it's a con or a pro, but being on an extreme sleep schedule like that, you need to really watch what you eat. It's like when you practice for a marathon. Any excess or indulgence can lead to lower results, or in this case, tougher nights.
I generally have a very good diet, but there were a lot of times when I would have liked a cup of coffee, a glass of Bailey's, a bottle of beer, or a few cookies. I am convinced that being vegan has greatly helped me with polyphasism. If anything, this whole experience helped me level-up concerning my ability to refuse unhealthy food.
Being on a polyphasism is a great incentive to eat as healthy as you can, because if you don't it's not just your weight that will rise - you will lack sleep and disturb several of the following naps, which will cause you to oversleep.
Con - Marathon and Gym Training (2/10)
I am subscribed to a local gym near where I live. During the week, it's open from 06:00 to 22:00. This left me in a tight spot, because I love going to the gym in the morning. Opening at 06:00, this would push my last nap to around 08:00, which would push my work schedule. This was possible, of course, but I started going to the gym during the evenings, which was also difficult to fit in with a dinner and two evening naps. The best would be to find a 24/7 gym.
Actually seeing this list makes me realize that my decision is not that surprising. but there is an additional point that is worth mentioning.
Con of Cancelling my Sleep Schedule and Looking like a Quitter (8/10)
I have to make something clear: I am not a quitter. Some times, because of work, I may have to cancel things and look like a quitter, but that's merely responsibility towards my boss. Being a quitter is more like starting a project with someone and leaving in the middle, or becoming vegan and switching back after only two weeks just because you tired of it. If I was a quitter, I wouldn't have gone through four years of army training.
But sometimes, a personal project is compromised by new information. That's when I have to think hard about why I'm doing it, what my goals are, and what I expect from this. Are the gains better than what I'm willing to pay for?
Right now, I'm looking at the list above, and see the the gains are mostly egocentrical. If you add the potential of health problems, even if there is no conclusive research that the body absolutely needs deep sleep in order to function perfectly, it might be a show-stopper for me.
By now, my decision is pretty much clear. I will stop this, for my future health, just in case. I will go back to a less complicated life, with less time on my hands. I go back to the stability and comfort of a day-to-day routine.
But I fear some people will see this forfeit, and think I'm just a quitter. Seriously, who likes a quitter? Who trusts a quitter? If I can't even go through this for myself, how can I go through something hard (like a marriage) for someone else?
It's not just a matter of going through - it's more like finding the strength to keep on. I had that strength, until everything went tumbling down, and I was about to go back up, proud, stronger, before I paused and really looked at what I was doing.
It is with heartfelt regret that I must put a stop to this. This has been an awesome experience that I wish I would have continued, but I know when I am beaten. My primary goal is, and should be, my health, both right now and when I'll be 80 years old. What I regret most is that I'll be part of the majority who failed this extreme schedule within two weeks. I started good, went downhill, and decided to stay there. It never was that I "couldn't handle it", but nonetheless, the outcome is that I failed.
One other thing. As I talked to people about this, I noticed I had a certain reluctance to express this decision. I was almost ashamed to admit defeat. I had the exact same feeling when I had to tell people that I was switching to being vegan. Why should I be ashamed of my own decisions? It's not as if they were not based on solid studies.
It's like religion. People usually don't like to change, and when someone talks to them about another way, they feel threatened.
Biphasism?
Will I really be interested in sleeping biphasically?
I could take a nap at noon, and sleep six hours at night. Let's be realistic, it's not for me. Even if I try really hard, I never was able to sleep during the day after I had a good night's sleep. I would have to slightly sleep-deprive myself, and right there, I would miss the point.
I could also tweak my sleep schedule and aim for REM and deep sleep. I could have a 1.5 hours sleep at the beginning of the night, and later have a longer 4.5 hours sleep. But, all that trouble to have an extra hour of free time? What about a nap at noon, and a night of 1.5h and 3.5h. That gives almost 5 hours of sleep. Is it really worth it, or is it just a toned-down version of what I've been doing for the pas week, that will become too much trouble for too little gain?
For now, I'll switch back to being monophasic, and aim for better sleep quality.
Yesterday evening, I had a conversation with my sister on facebook, and went to bed for my 22:00 nap. My plans for the night were to increase my work on this blog, continue a program for my web site, and go for a nightly run at around 00:30-01:00. I woke up at 05:00.
This isn't me. I think I can count on my ten fingers how many times in the past I have really overslept like that. Even though I woke up great as usual, I was disappointed. The experiment had started so perfectly, and had gone downhill - should I say free-fallen? - near the end of my first week. I was not mad, just very disappointed that I had been so careless in the first place to let that happen.
I now need to rethink my motives, rethink what this sleep schedule means to me. Why am I doing this?
This is one of these occasions when you need to build a list of pros and cons, even though you have already made your mind. Because that's what these lists are for - you already know, perhaps subconsciously, what your decision will be. Making such a list is only a medium to objectively see your thoughts on paper.
Here it goes, the pros and cons of the uberman polyphasic sleep schedule, as I see (and experienced) it. Also included are how important the point is to me, on a scale from one to ten.
Pro - Increase in Free Time (10/10)
This point is off the chart. As I said in the past, I can't even begin to express myself on how five more hours of free time a day felt to me. On monday morning, after my first week end, I felt like it was a whole week that had gone by. I felt like I had been on vacation. With five hours a day, the amount of things you can actually do is incredible, and this was exactly what was missing for someone like me - time for my projects. Now that I have lived it, I feel like I can't allow myself to go back. Without polyphasism, I will have to put my projects in a list, ordered by importance, and most will never be born.
For example, practicing on the piano has no real benefit in the long-term for me, compared to, say, reading a theoretical physics book. My reasons are that I probably never will play in front of others - my piano sessions will be for my ears only, and even though just playing the piano is fun and relaxing, learning things by reading increases my awareness of what is around me, and makes me a more knowledgeable person.
You can add the fact that I was starting to be interested in evening courses. I was starting to look for swing sessions, woodworking classes, and Toastmasters meetings. Having time during the night to do my personal projects left my evenings free to do different things.
Actually, ranting about my projects is worthy of a post by itself, so let me carry on with the list.
Pro - Increase in Attention (3/10)
Being different itself has pros and cons. For someone like me who is virtually invisible, having a conversation about polyphasism, even when more critical than constructive, is welcome.
Also, it makes me look like a geek, or at least like someone who is able to tweak his own life.
Con - Being Sleepy (4/10)
I'll be honest - my initial phase is not even over, but I have substantial reasons to believe that the worse I would have is that drowsy feeling behind the eyes.
There is also the matter of actually succeeding in getting up with the alarm. Whether what happened last night was an isolated incident or not, I don't know. What I know is that it very rarely happens to me because I'm a very light sleeper, and if I have to start struggling, using two different alarms, and a backup, and finding ways to make sure I get up, well I won't be enjoying the experience as much.
The fact that I overslept like this last night leads me to believe that my body was actively fighting something, not just passively fighting it.
Con - Lack of Deep Sleep, and Sleep Debt (7/10)
If the studies I read are true, I should give this point 10/10, since it's about my health. If it's true that Steve Pavlina did the uberman for 5.5 months without any side effect, should we understand that he is a special case, or is deep sleep overrated? Because that's what it boils down to - polyphasism gives the body REM sleep, but removes the other sleep phases. Do we believe blindly in such studies that say that deep sleep is as important to the body and mind as REM sleep?
What about sleep debt? They say that if you get less than eight hours of sleep per night, the missing hours will have to be slept sooner or later. People like me, who slept 6.5 to 7 hours for years, have a sleep debt of thousands of hours, which will never be repaid. Honestly, a sleep debt is easily believable in the short-term, but when you look at the long-term consequences, am I to believe that I am doomed to a higher risk of heart problems and other such western disease that is normally (and rightly) attributed solely to nutrition?
I felt fine with 6.5 to 7 hours of sleep everyday, and will not try going out of my way (read: hibernating) in order to pay the concept of a debt that may or may not turn out to be true.
I believe more in the implications concerning a lack of deep sleep. It sounds more right. Using a product like the Zeo Sleep Manager, I'll have a better view of what's happening to me when I sleep.
Con - Temporary Project Status (2/10)
I knew from the start that this was not something I would keep doing for a long time. Sure, if everything went incredibly well, I would consider sleeping like that for a long time, but I was not expecting it. It was merely an intellectual curiosity, but the knowledge that all this wonderful free time would disappear sometime soon was disconcerting.
Since I know I'll stop in a few weeks, why not stop right now? What's the difference, except having 30 more hours of time every week, when you calculate in the long term?
Con - Napping Outside (4/10)
I wasn't forced to take a nap outside my home yet, except at work. I could sleep in the server room, and had to put a jacket on because of the cold. I was slowly getting used to sleep there.
Sooner or later, though, I would have to take a nap somewhere else. For example, at my sister's place, in my car, or on a park bench. This can be irritating when you know you can't get back home before you really need your nap. Also, not being able to sleep anywhere can be tricky - if you have to take the car, it's a bad thing to drive while feeling sleepy. Just trust me on that one.
Anyway, there's a lot of planning necessary when you stray away from the day-to-day routine, and this would become burdensome quickly.
Con? - Strict Diet (1/10)
I don't know if it's a con or a pro, but being on an extreme sleep schedule like that, you need to really watch what you eat. It's like when you practice for a marathon. Any excess or indulgence can lead to lower results, or in this case, tougher nights.
I generally have a very good diet, but there were a lot of times when I would have liked a cup of coffee, a glass of Bailey's, a bottle of beer, or a few cookies. I am convinced that being vegan has greatly helped me with polyphasism. If anything, this whole experience helped me level-up concerning my ability to refuse unhealthy food.
Being on a polyphasism is a great incentive to eat as healthy as you can, because if you don't it's not just your weight that will rise - you will lack sleep and disturb several of the following naps, which will cause you to oversleep.
Con - Marathon and Gym Training (2/10)
I am subscribed to a local gym near where I live. During the week, it's open from 06:00 to 22:00. This left me in a tight spot, because I love going to the gym in the morning. Opening at 06:00, this would push my last nap to around 08:00, which would push my work schedule. This was possible, of course, but I started going to the gym during the evenings, which was also difficult to fit in with a dinner and two evening naps. The best would be to find a 24/7 gym.
Actually seeing this list makes me realize that my decision is not that surprising. but there is an additional point that is worth mentioning.
Con of Cancelling my Sleep Schedule and Looking like a Quitter (8/10)
I have to make something clear: I am not a quitter. Some times, because of work, I may have to cancel things and look like a quitter, but that's merely responsibility towards my boss. Being a quitter is more like starting a project with someone and leaving in the middle, or becoming vegan and switching back after only two weeks just because you tired of it. If I was a quitter, I wouldn't have gone through four years of army training.
But sometimes, a personal project is compromised by new information. That's when I have to think hard about why I'm doing it, what my goals are, and what I expect from this. Are the gains better than what I'm willing to pay for?
Right now, I'm looking at the list above, and see the the gains are mostly egocentrical. If you add the potential of health problems, even if there is no conclusive research that the body absolutely needs deep sleep in order to function perfectly, it might be a show-stopper for me.
By now, my decision is pretty much clear. I will stop this, for my future health, just in case. I will go back to a less complicated life, with less time on my hands. I go back to the stability and comfort of a day-to-day routine.
But I fear some people will see this forfeit, and think I'm just a quitter. Seriously, who likes a quitter? Who trusts a quitter? If I can't even go through this for myself, how can I go through something hard (like a marriage) for someone else?
