Back to Monophasic Sleeping

Monday was my last day of a polyphasic-sleeping lifestyle.  On Monday evening I took my 9pm nap and refused to get up.  I knew I didn't have work due on Tuesday that needed to get done and I couldn't coax myself out of bed after 30 mins of sleep.  Lately, I had tried "stacking" naps on top of each other after a long sleep-drought, with some success (maybe).

As I return to a regular sleeping schedule, I REALLY want to list pros and cons I notice about polyphasic sleeping.  Here are some:

Pro: time.  Already I miss all my time.  Where did it go?

Con: I usually run hot, but I noticed feeling chilled on the uberman schedule.  I wore more clothing inside and outside.  I'm already back to feeling warm again.  Naturally, I was colder at night, but also during the day, even during the recent warm spell.  Now I've switched back to sandals and a t-shirt.  I can still tell when it's warm vs cold, but it cold weather doesn't chill me as much anymore.  Perhaps I wasn't eating enough while on the schedule.

Con: naps.  Naps are wonderful, but if they happen every four hours, they run interference with your life.  Near the end, I seemed to be able to stretch them out, but this may have made getting up from my naps even more difficult.

Con: you feel legitimately tired many times throughout the day.  Near the end of each awake cycle, you will feel sleepy.  It may be gentle, but it is still your body telling you to go to bed. 

Con: I gained time to work, but lost social time.  Time at work, to meet with students and other faculty, and time at home to spend with my family.

If I think of more, I'll add it as a comment or another post. :)

Two Impressive Polyphasic-Sleep Weekends

Before I forget any of this, I need to get it down. The last two weekends made use of the uberman sleep pattern. Here's what happened:

Just over a week ago I had potentially the biggest test of the schedule. Since wife and daughter were out of town visiting family, I decided to take a trip to Virginia to visit my college roommate and best man. Since the drive is supposed 7.5 hours long in each direction, I decided to spend FriSat and SunMon driving in order to maximize my time spent with my friend: all Saturday and Sunday. So, just after midnight on FriSat, I took off, headed for VA. I got sleepy right around the Ohio-WV border near Hocking Hills and luckily there was a rest stop right before crossing into WV. (I didn't see any rest stops anywhere in West Virginia the entire trip.) Perfect! After a half-hour I was good to go. The road started getting crazy, though, with sharp ups and downs through the smoky mountains (I was on 33 for most of it). I passed through Seneca Rocks and nearly didn't stop, then saw the State Park in that beautiful valley and stopped for a second nap. While sleeping, the sun rose and I had a gorgeous view of the rocks before I took off. I went up and down Shenandoah Mountain and arrived in Harrisonburg at 9am, much earlier than I'd expected.

Saturday and Sunday were excellent, except for the necessary naps. Also I fell asleep for about 4 hours on Saturday night. Oops! By this time I'd started not to beat myself up over these extra-long sleep periods that kept sneaking in. In fact, I'd decided just to stress out less about any of these things. This helped out the following weekend.

I drove back on Sunday in a less impressive manner. I decided to try and avoid the super-mountainy route and went south on 81 to 64 to cut through West Virginia. Despite napping directly before leaving, however, I was very tired and napped at a rest stop approximately one hour south of Harrisonburg. My next nap again came earlier than expected, and I pulled off of 64 onto a state park in WV (I don't recall the name) to nap. This kept me going until Ohio where rest stops are not rare (what the heck, WV? Also, where the junk are your Waffle Houses?). A big rain storm kicked up in the last leg home, but I made it fine.

Hurrah for the Uberman schedule for making this possible! It was great to see my friend! I realize, however, that it was also important that I felt (mostly) safe stopping and parking at state parks in the middle of the night. Seneca Rocks was pleasant and open; I could see for a long ways. The other one was a little less inviting (also it was completely dark) and I felt decidedly nervous. I'm not sure whether it was even kosher for me to drive up there and park. Hmmm.

(Also, I should mention that I slept a full 8 hours that MonTues. Oops!)

Then, just this past weekend, I travelled to Ann Arbor for the Michigan vs Minnesota game. Awesome! Prior to this, however, I had to decide whether to stay with the polyphasic schedule. If I did, it meant I would have a hard time staying awake between naps, especially during the game. Getting off the schedule, however, meant planning ahead and missing some productive nights. After an extremely productive WedThurs, I decided to stay awake for ThursFri, sleep FriSat and just not worry about it for Game Day. I'm not sure if I planned really well or what, but things definitely worked out. On Friday evening, I fell asleep around 6pm and set my alarm for 1:30am. I woke up, got half-way ready, took a nap (long sleeps don't leave you feeling totally refreshed when on this schedule) finished packing and got on the road by 4am. I stopped in a rest stop on I-75 and napped, then napped a final time when I arrived at 8am in Ann Arbor. At 8:30, I left the sleep-safety of my car and headed off to meet friends. I was parked a ways away and didn't expect to be back to my car until it was time to head home. Yikes! Still, I didn't let myself feel anxious. Instead I walked around, watched the band practice, tailgated, thoroughly enjoyed the game, tailgated again, and went shopping downtown. At the very end, I got drowsy, and returned to my car at 7pm. Ten-and-a-half hours without a nap! This is the longest I have been awake in weeks.

The trip home was a bit tough, but not bad. I sleep right then in the car, of course, and also stopped in a rest area on I-75 as well as a gas station in Urbana on US-68. There was also a break for food at a Waffle House up near Toledo. Yum!

I tried to take a series of naps after getting back to make up for my big break of sleep, but after three or four I gave in and took a long sleep. It's clear I don't always have the willpower upon getting up from a nap to shake off whatever sleepiness remains. This is the biggest signal that I'm not "built for" a polyphasic lifestyle; I have a hard time coming out of a sleep cycle.

The same thing happened last night. Again, I took a long sleep. At this point, on Monday morning, I'm not sure whether I'm going to take this opportunity to go monophasic or try to keep up with the naps and shift back to polyphasic sleeping.