This is the second day since my oversleeping, but the 6th day overall of my attempt at adjusting to a Polyphasic sleep schedule.
So far, things have been easier than expected. I’ve only had a few times that I’ve been drunkenly drowsy. The rest of the time I feel about as rested as if I had slept a normal night. Except that it doesn’t last as long, and I am usually getting tired about 30 minutes before naptime.
Nighttimes are the hardest times. Things are quiet and it’s easy to get comfortable. Plus, the combination of darkness and my habitual day-night rythm bekons me to sleep. This is also the time I’ve selected to do my work, so it’s been pretty difficult to sit at the computer. I’ve had to augment my hours by making sure I do some during the day as well. Which is just as well because my 2 night blocks only gives me about 6-7 hours of work time, plus the afternoons line up better for communications back with the home office.
I’ve managed to adjust my appetite and eating schedule so that I’m not constantly binging, and that I’m eating roughly the same times I used to, allowing for fasting time during the night. I’ve also adjusted my diet to include more fruits and vegetables, and less meats. With the exception of the chicken/bacon/cheddar dish with honey mustard sauce we made for dinner tonight. Yum! I’m also avoiding caffeine and alcohol. For the most part.
This morning, during my 5:30 nap, I had my first really vivid dream. Many people report having vivid dreams on this schedule. This is a good sign, because it indicates that my body is adapting, and I’m hitting that REM sleep. But it’s not quite there yet, so I woke mid-dream to find myself even more groggy than usual. I think that my body managed to get into sleep mode, but had trouble shifting gears so quickly to being awake again. A little more time and I’ll get there.
The additional free time has been just enough to reduce my overall stress level, and allow me to slow down and enjoy things a bit more. At night I struggle to find activities to pass the time and still keep awake without waking up the wife or the dog. During the day, I haven’t had as much time as I first thought, because my main problem had been that I already had little time between activities in which to work, so this frees up those small blocks, allowing me to work at night. Rather than giving me large blocks of daylight free time, this has really just relaxed my days, and allowing me to take a block of time here and there. Especially on days when I’m not tutoring.
As far as athletics go, I am noticing a decrease in performance. Today my kicks were sluggish, though my flexibility was much better. I’m pretty sore, but that could be more due to the constant hours on the couch, and the fact that I didn’t exercise at all last week, combined with resuming my exercise this week. So it may not be a direct result of the sleep schedule. Though I’m pretty sure my sluggishness was due to my being physically tired. I’m hoping that will pass as I progress through the adjustment phase.
Schedulewise, the naps have not been in conflict with much. I have a few tight squeezes here and there, but no blatant conflicts. Though in order to play volleyball on Thursday nights, I might have to find a quiet nook in the school for a nap, but I can probably use Jess’ office for this. And the great thing is that I only need to tuck in for 30 minutes, which is exactly the amount of time I have to wait between tutoring and volleyball. Kinda nice how that all works out, eh?
