9 years ago
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Progress
Quick update: I just laid down, fell asleep, dreamed about a large white dog, and awoke without an alarm, and did it in under 15 minutes. When I awoke I was actually afraid I'd overslept! I feel remarkably great right now considering I've slept approx. 3 hours in the last 24 hour period.
Sleep Log Day 5
This morning was rough. I think changing my 'nap' times on Sunday is the culprit, but regardless I ended up taking multiple short naps between 4am and 7am, but then managed to hang on until 11. Probably the biggest surprise is how suddenly exhaustion can come: I can be doing just fine one minute, and suddenly (about 4 hours after my last nap) my body starts to ache and mind goes fuzzy. It's pretty much clockwork, so I'm trying to work with the rhythms my body is making and not push too much beyond what it's asking for.
We went out to a Medieval Jousting tournament/dinner tonight. I mention this because it forced me to schedule my naps around the event to accommodate our plans. Barbie wanted to shop at a nearby Ikea, and was kind enough to take JJ with her while I took a 30 minute nap in the parking lot from 7:30-8 pm. I think I'll be napping in a lot of strange places (and times) during this experiment!
My 2am nap this morning went wonderfully. I do use an alarm (right now just my cell phone) and make sure it's across the room. I've heard that eventually the body will automatically wake up after 30 minutes, but that's only happened a couple times for me so far. I went down with a slight headache and sore throat, but awoke feeling quite refreshed and was able to grade a stack of exams. Productivity!
How is my wife handling this? Right now she mostly feels it's a nuisance I think. I admit it is quite annoying when I come home from school and instead of spending time with her have to head to bed for a nap. But it's only 30 minutes, so we're managing it right now. Her sleep schedule is quite messed up and she's having to adjust to sleeping without me in the bed (I take my night naps on the couch to avoid awaking her). The second day she crashed at 8pm, and the next she was up until 4am with me grading (I had taken plenty of naps, she hadn't). It's convenient to already by up when JJ cries (which isn't very often now) and I can see this schedule being great with a new baby.
How long will she let me do this? I like to think it helps that she awakes to a much cleaner house every day. I love getting so much more done. I hope this means I get to spend more time with her in the evenings. My intention is to do this for 6 months, but that could easily change either direction.
We went out to a Medieval Jousting tournament/dinner tonight. I mention this because it forced me to schedule my naps around the event to accommodate our plans. Barbie wanted to shop at a nearby Ikea, and was kind enough to take JJ with her while I took a 30 minute nap in the parking lot from 7:30-8 pm. I think I'll be napping in a lot of strange places (and times) during this experiment!
My 2am nap this morning went wonderfully. I do use an alarm (right now just my cell phone) and make sure it's across the room. I've heard that eventually the body will automatically wake up after 30 minutes, but that's only happened a couple times for me so far. I went down with a slight headache and sore throat, but awoke feeling quite refreshed and was able to grade a stack of exams. Productivity!
How is my wife handling this? Right now she mostly feels it's a nuisance I think. I admit it is quite annoying when I come home from school and instead of spending time with her have to head to bed for a nap. But it's only 30 minutes, so we're managing it right now. Her sleep schedule is quite messed up and she's having to adjust to sleeping without me in the bed (I take my night naps on the couch to avoid awaking her). The second day she crashed at 8pm, and the next she was up until 4am with me grading (I had taken plenty of naps, she hadn't). It's convenient to already by up when JJ cries (which isn't very often now) and I can see this schedule being great with a new baby.
How long will she let me do this? I like to think it helps that she awakes to a much cleaner house every day. I love getting so much more done. I hope this means I get to spend more time with her in the evenings. My intention is to do this for 6 months, but that could easily change either direction.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sleep Log Week 1
To understand this blog, you really need to read the previous one first: Sleep Experiment.
