A chronicle of the adaptation to a more conscious life.
Becoming Everyman
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Day 12
Well, the first day on the new schedule went well. It was pretty difficult to wake up from the core though. In fact, it took well over an hour before I really woke up completely. During that hour I went for a mile walk, had a hot and cold shower, and ate breakfast. I was still feeling groggy after all that...
Once the grogginess wore off I felt pretty good. All of the naps were a lock and every one felt really refreshing. On two of the naps though, I slept the entire 20 minutes, which made waking up from the nap a little more difficult than usual. Most of the time I would wake up several minutes before the alarm.
Considering that the oversleeps that led to the schedule change weren't but a few hours each and that there were only two, I should be feeling beat if this schedule wasn't already meeting my sleep needs. I might be surprised, but I don't think it will get any more difficult than this and should get progressively better as I get used to waking from the core sleep. Other than the groggy period after the core this morning I've felt about 9/10 all day.
I started out intending to do the core sleep at 11pm, but Alex pointed out that there would be much less chance of a social conflict if we did it at 3am so we are moving it to that slot, starting tonight. It will be interesting to see what the next few days brings in terms of adaptation. If I can just get the post core wakeup time down to something reasonable I would be pretty happy with how this feels already.
Day 11 - Change of Course
By early morning I was having major problems again with sleep dep. Not that that was unexpected since we had reset the adaptation with the day 10 sleep in, but I guess I was hoping it wouldn't be as bad as before.
I suppose we could just tough it out, but I have to go back to work on Monday (I've had the last week off) and I don't think they would appreciate me showing up with severe narcolepsy, so I decided to switch to Everyman with a 1.5 hour core. I'm hoping that since we were so close to uberman adaptation the addition of ANY core sleep will seem like unbounded luxury.
The addition of a 1.5 hour core at 7am today removed all of the sleep dep symptoms for me and I felt pretty good all day. It was a bear to wake up from though, I'll have to work on the timing there I think... The ongoing plan is to put the core at 11pm-12:30pm.
Alex was originally going to continue on with the uberman schedule, but he started having trouble later today and fell asleep a couple of times. Enough to throw his adaptation to the wind probably, so he will be joining me on the new schedule.
I haven't seen too many accounts of people doing Everyman 1.5, so this will be interesting. We will maintain all 5 of the other naps for the time being so it really isn't too much of a change in schedule for us, just an extension of one nap. If we get to a point where we are comfortable dropping one of the daytime naps there really won't be much difference in waking time from uberman.
We will try to do this through the end of the month before we modify anything though. If we get non-functional we'll extend to Everyman 3, but I would like make a best effort on this one.
Serious respect to ANYONE who is able to pull off uberman...
Day 10
After fighting some serious sleep deprivation all night we finally talked ourselves into a core sleep/controlled crash and slept for 5 hours. We had both been completely useless for the entire evening and it didn't seem to be getting any better. We tried inserting a couple of extra 20 minute naps to no avail. Previously these sleep dep periods would last a couple of hours and then clear up, but not this time.
Maybe it was just the lack of higher brain function, but we decided we would let ourselves one major sleep and then resume the schedule. It may completely torpedo the effort, but I don't really think it will.
My theory, based on what I've read and experienced, is that the first uberman adaptation happens in about 5 days and you learn to drop quickly to REM sleep during a nap. This keeps you from going insane. You still get massively tired though because you need more than just REM sleep. The second adaptation is where you learn to drop quickly into other phases of sleep when you need to. I think this phase is what we are in and what accounts for the horrifying sleepiness. This probably completes in about two to three weeks, going by Claudio Stampi's experiments.
This might be the main difference between Uberman and Everyman, in fact. Everyman probably doesn't really need the second adaptation since the other phases of sleep can be had during the core. Uberman has no choice.
This crash won't unravel our phase one adaptation. It will probably reset the phase two adaptation somewhat, but I doubt all the way. I guess we'll find out...
