Polyphasic Sleep
Well, it's kinda just hit me. On Monday night I promised I would join a friend in his attempts at Polyphasic Sleep. You can read about some others who have tried it here and here.



I initially heard about this almost simultaneously from Will and Ben a few weeks back. Thought it was an interesting idea, but not much more. The kind of thing Steve would do. Well, he doesn't seem interested, so maybe I can be tougher than he is at something hehehehe. Anyway, back to it.



I went to look at beds the other day. I went to 'Beds for Backs' in Kings Way, as I have a stuffed back (long story - I'll spare you). Decent beds for about $2K, with supports to keep your spine in the right position while you sleep. Latex ones for about $3.5K. Compare this with a normal queen for around $1K of similar quality. Hmmm... so stuff to think about. Then I got thinking that my back is actually pretty good during the day now, thanks to a drug cocktail and (somewhat) improved diet and exercise (or any of the above). So all that remains is sleeping. So solution = buy a decent bed.



Or maybe... just maybe solution = sleep less! I toyed with the idea of 2 x 4-hour sleep blocks. Perhaps I could achieve the same results but maintaining other potentially beneficial sleep phases. But scheduling that is a bitch. You essentially have to spread it 8 hours apart (sleep2.start - sleep1.end) or its irregular. And by definition that means losing a 4 hour chunk in your day. Doing more with daytime was a large reason behind leaving my full time job. So out with that one.

4 x 2 hours doesn't really help much more either. And that's assuming such systems even work. So, here it goes, I am now officially embarking on a 1,5,9 sleep schedule. My next sleep will be at 1:00am, for half an hour. I will then sleep for 30 minutes every 4 hours thereafter and blog my progress. I am meeting Will at 2am in the city. We shall keep each other accountable.



So what do I hope to get out of this?

• Eliminate Procrastination



• Fix my back



• Eliminate 'huge meals'



• Achieve heighten states of awareness and brain activity



• Personal Challenge

Eliminate Procrastination

I figure that a large part of procrastination is the 'tomorrow factor': Why do today what you can put off 'til tomorrow? Well, what if there is no tomorrow? I believe very strongly in motivating forces - agency & expectency theories; all that stuff. So what if I simply eliminate the ability to put things off until tomorrow; the ability to temporarily remove them from my conscience whilst I sleep? If I procrastinate on this schedule, I'll go nuts. That creates a disincentive to do it . Besides, with at least 8 hours a day of likely solitude, it will be much harder to fill those gaps with social interaction, shopping, errands, sending business e-mails, etc. when nobody will be around to respond.



In any case, I've found that my most productive days are those with rigid meetings/deadlines set at certain times, with time in between limited to a few hours at most. So having to sleep after every 3.5 hours of work should heighten this effect and 'force' greater adherence to goals. Trust me, it will work (at least for me) .



Fix my back

I can currently lie for a few hours without hurting my back at all, almost regardless of position. As my chiro said, '8 hours of lying down is going to be bad for your back no matter what'. I tried the mid-sleep walk (get up and stretch), but it didn't seem to help. So if sleep.maxtime=30, hopefully I won't have any problems... as long as sleep time is not filled with sitting at computer time, of which I already have too much! I'll have to do more midnight walks. It will be just like college!

(We needed blogs back then!)



Eliminate huge meals

Well, being awake more should facilate more meal times of less intensity. I should also be able to burn off 'dinner' more easily. A positive side-effect, I hope.



Be more alert (basically)

Others have reported increased awareness, energy and processing capacity. I've been feeling like a slug lately. I thought it was lack of decent food, and that is certainly a large part, but it's not the whole story. Neither is exercise. During times when I've largely fixed such things, alertness has still been temporary. Higher quality sleep and the eventual inability to awake from non-REM sleep should mean that sleep-induced grogginess should be eliminated. Let's see...



Personal Challenge

Nothing I'm doing is challenging at the moment. Business plans are mainly talk at the moment. Waterfront IT isn't and isn't intended to be an all-consuming passion. Uni is just an intellectual exercise. Physical exercise is just something to do. Socialising is a very 'now' thing. But what about the future? I believe this is the first step towards achieving in general; both intrinsically and at a meta level. i.e. The benefits of polyphasic sleep should help achieve in general, and the process of acclimatising to it should set my motivation, drive and ability to execute into gear as well.



Besides, I have to be stronger than Will

(And publically humiliate myself if I fail heheheh)



Well, that's it for now. Officially decided not to sleep monophasically as of Wednesday 15 Feb @ 11:32pm AEST. Time for some non-computer entertainment for the next hour prior to sleep #1.



DRK