Everything I read indicated the transition into polyphasic sleep is not enjoyable or easy. You have to essentially sleep deprive yourself until your body recognizes that you're still getting adequate sleep, just at a different rhythm. I decided to make this leap during spring break when there would be far fewer things going on, but started the transition even before the break by getting in the habit of taking daily naps. I'm not sure why nappers are thought to be lazy, but I figured if I was doing this I couldn't let myself be concerned with what others think. I found a couple couches at school, brought a pillow to campus, and began taking a nap or two a few weeks ago.
During finals week I pushed myself farther by staying up later and only getting ~5 hours of sleep at night and relying more on my naps to get through the day. I was pleasantly surprised how well I felt, and found midnight-2 A.M. to be a very productive period. I considered just staying with that schedule, but curiosity really did kill the cat.
Thursday I gave my last review session, had no more tests to take myself, and made the plunge with my wife's modest support. This is now my 4th night, and I'd have to conclude the experiment is working! My weekend sleep hours looked about like this:
Saturday: 3-3:30 am, 6-6:45 a.m., 8-8:45 am, 11-11:30 am, 5:45-6:30 pm, 10:30-11:45 pm
Sunday: 3-3:30 am, 6-6:30 am, 8-8:45 am, 1-1:30 pm, 4-5:30pm, 11-11:45 pm
Monday: 2-2:30 am
It's now 4 am on Monday, and I'll be going down for another nap in a little bit. Crazy! As you can see, I haven't been exact at the timing between naps and have occasionally over slept. Sunday night in particular I hit a wall while playing games at a friends due to the large gap between naps. The 11 pm nap wasn't great, but I'm keeping with the program. I physically feel a lot better when I keep the schedule regular, but it seems there is some flexibility in the exact timing of the naps. My 1pm nap on Sunday afternoon was one of the best I've had: I woke completely refreshed and felt as if I'd been sleeping a long time. Right now I'll admit my head is a bit foggy and I'm not doing great. My worst time of day is the 6-10 am block, but even that will hopefully become productive and enjoyable time soon.
Everything I read indicated the transition into polyphasic sleep is not enjoyable or easy. You have to essentially sleep deprive yourself until your body recognizes that you're still getting adequate sleep, just at a different rhythm. I decided to make this leap during spring break when there would be far fewer things going on, but started the transition even before the break by getting in the habit of taking daily naps. I'm not sure why nappers are thought to be lazy, but I figured if I was doing this I couldn't let myself be concerned with what others think. I found a couple couches at school, brought a pillow to campus, and began taking a nap or two a few weeks ago.
During finals week I pushed myself farther by staying up later and only getting ~5 hours of sleep at night and relying more on my naps to get through the day. I was pleasantly surprised how well I felt, and found midnight-2 A.M. to be a very productive period. I considered just staying with that schedule, but curiosity really did kill the cat.
Thursday I gave my last review session, had no more tests to take myself, and made the plunge with my wife's modest support. This is now my 4th night, and I'd have to conclude the experiment is working! My weekend sleep hours looked about like this:
Saturday: 3-3:30 am, 6-6:45 a.m., 8-8:45 am, 11-11:30 am, 5:45-6:30 pm, 10:30-11:45 pm
Sunday: 3-3:30 am, 6-6:30 am, 8-8:45 am, 1-1:30 pm, 4-5:30pm, 11-11:45 pm
Monday: 2-2:30 am
It's now 4 am on Monday, and I'll be going down for another nap in a little bit. Crazy! As you can see, I haven't been exact at the timing between naps and have occasionally over slept. Sunday night in particular I hit a wall while playing games at a friends due to the large gap between naps. The 11 pm nap wasn't great, but I'm keeping with the program. I physically feel a lot better when I keep the schedule regular, but it seems there is some flexibility in the exact timing of the naps. My 1pm nap on Sunday afternoon was one of the best I've had: I woke completely refreshed and felt as if I'd been sleeping a long time. Right now I'll admit my head is a bit foggy and I'm not doing great. My worst time of day is the 6-10 am block, but even that will hopefully become productive and enjoyable time soon.