It's not just a matter of going through - it's more like finding the strength to keep on. I had that strength, until everything went tumbling down, and I was about to go back up, proud, stronger, before I paused and really looked at what I was doing.
It is with heartfelt regret that I must put a stop to this. This has been an awesome experience that I wish I would have continued, but I know when I am beaten. My primary goal is, and should be, my health, both right now and when I'll be 80 years old. What I regret most is that I'll be part of the majority who failed this extreme schedule within two weeks. I started good, went downhill, and decided to stay there. It never was that I "couldn't handle it", but nonetheless, the outcome is that I failed.
One other thing. As I talked to people about this, I noticed I had a certain reluctance to express this decision. I was almost ashamed to admit defeat. I had the exact same feeling when I had to tell people that I was switching to being vegan. Why should I be ashamed of my own decisions? It's not as if they were not based on solid studies.
It's like religion. People usually don't like to change, and when someone talks to them about another way, they feel threatened.
Biphasism?
Will I really be interested in sleeping biphasically?
I could take a nap at noon, and sleep six hours at night. Let's be realistic, it's not for me. Even if I try really hard, I never was able to sleep during the day after I had a good night's sleep. I would have to slightly sleep-deprive myself, and right there, I would miss the point.
I could also tweak my sleep schedule and aim for REM and deep sleep. I could have a 1.5 hours sleep at the beginning of the night, and later have a longer 4.5 hours sleep. But, all that trouble to have an extra hour of free time? What about a nap at noon, and a night of 1.5h and 3.5h. That gives almost 5 hours of sleep. Is it really worth it, or is it just a toned-down version of what I've been doing for the pas week, that will become too much trouble for too little gain?
For now, I'll switch back to being monophasic, and aim for better sleep quality.
Eyesight and Wavelengths
I thought about something recently. Every living thing around us can be traced back, through the tree of life (evolution), to a common ancestor. You, a stray cat, a jellyfish, a flea, some random bacteria, and a strawberry, all have a common ancestor from a long time ago.
Without going into too much details, creatures that can see their surroundings can do that by receiving photons of light on the retina. The brain analyzes the photon's wavelength (it's energy) and associates a color to it. This is how we can see. Creatures can see in or around the 400-700 nanometer wavelengths. During the course of evolution, there has been an incentive for early creatures to be able to see these wavelengths, most likely to discern plants and trees.
What could me mind-bogging is that evolution on other planets may very well not have given the same range of wavelengths to the creatures there. There is nothing that I can think of that could prevent an intelligent being from outer space to see in our near-infrared range (for example, at 1200-1900 nanometers).
You would show him something on the laptop, but the LCD screen would be black for him. If the ink in a book does not absorb the specific photons, the text would not appear. If the pages do absorb them, the whole page would be dark.
This would create some very interesting problems to solve.
Without going into too much details, creatures that can see their surroundings can do that by receiving photons of light on the retina. The brain analyzes the photon's wavelength (it's energy) and associates a color to it. This is how we can see. Creatures can see in or around the 400-700 nanometer wavelengths. During the course of evolution, there has been an incentive for early creatures to be able to see these wavelengths, most likely to discern plants and trees.
What could me mind-bogging is that evolution on other planets may very well not have given the same range of wavelengths to the creatures there. There is nothing that I can think of that could prevent an intelligent being from outer space to see in our near-infrared range (for example, at 1200-1900 nanometers).
You would show him something on the laptop, but the LCD screen would be black for him. If the ink in a book does not absorb the specific photons, the text would not appear. If the pages do absorb them, the whole page would be dark.
This would create some very interesting problems to solve.
2012/02/09
Polyphasic Sleep - Questionings
It's been a week since I have decided to tackle the polyphasic experience. Since then, a lot have happened, physically and mentally. It's been a tremendously gratifying experience so far, but I'm starting to question my motives.
Sure, as I began this journey, I saw that I had a lot of time on my hands. I've spent too much of it watching a few movies and many episodes of The Big Bang Theory, too much browsing Reddit, and not enough reading, programming, and practicing. Granted, I knew my first week was a test phase. I was scared about the total sleep deprivation I was going to suffer, scared that I would lose two days being a zombie, and scared about not knowing what lay on the road ahead.
Reading some people's blogs about their experiences was very helpful (notably Steve Pavlina's). But absolutely none of this could have prepared myself for what I truly felt. Logically, the first week was supposed to be as they described it - a gruesome battle against drowsiness until the body was forced to get it's needed REM sleep during the short naps.
My first week was different to several orders of magnitude. I didn't have that adaptation phase, and that scared me the most. I was feeling terribly great even with an hour of sleep in two days, even with nine hours in five days. True, I had that nagging sleepy feeling behind the eyes, but it was never too much to handle - just like a normal day when it's three hours past your normal bed time. From there, I knew I could not rely on other people's accounts. Either I was doing something wrong, or there was something inherently wrong with me.
Remembering Steve Pavlina's stories, I knew that, if everything turned out like his own experience, my sleeping schedules would be very flexible during the day, as long as I had the six 20-minutes naps. I knew that it would be harder during the night, most likely because of the darkness outside, and lack of noise around. This was exactly how I felt, and I began to tweak my schedules to the extremes. Only for convenience's sake, I was napping right before work, at noon, and right after work.
Right there, my schedule was stretched by a lot - I had waking times of five hours, for someone who was just starting the experience. I initially had my other three naps evenly spaced during the remainder of the "day", but began to tinker and move them around.
Three days ago (day five of the experiment), I missed my first nap. I was still feeling good, and was not otherwise disturbed by it, so I did not add an extra nap during the night. Things started to be a bit different the next day (day six). I overslept for the first time - fell asleep in front of the computer. I was programming, trying to debug some algorithms about planetary orbits in a geocentric equatorial coordinate system, which left me just staring blankly at the screen, motionless. I slept for three hours, and woke up at around 07:00, near when I would have normally woken up from my last nap (06:30-07:00). To be honest, I felt even better than usual. The feeling behind the eyes was gone for most of the day.
That had made me miss almost entirely a waking cycle, and in retrospect, it was most likely caused by my missing a nap the previous day. I must say I'm getting a bit confused here, writing about day and night, when this is obviously not how it happens to me. I don't have a clear delimitation like when you go to sleep for 7-8 hours. For simplicity, my day starts at 07:00, right after I wake up from this nap. This is confusing when, for example, I do something during the day, and consider the following 06:00 as the very same day. Please bear with me.
Then yesterday, at work, I was nodding off during the afternoon. When I got back home, I couldn't fall asleep (on my 18:00 nap). That changed my already-dynamic night cycles, and I ended up waking up from a 01:30-02:00 nap and reasoning that it would be good to test a longer period of sleep, until 04:00, since the previous unintentional longer sleep had been so good physically.
This was disturbing my cycles even more. What started as pretty good stable nights was quickly turning out to be grueling duels against sleep deprivation. I was not handling this professionally - not at all. Today, I had some moments when I was nodding off, and I took a hot chocolate at around 15:30. Luckily, my 18:00 nap did not remember that fact, but I understand that I'm going down because of my carelessness.
I am now getting back on my feet, ready to fight, with a hard schedule in front of me. I will take the timings I first had during the night, modify them a bit with my current knowledge, and adhere to them, even if I don't fall asleep. My naps will be around 12:00, 18:00, 22:00, 00:30, 03:00, 07:00, more or less 15 minutes. I must stray from these timings as rarely as humanly possible.
I know I won't keep this up for long. The uberman polyphasic sleep schedule, reportedly, is not healthy, for obvious reasons, but these reasons pale in comparison to the advantages. For the last two days, I have been reading and researching a lot more about sleep. The biphasic sleep schedule encourages to take a nap in the middle of the day. Building up from that, there are various polyphasic schedules, the everyman versions, taking increasingly more naps for less and less of a core night. The most extreme version, the uberman, rids itself of the core night in totality.
The human body apparently needs REM sleep and deep sleep the most. The uberman, as you know it by now, forces the body to feed only on REM sleep. Depending on the person you ask, it can be debated that only giving the body REM sleep is enough. That being said, I find myself in the same situation as when I took the decision to become vegan in January - I am looking at the research data, and must choose a side depending on who I trust the most.
There are more researches studying the effects of the sleep phases, than there are studying how cool polyphasism is. I understand in my heart, grudgingly, that my body will need its deep sleep sooner or later. I will not put my future self's health in jeopardy, but I am not ready to relinquish my new-found power. I will continue with the uberman sleep schedule for the next couple of weeks, for the next month if I so choose, but then I shall turn to biphasism, or maybe triphasism (napping twice, with decreased amount of time during the core night sleep).
You can imagine how difficult a decision this is for me. I have been wanting more time for personal growth for years, and this is the first opportunity that presents itself. I totally love my nights. I love the feeling when I get up with only thirty minutes wasted, while everyone else is sound asleep. I love how, for the first time, I can dedicate myself to multiple things at the same time, without favoring one over all the others. I love when, at three in the morning, I turn my computer monitors on, and eat a huge quantity of vegetables and home-made hummus. I love seeing people's reasons for being pro or con concerning this idea, how they either try to talk me out of it, or try to get more information. I also love how educational this has been for me, and how I will come out of this a more experienced person. This is why I will back down from this schedule in the near future with mixed feelings. I will do this for my long-term health, but I want to be able to enjoy it a bit more before I put this extreme experience in the drawer and lock it forever.
On a less dramatic note, there is something called a sleep manager. The company named Zeo provides the buyer with a way to analyze the different sleep phases during your slumber. Contrarily to the iPhone app Sleep Cycle alarm clock, which registers your nightly movements with its accelerometer and guesses which phase you are in, the Zeo Sleep Manager is a headband with contacts that registers the brain waves. True, it's more expensive than a 1$ mobile app (the Zeo Mobile is 100$, and Zeo Bedside is 150$), but you get a lot of power and data when you analyze your sleeping habits.
I am deeply interested in purchasing this technological gadget in the hope that it will help me take the best decisions about my future sleeping schedules.
Sure, as I began this journey, I saw that I had a lot of time on my hands. I've spent too much of it watching a few movies and many episodes of The Big Bang Theory, too much browsing Reddit, and not enough reading, programming, and practicing. Granted, I knew my first week was a test phase. I was scared about the total sleep deprivation I was going to suffer, scared that I would lose two days being a zombie, and scared about not knowing what lay on the road ahead.
Reading some people's blogs about their experiences was very helpful (notably Steve Pavlina's). But absolutely none of this could have prepared myself for what I truly felt. Logically, the first week was supposed to be as they described it - a gruesome battle against drowsiness until the body was forced to get it's needed REM sleep during the short naps.
My first week was different to several orders of magnitude. I didn't have that adaptation phase, and that scared me the most. I was feeling terribly great even with an hour of sleep in two days, even with nine hours in five days. True, I had that nagging sleepy feeling behind the eyes, but it was never too much to handle - just like a normal day when it's three hours past your normal bed time. From there, I knew I could not rely on other people's accounts. Either I was doing something wrong, or there was something inherently wrong with me.
Remembering Steve Pavlina's stories, I knew that, if everything turned out like his own experience, my sleeping schedules would be very flexible during the day, as long as I had the six 20-minutes naps. I knew that it would be harder during the night, most likely because of the darkness outside, and lack of noise around. This was exactly how I felt, and I began to tweak my schedules to the extremes. Only for convenience's sake, I was napping right before work, at noon, and right after work.
Right there, my schedule was stretched by a lot - I had waking times of five hours, for someone who was just starting the experience. I initially had my other three naps evenly spaced during the remainder of the "day", but began to tinker and move them around.
