A Few Days of Monophasic Later...

It has been a few days since I stopped polyphasic sleeping, and I am facing some consequences from suddenly changing back to monophasic when the adaption was significantly in progress.

I've been waking up late, and not staying up that late. Today I slept 12 hours, from 1am to 1pm. This must be the third day of not sleeping polyphasically and I am still sleeping hours longer than I should to make up for lack of sleep, which continuing the naps would have done.

There are 2 paths, one straight ahead to polyphasic, and one turning off to monophasic. I was forced to take the monophasic path. Both would do the same thing, make up for lack of sleep, however one would obviously bring you out on polyphasic and the other on monophasic.

So by taking the monophasic path, I've been sleeping 3-4.5 hours longer than I normally would to make up for lost sleep. Even now, I am still tired and had difficulty getting out of bed. Actually I always have difficulty getting out of bed, one of the reasons I wanted to sleep polyphasically.

Polyphasic sleep - End results

Overall on this sleep schedule I did okay. Other than 2 oversleeps and a few missed naps, I was going fine. Right now I am estimating it would have been another 2-3 days of flawless polyphasing until things got better. Actually, the night that I stopped I was like a zombie. Which means I had just entered the hardest part, and the part before becoming adapted.

Well it was coming up to my 2:30am nap and then I don't remember what happened. All I know was nearly an hour later I was sitting up at my computer. Did I fall asleep? Perhaps lightly, but I was still sitting in my chair, so it's also likely that I was just in a zombie like state staring at the ground.

After I snapped out of that I could have kept going but knowing that come morning my parents would say "You are tired go to sleep". They obviously don't know how it works and I can picture them saying something a few days later like, "See, 9 hours of sleep a day and you are totally better." They didn't actually say that though, so I won't make accusations just assuming what I think they would do based on what I've seen. That would really annoy me though.

Anyway, here are the results of my sleep on a poorly drawn table in paint.

That actually looks like a poor performance, but I'll explain some of the stuff. Day 1 we can just ignore, because I wasn't actually polyphasically sleeping there. Day 2 was good because The first nap was skipped because I was no where near tired enough(I later decided it is better to just lie there than completely skip).

Day 3 was the first day that I actually stuffed up. That was the day I slept from nap 2 through to nap 3. I had to skip nap 5 3 times in a row because at that time I was unable to nap, but that was okay, having overslept twice there wasn't really much lost from that.

It starts on day 2, I oversleep day 3. It picks up on day 4 and I oversleep day 5. It then picks back up on day 6... Do I oversleep on day 7? Maybe.. Maybe not. Day 6 went a lot better than day 4, and day 4 went a lot better than day 2, so chances are that I wouldn't have overslept. Even if I did, I'd make it through day 9. From my experience here, 6 hours oversleep = 2 days pushed back on the adaption.

There were also 2 things here that was changing. At the start I was bad at napping. At the end I was getting much better at napping, so that would definitely have had a significant effect on the increase in adaption, even though I overslept. It really can be a complicated thing and varies from person to person.

I think I was pretty close and I know that a lot of 15 year olds wouldn't be able to pull that off. I'll DEFINITELY try again as soon as I move out of home. I won't base my schedule around monophasic sleep then convert to polyphasic, instead I'll base my schedule around polyphasic and say "I can't do that, I have to nap then". Rather than "I can't nap then, I have to do that". It may take serious dedication and a lot of effort, but I think it is worth it.

That's it - It's over

All my effort towards this has gone to waste.

It was about 3am when I stopped caring. If I had kept going, tonight I'd face grumpy parents and be forced to go to bed at 11pm again. What's the big deal anyway? Why can't I just try it? Whatever, they got what they wanted. An unhappy son and their way.

I woke up at about midday to mum telling me to sleep at normal times. My back feels a bit stressed on the lower part, my eyes have twice the black around them as they did yesterday(returned to normal) and I don't feel like I've had a refreshing sleep. I can already feel the negative effects of monophasic sleep. Infact I felt exhausted when I woke up, probably because the sudden change in sleep patterns.

It's like a healthy vegetarian suddenly starts eating meat and junkfood.

It looks like I am going to return to the original sleep deprived, part time insomniac when school starts again. Why? Because seniors start at 8am for most of the days. I'll struggle to wake up every day, I'll struggle to get to sleep early enough every night.

I was pretty close. In a few days from now if I'd have kept going I'd be adapted enough that I wouldn't need to worry about oversleeping. In a few years when I don't live here anymore I'll be able to sleep when I want and then I'll show them that it is definitely possible. Right now the decision has been made for me and I've been forced to apply someone elses beliefs. It sounds like being forced to go to church.

Now, think about this question. Is it possible for teenagers to live up to their parents expectations?

Polyphasic sleep - Day 6 good/bad news

Well the good news is that I am sleeping well for most of my naps and some of them feel like they went for at least an hour. I had a nap, I think it was the 6:30am one, in which I'm sure I had a dream in. I don't remember the details, and it wasn't a strong dream but it was there. So, if I keep this up without anymore oversleeps/missed naps (that's the plan) then I should start dreaming soon. That means I'll be getting all of the sleep cycle in one nap, which is the intention on this, and as soon as that happens I am just about adapted. That must be the turning point, the part at which the sleep deprivation stops and tapers off instead of increases.

I took all of my naps successfully today except I didn't sleep for the last one, but lying there with the eyes closed almost sleeping is better than nothing like I've said before. I expect to make it through this night, which will be a break through for me as if I set a pattern, I'd be oversleeping tonight. I feel a bit better than I did the other nights, probably because I am getting better at napping, though tomorrow will probably be difficult.

This morning between 10:30am and about 12:30pm I had difficulty staying awake. I managed to get rid of that and keep going. Tomorrow will be like that but harder, and more frequent. The next day perhaps it will start getting easier, and soon after I can call myself an uberman.

Wait -- what was I saying about bad news?
Dad is trying to stop me again. This is what I have to say about it and other people who show their unsupport.

No, short term sleep deprivation is not serious and will not cause long term damage. Polyphasic sleep DOES work and people have done it. It is nothing like how people claim they can live off air and water with no food, saying that won't make me believe that everything on the internet is false. No I won't injure myself or end up with brain damage. We don't have to believe what we were brought up believing and there is no evidence to suggest long term damage from polyphasic sleep. All successful polyphasic bloggers aren't liars and there is no need to be so skeptical about polyphasic sleep. Let's not be pessimistic and let's not make up excuses to why polyphasic sleep is bad.

That said, I appreciate the concern but I am ready to make my own choice.


Also, I don't think I covered last night's naps. Wow, you really do lose track of the days when you sleep polyphasically. I'm sure it was last night we also went out so I had to skip the 6:30 nap, but I took the 10:30 nap okay. So I've done 7 naps In a row not too bad.