Over the last month, I have had some mixed results. During the beginning of the month, I was observing my nap times pretty strictly, falling asleep faster and had dropped my schedule from 3x90 a day to 3x80 a day, and then occasionally 2x80 + a 45 minute nap for the afternoon nap. I had plenty of energy, mental alertness, and physically felt great.
Then on May 20th, I badly injured my shoulder in a fall.
I immediately started sleeping more. This was not a conscious decision, but an immediate bodily response to the pain. I still stayed polyphasic, and I was still waking easily at roughly the regular times, but I was basically laid up on the couch and spent my time reading and drowsing. On a related note, last month I received a note from Piotr Wozniak, who told me that my post on sleep not being needed for muscle is untrue, and that while they are able to repair themselves during any sort of low-activity/rest phase, the catabolic and anabolic cycles are hooked onto the undisrupted circadian cycle. Breaking one's night's sleep disrupts those hormonal changes and results in a slower recovery from exercise and injury. I have not looked into the science of this yet, but experientially, it seems to be true.
During this period of recovery, I did intentionally do some standard triphasic 3x90 days. For example, I have been driving up to see my Grandmother every other Tuesday, and it works well to drive up during the night, take a nap, visit, nap, and then drive back. But my priority has been on healing my shoulder.
While it is not yet better, it is now (mostly) not in pain, and I have moved back to my triphasic sleeping pattern. One of the things that I enjoy about this pattern, as I have said before, is how easy it is to slide back and forth between circadian triphasic and the more typical monophasic pattern. The triphasic does seem to get more efficient the longer that I (rigorously) on it, but the immediate gain of only sleeping 4.5 hrs is very nice.
Then on May 20th, I badly injured my shoulder in a fall.
Reenactment of my injury.
I immediately started sleeping more. This was not a conscious decision, but an immediate bodily response to the pain. I still stayed polyphasic, and I was still waking easily at roughly the regular times, but I was basically laid up on the couch and spent my time reading and drowsing. On a related note, last month I received a note from Piotr Wozniak, who told me that my post on sleep not being needed for muscle is untrue, and that while they are able to repair themselves during any sort of low-activity/rest phase, the catabolic and anabolic cycles are hooked onto the undisrupted circadian cycle. Breaking one's night's sleep disrupts those hormonal changes and results in a slower recovery from exercise and injury. I have not looked into the science of this yet, but experientially, it seems to be true.
During this period of recovery, I did intentionally do some standard triphasic 3x90 days. For example, I have been driving up to see my Grandmother every other Tuesday, and it works well to drive up during the night, take a nap, visit, nap, and then drive back. But my priority has been on healing my shoulder.
While it is not yet better, it is now (mostly) not in pain, and I have moved back to my triphasic sleeping pattern. One of the things that I enjoy about this pattern, as I have said before, is how easy it is to slide back and forth between circadian triphasic and the more typical monophasic pattern. The triphasic does seem to get more efficient the longer that I (rigorously) on it, but the immediate gain of only sleeping 4.5 hrs is very nice.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI know this is an old post, but I just discovered this blog through some random google search tunnels when looking into my own recent sleep changes and diet changes... I began working mostly overnights a few months ago, and found that I really enjoyed that schedule. I'm in my mid-twenties, and not an alcoholic because I don't crave it, but when I was working a "normal" schedule, I would be out with my friends on weekend nights and was always too impulsive to not get drunk with them (I have ADHD, this has always been an issue for me when it comes to anything fun, be it alcohol or cigarettes, or throwing myself way too far into hobbies such as baking or gardening and spending too much money and ignoring other obligations). Because of my schedule change, I suddenly wasn't around when other people were out and drinking - only when other people were up for breakfast hehe. Drinking was no longer fun, so I basically only have a beer or two a week at most now, during my "weekend". It became really easy to slip into a 5-6 hour a night sleep schedule, and I found myself with tons more energy.
The reason I was doing research on it tonight (of course I've done plenty of reading about it already) was that I overdid it a bit while weeding the garden last week and got light pulls in both of my hamstrings. I usually deal well with muscle pain, so I went about it normally (a bit of rest and massage, and an epsom bath) and went to my job as a waiter for the next three days... by the end of it, I was so exhausted and in so much pain, I could barely function, and was having terrible breakthrough ADHD symptoms. This happened before once in college - I enrolled in a strength training class, suddenly increased my use of certain muscles without building up to it, and what do you know, my medication wasn't working any more! The past work week was so bad, I was afraid that I might get written up just for general crappiness. Part of the reason was that my body seemed to be demanding sleep, but I hadn't made time for it, so I kept waking up at the last minute, showing up a little late, not being totally prepared, etc. etc. And then when I got home, I didn't have any energy to do my normal stuff, so my house got messy, I spent too much money eating out instead of cooking, etc. etc. My stress and anxiety were through the roof! And yet I couldn't do anything to fix it, because all I wanted to do was sleep.
When I finally had a few days off, the first day I slept for 9 hours, woke up with no pain in my legs. I ended up doing more weeding - I knew I shouldn't start again so soon, but the yard really is out of control and I want to finish it already. I was already in some pain before I went to bed. The next day (this past "night" for me) I slept for TWELVE HOURS. Woke up with virtually no pain. Feel great. I plan on going right back to my 5-6 hours a "night" (I can't feasibly do polyphasic sleep cycles with my schedule, plus my body seems to naturally gravitate toward a 22 waking/6 sleeping cycle for a weird "28 hour" day), but the next time I have an injury, I will definitely make sure I indulge myself with a nice long sleep.