Averaging 5.0 hours/night.

I have been tracking my hours using "Sleep Tracker". The interface is easy and quick. The gap in the data is from my 5 night white-water canoe trip, and the following 2 days where I had switched to a (semi) monophasic pattern. Overall, since April 5th, I have averaged 5.0 hours a night. 

A little inconsistant, but getting there.

You might notice that on the 22nd of April, I shifted my morning nap from 5:30 to 4:30. That is because, with the lengthening day light it was starting to get too bright, and had concerns about my circadian rhythm being reset by the morning sun. 

I also notice from looking at this chart, that there is a clear penalty for inconsistency. For example on May 7th, I did not get home from a party until 1:00am. I functioned fine throughout the day, but paid for it last evening, sleeping 2 1/2 hours even though I went to bed at my usual time. On April 24th, I did not get my afternoon nap until 5:30pm, and slept through the night on the 25th. A short afternoon nap on April 19th is followed by a long evening nap.

I would likely have stronger gains (shorter overall sleep times) if I stayed more consistant. On the other hand, the inconsistencies arise from a desire to not let my schedule completely dictate my social life. In general, I am apparently willing to pay the average 10 days/year (.5 hrs/day) penalty to have an active social life. 

It will be interesting to see whether I can make my sleep schedule more consistant in the future through better planning, or whether these inconsistencies are going to naturally arise from my priorities of interfacing with the real world.

Delicious fiddleheads

I always enjoy this time of year. Spring is really, truly here. The earth smells alive and things are starting to green up. The apple trees are just starting to leaf out and the trilliums are in full bloom, but what has me all excited is that the first fiddleheads are up. For those of you that are not from New England, fiddleheads are a spring delicacy. While many ferns have the tightly coiled shoots that look like the decorative carving that adorns the end of the fiddle, when Mainers are discussing fiddleheads, they inevitable mean the young ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris. These are commonly wild-harvested in late April and early May.

I think that these ferns are one of the most underrated perennial edible. They transplant easily, they have no natural pests, and they are very low maintenance. They grow seasonally to about 5 feet tall and will spread to about 6 feet wide, although you can plant them about 3 ft on center and they will do better, shading out all competitors. The fiddleheads are delicious. They tastes something like spinach or asparagus but with a deeper, woodsy taste from the tanins. The important thing to keep in mind when you are looking to plant them is that they are riparian and require a place that is wet to very wet in the spring. They do not have to be wet all year, although they can take it, and they are not drought tolerant. They like part sun or dappled sun. In full sun they tend to be out-competed by grasses. They are often found in the company of blackberry brambles, and they grow well together as long as the brambles reigned in every few years.

a fiddlehead recipes to get you started:


Scollops and Fiddlehead Medley

1 pound fiddleheads
6 ounces linguine, uncooked
6 cups water
1-3/4 pounds fresh scollops
1 tablespoon oil
2/3 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup green pepper, diced
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced (wild mushrooms are fantastic with fiddleheads)
1 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon celery seed
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Bring about 3-4 quarts of water to a boil for fiddleheads. While waiting for water, prep other veggies.
Boil fiddleheads for 10 minutes, drain and set aside.
Put on water for pasta. Saute onions and mushrooms until about half done. Add other vegetables and braise. 
Cook pasta as directed. 
Add herbs, scollops and fiddleheads to the braise.
Serve hot on pasta and dash with lemon.

Serves 6.

I am not good at monophasic sleeping anymore.

Just got back from a 5 night white-water canoe-camping trip with some friends. It would have inconvenienced the group to work around my afternoon nap and there is not much to do during the night, so I synced my schedule with the others and switched to monophasic sleeping. I was surprised to find that I had some real trouble moving back to a monophasic pattern. Although I was dead tired each night from a combination of hard paddling, very cold water (there was still snow on the ground in places), and several days of grey drizzle - I did not sleep through the night. I would go to sleep early (about 9:30 or 10:00) I would wake up at about 2:30 or 3:00 am and lightly drowze or read for about two hours, falling asleep in the early pre-dawn. I would wake up again, well after everyone else, around 7:00 am. So I was sleeping for a total of about 7 or 8 hours per day.


When I got back home, I tried to take my afternoon nap, but did not really sleep. I set my alarm that evening to go back to tri-phasic sleep. I awoke at my regular time of 12:30 am, but had a hard time waking all the way up. My vivid dream of navigating white-water conditions continued even as I was turning of my alarm and getting dressed. This half-awake, half-dream state was intense and bizarre. After 5 or so minutes of this I made the assumption that my mind was not done processing muscle memory of the trip, I went back to sleep, and slept soundly through the night waking at about 8:00 am.


I took a full 90 minute nap yesterday afternoon, and had no problem waking from my evening nap.


It looks like I am back into my normal triphasic schedule again.