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

So today I decided to try sleeping somewhere even more uncomfortable than the carpeted floor I slept on yesterday. Today I tried sleeping on the cold, hard tiles of my lounge room. After lying there for about 30 seconds thinking, “There’s no way this will work…” I fell asleep. But the really weird thing is I actually felt more refreshed upon wakening. There was none of that inertia you suffer through when you are lying in a nice, warm, comfy bed and it’s time to get up. Lying on hard tiles makes you wake instantly. I tried it again a few times today and guess what? It’s awesome. So now I have even more bragging rights, from “I sleep 2-3hrs a night” to “I sleep 2-3rs a night, on the floor like a champion.”

Like a champion, ladies and gentlemen. So my question to all of you is: Can any of you sleep on the floor? (And passing out after a hard night of drinking like a fish doesn’t count – I’m talking consistently sleeping on the floor, while sober!) Do you like it? What made you start sleeping on the floor? Do people think you’re as mad as a bag of cats for doing it?

Moving on. Yesterday I answered quite a few questions that some of you fine folk have asked me over the last few weeks. I put the call out for more questions but only one has rolled in so far. Don’t be shy, I don’t bite! This is an AMA (Ask Me Anything), it doesn’t have to be just about polyphasic sleeping. <Hypocrit warning> Jesus, people who do AMAs are a little self-obsessed.

Fidus asked:

Do you ever worry about not sleeping during your naps?

During the first few days, yes; I was paranoid about it. I always set my alarm for 25-30 minutes to really give myself enough time to sleep. I’m someone who’s always taken at least an hour or two to fall asleep, so there was always a lot of self-doubt about the idea of falling asleep within 20 minutes.

However, one thing I quickly realised was even when I was paranoid and kept telling myself, “There’s no way I’ll fall asleep in 20 mins”, my body still did. The longest I ever took to fall asleep was about 10 minutes. Not bad!

These days that’s down to about 10-30 seconds. In the last 5 days, the longest it’s taken me has been about 3 minutes (and that was because I slept on the couch while my girlfriend did the dishes and made quite a bit of noise). The other day I tried sleeping on the floor (carpet) and was asleep within a minute. Same for cold, hard tiles. As much as it goes against everything I ever knew about my body’s ability to fall asleep quickly, I’ve learned to trust that I’ll be out like a light within 30 seconds or so. If someone like me can do this, everybody else sure can.

The best part is I’m not passing out due to lack of sleep. In fact, I can meditate without falling asleep, I can close my eyes for minutes at a time and stay awake, I can even do that lying in bed under the covers and I won’t fall asleep until the moment I give my brain permission to. I AM THE MASTER OF MY OWN SLEEP-DESTINY.

…But not today. Seriously, I slept so freaking much today, a total of 10 naps. 4 of those were in the afternoon, in a row with only about 15 minute gaps between naps (I couldn’t manage any more time between naps). It was hell, and for all the napping I did, I didn’t feel any less tired.

It’s my own damn fault – I ate terribly today. I had a sugary chocolate milk (about a litre of it, don’t ask). I ate 3 steaks for lunch (don’t ask) which made me sleepy as hell. I had almost no vegies, not a lot of fruit and only a few handfuls of nuts (don’t ask). I didn’t drink enough water either (don’t ask). I feel like the biggest knob for doing it, and I don’t have a legitimate reason as to why I ate so terribly.

But I’ll chose to look at it positively and say at least I’ve learned an important lesson; diet is hugely important while polyphasic sleeping. Back to the raw diet for this ginger-ninja!

Peace out folks.

Edit: Anyone else notice the irony in me saying the phrase, “Don’t ask” several times in an “Ask Me Anything” post?

[php-to-page file=/home/handyand/public_html/polyphasicContents.php]

[poll id=”1″]