Observations so far
Taking stock of our experience so far I've come to the following realizations:
1) It's really easy to overdo the exercise thing. Our first response to tiredness or sleep dep has been to go for a walk, run, bike ride, or swim. We're beat. We need to lighten up a little.
2) You are building up a sleep debt while you adapt and there is no way to pay it back as long as you stick rigorously to the schedule. We are scheduling extra naps, an alternative would be to allow one or two "catch up" cores.
3) We've been mostly napping with the Placebo track. We haven't had any oversleeps and always wake up when it ends. It does seem to make it so I don't remember my dreams though. I'm sure I'm dreaming and getting REM sleep or I wouldn't be at all functional. I remember several dreams each time I nap without the track, but I don't wake up as refreshed.
4) I've been mostly sleeping in a comfy reclining chair. When I nap in the bed I feel like I sleep better, but wake up groggy, probably from sleeping too deeply. In the chair I usually wake up spontaneously before the nap is even over. In the bed I never do.
5) Caffeine and alchohol in moderate quantities are inconsequential for us. At times I've consumed pharmaceutical quantities of Diet Coke with no ill effects. I haven't had more than one beer in any period (and none in the vast majority) but I haven't seen any problems there either. I suspect a good bender would throw things off though.
6) I'm baffled by all the alarm clock business I read. We haven't had any trouble at all waking up at the end of naps and I haven't used anything but the Placebo track or my iPhone timer. Alex, on the other hand, might have trouble on his own. I've found him still comatose with the Russian Techno at the end of Placebo blasting away.
7) This is going to rock when we get it dialed in :-)
Day 9
Things were kind of hit and miss today. Alex was having trouble staying awake earlier in the day and I felt very tired as well. We kept adding the extra nap at the two hour mark for a couple of periods and now we are feeling much better.
We also tried shortening the nap time to 18 minutes. This results in us feeling much more refreshed when we wake. I think we were getting past the REM phase and burrowing into deep sleep before we woke so we felt groggy. When that happens it can take hours before we feel alert again.
I'm beginning to think we might need to allow a longer nap every now and then too. Something on the order of 30-45 minutes. The tricky part is that this extra time needs to be on one of the naps that skips the REM sleep at the beginning and goes straight to deep sleep. This is all speculation of course, and the only way to figure it out is to experiment a bit.
We are still going to stick as closely to the normal 4 hour schedule with our new 18 minute naps until at least the end of the second week, maybe the third. The early experimentation is only born out of frustration.
Day Eight
Bugger! Just as we thought we were about to break through we get sleep deprivation symptoms during the day.
Alex was a zombie all day long. Naps seemed to have no effect on him. It didn't matter what we did to try to wake him up, showers, bike rides, walks, exercise, food, nothing worked. Sometimes he would feel a little better while we were doing an activity like riding bikes, but as soon as we stopped he was falling asleep on his feet again.
I wasn't in quite as bad a shape, but I couldn't concentrate at all for the entire day. I felt tired, and my legs and feet were really sore. It wasn't difficult making it between naps, but it didn't feel real productive.
We think part of the problem for Alex is that he tried to catch two naps in a row in the car when he was out with some friends. Even though he was able to lay down and rest he didn't really sleep. That probably put him in significant debt.
I think that as we have adapted we have built up a sleep debt and even though we are getting good naps they would be just enough to maintain, not enough to pay off the existing debt. That is best case, and we really aren't at best case yet. In fact, remembering what we have read on other blogs, it seems like a crash around day 8-10 is pretty normal. We've decided to increase the nap frequency until we feel better by doing an extra nap at the two hour mark in each period. We'll add the extra naps as long as we are tired.
We did a couple of extra naps today and it didn't seem like we were catching up, but when we went swimming late at night we left the pool feeling refreshed and like the morning shifts wouldn't be horrible. Also, my legs and feet feel much better after spending a little time in the whirlpool.