Three days ago (day five of the experiment), I missed my first nap. I was still feeling good, and was not otherwise disturbed by it, so I did not add an extra nap during the night. Things started to be a bit different the next day (day six). I overslept for the first time - fell asleep in front of the computer. I was programming, trying to debug some algorithms about planetary orbits in a geocentric equatorial coordinate system, which left me just staring blankly at the screen, motionless. I slept for three hours, and woke up at around 07:00, near when I would have normally woken up from my last nap (06:30-07:00). To be honest, I felt even better than usual. The feeling behind the eyes was gone for most of the day.
That had made me miss almost entirely a waking cycle, and in retrospect, it was most likely caused by my missing a nap the previous day. I must say I'm getting a bit confused here, writing about day and night, when this is obviously not how it happens to me. I don't have a clear delimitation like when you go to sleep for 7-8 hours. For simplicity, my day starts at 07:00, right after I wake up from this nap. This is confusing when, for example, I do something during the day, and consider the following 06:00 as the very same day. Please bear with me.
Then yesterday, at work, I was nodding off during the afternoon. When I got back home, I couldn't fall asleep (on my 18:00 nap). That changed my already-dynamic night cycles, and I ended up waking up from a 01:30-02:00 nap and reasoning that it would be good to test a longer period of sleep, until 04:00, since the previous unintentional longer sleep had been so good physically.
This was disturbing my cycles even more. What started as pretty good stable nights was quickly turning out to be grueling duels against sleep deprivation. I was not handling this professionally - not at all. Today, I had some moments when I was nodding off, and I took a hot chocolate at around 15:30. Luckily, my 18:00 nap did not remember that fact, but I understand that I'm going down because of my carelessness.
I am now getting back on my feet, ready to fight, with a hard schedule in front of me. I will take the timings I first had during the night, modify them a bit with my current knowledge, and adhere to them, even if I don't fall asleep. My naps will be around 12:00, 18:00, 22:00, 00:30, 03:00, 07:00, more or less 15 minutes. I must stray from these timings as rarely as humanly possible.
I know I won't keep this up for long. The uberman polyphasic sleep schedule, reportedly, is not healthy, for obvious reasons, but these reasons pale in comparison to the advantages. For the last two days, I have been reading and researching a lot more about sleep. The biphasic sleep schedule encourages to take a nap in the middle of the day. Building up from that, there are various polyphasic schedules, the everyman versions, taking increasingly more naps for less and less of a core night. The most extreme version, the uberman, rids itself of the core night in totality.
The human body apparently needs REM sleep and deep sleep the most. The uberman, as you know it by now, forces the body to feed only on REM sleep. Depending on the person you ask, it can be debated that only giving the body REM sleep is enough. That being said, I find myself in the same situation as when I took the decision to become vegan in January - I am looking at the research data, and must choose a side depending on who I trust the most.
There are more researches studying the effects of the sleep phases, than there are studying how cool polyphasism is. I understand in my heart, grudgingly, that my body will need its deep sleep sooner or later. I will not put my future self's health in jeopardy, but I am not ready to relinquish my new-found power. I will continue with the uberman sleep schedule for the next couple of weeks, for the next month if I so choose, but then I shall turn to biphasism, or maybe triphasism (napping twice, with decreased amount of time during the core night sleep).
You can imagine how difficult a decision this is for me. I have been wanting more time for personal growth for years, and this is the first opportunity that presents itself. I totally love my nights. I love the feeling when I get up with only thirty minutes wasted, while everyone else is sound asleep. I love how, for the first time, I can dedicate myself to multiple things at the same time, without favoring one over all the others. I love when, at three in the morning, I turn my computer monitors on, and eat a huge quantity of vegetables and home-made hummus. I love seeing people's reasons for being pro or con concerning this idea, how they either try to talk me out of it, or try to get more information. I also love how educational this has been for me, and how I will come out of this a more experienced person. This is why I will back down from this schedule in the near future with mixed feelings. I will do this for my long-term health, but I want to be able to enjoy it a bit more before I put this extreme experience in the drawer and lock it forever.
On a less dramatic note, there is something called a sleep manager. The company named Zeo provides the buyer with a way to analyze the different sleep phases during your slumber. Contrarily to the iPhone app Sleep Cycle alarm clock, which registers your nightly movements with its accelerometer and guesses which phase you are in, the Zeo Sleep Manager is a headband with contacts that registers the brain waves. True, it's more expensive than a 1$ mobile app (the Zeo Mobile is 100$, and Zeo Bedside is 150$), but you get a lot of power and data when you analyze your sleeping habits.I am deeply interested in purchasing this technological gadget in the hope that it will help me take the best decisions about my future sleeping schedules.
2012/02/07
Polyphasic Sleep - Day 5
How much harm am I justified to suffer for all of this?
I thought I'd have more than a day before having an update to write.
Physically, it's been the same as the other days. I feel very fine most of the time, with that unimportant but annoying drowsy feeling behind the eyes. I may have been mistaking this feeling with my eyes just being dry. Since my laser eye surgery, my eyes have a tendency to become dry, especially when playing a game or watching a movie (you don't blink as often in these cases). I've been perfectly hydrated in the past year, but with an added five hours of waking, I think that's a very good opportunity for my eyes to remind me that they can dry up.
Today, I couldn't fall asleep at noon in the server room. The chair is uncomfortable, but I believe my body can get used to it in no time. What troubles me is that I didn't become tired until 16:30. My last nap was at 06:45-07:15, so that means I stayed up for around nine hours before feeling the need to sleep. Tonight, I've had a regular number of naps, three, giving me a total of five naps. With an average of around 15-20 minutes, I had 1h30-1h45 of sleep, yet I feel the same as the other days. There was no zombie state during the night. I've been having a regular 1.5-2 hours of sleep since the beginning.
Am I supposed to test this further? I'm starting to think the uberman polyphasic sleep schedule is unhealthy, at least in the long run, but what would happen if I learn that my body can handle four 15-minutes naps? I don't even want to go there.
I've been starting more regularly to wake up by myself 3 to 8 minutes before the 30 mins mark. It takes me around 10 minutes to fall asleep, so I sometimes get 12-15 minutes of sleep.
What does all that mean anyway? I've lived 32 years of my life, thinking - nay, believing - that the only way to sleep is in a 7-8 hours block during the night. Then I learn about polyphasic sleeping, am intrigued and try it, and next thing I know, I'm living on a 2-hours sleep schedule without important downside effects. It's the end of my fifth day, and I've had less than 9 hours of sleep. My adaptation period was virtually non-existent. I was on my own, since all the blogs of fellow ubermen were showing tremendously different results, at least during the first week.
I said that I didn't find any important downside effects. The best one I have so far is my inability to just stay in bed (the schedule requires that you don't oversleep). I have been feeling cold, though today seemed to go back towards normal. I know I'm pushing my body to some of its limits - so far, since day 3, I didn't dare to go to the gym or go for a run. I currently may be more vulnerable to catching a cold, for example, so it didn't seem worth it until I knew more about what I got myself into. (Plus, it's winter here in Quebec.) Also, I have to refrain from drinking alcohol, coffee or tea, as they can disturb the REM sleep, and I need to have as good a diet as I can have. Also (again), if I go somewhere, I may have to find a place to nap - that could be irritating.
That brought me to a conundrum. Suppose I learn, by personal experience, in the next days or weeks that this polyphasic sleeping schedule is harming me. How masochistic would I be justified to become, in exchange for five hours of waking time?
During these new hours of free time, I can finally think about myself, develop who I am. I can practice the piano, work on my web site or program, but more importantly, I can read and learn. Last weekend, my father sent me a link to a website (Actualis), which has many articles concerning finance. I read most of them tonight. I want to know about the four-hour workweek, I want to keep up with the latest news in theoretical physics, I want to watch some more BBC documentaries, I want to work on this blog, and I want to read all the books I have that I usually never have enough time to read. How much harm am I justified to suffer in order to do all of this?
At what point do I have to look in the mirror and tell myself it's not worth it anymore?
The following graph represents a typical weekday on my normal sleep schedule (top), and on my current polyphasic sleep schedule (bottom). This is but a quick approximation.
You can also show the previous graph in a table:
Cooking generally takes 1.5 to 2.5 hours from my free time. A quick calculation shows that the uberman polyphasic sleep schedule can leave me with 2.5x more raw free time (not used for cooking, or preparing to go to work). If all the extra things I do help define who I am, how much harm can I suffer, before telling myself it's not worth it? I could use some of my new free time to learn how to meditate, so I could meditate on this.
Another benefit is lucid dreaming. I didn't have one yet, but when and if I do, I'll be very happy to experience it. I also experienced a waking dream. I never heard of something like it, and it will probably sound weird (or fake), but I was laying in my bed, trying to fall asleep, and my mind just drifted for about 3-4 seconds. I saw in my head the "dream", almost as clear as if I was looking at it, even though I was seeing only black. It's very hard to describe, and I guess the only difference between that and an actual dream is that I didn't wake up, just focused. What's the difference anyway? Can a lucid dream be so "lucid" that you really are awake? Or was I at the zone between awake and asleep, about to immediately start to dream?
I thought I'd have more than a day before having an update to write.
Physically, it's been the same as the other days. I feel very fine most of the time, with that unimportant but annoying drowsy feeling behind the eyes. I may have been mistaking this feeling with my eyes just being dry. Since my laser eye surgery, my eyes have a tendency to become dry, especially when playing a game or watching a movie (you don't blink as often in these cases). I've been perfectly hydrated in the past year, but with an added five hours of waking, I think that's a very good opportunity for my eyes to remind me that they can dry up.
Today, I couldn't fall asleep at noon in the server room. The chair is uncomfortable, but I believe my body can get used to it in no time. What troubles me is that I didn't become tired until 16:30. My last nap was at 06:45-07:15, so that means I stayed up for around nine hours before feeling the need to sleep. Tonight, I've had a regular number of naps, three, giving me a total of five naps. With an average of around 15-20 minutes, I had 1h30-1h45 of sleep, yet I feel the same as the other days. There was no zombie state during the night. I've been having a regular 1.5-2 hours of sleep since the beginning.
Am I supposed to test this further? I'm starting to think the uberman polyphasic sleep schedule is unhealthy, at least in the long run, but what would happen if I learn that my body can handle four 15-minutes naps? I don't even want to go there.
I've been starting more regularly to wake up by myself 3 to 8 minutes before the 30 mins mark. It takes me around 10 minutes to fall asleep, so I sometimes get 12-15 minutes of sleep.
What does all that mean anyway? I've lived 32 years of my life, thinking - nay, believing - that the only way to sleep is in a 7-8 hours block during the night. Then I learn about polyphasic sleeping, am intrigued and try it, and next thing I know, I'm living on a 2-hours sleep schedule without important downside effects. It's the end of my fifth day, and I've had less than 9 hours of sleep. My adaptation period was virtually non-existent. I was on my own, since all the blogs of fellow ubermen were showing tremendously different results, at least during the first week.
I said that I didn't find any important downside effects. The best one I have so far is my inability to just stay in bed (the schedule requires that you don't oversleep). I have been feeling cold, though today seemed to go back towards normal. I know I'm pushing my body to some of its limits - so far, since day 3, I didn't dare to go to the gym or go for a run. I currently may be more vulnerable to catching a cold, for example, so it didn't seem worth it until I knew more about what I got myself into. (Plus, it's winter here in Quebec.) Also, I have to refrain from drinking alcohol, coffee or tea, as they can disturb the REM sleep, and I need to have as good a diet as I can have. Also (again), if I go somewhere, I may have to find a place to nap - that could be irritating.
