Polyphasic Sleep Experiment Day 2

My friend Dan asked me to talk about the hardest part of the day which is the 1-5AM portion. Technically I'm not there yet but its rapidly approaching and so I figured I'd talk about what has gone on since the last post and my plans for dealing with the rest of the night.

Today has not been as difficult as I'd imagined. This morning from 5-7AM was really tough, I was struggling to stay awake even as I was writing my first post on this experiment. My brother and I finally decided to take a walk out in the woods a little after 7AM and that did wonders for me. I became much more alert after our walk and remained so throughout the day.

We took our 10:30-11PM nap. My brother woke me up from a dream so thats a good sign, I'm hitting REM sleep which is important for this to work right. I don't remember my dream though so its not ideal. From what I've read before I should be remembering dreams. I think that may take a day or two more but I'm not entirely sure. There is not much to read on Dymaxion Sleep cycles so we're basing a lot of what we're doing off the uberman cycle.

I'm feeling pretty good right now, a slight headache and some minor fatigue.

I've been keeping myself busy with art during the night cycle. I started this one last night and have been working on it during the day when I feel like it. Its a little more complex than I should be doing most likely because it gets overwhelming at times and causes me to rest, which led me to nodding off a bit last night. I haven't had that yet tonight so I'll keep pushing it until it seems like its becoming unproductive.

We just put together some raw food recipes. From what we've read it seems that eating well is a key to success in this process. We made some raw doughnut holes which are comprised of Brazil nuts, oats, aguave nectar and cocoanut oil. Incredibly good and healthy... Thats what always blows me away about raw foods, such complex wonderful flavors and yet the healthiest meals you can possibly consume!

We also decided to make a walnut pesto for a topping or dressing or even dip. It just seemed flexible and practical and wasn't too complex as to make it frustrating. I do find myself getting easily frustrated because my wits are not entirely about me. I'm more clumsy than normal, I was dropping things all over the kitchen cause I can't seem to stay really focused like I'm used to.

Both recipes turned out great but took under an hour to make so we have to figure out how to pass some serious time before our next nap at 4:30AM. We're planning to do some raw potato pancakes for breakfast. They take about 3 hours in the dehydrator so we'll probably start those around 3AM so they're ready at 7. Making breakfast for dad, pretty funny to be cooking all through the night but its a nice way to pass the time and it gives us a lot of healthy foods for tomorrow which is supposed to be the worst day in the adjustment period.

My brother had a really difficult time after our walk. We have been trying to figure it out and the only thing we can think is that he ate some tic taks after our walk whereas I had broccoli soup. I was feeling great all through the day, I ended up telling him to nap around 1 because he was literally falling asleep every few seconds. I would wake him up, he'd say something and then within five seconds he'd be snoring again.

He took a half hour nap, then another when he didn't feel refreshed. That helped a lot and he has seemed energetic ever since. I think it was a good thing to happen because it showed us we can add naps if we need in order to keep the experiment running. I've already told myself that I will allow a nap through tonight if needed. Its seeming pretty likely as I'm very tired compared to how I've felt most of the day.

Its about 12:30 now so we have a long way to go before we make pancakes or get another scheduled nap. I'm going to try and work on my painting for a while and see if that can keep me going. I'll do an update later, either tomorrow after my walk or tonight if I'm feeling energetic. I don't want to force the writing cause it seems to cause me to get more tired. Reading especially is hard so this is just stream of conscious  I don't want to do any reading or revising because it just takes too much concentration and that is something I'm severely lacking right now.