Day 6

My friend and I ran the St. George River Race this weekend, placing 2nd. I have been wondering how this sleep schedule would affect extreme physical performance. We shaved a considerable amount off our time (compared to last year), and I had excellent endurance, reflexes and focus. We finished at about 12:30, and by the time we had loaded the canoe and gear and I had driven home it was about 2:00pm, so I was a half-hour late for my afternoon sleep and really feeling it. I decided to just let my body do what it wanted and did not set an alarm. I woke some time later, and decided to lounge in bed and drifted off again. When I finally woke up and checked the time I found that it was 3:32. I had "overslept" by 2 minutes. I think that the first time I woke up must have been after the first 45 minute cycle, which is when I have typically been waking up in the afternoon. So I felt like I had spent a lazy and luxurious "morning" in bed, all within my proscribed 90 minute nap.

While I am going to continue posting my experiences, this, along with other things, has convinced me that the "experiment" is a success. Unless there are unforeseen issues down the road, I am going to keep this pattern indefinitely.

One of the other bonuses that I have noticed - which seem to be completely counter to all the other polyphasic sleep blogs that I have read - is that I am thinking and moving much faster. I have been having this weird, but pleasant, time-dilation thing. For example, I often wash the dishes as I am waiting for my coffee to brew. I know from experience that washing the dishes in the morning takes about 12-15 minutes. Over the course of this experiment I will find that I have finished washing the morning dishes and that my coffee is not ready - it will have only been about 3-4 minutes. This has been happening a lot with a number of different activities. I think it is related to the mindful focus phenomenon that I mentioned before.