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Friday was the first day I was able to significantly ratchet down my total sleep. I was under four hours for the day and feeling pretty good and that continued into Saturday.

Saturday

Saturday was the best day I’ve had so far with a total of seven 30 minute naps.

Saturday Sleep

3am-3:30am
7am-7:30am
9:30am-10am
11:10am-11:40am
3pm-3:30pm
7pm-7:30pm
11pm-11:30pm

Saturday Sleep Total 3h 30m

I added an extra nap in between my 7am and 11am naps because I was exhausted. From what I’ve read taking additional naps in the adaptation phase might help you to adapt quicker. Sleeping an extra planned nap is better than stretching too far and dosing off for a whole afternoon. It’s not like you’re blowing off any progress either. If you’re going from eight hours down to less than four, the extra half hour makes little difference.

I wish the tiredness had set in a different interval though. I’d rather take the extra nap during the night time so I’m not missing out on daytime hours. Maybe I can purposely schedule an extra nap for future days at 5am during this adaptation phase, so I can sleep more at night when the rest of the world is sleeping and not during the day.

After today I was feeling like I was on my way to being polyphasic.

Sunday

Then Sunday morning came and my doubts crept back in. After my first successful day where I had no oversleeping I had my 2nd big failure. On my Saturday 3am nap I forgot to set my alarm. I set it for 3:30am, but I didn’t have the correct day selected. I woke up at around 8am really frustrated. I can remember thinking when I first opened my eyes “sunlight, huh?”

I’m not treating this as a big deal at all. Just continuing forward.

Sunday Sleep

3a-8a oversleep
1p-1:30p
7p-7:30p
11p-11:30p

Sunday Sleep Total 6h 30min

I decided to skip a nap and move another one around because I had already messed up in the AM. I thought skipping one would help me get back on track quicker.

Discipline

One thing keeping me positive is that I’m not just giving up and crawling into bed. I went to bed at the correct time both times I overslept. I basically messed up because I didn’t know how to set a proper alarm.
It’s not a lack of discipline that’s causing my failure but instead a lack of mindfulness. I set my cell-phone alarm so all the days are selected now so that shouldn’t be a problem anymore. Having less details to think about while sleep deprived is probably better anyway.

From most of what I read on polyphasic sleep so far the adaptation period is the most difficult part. The more you oversleep and get off schedule the longer it takes to achieve adaptation. I’m not doing myself any favors by oversleeping, but I’m not discouraged at all. I’m going to keep trying until I get this down.

Benefits

I’m not fully adapted and still having some issues, but I’m still noticing some benefits. I’m enjoying the extra awake time. Although I haven’t been fully polyphasic and sleeping 3 hours a day I have been sleeping less hours total. I’ve been spending that extra time on writing. That’s been fun.

Since I started polyphasic sleep my mental chatter has turned waaay down. I feel like I’m being more present and focused on what I’m actually doing instead of constantly thinking and over-thinking. This happened when I first ate all raw foods too. My mental chatter going away helped me sleep better and to focus easier. I was in college at the time and remember feeling extra focused those first couple weeks raw. I wasn’t having any trouble falling asleep at all.

Falling asleep right away has been great too because before I started this I was having a lot of trouble falling asleep. That’s why I called my last post Insomnia Induced Polyphasic Sleep Trial. I wouldn’t be doing this if I hadn’t had so much trouble sleeping before.

Look for another update tomorrow.

Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts!
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Polyphasic Sleep Trial Update 1

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