That brought me to a conundrum. Suppose I learn, by personal experience, in the next days or weeks that this polyphasic sleeping schedule is harming me. How masochistic would I be justified to become, in exchange for five hours of waking time?
During these new hours of free time, I can finally think about myself, develop who I am. I can practice the piano, work on my web site or program, but more importantly, I can read and learn. Last weekend, my father sent me a link to a website (Actualis), which has many articles concerning finance. I read most of them tonight. I want to know about the four-hour workweek, I want to keep up with the latest news in theoretical physics, I want to watch some more BBC documentaries, I want to work on this blog, and I want to read all the books I have that I usually never have enough time to read. How much harm am I justified to suffer in order to do all of this?
At what point do I have to look in the mirror and tell myself it's not worth it anymore?
The following graph represents a typical weekday on my normal sleep schedule (top), and on my current polyphasic sleep schedule (bottom). This is but a quick approximation.
You can also show the previous graph in a table:
| Normal | Polyphasic | |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeping | 7.5h, 31.3% | 3h, 12.5% |
| Working | 9.5h, 39.6% | 9.5h, 39.6% |
| Gym/Run | 1.5h, 6.3% | 1.5h, 6.3% |
| Free time | 5.5h, 22.9% | 10h, 41.7% |
Cooking generally takes 1.5 to 2.5 hours from my free time. A quick calculation shows that the uberman polyphasic sleep schedule can leave me with 2.5x more raw free time (not used for cooking, or preparing to go to work). If all the extra things I do help define who I am, how much harm can I suffer, before telling myself it's not worth it? I could use some of my new free time to learn how to meditate, so I could meditate on this.
Another benefit is lucid dreaming. I didn't have one yet, but when and if I do, I'll be very happy to experience it. I also experienced a waking dream. I never heard of something like it, and it will probably sound weird (or fake), but I was laying in my bed, trying to fall asleep, and my mind just drifted for about 3-4 seconds. I saw in my head the "dream", almost as clear as if I was looking at it, even though I was seeing only black. It's very hard to describe, and I guess the only difference between that and an actual dream is that I didn't wake up, just focused. What's the difference anyway? Can a lucid dream be so "lucid" that you really are awake? Or was I at the zone between awake and asleep, about to immediately start to dream?
Color Perception
A few years ago, I was (and still am) interested in psychology.
Different creatures perceive different ranges of light wavelengths. For example, bees can see some infrared. I was wondering how you would perceive such a new color. Would the red-violet spectrum you see be widened, so that your green be a bit bluer? Would there be a new color that you would be unable to describe to other people? What would you see - how could you see? Would it drive you insane?
Then I started to think about color-blind people. Imagine someone who has trouble distinguishing between shades of green, yellow, and red (deuteranopia). How would she react if she would suddenly be cured, and see these shades for the first time?
Another thing that I was wondering was whether my red is the same as yours. How can I know the colors you see in your head are the same as mine? Can there be a way to test this?
Different creatures perceive different ranges of light wavelengths. For example, bees can see some infrared. I was wondering how you would perceive such a new color. Would the red-violet spectrum you see be widened, so that your green be a bit bluer? Would there be a new color that you would be unable to describe to other people? What would you see - how could you see? Would it drive you insane?
Then I started to think about color-blind people. Imagine someone who has trouble distinguishing between shades of green, yellow, and red (deuteranopia). How would she react if she would suddenly be cured, and see these shades for the first time?
Another thing that I was wondering was whether my red is the same as yours. How can I know the colors you see in your head are the same as mine? Can there be a way to test this?
2012/02/06
Polyphasic Sleep - Day 4
My last nap yesterday was at around 05:15. My plan was to sleep an additional nap during the night, but I ended up skipping the 07:00 nap altogether, since I didn't feel tired.
Today was supposed to be the worst day initiation phase (or so they said), and I spent it as I spend a normal day. I don't know what I'm supposed to think... Did I just skip the whole "getting used to it" section?
I watched another movie during breakfast - or whatever you call my meal that I eat when I would eat a breakfast normally. I'm still not sure about what I should do with my meals. Right now, My lunch and dinner are "normal", I have two toasts at around 03:00, and a bowl of cereals with fruits at around 07:00. When I'll be totally comfortable with polyphasic sleeping, I'll check what meals feel more natural to me.
I went to the Wal-Mart this morning, by foot. By now, I go by foot more for the exercise and ease of mind, and not because I'm scared to fall asleep behind the wheel. One of the things I bought was several packages of plastic containers. I decided to wash them all when I got back, but I underestimated how long it would take (took about 1.25 hours to wash the dishes). I was feeling the weariness creep in at around 11:30, but I continued until everything was cleaned, and went to bed at around 12:30. So far, I didn't perceive any drawback from stretching my waking time like that.
Recently, my 30-minutes naps felt very short. It usually takes me 10 or so minutes to fall asleep (I think - it's very hard to gauge), so when the alarm starts, it feels like I've been sleeping for just a few seconds. My 12:30 nap felt a lot longer - it's possible it's because I fell asleep quickly, but I don't remember.
I'm starting to remember my dreams more often when I wake up, but they fade very quickly. I'm eager to experience these lucid dreams - dreams where you are in control. I've only had one of those several years ago, and I didn't take the opportunity to explore the deepest confines of the dream world. Maybe it was a half-lucid dream?
So far, there were two naps when I woke up by myself. During one recent nap (last night), I woke up with 7.5 minutes still on the timer. I got the "I can go back to sleep" feeling and was feeling very good about it, even if it was for so short a time.
The remainder of the day (and night) went as usual. To be honest, this is getting redundant, so I'll post updates when there is something to talk about, or some insight I have come across.
Today was supposed to be the worst day initiation phase (or so they said), and I spent it as I spend a normal day. I don't know what I'm supposed to think... Did I just skip the whole "getting used to it" section?
I watched another movie during breakfast - or whatever you call my meal that I eat when I would eat a breakfast normally. I'm still not sure about what I should do with my meals. Right now, My lunch and dinner are "normal", I have two toasts at around 03:00, and a bowl of cereals with fruits at around 07:00. When I'll be totally comfortable with polyphasic sleeping, I'll check what meals feel more natural to me.
I went to the Wal-Mart this morning, by foot. By now, I go by foot more for the exercise and ease of mind, and not because I'm scared to fall asleep behind the wheel. One of the things I bought was several packages of plastic containers. I decided to wash them all when I got back, but I underestimated how long it would take (took about 1.25 hours to wash the dishes). I was feeling the weariness creep in at around 11:30, but I continued until everything was cleaned, and went to bed at around 12:30. So far, I didn't perceive any drawback from stretching my waking time like that.
Recently, my 30-minutes naps felt very short. It usually takes me 10 or so minutes to fall asleep (I think - it's very hard to gauge), so when the alarm starts, it feels like I've been sleeping for just a few seconds. My 12:30 nap felt a lot longer - it's possible it's because I fell asleep quickly, but I don't remember.
I'm starting to remember my dreams more often when I wake up, but they fade very quickly. I'm eager to experience these lucid dreams - dreams where you are in control. I've only had one of those several years ago, and I didn't take the opportunity to explore the deepest confines of the dream world. Maybe it was a half-lucid dream?
So far, there were two naps when I woke up by myself. During one recent nap (last night), I woke up with 7.5 minutes still on the timer. I got the "I can go back to sleep" feeling and was feeling very good about it, even if it was for so short a time.
The remainder of the day (and night) went as usual. To be honest, this is getting redundant, so I'll post updates when there is something to talk about, or some insight I have come across.
2012/02/05
Polyphasic Sleep - Day 3
It was a pretty uneventful day. By now, I was expecting to start acting like a zombie, but I've been feeling great and alert all day.
I started slow, watching some episodes on the computer, then I went to a place where they sell fruits and vegetables, by foot, and brought two big bags back home. I left for the grocery store, still by foot, bringing again two big bags. The morning has seen a lot of walking, and I was finally back home at 12:30. It was a bit later than I had hoped, but I wasn't feeling tired.
This is starting to make me nervous. By all logic, I should be extremely tired. I have had a total of about three hours of sleep since thursday morning (this is saturday). I still take too much time to fall asleep - I could guess at an average of 15 to 20 minutes. I hope this will shorten to 2-5 minutes soon.
The afternoon was uneventful. I still was not tired, and went about my business, finding things to do to pass the time. I still don't want to take the car. I may feel fine, but if I suddenly feel awful while away, I don't want to risk falling asleep behind the wheel.
I watched a scary movie right before my 22:00 nap. It was Paranormal Activity 2, and while I enjoyed it, in retrospect, it was possibly a wrong choice of movie - it took me about 20 minutes to fall asleep.
I still woke up fine, as always. I almost constantly feel that feeling behind the eyes, like when you're past your normal bed time by 3-4 hours. This hasn't been bothering me or preventing me from doing anything, but the feeling is there, and is just nagging.
It could be anything, but I think my body is storing energy. I'll need at least a few days of data, but so far, I gained one kilogram yesterday, and another one today. This is terribly irritating, because I feel hungry all the time, and I have to stop myself from emptying the fridge. I'm awake 4-5 hours more in a day, so my calorie intake should be between 3500-4000 kcal. The additional food I eat, compared to what I eat in a normal day, is not that much. If it's not the additional meal and snacks (all very healthy food, by the way), I have no idea what else it could be caused by.
Right now, it's 23:47. I wish I would be more tired - that would give me a sign that I need a nap right now, but I feel fine. If it's the same as yesterday, I may become a temporary zombie from 02:00 to 04:00.
I started programming during the night. Since this was a very good way to keep my brain excited, I figure it will help me not to fall asleep at the desk. Of course, I'll have to find something else if I'm starting to nod.
One thing I really miss: when it's the weekend and you can stay in bed if you want. That's a pleasant feeling that you don't really appreciate until you can't have it anymore. It's very similar to the feeling you have when you wake up four hours before your alarm.
Finally, I was a bit more tired at around 03:00, but nothing important.
I started slow, watching some episodes on the computer, then I went to a place where they sell fruits and vegetables, by foot, and brought two big bags back home. I left for the grocery store, still by foot, bringing again two big bags. The morning has seen a lot of walking, and I was finally back home at 12:30. It was a bit later than I had hoped, but I wasn't feeling tired.
This is starting to make me nervous. By all logic, I should be extremely tired. I have had a total of about three hours of sleep since thursday morning (this is saturday). I still take too much time to fall asleep - I could guess at an average of 15 to 20 minutes. I hope this will shorten to 2-5 minutes soon.
The afternoon was uneventful. I still was not tired, and went about my business, finding things to do to pass the time. I still don't want to take the car. I may feel fine, but if I suddenly feel awful while away, I don't want to risk falling asleep behind the wheel.
I watched a scary movie right before my 22:00 nap. It was Paranormal Activity 2, and while I enjoyed it, in retrospect, it was possibly a wrong choice of movie - it took me about 20 minutes to fall asleep.
I still woke up fine, as always. I almost constantly feel that feeling behind the eyes, like when you're past your normal bed time by 3-4 hours. This hasn't been bothering me or preventing me from doing anything, but the feeling is there, and is just nagging.
It could be anything, but I think my body is storing energy. I'll need at least a few days of data, but so far, I gained one kilogram yesterday, and another one today. This is terribly irritating, because I feel hungry all the time, and I have to stop myself from emptying the fridge. I'm awake 4-5 hours more in a day, so my calorie intake should be between 3500-4000 kcal. The additional food I eat, compared to what I eat in a normal day, is not that much. If it's not the additional meal and snacks (all very healthy food, by the way), I have no idea what else it could be caused by.