Day Seven
Hey, no sleep deprived low points during the night. The worst I felt was about how you would normally feel if you had been up 24 hours, a little tired and sleepy, but not that knocked out single digit IQ feeling of the past couple of nights.
I was able to concentrate pretty well, in general. The biggest obstacle is dry eyes. I'm going to get some different eye drops today and see if that helps.
Alex was alert all night as well. I guess that means we have both made it through the roughest part of the transition. I'm sure there will be more challenges, but steady improvement in alertness levels and cognitive ability should be the order of the day.
I can't imagine how anyone can make it through the transition without a buddy. You really need someone to provide a sanity check and watch to make sure you don't nod off. There is no way either of us would have made it this far without the other.
As it is we have a nearly perfect execution of the schedule so far. Alex had one crash of about 15 minutes where I found him asleep on the floor and I had a couple of moments nodding off on the couch that couldn't have totaled more than a few minutes. No missed naps, no oversleeps, and now it's paying off..
Day Six
Last night was another rough one for both of us. The sleep dep hit Alex first. He got up from his 11:30 pm nap and moved about for 30 minutes or so and then must have sat down in the floor to do something (tie his shoes, read, play PSP...) A few minutes later I went into his room to tell him something and found him asleep on the floor. He had no idea how it happened and was really having a hard time staying awake so he got in the shower and started cycling hot and cold and I made him some tea to drink under the cold shower. He was better after that and fine after his next nap at 3:30 am.
My turn came after my 3 am nap. I was ok for about 20 minutes and then it started hitting me. Not as bad as last night, but bad enough. We went out for a walk, which helped some, but when we came back it was into the shower with me.
The hot/cold cycling shower with contrasting drink is a really excellent tool for fighting sleep deprivation. It has worked for us every time we tried it. Drinking a hot drink in a cold shower makes it easier to stand in the cold shower longer and the contrast really stimulates your nervous system.
After the shower I felt good enough to sit and watch TV without falling asleep, but I wasn't able to do anything productive until after the next nap at 7 am.
Once the sun was up I felt alert and productive. No real problems during the day. Now if we could just get past the sleep deprivation stage...
Day Five
After the 11pm nap last night I started feeling really sleep deprived. It was almost impossible to keep from falling asleep in place. We decided to go to the club and swim a little to pass the time. The drive to the club was really difficult in terms of staying alert, but once in the hot tub and pool things evened out a little. Unfortunately it didn’t last and I was alreay back in the pit on the drive home. I toughed it out till 3am figuring the nap might fix it.
Wrong! I woke from the 3am nap still in the same shape. The put it in perspective, I had difficulty keeping my balance walking down the road. We walked for about an hour, but it was becoming clear to me that I wasn’t going to make it to the next nap intact without some drastic action.
Alex told me to get in the shower and alternate between full on hot and cold, holding the cold as long as I could stand it. When I was running hot water he handed me an iced orange juice, and when I was running cold he handed me hot tea. A few cycles at about 1-2 minutes per phase and I was feeling much more alert. We did some exercises and then watched an episode of Dexter. I almost can’t believe it, but I’m only 8 minutes away from the next nap at 7am.
Alex's help was huge. I'm convinced I wouldn't have made it through this event without his help. We've been nearly perfect at the naps so far with no oversleeps and hitting the start time within 10 minutes so it would have been a real waste to have a setback at this stage.
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The 7am nap went pretty well. I woke up just a little groggy and made the mistake of sitting on the couch too long and sort of drifted off, but I wasn't out but for a minute or two so I don't think there is any damage to the schedule.
Day Four
We went for a swim and soaked in the hot tub at the 24 hour fitness last night at midnight. It really made me feel a lot better for a while, but it wore off by the time we got home. Still, it used up a couple of hours of a very difficult slice. I have a feeling that having a pool and workout room available at all hours will be very valuable.
