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:

	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?