Right now, it's 23:47. I wish I would be more tired - that would give me a sign that I need a nap right now, but I feel fine. If it's the same as yesterday, I may become a temporary zombie from 02:00 to 04:00.
I started programming during the night. Since this was a very good way to keep my brain excited, I figure it will help me not to fall asleep at the desk. Of course, I'll have to find something else if I'm starting to nod.
One thing I really miss: when it's the weekend and you can stay in bed if you want. That's a pleasant feeling that you don't really appreciate until you can't have it anymore. It's very similar to the feeling you have when you wake up four hours before your alarm.
Finally, I was a bit more tired at around 03:00, but nothing important.
2012/02/04
Polyphasic Sleep - Day 2
I got up from my 06:45-07:15 nap still feeling refreshed, even though I still couldn't sleep all the way through. A bit tired, true, but in a much better shape than I had expected. There's only one day done so far, though, so the worst is sure to be ahead..
Today was surprising and interesting. I went to work by foot (35-40-minutes walk). I wasn't feeling tired, but I had no idea how I would feel later on. I thought I would gradually become a zombie by the end of the day, but quite the opposite happened. I was alert most of the time (I almost nodded once or twice, but not more), and feeling great, though there still was this nagging feeling of being a bit tired - you know, when you should have been in bed two or three hours ago. This is not what I was expecting.
The nap at midday happened as usual - I could only sleep for the last 5 to 10 minutes. The server room is not the most comfortable place. Everything was going well for the afternoon, and by 17:00, I was still feeling great. I walked back home and went to sleep, though, again, I only slept for 5 to 10 minutes.
As I was preparing my dinner, I kept thinking that this couldn't be normal. Still, I know how I'm feeling - normal. I decided to go to the gym. The way I was seeing it was that I needed to sleep more during the naps, so if I exhaust my body, this should be easier, shouldn't it? On the other hand, this was possibly playing with fire, but I really was feeling great. So, with only about an hour of sleep during the previous 44 hours, I went to the gym.
This was the first time I went during the evening - I always go in the morning, before work. It went very well. I sweated a bit more than usual, though I can't be too quick to say it's because of my current condition. I started feeling a bit more tired at around half of my work-out, so I was eager to see how my next nap was going to go.
My training ended at 21:10, and I got home (by foot) at 21:30, took a shower, and waited for 22:00. I still wasn't really tired, and for a moment after I went to bed, I thought the exercise would keep me wide awake again. I can't know for sure, but I think I managed a 10-minutes sleep, 15 if I was lucky.
I woke up a bit groggy, but it lasted about 5 minutes. I spent the next two hours on reddit, and chatting with the previous boss at the lab I work at.
---- Updated at 01:15 --------
I had another nap at 00:30, followed by a breakfast. Still no sign of any zombie-like condition. Part of me is hoping that I'll get through the adaptation phase just like that, but reason gets in the way of such conclusion.
Also, I'm starting to think that the nights are too long. This is what I wanted all along, so why am I not enjoying it as much as I should?
When I was playing the piano, starting at around 01:30 I began to feel increasingly tired. Not the sleep-deprived debilitating feeling, but rather a "just let me sleep for an hour" kind. Of course, this would defeat the purpose of going through this adaptation phase. I thought about going back to bed at 02:00, only one hour after my last nap, but decided to wait for my self-appointed 03:00. I figure that if, right now, I start going to sleep when my body needs it, I'm just going to slowly get back to a one-night sleep. Until I'm used and comfortable with polyphasic sleeping, I need to stay close to the schedule.
At around 02:15, I started to be really tired, to the point where I couldn't just sit idly in front of the computer. I would expect to be this tired at the same time, but yesterday! I have no idea right now how it works. I got up and played some Rock Band 2, but even with the interaction with a guitar, I was missing some notes because of lack of sleep. I guess this is happening right now! I really hope that I'll fall asleep very quickly.
---- Updated at 03:50 --------
I'm surprised it started so quickly! I woke up after my 03:00-03:30 nap, almost feeling like shit. It took more time than I anticipated to actually fall asleep. I guess it's like babies that are so tired that they can't fall asleep. I slept most of the 30 minutes, and I woke up remembering my dream (which is a very good sign). After waking up, I stayed propped on an elbow on the bed for about 15 minutes. Now I need to stay active physically or mentally. If I just stay in front of the computer (browsing reddit for example), I risk falling asleep on the chair. This greatly limits what I can do during the night.
It took 15 minutes, a plum and some almonds to dissipate the tiredness. Right now, I'm okay, but it may come back anytime.
In his beginnings, Steve Pavlina added a seventh nap some time in the night, until he got more used to polyphasic sleeping. This actually seems like a good idea, or maybe I could ease myself into that state by having one longer nap (like an hour or two). I have to go against the latter, because it wouldn't help my body to fall asleep into an REM cycle right away - I think it would be even worse.
Then it got better. I watched the second episode of The Big Bang Theory, which I actually liked, contrary to what I remembered of the first episode. I then watched a BBC documentary about what one degree really is. I actually fell asleep during the end of the documentary, 30 or 40 minutes, and woke up at 07:00. I skipped the 07:00 nap, and will have to be more careful in the future.
Today was surprising and interesting. I went to work by foot (35-40-minutes walk). I wasn't feeling tired, but I had no idea how I would feel later on. I thought I would gradually become a zombie by the end of the day, but quite the opposite happened. I was alert most of the time (I almost nodded once or twice, but not more), and feeling great, though there still was this nagging feeling of being a bit tired - you know, when you should have been in bed two or three hours ago. This is not what I was expecting.
The nap at midday happened as usual - I could only sleep for the last 5 to 10 minutes. The server room is not the most comfortable place. Everything was going well for the afternoon, and by 17:00, I was still feeling great. I walked back home and went to sleep, though, again, I only slept for 5 to 10 minutes.
As I was preparing my dinner, I kept thinking that this couldn't be normal. Still, I know how I'm feeling - normal. I decided to go to the gym. The way I was seeing it was that I needed to sleep more during the naps, so if I exhaust my body, this should be easier, shouldn't it? On the other hand, this was possibly playing with fire, but I really was feeling great. So, with only about an hour of sleep during the previous 44 hours, I went to the gym.
This was the first time I went during the evening - I always go in the morning, before work. It went very well. I sweated a bit more than usual, though I can't be too quick to say it's because of my current condition. I started feeling a bit more tired at around half of my work-out, so I was eager to see how my next nap was going to go.
My training ended at 21:10, and I got home (by foot) at 21:30, took a shower, and waited for 22:00. I still wasn't really tired, and for a moment after I went to bed, I thought the exercise would keep me wide awake again. I can't know for sure, but I think I managed a 10-minutes sleep, 15 if I was lucky.
I woke up a bit groggy, but it lasted about 5 minutes. I spent the next two hours on reddit, and chatting with the previous boss at the lab I work at.
---- Updated at 01:15 --------
I had another nap at 00:30, followed by a breakfast. Still no sign of any zombie-like condition. Part of me is hoping that I'll get through the adaptation phase just like that, but reason gets in the way of such conclusion.
Also, I'm starting to think that the nights are too long. This is what I wanted all along, so why am I not enjoying it as much as I should?
When I was playing the piano, starting at around 01:30 I began to feel increasingly tired. Not the sleep-deprived debilitating feeling, but rather a "just let me sleep for an hour" kind. Of course, this would defeat the purpose of going through this adaptation phase. I thought about going back to bed at 02:00, only one hour after my last nap, but decided to wait for my self-appointed 03:00. I figure that if, right now, I start going to sleep when my body needs it, I'm just going to slowly get back to a one-night sleep. Until I'm used and comfortable with polyphasic sleeping, I need to stay close to the schedule.
At around 02:15, I started to be really tired, to the point where I couldn't just sit idly in front of the computer. I would expect to be this tired at the same time, but yesterday! I have no idea right now how it works. I got up and played some Rock Band 2, but even with the interaction with a guitar, I was missing some notes because of lack of sleep. I guess this is happening right now! I really hope that I'll fall asleep very quickly.
---- Updated at 03:50 --------
I'm surprised it started so quickly! I woke up after my 03:00-03:30 nap, almost feeling like shit. It took more time than I anticipated to actually fall asleep. I guess it's like babies that are so tired that they can't fall asleep. I slept most of the 30 minutes, and I woke up remembering my dream (which is a very good sign). After waking up, I stayed propped on an elbow on the bed for about 15 minutes. Now I need to stay active physically or mentally. If I just stay in front of the computer (browsing reddit for example), I risk falling asleep on the chair. This greatly limits what I can do during the night.
It took 15 minutes, a plum and some almonds to dissipate the tiredness. Right now, I'm okay, but it may come back anytime.
In his beginnings, Steve Pavlina added a seventh nap some time in the night, until he got more used to polyphasic sleeping. This actually seems like a good idea, or maybe I could ease myself into that state by having one longer nap (like an hour or two). I have to go against the latter, because it wouldn't help my body to fall asleep into an REM cycle right away - I think it would be even worse.
Then it got better. I watched the second episode of The Big Bang Theory, which I actually liked, contrary to what I remembered of the first episode. I then watched a BBC documentary about what one degree really is. I actually fell asleep during the end of the documentary, 30 or 40 minutes, and woke up at 07:00. I skipped the 07:00 nap, and will have to be more careful in the future.
2012/02/03
Floating in Space
Ever saw a movie where, for some reason, someone finds himself in space, without any equipment? More often than not, that person freezes almost instantaneously and dies. Turns out that, if you find yourself in outer space, reality will be a bit less eventful.
Your first problem would be the difference in air pressure between your lungs and the emptiness of space. Knowing that you won't be able to breathe, you might be tempted to first take a deep breath first, but that will only rip your lung out. You need to empty your lungs. Also, the pressure of your body fluids and tissues is apparently of no real concern, in the short term.
Second place in your list of problem is lack of air. An average person can hold his breath for about two minutes before starting to lose consciousness, so with empty lungs, let's assume around a minute. That would be your lifespan, within which you'll have to find another source of oxygen.
So when will you freeze? Actually, this is another really good example of the power of Hollywood. While the temperature of outer space is around three Kelvin, it is a near vaccuum - there is not much material to transfer heat! It is exactly the concept behind insulation and thermos - air or nothing (vaccuum) hinders a transfer of heat between the inside and the outside. If you are in the viscinity of a star, you are going to be sunburned to death first, or solar flared to death. Outer space is the perfect insulation, so it would take a very long time before you freeze (assuming, of course, that you can find some oxygen).
Other interresting points to mention:
Your first problem would be the difference in air pressure between your lungs and the emptiness of space. Knowing that you won't be able to breathe, you might be tempted to first take a deep breath first, but that will only rip your lung out. You need to empty your lungs. Also, the pressure of your body fluids and tissues is apparently of no real concern, in the short term.
Second place in your list of problem is lack of air. An average person can hold his breath for about two minutes before starting to lose consciousness, so with empty lungs, let's assume around a minute. That would be your lifespan, within which you'll have to find another source of oxygen.
So when will you freeze? Actually, this is another really good example of the power of Hollywood. While the temperature of outer space is around three Kelvin, it is a near vaccuum - there is not much material to transfer heat! It is exactly the concept behind insulation and thermos - air or nothing (vaccuum) hinders a transfer of heat between the inside and the outside. If you are in the viscinity of a star, you are going to be sunburned to death first, or solar flared to death. Outer space is the perfect insulation, so it would take a very long time before you freeze (assuming, of course, that you can find some oxygen).
