Intro to Polyphasic Sleep | First attempt (lasted 30 days) | Second Attempt (lasted 7 days) | Third Attempt (ongoing)

I should probably point out that’s 24 hours over 3 days, not 24 hours in a row.

Yup, I slept 8 hours the two nights I was away and the night I got home. I was away on a ski trip (only the second time I’ve seen snow in my life! :D) and was camping below the snow line in a clearing in bushland. It was raining non-stop during the nights, and it was also cold as heck, which meant I had to stay inside the tent both nights we were away. I also couldn’t set my alarm because it would annoy everybody, so I tried using headphones but that didn’t really work. Both nights I woke up for the first alarm but because I couldn’t really get out of the nice, warm sleeping bag I drifted off to sleep before I had a chance to set the next alarm. So I slept through both nights.

I’m not that bothered by it, so I supposed I’m starting to forgive myself more for not being perfect at polyphasic sleep (yet). I didn’t feel much grogginess; in fact, the first day I woke at 6am feeling really peaceful, the same feeling I get after a really good nap. I think if I’d been extremely vigilant I could have stuck to the polyphasic sleep but to be honest I wanted to sleep through the nights – it was horribly cold, boring and miserable and I had nothing to do, so what would have been the point?

On the night/early morning I got home (Day 19 at 12.30am) I had to work at 4am so I planned on polyphasic sleeping once per hour until it was time to work. I went to bed around 12.45… and woke up just before 4am. I checked my phone and it was sitting on the alarm screen; I’d set the alarm up but hadn’t pressed the “OK” button. Oh my lord I’m hopeless.

As I write this it’s 7.30pm on Day 19. Every polyphasic sleep blog I’ve read says that even one oversleep by 8 hours is like hitting the reset button on all the progress you’ve made and you’ll have to go through the whole adjustment period again (although it should be slightly easier the second time around).

To be honest I’m only about 5% concerned. I’ve been training my body to get used to 20-minute naps and only 2-3 hours sleep a day, and I don’t see how that’s going to go away because I slept 3 x 8hrs. If you bodybuild and then have a weekend break you don’t lose your muscles. If you learn French and don’t use it for a few days you don’t forget everything you’ve learned. So we’ll see.

I’m planning on taking as many naps as I can fit into the day, to get my body back into the habit of napping. I’ll be having a nap, then an hour break, then another nap, etc. Hopefully by tonight my body will not only be back on track with polyphasic sleep, but I’ll also be extremely well-rested!

Update: It’s now 8pm. I feel like I’ve had a pretty awesome day! The sun was shining into my bedroom and it made the bed lovely and warm, so I really looked forward to each nap. In the hour gaps I got a lot of photography done so that was awesome too. I feel well-rested so I’m going to leave it roughly 3-4 hours before my next nap now, which is about average for me during the nights.

A few times I woke up after exactly 10 minutes (10 minutes before my alarm was due to go off). I actually felt REALLY well-rested after these shorter naps, as if I was coming out of a meditation session. My eyes opened really slowly and peacefully, and my mind felt completely empty (in a good way).

During one of my naps I had an extremely vivid dream; it may have even been a “lucid dream” but I’m not sure (dear readers: can you help? Read below and let me know if I had a lucid dream.) I’ve never had a lucid dream in my life so this was kinda cool! I dreamed I was on a bus, and then suddenly the bus drove into a pool/lake/body of water of some kind. Right at that point I felt like I “woke up” inside the dream; I became conscious of the fact I was dreaming. But at the same time I felt like I really was inside the bus in real life, and I couldn’t be certain I wasn’t really drowning. I started to panic and my heart started to race, and I started screaming, “Wake up, wake up, wake up” and trying to open my eyes (I couldn’t.) After about 5 seconds I slowly woke up, and as the dream world faded, the real world faded into view. The entire room was extremely blue and looked like I was underwater and I was still a little panicky, but that faded after about 10 seconds.

It sounds rather scary (and it was) but after thinking about it for a few hours I’ve come to the conclusion it was the coolest thing ever. I really really hope it happens again, even if it’s a nightmare. I could do lucid dreaming training to help it happen more but I’m too busy with photography and polyphasic sleep itself. Just one more thing on my too-long to-do list!

I’ve mentioned this in a previous post but I’ve been sticking to exactly-20-minute naps lately because I always wake up feeling more refreshed than if I try to account for “falling asleep time”. Even if it takes me a couple of minutes to fall asleep, 15 minutes seems to be better than anything over 20 – I feel less groggy and somehow I feel like I’ve slept for longer.

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