Intro to Polyphasic Sleep | First attempt (lasted 30 days) | Second Attempt (lasted 7 days) | Third Attempt (ongoing)
After a couple of great days, I’m back to “zombie” stage now. Uggh. It’s not as bad as the initial few days, but it’s definitely draining to the point where I have to force myself to leave the house or do basic tasks like chores around the house.
I’ve clearly been pushing myself a little too hard, at least while I’m still adjusting. Yesterday (Day 8) I went rockclimbing again, which was another 8 hour session without a nap. This time I started to crash somewhere around the 7 hour mark, though I was able to keep it together for another hour after that.
Today I was zonked out all day. It took me about an hour of positive self-talk to gather myself up and go for a walk to my local markets, that’s how drained I was. Mind you, once I got out of the house I was OK. Naps haven’t seemed to help a heck of a lot. I think my diet has also contributed to my zombie-ness; I was eating a perfect raw food diet in the first few days, but the last 2 days I’ve eaten big meals like pizza when I’ve gone out with friends. The extra carbs might not be helping keep my energy levels consistent. I’ve jumped back onto the raw foods and I’m going to start up my exercising again this week, so hopefully energy will return!
So that’s all the bad news; good news time. I’m pregnant! Just kidding. The good news is how easily I’ve been falling asleep lately. I’ve alluded to it in past posts, but I used to be a shocking sleeper; on average I’d take a 2 hours or more to get to sleep each night. Now, without fail, I’m asleep within maybe 30 seconds. That’s amazing to me, someone who was on the verge of stepping into insomniac territory. If there were no other benefits, this alone would be more than enough reason to suffer through zombie hell.
But even more important to me is the places I can now sleep. Before, everything had to be perfect for me to be able to sleep. It had to be my bed, my pillow, my dark room with no noise, perfect temperature, etc. I’ve never slept on a plane and I’ve barely been able to manage more than closing my eyes (but remaining awake) on long road trips. I couldn’t sleep on couches and I flat-out refused to sleep at other people’s houses.
Now I take most of my naps on the couch for convenience. I’ve slept through loud music pumping and rain pelting the windows. I’ve slept with the sun shining directly in my face. And just to really push it, today I thought I’d do a little experiment. I lay down on the hard, uncomfortable floor for a nap. I can remember thinking, “Holy crap, this is so uncomfortable I’m going to die.” And the next thing I knew, I woke up from my nap 20 mins later. Freaking awesome.
I’ve read stories from a few insomniacs and one sleepwalker/night-terror-victim who all say their symptoms completely disappeared on polyphasic sleep. How has polyphasic sleep not been studied in depth? I feel like something this strange/amazing should be on the news (well, should have been on the news years ago when it first became popular (note: reduce your expectations of what “popular” means; not many people are polyphasic sleepers.) Are there any insomniacs or people who have frequent nightmares willing to try polyphasic sleep?
[php-to-page file=/home/handyand/public_html/polyphasicContents.php]
[poll id=”1″]