Other interresting points to mention:
- There is no air pressure to propagate sound waves - you will hear nothing.
- There is no movement in the air to propagate smells - you will smell nothing.
- You will only feel heat. What you feel on your skin is pressure and temperature. You won't feel cold, and no pressure from an external source. If you're very far from any star, you won't even feel heat.
- Newton's first law of motion makes sure that you won't be able to change direction or speed, unless helped by an external force (eg. rocket booster).
2012/02/02
Polyphasic Sleep - Day 1
The first day was obviously pretty normal.
I found an almost-quiet place at work where I'll be able to take some naps. It's the server room, so it gets a bit cold, but so far, it doesn't matter that much. I tried sleeping there at 12:00, and of course couldn't fall asleep. I'll have to get used to sleeping on a desk chair.
I got back home at 17:20 and went to sleep again, and again couldn't. This was all expected, since I don't have a lot of sleep deprivation yet.
My last sleep was at 21:15. I think I actually slept the last 5 or 10 minutes. The experiment can finally start.
I read for about an hour before the 21:15 nap, because this is probably the last time in the next few days that I'll really be able to read. So far, to pass the time, I dusted off my Rock Band guitar. It's been a very long time (more than a year), and I'm rusty. I've also spent some time on reddit. This seems to keep me awake easily, but again, I'm aware that I'm not very sleep-deprived yet.
I noticed that I tend to eat a lot. I'll have to put a hold on that before it gets out of control.
I know I'll go through some difficult days. I know if I abort everything, people around me will say "I told you so", and look at me as though I tried to hurt myself. People on the internet that have tried polyphasic sleeping and told their story left sooner or later. Most before a week, some after two weeks, some others after a couple months. It requires a tremendous amount of dedication during the adaptation phase. I must not think about my motives in the next few days - my lack of sleep will try talking me out of this. My brain is okay right now, and my decision is taken - when I'll be sleep-deprived, I'll need to remember this decision, taken when I felt better. I just need to go through this.
It depends a lot about the person's lifestyle. People have a hard time to leave the bed, even when fully refreshed, and this plays against them right at the start. I rarely do that, and virtually never oversleep. Some people need an earthquake to wake them up, while I need but a tiny sound. I have a good diet, and I don't drink coffee nor tea. I will refrain from drinking alcohol until my body is completely used to this new concept.
I may cancel everything - heck, I will cancel it sooner or later myself. When I do, I hope people won't look at me like I'm a quitter. I'm doing that to better understand who and what I am. I also know that I'm going from a regular sleep schedule to the full uberman schedule. This plays against me, I know.
Another thing... I feel nowadays that I never have enough time to grow mentally. I get back from work, make dinner, do the dishes, and then there's only a couple of hours left. I want to read and finish my book about astrophysics and string theory, I want to practice piano, learn guitar, read other books, learn python and django, practice jQuery, build a web site, make a c# program, learn meditation, practice my Japanese, start drawing again... There's so many things I wish I could do, and so little time. If I succeed, I'll have about four additional hours in a day to better myself.
I have to see the big picture during the next few days. Think long-term.
---- 00:45 Update --------
I just got up from my 00:00-00:30 nap. Once again, I think I fell asleep for 5 or 10 minutes. I'm not even sure.
It feels weird - I'm not even sleepy. I thought I would fall asleep very quickly. Maybe it's the orange I ate at around 23:00, but more likely it's the excitement about all of this. There's always some excitement when you're eager to do something new.
I ate a mini-breakfast. I don't really know how I should divide my meals. Should I eat four large meals, or six smaller ones? One thing I know for sure: right now, I would eat everything. I limited myself to a toast, a clementine, and a small glass of soy milk.
I'm eager to see how it's going to look like for my 03:00 nap.
---- 02:54 Update --------
I'm going to bed soon. I spent the time practicing piano and writing another post in this blog.
I'm not tired at all, which is really weird. I mean, I feel a bit tired, but I'm not sleepy. This is either going extremely well, or I'm soon to receive one hell of a kick in the face.
---- 03:40 Update --------
I'm feeling a bit more tired now, but I didn't have any problem getting up. I ate two toasts and half a banana.
Last nap at 06:45.
I found an almost-quiet place at work where I'll be able to take some naps. It's the server room, so it gets a bit cold, but so far, it doesn't matter that much. I tried sleeping there at 12:00, and of course couldn't fall asleep. I'll have to get used to sleeping on a desk chair.
I got back home at 17:20 and went to sleep again, and again couldn't. This was all expected, since I don't have a lot of sleep deprivation yet.
My last sleep was at 21:15. I think I actually slept the last 5 or 10 minutes. The experiment can finally start.
I read for about an hour before the 21:15 nap, because this is probably the last time in the next few days that I'll really be able to read. So far, to pass the time, I dusted off my Rock Band guitar. It's been a very long time (more than a year), and I'm rusty. I've also spent some time on reddit. This seems to keep me awake easily, but again, I'm aware that I'm not very sleep-deprived yet.
I noticed that I tend to eat a lot. I'll have to put a hold on that before it gets out of control.
I know I'll go through some difficult days. I know if I abort everything, people around me will say "I told you so", and look at me as though I tried to hurt myself. People on the internet that have tried polyphasic sleeping and told their story left sooner or later. Most before a week, some after two weeks, some others after a couple months. It requires a tremendous amount of dedication during the adaptation phase. I must not think about my motives in the next few days - my lack of sleep will try talking me out of this. My brain is okay right now, and my decision is taken - when I'll be sleep-deprived, I'll need to remember this decision, taken when I felt better. I just need to go through this.
It depends a lot about the person's lifestyle. People have a hard time to leave the bed, even when fully refreshed, and this plays against them right at the start. I rarely do that, and virtually never oversleep. Some people need an earthquake to wake them up, while I need but a tiny sound. I have a good diet, and I don't drink coffee nor tea. I will refrain from drinking alcohol until my body is completely used to this new concept.
I may cancel everything - heck, I will cancel it sooner or later myself. When I do, I hope people won't look at me like I'm a quitter. I'm doing that to better understand who and what I am. I also know that I'm going from a regular sleep schedule to the full uberman schedule. This plays against me, I know.
Another thing... I feel nowadays that I never have enough time to grow mentally. I get back from work, make dinner, do the dishes, and then there's only a couple of hours left. I want to read and finish my book about astrophysics and string theory, I want to practice piano, learn guitar, read other books, learn python and django, practice jQuery, build a web site, make a c# program, learn meditation, practice my Japanese, start drawing again... There's so many things I wish I could do, and so little time. If I succeed, I'll have about four additional hours in a day to better myself.
I have to see the big picture during the next few days. Think long-term.
---- 00:45 Update --------
I just got up from my 00:00-00:30 nap. Once again, I think I fell asleep for 5 or 10 minutes. I'm not even sure.
It feels weird - I'm not even sleepy. I thought I would fall asleep very quickly. Maybe it's the orange I ate at around 23:00, but more likely it's the excitement about all of this. There's always some excitement when you're eager to do something new.
I ate a mini-breakfast. I don't really know how I should divide my meals. Should I eat four large meals, or six smaller ones? One thing I know for sure: right now, I would eat everything. I limited myself to a toast, a clementine, and a small glass of soy milk.
I'm eager to see how it's going to look like for my 03:00 nap.
---- 02:54 Update --------
I'm going to bed soon. I spent the time practicing piano and writing another post in this blog.
I'm not tired at all, which is really weird. I mean, I feel a bit tired, but I'm not sleepy. This is either going extremely well, or I'm soon to receive one hell of a kick in the face.
---- 03:40 Update --------
I'm feeling a bit more tired now, but I didn't have any problem getting up. I ate two toasts and half a banana.
Last nap at 06:45.
2012/02/01
Polyphasic Sleep
Do you know about polyphasic sleep?
Since a very long time ago, humans thought it more interesting to sleep at night, all at the same time. It may have slowly started around when we started eating meat, as digestion is harder with heavy food. Vegetarian animals often sleep more often during the day, but overall, have less total sleep.
Many people actually take a nap sometime during the day, either because they need it, or because they feel refreshed. I admit I used to think a bit badly about them, not understanding the reasons.
Until I did a bit of research, and found out that they got more REM sleep (rapid eye-movement) that way, and needed less sleep during the night. REM sleep is the sleep the body needs, and is when you dream.
I also learn that some people are hardcore, and take it all the way to only napping. They can nap six times around the clock, napping about 25-30 minutes each time. No night sleep needed. 2.5-3 hours of sleep a day.
I have read and "studied" Steve Pavlina's blog about polyphasic sleeping, and thought it interesting enough to think about trying it.
The time has finally come. Tonight is a last normal night until this is through. Starting tomorrow, I shall only get my sleep during a few napping times. I understand the first week will be hard, extreme. I may not even make it, and revert to a normal sleeping schedule instead. What I know is that I will give it a good shot, give it 100%.
Getting an additional 4.5 hours of waking time is worth all the troubles, like having to sleep at odd hours. I will have to get used to some things.
I will try to write a post about what I'm going through every day. Reportedly, day 3 and 4 are the hardest.
Since a very long time ago, humans thought it more interesting to sleep at night, all at the same time. It may have slowly started around when we started eating meat, as digestion is harder with heavy food. Vegetarian animals often sleep more often during the day, but overall, have less total sleep.
Many people actually take a nap sometime during the day, either because they need it, or because they feel refreshed. I admit I used to think a bit badly about them, not understanding the reasons.
Until I did a bit of research, and found out that they got more REM sleep (rapid eye-movement) that way, and needed less sleep during the night. REM sleep is the sleep the body needs, and is when you dream.
I also learn that some people are hardcore, and take it all the way to only napping. They can nap six times around the clock, napping about 25-30 minutes each time. No night sleep needed. 2.5-3 hours of sleep a day.
I have read and "studied" Steve Pavlina's blog about polyphasic sleeping, and thought it interesting enough to think about trying it.
The time has finally come. Tonight is a last normal night until this is through. Starting tomorrow, I shall only get my sleep during a few napping times. I understand the first week will be hard, extreme. I may not even make it, and revert to a normal sleeping schedule instead. What I know is that I will give it a good shot, give it 100%.
Getting an additional 4.5 hours of waking time is worth all the troubles, like having to sleep at odd hours. I will have to get used to some things.
I will try to write a post about what I'm going through every day. Reportedly, day 3 and 4 are the hardest.
2012/01/31
Facebook Notifications
Contrarily to most people, I don't have a lot of friends on facebook. The notification bar at the top of the web site is usually empty. Once in a while, there is a bit of red, indicating that something happened somewhere, that may or may not be related to myself.
But some rare times, there is a lot of red. There can be a red squared "1" on the message icon, and a red squared "2" or "3" on the notification icon. Maybe even the rarest of "1" on the friend icon. And it's when that happens that I know one thing.
Shit just got real.
But some rare times, there is a lot of red. There can be a red squared "1" on the message icon, and a red squared "2" or "3" on the notification icon. Maybe even the rarest of "1" on the friend icon. And it's when that happens that I know one thing.
Shit just got real.
2012/01/28
London - Departure
I didn't expect to write a post about my departure from London, but considering what happened, i'm pretty much obliged to.