Watched an awesome Thai martial arts movie, “Chocolate”. Alex was having a lot of trouble staying awake during the movie, even though it was pretty exciting, and I had to keep poking him when he seemed ready to slip away. This seemed to pass for him after about an hour and he became more alert.
At 8am we went on a 25 mile bike ride that lasted till nearly 10:30. Since neither of us are real bicyclists these days that was a major effort. I'm sure we'll be feeling the effects for a couple of days.
I felt pretty alert most of the day. My eyes even improved a little in terms of dryness. After the 3pm nap (which I woke up from after 15 minutes) I felt a little more tired though. The 7pm nap occurred in the car at a restaurant since our dinner plans fell over nap time. I think I short changed the nap a little because of the environment and I also did it about 10 minutes early.
Felt groggy this evening, but no real trouble staying awake so I went out for a walk around the neighborhood with Kerrill.
Day Three
Alex and I did the some stretching and exercise this morning at about 1:30am. After the 3am nap I was feeling a little tired so we went for a walk which really did a lot to wake us up and make that period pass fairly easily.
I thought I had some very small dreams during my 7pm nap today which would indicate I was beginning to adapt, but I feel really tired after the 11pm nap. The next four hours are going to be rough I suspect.
I’ve been eating way too much junk. We ended up with a bag of chips and some beer which made it's way into the mix. I didn't have but one beer, and I think I'll keep it fairly infrequent and not have more than one in a sleep period until after the adaptation is fairly complete, but I'm not buying into the conventional wisdom that you need to completely avoid caffeine and alcohol to be successful at this schedule. I'm continuing to consume Diet Coke as well and it doesn't really seem to affect my sleeping much. That will be something I'll be monitoring though and if REM sleep seems difficult to come by I may have to cut back.
I feel muscularly tired. Walking tonight didn’t really make me feel refreshed like it did the previous night. Chilling and watching TV didn’t really help my muscles recover either.
Found my Erlang book tonight. If I can concentrate I might try to read it. Holy crap I feel beat though. It’s going to be a long time till 3am if I don’t shake some of this feeling.
Day Two
First day is almost done, a little sleepy at this point. Trying to work on a personal programming project, but concentration is a little hard to come by. I think I’ll go swim and sit in the hot tub. Maybe it will loosen up my back.
Work went ok, no real problems concentrating. I felt only slightly sleep deprived, since this is the first day without a full night's sleep.
Day One
I slept 6 hours last night 12:30 - 6:30. My naps at 11am and 3pm went ok, if a bit shallow, naps at 7pm and 11pm went the full time, but no real sleep. This is really to be expected at this point I suppose.
My back has been tight the whole day. Also a bit of neck/headache pain. It is way to early for any of this to be attributable to the sleep thing. I must have just jimmied things up by sleeping on it funny during my normal sleep.
Day Zero
Alex and I start the adaptation tomorrow. My work schedule allows me enough flexibility to believe the nap schedule won't be an issue. In general I can just shut my office door for 20 minutes during the day and I'm unlikely to be disturbed. To the rest of the company it will be no different from when I have a long phone call that needs freedom from interruption.
Wednesday will be day one. We will be doing the uberman schedule which consists of 6 naps of 20 minutes each evenly spaced. My son, Alex, is going to do this with me and I think having a partner will be a great help. Alex is 19. I don't think I would recommend this for someone much younger. Still, his energy will be needed at times.
Thursday will be my last day of work before July 4th and I've taken the next week off to allow time for the adaptation. I should be fully adapted by the time I need to go back to work. Thursday will only have one night of napping, so the effects shouldn't be too onerous.
As a precursor I decided to try to do all the naps today even though I plan to sleep a normal night tonight. Mostly a habit forming exercise, I didn't really expect much. As it turned out I was able to sleep during the 11am and 3pm naps, but not at 7pm.
I took a swim (2250 yd) after work at 6:00 so the 7pm nap was about 10 minutes late.
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