Sleep Experiment
What would you do with an extra 30+ hours each week? Have you ever wondered why we need so much sleep and wished you could do so much more with less sleep? In the past I've tried getting by on less than 7-8 hours of sleep at night, but never found it sustainable. Sure there were crazy all-nighters during finals week, but these were indefinitely followed by crashes and 10+ hours of sleep. I think I finally found a plausible alternative, and am in the midst of a freakin' crazy experiment.
I'm not doing anything illegal. In fact, no outside substance is involved at all. The experiment involves training my body to immediately go into REM sleep (considered the most important of the 5 sleep phases) and bypass the other phases. This results in drastically shorter but more frequent sleep periods. How drastic? I'm currently sleeping for 30 minutes every 4 hours, or about 3 hours of total sleep in a 24 hour period.
I didn't come up with this on my own, but learned of it from a friend here in Chicago. Scientifically it's called polyphasic sleep and this particular version is know as the Uberman Sleep Schedule (USS). Check out this blog for a detailed log of one man's experiment. In a similar spirit, and at my wife's request, I'm going to track my own experience here.
Why am I doing this? Partly because it sounds like a fun experiment. Can I really survive on only 3 hours of daily sleep? How functional will I be? The main reason though is school. My school/personal/family balance has shortchanged the school part lately, and I'd really like to finish my degree on time and get a job sooner rather than later. I anticipate doing a lot of studying, academic reading and research, and data analysis with this extra time.
I'm not doing anything illegal. In fact, no outside substance is involved at all. The experiment involves training my body to immediately go into REM sleep (considered the most important of the 5 sleep phases) and bypass the other phases. This results in drastically shorter but more frequent sleep periods. How drastic? I'm currently sleeping for 30 minutes every 4 hours, or about 3 hours of total sleep in a 24 hour period.
I didn't come up with this on my own, but learned of it from a friend here in Chicago. Scientifically it's called polyphasic sleep and this particular version is know as the Uberman Sleep Schedule (USS). Check out this blog for a detailed log of one man's experiment. In a similar spirit, and at my wife's request, I'm going to track my own experience here.
Why am I doing this? Partly because it sounds like a fun experiment. Can I really survive on only 3 hours of daily sleep? How functional will I be? The main reason though is school. My school/personal/family balance has shortchanged the school part lately, and I'd really like to finish my degree on time and get a job sooner rather than later. I anticipate doing a lot of studying, academic reading and research, and data analysis with this extra time.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
JJ's 3rd Quarter
If JJ were a company, he'd now be heading into the 4th quarter of his fiscal year. That's how a nerdy accountant sees it anyway. So how was JJ's 3rd quarter performance? Months 7-9 were wonderful, with so many new skills:
- Crawling
- Three teeth
- Pulling himself up on EVERYTHING
- Walking along couches, cabinets, and while holding onto fingers
- Transitioning from 3 naps to 2
- Adding a few pounds a few inches: now 21 pounds (55th percentile) and 30 inches (97th percentile)
- Getting his first toothbrush
- Moving into lots of fun solids (bananas, pretzels, cheerios, avocado, rice cakes, sliced meats, etc.)
- Emerging personality--he has quite the personality!
- Excellent bathtub splashing skills
- Lowering his crib...
- First haircut
Monday, February 14, 2011
I love you so...
I love you being NICE,
and when you're CRANKY, too.
I love you without liking the NAUGHTY things you do.
My 'love you' DOESN'T change
like the temper of the days.
It's a CERTAIN kind of thing
in many DIFFERENT ways.
I CAN'T IMAGINE life
before you came along...
me there singing senseless,
no MEANING to my song.
Call it MEANT TO BE
or simply blessed fate,
you fill my heart WITH LOVE...
and for THAT I celebrate.
"I LOVE YOU"
"HOW MUCH?"
"SO MUCH."
"HOW MUCH IS SO?"
"WAY, WAY MORE than you know."
Friday, January 21, 2011
Boo Dawg...
So I ran into this clip as I was trying to organize my photos and I thought I would show off my mad skills. This was when Josh and I were dating and he took me to some trampoline place. Anyway, be prepared to be awed by my amazingness.
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