I woke up at 08:00, had a normal morning, preparing all my stuff for my hotel check-out. I had planned to leave at 10:00, but it was 09:00, and everything was done, so I had two choices: either stay in my tiny room for another hour, or leave right now and spend an hour more at the airport. I checked-out, and asked for a taxi to the Heathrow Airport. It wasn't a very long wait, but the vehicle surprised me - it was a black Audi Q5, possibly 2011, with no taxi sign that I could see. The driver was pretty chatty, and it looked like his personal vehicle, which was weird, because all the taxis in the UK were actually designed as taxis - different seat layout in the back, intercom system, glass between the driver and the occupants (bulletproof?). At two times, as he was talking about his daughter and what she was doing while he was driving with her, he groped my arm. That was really displeasing, and more so because the ride started to seem very long.
In the pamphlet, it was written that the Caesar hotel was 12.5km from the airport, but as I figured out later, London has more than one airport. The international airport is actually 16 miles (26km) from the hotel. I had £30 in notes in my wallet, £10 in coins in my pocket, and the small plastic bag of coins in my luggage. Since there were no price counter inside the car, I hated the feeling of not knowing how much it would cost. The guy stopped, and I saw as he was writing the receipt £70. 120$ for a f-ing taxi! The hotel clerk could have told me something about that! I also had 40$ in Canadian money and he was about to accept them, but I needed them for when I got back to Quebec. We went to the back and counted how much I had in the little bag - about £32-33. Wow, that really was a luck! On the positive side, I wouldn't have a lot of "lost" money in Canada, but on the negative side, I didn't have all that coin collection to show people around. Particularly, I was out of £1 and £2.
I got in the airport and wandered for a few minutes. It was a bit past 10:00, and I was starting to be hungry already. With no money left other than a 20$, I changed it, which got me £9.75. I got myself a sandwich and started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. When it was time to board, the plane started to lag behind, so we took flight 20-30 minutes later than we were supposed. No problem, I thought, since I have over an hour at the Montreal Airport. I was a good flight, with normal good food. I read a lot, and watched the movie Footloose when they started serving the lunch. I also watched an episode of Just for Laughs (season 7, episode 1), which was the best of stand-up comedy. I didn't laugh out loud once, but at least, it was mildly entertaining. In the plane, we got into a turbulent zone, and went into free-fall for a second (I really liked it).
We got at the Montreal Airport, and were told by the captain that there was another plane at our gate, so it will be a few more minutes. By then, just before landing, we were told that many of us were switching planes because we were running late. Among them was the Quebec City connection, switched to the 20:30 or 21:30 flights. I didn't have my ticket within reach, so I couldn't confirm that I was switching. I had enough time on my watch anyway, so it didn't make any sense.
After ten or fifteen minutes, the captain told us that the plane in our gate actually had mechanical problems, and all the other gates are taken. Oh, really? I was starting to get angry inside. We had to wait for 45 minutes (total) before we could get out. They could have let us leave the plane by one of them ladders, but to be politically neutral, they probably weren't expecting this to take that long. It was 17:00 (local time, so 22:00 on my internal clock), so I had missed the Quebec flight no matter what. I would have missed it, because I had to go walk a long way, go through customs, walk a long way, go through security, walk a long way, and wait. Before security, there were a line for connecting people like me, and they gave me my new ticket - of course, I was on the 21:30 flight. They put me on a waiting list for the 18:00 flight, but there were already a lot of people on it. I also bought a vegetarian subway wrap, but I found out that I had to go through security again, so I quickly ate it in case they would take it away. Turned out that the guy in front of me also had a subway in his hands, and was let in.
I got to the gate at 17:45, and apparently nobody on the waiting list was called. My flight was at 21:30, so I went to the pay phones to call my boss, to tell him that I won't be there to the farewell party tonight for the lab boss. Put 50¢ and dialed, and then, because it was a long distance, the phone asked for 4.90$ more, for one minute. Wait, what? What else could go wrong today? My cell phone was at my sister's, and the iPhone3 I had in my pocket is not connected to anything. I really, really, don't want to pay 5$/min, and I remember the internet stations in the UK, where you pay £1 or £2 for a set amount of minutes. I don't remember seeing anything like that in Canada, but I can check around - I have a lot of time.
Just before I leave the gate, I decide, as I have done many times in Edinburgh and London, to check the wi-fi networks. The airport has an unsecured one, as can be reasonably expected, so I connect to it. The airport internal website loads. Just to be sure, I load www.google.com, and the page loads. Website caching. I open my bookmarks, click on Reddit, see the loading animation, and actually see the page load (albeit slowly). As I understand it, the Montreal Airport is the only one I used this year that has free wi-fi, and this is the first good news of the day. I connect to facebook, send a message to my boss, and since it's getting a bit late, also send a message to my sister asking her to call him for me.
I read again after buying an expensive muffin, then at around 18:45, they start calling names on the intercom, about 20 of them. I'm on the list for the 19:00 flight! Two good news in a row! We get outside (my first draft of cold Quebec air), leave the big carry-ons on a large metal tray that goes in the back of the plane, and board. The plane leaves several minutes too late, but whatever - maybe I'll be lucky enough that there will still be some people left at that farewell party!
Uneventful flight, in which I continued to read. We land and wait a couple minutes, suspicion rising once more. The captain says to us that the cargo door, where all the baggages are, is frozen (welcome back to Quebec). Normally, they are supposed to get the tray out so we can get our carry-on as we leave the plane, but after another 2-3 minutes, we're told to go to the airport - the carry-ons will arrive on the conveyor belt with the registered baggages. Getting worse again. I only had carry-ons, so that my going through the airport be as swift as possible. We all wait near the conveyor belt, waiting for the luggages to arrive, when someone from the airport come to us and say that the cargo door is still frozen but mechanics (or whoever else) are currently warming it.
Ten more minutes (twenty minutes since we landed) - the same guy comes back and tell us in a triumphantly proud manner that the cargo door is unfrozen and the baggages are coming. The conveyor belt starts, but after a minute or so, it stops. What now? False alarm - it starts again, and the baggages arrive some time later. Let's add another good news, because I need some at this point - my small carry-on was the fifth or so on the conveyor belt. I grab it and leave the Quebec Airport, following the increasingly long path to follow to get at the taxi section.
Just before I pass through the door, I notice a sign that says the taxis are fixed-price - there is a constant fee of 14.50$ for rides near the airport. I live about 3km from the airport exit, and I expected paying 8-10$ maximum. I asked the driver about the fixed price, he replied by a positive, I sighed and said "I'll walk then". I did that partly because I was still mad about the 120$ taxi ride in the morning.
I started walking through the small airport streets, feeling the direction I was going, hoping I was taking the right turns. It was very cold (-20°C), but I had expected to feel colder, considering my three weeks at 2-9°C. It took me about thirty minutes to walk, during which I was imagining what else could go wrong - like that I lost the keys to the apartment, that they wouldn't work, that my car wouldn't start, or that my luggage would break open. Nothing happened, except a deep relief when I finally entered the apartment and put the luggage down.
It was now 21:00, or 02:00 on my internal clock. I wasn't tired. I quickly changed some clothes (for the first time, wore a white shirt, black jacket, and blue jeans, which I think looked good), and left, still hoping some people were left. I got there at 21:20, and most were there, to my relief. They had just finished eating, and I even got a free desert.
The rest of the evening was pretty great. I took two pints of Rickard's dark, to commemorate my lack of drinking in London, and to get my mind off what happened today. It was a 'Ginger' restaurant on the ground floor of the Plaza Hotel in Quebec. The lab boss had taken a room for the night, and when there were only five of us left, we went to the room to talk. There were a lot of laughs too, and a hotel clerk knocked to our room to remind us that people were sleeping. We left one by one, and I was the last one to leave at 02:20, or 07:20 on my internal clock. Still not really tired.
Got home, made my bed, and went to sleep.
Trip over.
I woke up at 08:00, had a normal morning, preparing all my stuff for my hotel check-out. I had planned to leave at 10:00, but it was 09:00, and everything was done, so I had two choices: either stay in my tiny room for another hour, or leave right now and spend an hour more at the airport. I checked-out, and asked for a taxi to the Heathrow Airport. It wasn't a very long wait, but the vehicle surprised me - it was a black Audi Q5, possibly 2011, with no taxi sign that I could see. The driver was pretty chatty, and it looked like his personal vehicle, which was weird, because all the taxis in the UK were actually designed as taxis - different seat layout in the back, intercom system, glass between the driver and the occupants (bulletproof?). At two times, as he was talking about his daughter and what she was doing while he was driving with her, he groped my arm. That was really displeasing, and more so because the ride started to seem very long.
In the pamphlet, it was written that the Caesar hotel was 12.5km from the airport, but as I figured out later, London has more than one airport. The international airport is actually 16 miles (26km) from the hotel. I had £30 in notes in my wallet, £10 in coins in my pocket, and the small plastic bag of coins in my luggage. Since there were no price counter inside the car, I hated the feeling of not knowing how much it would cost. The guy stopped, and I saw as he was writing the receipt £70. 120$ for a f-ing taxi! The hotel clerk could have told me something about that! I also had 40$ in Canadian money and he was about to accept them, but I needed them for when I got back to Quebec. We went to the back and counted how much I had in the little bag - about £32-33. Wow, that really was a luck! On the positive side, I wouldn't have a lot of "lost" money in Canada, but on the negative side, I didn't have all that coin collection to show people around. Particularly, I was out of £1 and £2.
I got in the airport and wandered for a few minutes. It was a bit past 10:00, and I was starting to be hungry already. With no money left other than a 20$, I changed it, which got me £9.75. I got myself a sandwich and started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. When it was time to board, the plane started to lag behind, so we took flight 20-30 minutes later than we were supposed. No problem, I thought, since I have over an hour at the Montreal Airport. I was a good flight, with normal good food. I read a lot, and watched the movie Footloose when they started serving the lunch. I also watched an episode of Just for Laughs (season 7, episode 1), which was the best of stand-up comedy. I didn't laugh out loud once, but at least, it was mildly entertaining. In the plane, we got into a turbulent zone, and went into free-fall for a second (I really liked it).
We got at the Montreal Airport, and were told by the captain that there was another plane at our gate, so it will be a few more minutes. By then, just before landing, we were told that many of us were switching planes because we were running late. Among them was the Quebec City connection, switched to the 20:30 or 21:30 flights. I didn't have my ticket within reach, so I couldn't confirm that I was switching. I had enough time on my watch anyway, so it didn't make any sense.
After ten or fifteen minutes, the captain told us that the plane in our gate actually had mechanical problems, and all the other gates are taken. Oh, really? I was starting to get angry inside. We had to wait for 45 minutes (total) before we could get out. They could have let us leave the plane by one of them ladders, but to be politically neutral, they probably weren't expecting this to take that long. It was 17:00 (local time, so 22:00 on my internal clock), so I had missed the Quebec flight no matter what. I would have missed it, because I had to go walk a long way, go through customs, walk a long way, go through security, walk a long way, and wait. Before security, there were a line for connecting people like me, and they gave me my new ticket - of course, I was on the 21:30 flight. They put me on a waiting list for the 18:00 flight, but there were already a lot of people on it. I also bought a vegetarian subway wrap, but I found out that I had to go through security again, so I quickly ate it in case they would take it away. Turned out that the guy in front of me also had a subway in his hands, and was let in.
I got to the gate at 17:45, and apparently nobody on the waiting list was called. My flight was at 21:30, so I went to the pay phones to call my boss, to tell him that I won't be there to the farewell party tonight for the lab boss. Put 50¢ and dialed, and then, because it was a long distance, the phone asked for 4.90$ more, for one minute. Wait, what? What else could go wrong today? My cell phone was at my sister's, and the iPhone3 I had in my pocket is not connected to anything. I really, really, don't want to pay 5$/min, and I remember the internet stations in the UK, where you pay £1 or £2 for a set amount of minutes. I don't remember seeing anything like that in Canada, but I can check around - I have a lot of time.
Just before I leave the gate, I decide, as I have done many times in Edinburgh and London, to check the wi-fi networks. The airport has an unsecured one, as can be reasonably expected, so I connect to it. The airport internal website loads. Just to be sure, I load www.google.com, and the page loads. Website caching. I open my bookmarks, click on Reddit, see the loading animation, and actually see the page load (albeit slowly). As I understand it, the Montreal Airport is the only one I used this year that has free wi-fi, and this is the first good news of the day. I connect to facebook, send a message to my boss, and since it's getting a bit late, also send a message to my sister asking her to call him for me.
I read again after buying an expensive muffin, then at around 18:45, they start calling names on the intercom, about 20 of them. I'm on the list for the 19:00 flight! Two good news in a row! We get outside (my first draft of cold Quebec air), leave the big carry-ons on a large metal tray that goes in the back of the plane, and board. The plane leaves several minutes too late, but whatever - maybe I'll be lucky enough that there will still be some people left at that farewell party!
Uneventful flight, in which I continued to read. We land and wait a couple minutes, suspicion rising once more. The captain says to us that the cargo door, where all the baggages are, is frozen (welcome back to Quebec). Normally, they are supposed to get the tray out so we can get our carry-on as we leave the plane, but after another 2-3 minutes, we're told to go to the airport - the carry-ons will arrive on the conveyor belt with the registered baggages. Getting worse again. I only had carry-ons, so that my going through the airport be as swift as possible. We all wait near the conveyor belt, waiting for the luggages to arrive, when someone from the airport come to us and say that the cargo door is still frozen but mechanics (or whoever else) are currently warming it.
Ten more minutes (twenty minutes since we landed) - the same guy comes back and tell us in a triumphantly proud manner that the cargo door is unfrozen and the baggages are coming. The conveyor belt starts, but after a minute or so, it stops. What now? False alarm - it starts again, and the baggages arrive some time later. Let's add another good news, because I need some at this point - my small carry-on was the fifth or so on the conveyor belt. I grab it and leave the Quebec Airport, following the increasingly long path to follow to get at the taxi section.
Just before I pass through the door, I notice a sign that says the taxis are fixed-price - there is a constant fee of 14.50$ for rides near the airport. I live about 3km from the airport exit, and I expected paying 8-10$ maximum. I asked the driver about the fixed price, he replied by a positive, I sighed and said "I'll walk then". I did that partly because I was still mad about the 120$ taxi ride in the morning.
I started walking through the small airport streets, feeling the direction I was going, hoping I was taking the right turns. It was very cold (-20°C), but I had expected to feel colder, considering my three weeks at 2-9°C. It took me about thirty minutes to walk, during which I was imagining what else could go wrong - like that I lost the keys to the apartment, that they wouldn't work, that my car wouldn't start, or that my luggage would break open. Nothing happened, except a deep relief when I finally entered the apartment and put the luggage down.
It was now 21:00, or 02:00 on my internal clock. I wasn't tired. I quickly changed some clothes (for the first time, wore a white shirt, black jacket, and blue jeans, which I think looked good), and left, still hoping some people were left. I got there at 21:20, and most were there, to my relief. They had just finished eating, and I even got a free desert.
The rest of the evening was pretty great. I took two pints of Rickard's dark, to commemorate my lack of drinking in London, and to get my mind off what happened today. It was a 'Ginger' restaurant on the ground floor of the Plaza Hotel in Quebec. The lab boss had taken a room for the night, and when there were only five of us left, we went to the room to talk. There were a lot of laughs too, and a hotel clerk knocked to our room to remind us that people were sleeping. We left one by one, and I was the last one to leave at 02:20, or 07:20 on my internal clock. Still not really tired.
Got home, made my bed, and went to sleep.
Trip over.
2012/01/27
London - Day 6
My last day in London! Normal morning, and left at 09:45, towards the London Bridge. I knew it was going to be a long walk, and it took me two hours to get there, excluding a quick stop at a Sainsbury's Local to buy a piece of bread. I learned that the London Bridge is not the same thing as the Tower Bridge - the one I actually wanted to see. No worries though, it was just one bridge away, near the Tower of London.
Just before I entered the Tower of London, I went to EAT and ate a humous wrap. For the tower, I didn't really know what to expect - maybe some one-hour tour of something mildly cool... It turned out to be an old fort, and I took the audio guide and spent three hours walking around. I saw the crown jewels, and the armor collection, and other cool stuff. It was increasingly disconcerting to see so much money in so small a place... I took the time to take a picture of the Tower Bridge before I left.
I went to the British Museum again, arriving at 16:45, but didn't have much time, because they started closing the exhibitions at 17:20, and I couldn't see all that I was missing from my tour yesterday. At least, I saw the whole Japanese exhibit.
I left and went to Wasabi for a delicious pack of sushi, and slowly made my way to the Comedy Store, stopping again at the same WaterStone and read, again, a bit of Death Note.
Today, my back wasn't as sore as the other days (my body must be getting used to all the walking and standing), but by then, my right calf muscle was hurting. I arrived at the Comedy Store at 18:30, waited and found the show to be so-so. It was similar in vulgarity to the tuesday show, and I definitely loved the improvisation guys more. A lot more.
I went back to my room and checked if I had everything ready for my departure tomorrow.
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| The Tower of London. |
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| The White Tower, inside the Tower of London. |
I left and went to Wasabi for a delicious pack of sushi, and slowly made my way to the Comedy Store, stopping again at the same WaterStone and read, again, a bit of Death Note.
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| A tea ceremony house replica, in the British Museum. |
I went back to my room and checked if I had everything ready for my departure tomorrow.
2012/01/26
London - Day 5
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| The entrance to the British Museum, made to look like the Pantheon. |
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| A model of the Pantheon, as it would have been initially. |
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| The first mechanical clock. |
I left too early (exactly 18:00), so I stopped at a WaterStone to browse through some books, and ended up reading quite a few pages of Death Note.
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| A mummy. Yeah. |
In the surprising event that my family and I would want to have some fun someday and do some improvisation sketches, here are some of the concepts that can be done by non-professionals.
- Get an animal and a sports at random, have a TV presenter talking with "someone" who succeeded in training some of these animals in that sports, but that someone is 2 or 3 persons, all saying one word each at a time.
- Have 2 persons have a random position, play from the scene, when someone else says "freeze", he/she takes the place of someone in the scene, assumes the same position, and starts a new scene.
- Two people do a scene at random, and once in a while, the emotion theme changes at random, or the theatre type (? - action, comedy, silent, ...).
- Someone speaks another language and gesticulates to the "camera", while another translates for the crowd.
- Make a story with the characters appearing and leaving between scenes, with someone sitting and "reading the book".
2012/01/25
London - Day 4
I got up at 08:00 because I now knew the opening hours for the National History Museum. I ate breakfast and prepared myself, and left at 09:20. I got there a bit faster than I had expected, so I had to wait 14 minutes.
During the day, I did all the exhibits that I hadn`t done yesterday - insects, nature, evolution, minerals, earth... For lunch, I ate a chef's salad at the museum's restaurant. I finished the day there by watching an interactive 40-mins movie about our place in evolution, and quickly going through the cocoon in the Darwin Centre.
I left at 16:20, pretty much the same time as yesterday, going towards Yashin Sushi. It's a place where they don't serve soy sauce, and instead rely on carefully-mixed sauces to match different sushis. It is a pretty expensive place, but was the only restaurant that had been referred to me in London. I got there at 16:54, but it was closed, so I assumed it opened at 17:00, and went to the Tesco Metro to buy a dessert and some fruits. When I went back, it was still closed. I asked someone inside, and they open at 18:00 - too late for the Comedy Store show... I went back to the Tesco Metro to buy two sandwiches, and went back to the hotel and ate dinner.
I left at 18:30, arrived at the Comedy Store at close to 19:30, and bought tickets for tomorrow's and thursday's shows. The show was from a group of six comedians called The Cutting Edge. It was good, but not as hilarious as the improvisation group from sunday. It was also more vulgar, and more involved with the public.
When I was going back to the hotel, I ran a bit (1.6km, in my winter coat). It felt really great - my knees felt warm (though they hurt a bit the day after, most likely because of my shoes), and my lower back didn't hurt anymore. After a few days of walking around 20 to 35 km everyday, my lower back was feeling sore, to the point of being uncomfortable sometimes, and hurting a bit some other times.
I took a shower, read a bit, and went to sleep.
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| Darwin is guarding the second floor. |
I left at 16:20, pretty much the same time as yesterday, going towards Yashin Sushi. It's a place where they don't serve soy sauce, and instead rely on carefully-mixed sauces to match different sushis. It is a pretty expensive place, but was the only restaurant that had been referred to me in London. I got there at 16:54, but it was closed, so I assumed it opened at 17:00, and went to the Tesco Metro to buy a dessert and some fruits. When I went back, it was still closed. I asked someone inside, and they open at 18:00 - too late for the Comedy Store show... I went back to the Tesco Metro to buy two sandwiches, and went back to the hotel and ate dinner.
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| The minerals exhibition. |
I left at 18:30, arrived at the Comedy Store at close to 19:30, and bought tickets for tomorrow's and thursday's shows. The show was from a group of six comedians called The Cutting Edge. It was good, but not as hilarious as the improvisation group from sunday. It was also more vulgar, and more involved with the public.When I was going back to the hotel, I ran a bit (1.6km, in my winter coat). It felt really great - my knees felt warm (though they hurt a bit the day after, most likely because of my shoes), and my lower back didn't hurt anymore. After a few days of walking around 20 to 35 km everyday, my lower back was feeling sore, to the point of being uncomfortable sometimes, and hurting a bit some other times.
I took a shower, read a bit, and went to sleep.
2012/01/24
London - Day 3
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| Hyde Park, in the morning. |
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| The pond in Hyde Park. |
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| The National History Museum. |
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| Baby dinosaurs - I don't recall what type. |
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| From the entrance to the mammals exhibit. |
The show started - Wicked is the story behind the Wizard of Oz, and why / how the witch was to be known as "the wicked witch of the west". The show ended with an awesome finale. I took my coat and left, but subconsciously, something was amiss... People were not herding towards the exit... I didn't think too much of it, though, and started walking away, which, since I had left by the wrong exit, actually brought me back to the front. As I kept walking, I kept wondering why wasn't everyone leaving? The show ended with the head press secretary proclaiming to Oz that the green-skinned witch was evil and wicked, and Elphaba revolting, so there was the story! What was I missing?
I really almost continued walking, but decided to take a look, just in case. People were smoking outside... I went back in, slowly, almost shyly, towards the seats, and about 9/10 of the room was still seated! WTF‽ How come did everyone know that there was a second act? Today, I learned that it's not because the curtains are dropped and the lights are turned on that the show is over. I sat down, and the second act started soon after. The people beside me did not get back, by design or lack of knowledge. The second act was also very, very good, though it did not end in a climax like the first one. The curtains were dropped, the actors went back to bow before rounds of applause, and I was part of the 1/5 joining in for a standing ovation for the two main actresses. Lights were turned on, and then everyone got up and slowly herded themselves towards the exits.I walked back to the hotel, stopping again at a Sainsbury's Local to buy tomorrow's breakfast (chocolate pastries, pears, yogurt, and an apple), wrote this text, and called it a night.
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