Day 144, so nice to be back on schedule.

Back on schedule. As I wrote in my previous post, I had a little bit of trouble getting back on schedule. It turned out that I was a little under the weather. I am not sure what I was sick with, but it was some sort of mild flu-like malaise. I think that at this point in the experiment, I have to admit that the triphasic schedule does put some stress on my body - if my diet becomes sub-par, or I am a little run down with allergies, or have an injury, or stop exercising, or whatever, I start to become tired on this schedule. This seems to be the minimum sleep that I can get by on. When I am fit and healthy I have no problem maintaining this schedule, but if I am not at my peak, I seem to need to get a little extra sleep. The first method I try of adding in extra sleep is to make my evening nap a double cycle: ie, 180 minutes. Usually that seems to be enough, but if it is not, I sleep right through my night wake cycle, getting up at the usual time of 6:00 for my morning wake cycle. On day of that has been enough to get be back on track with only 2 exceptions since March - one exception was due to injury and one due to flu. On both occasions I slept throughout most of the day. Not including the days that I have slept in from injury or sickness, I have averaged 4.2 hrs a night. If I include the days that I have ended up "sleeping in", I have averaged 5.1 hrs of sleep per night since the end of March, when I started this. Before I did this experiment, I was averaging 8.2 hrs per night on average, so I have gained the equivalent of 28.25 days so far this year.

Triphasic sleeping is like having 

a discount time machine!

So, have I gotten an extra months worth of productive time? Certainly my projects have expanded to fill the extra time, and I really feel it when I go off schedule and only have 16 hrs in a day. I do a form of task tracking called "Getting things done (GTD)", and so I can compare what I have gotten done this year versus last year. Based on that, I would have to say that I probably gotten MORE than an extra months worth of work done. A substantial portion time has been used visiting my grandmother up in Dover-Foxcroft. I have been made 7 more trips up there than I did last year, and those take a full day. I have really appreciated having the time to do that. I have put surprising amount of time into this blog, which is sort of a wash since if I were not doing triphasic, I would not be doing this blog :). Other time has gone into my business start-up, leisure time, bread-making, and other little things. All in all, I really enjoy the quiet time to myself at night. No matter how crazy my days get, I get this little 4 hour time at night to catch up, or relax, or spend pursuing my personal projects.

Changing around my schedule - update

Well, that did not work very well. Two 45 minute naps are not the equivalent of one 90 minute nap, at least for me. Perhaps next time I will try breaking it into four 20 minute naps like the Uberman, but that seems awkward as well. Over the course of the last month I drifted off my triphasic schedule, only doing it about 1 or 2 days a week. I have found the monophasic schedule to be difficult. I still get very tired around 1:00 pm and I have been sleeping more than 8 hours a day. After the triphasic schedule, it feels very sluggish.

Now however, I have the flexibility to go back on my triphasic schedule. I tried to do it on Monday, but gave up during the night and went to sleep early (at 3:00am instead of my scheduled 4:30am). Last night I again went to sleep at 3:00 instead of 4:30 (still getting up at 6:00). I am not sure why it is harder to do the schedule this time than previous. I have not had trouble switching back and forth before. A few possibilities:

1) Allergies. I have seasonal allergies that make me feel groggy and tired. I am taking Loratadine, which mostly works, but perhaps not as well on a triphasic schedule as it does on a monophasic. I will try taking 2 tabs a day.

2) Standardizing my afternoon nap better. Yesterday I did not get to nap until 2:00, when the nap works best scheduled at 12:30. Today I have a dentist appointment at 11:15, but I think that I might be able to get back by 12:45, so that will be better.

3) Diet. I do substantially better on the schedule when I am eating very well, and while my diet is ok, I have been eating a lot of starch and skimping on the veggies. I will try to get back on CRON (optimal nutrition) and see if that makes a difference.

I will update in a few and let you all know how it is going.

Changing around my schedule

Since the start of this experiment, I have been able to set my own schedule. I work for myself and setting up meetings with clients is pretty flexible. Lately though, I have been the general contractor on a small remodel, which means that, not only am I working at the jobsite, I am working a number of subcontractors, and making sure that the they have the materials that they need, and that everything is staying on schedule. I was having a problem with my afternoon nap. I can't nap at the jobsite (partly because there is no place that is out-of the way and comfortable, but mostly because there is a perception that people who nap are lazy, and I will have a hard time getting the contractors to take me seriously.)

The phrase "Sleeping on the job" 

does not inspire confidence.

My schedule was getting up at 6am, napping from 1:30 to 3:00pm. The problem with this schedule was trying to match it to my subcontractors. They would arrive at 8, take lunch at noon, and then work from 1 till 4. If I am going to sleep at 1:30, then I need to leave the site at 1:00, and do not get back to the site until they are in the process of cleaning up. Additionally, I was trying to eat with them at noon, so my total work day would have only been 4 hours. For a couple days, I simply switched to monophasic sleeping, because it was easier. Now I am trying a new schedule. I get to the jobsite at 7:00, work solid until 12:30, nap for 45 minutes, return at 1:30 and work till 4:00 and then take another 45 min nap. 

Day 100, thoughts, insights, and overviews.

One Hundred days into the experiment. Something that started out as being a wild experiment has become a normal, routine part of my life. Over the past 100 days, the schedule has become less rigid than the original, both in terms of when I have to sleep, and the amount of time that I sleep for each nap. I can start my afternoon nap anytime between 11:30 and 2:30, although around 1:00 is still optimal. My sleep length varies the most for my afternoon nap as well. Between 40min and 2hrs. I set my alarm for an hour and 30, but since I set it for "vibrate-dot", it will not wake me if I am not ready to get up.

However, I still can not miss my afternoon nap. If I skip my nap, I will sleep through the first wake period (12:30 am to 4:30 am). I CAN force myself to get up during that period, but depending on what I have planned, it is often not worth it. I measure the success of this sleep schedule by how productive I am, rather than just by how many hours I spend awake.

Stuff happens at night.

Things I have learned:

- I don't like to sleep 8 hours anymore. When I wake up from a long night, I hurt. My muscles are stiff, and my back is sore. I can not remember if that was typical, but I think that it might have been. I used to have a stretching routine that I did before I got out of bed. I do not need to do that anymore.

-My morning nap is the most rigid. I go to sleep at 4:30. I enjoy starting the day at 6:00. I do not know if this will slip a bit later as the year moves forward. I live pretty far north, so the daylength varies from 15 1/2 hrs to just under 9 hrs. In the winter, the sun does not rise until 8:30 am. I think that getting up after sunrise is important to resetting the circadian rhythm, but that is pretty late. It will be interesting to see how that works out.

- Injuries and illness require more sleep. I have had an injury to my shoulder, and I have had gotten sick twice since I started this experiment. Each time, I have extended my sleep time substantially. Technically, I have stayed polyphasic, but I have not stayed a short sleeper. On the other hand, this was true even when I was sleeping monophasically - I would sleep more when I was sick. There is interesting research that shows a strong correlation between sleeping less and getting sick more. For myself, getting sick twice in 100 days is more, but my core group of friends who, unbeknownst to them, I am using for a control, have also gotten sick with unusual frequency during the past 100 days. So, it is hard to make any definite conclusions, but it is something to keep my eye on. If there are any other extended short sleepers out there, I would be interested in hearing about your thoughts and experience. 

Because circadian triphasic does not require an "adaptation" phase, I have no problem shifting immediately back to my triphasic short sleep schedule. 

- Over time, I have shifted from a 90 minute cycle to an 80 minute cycle. Perhaps it is a slight adaptation to the routine, or a better ability to fall asleep.

In summary, I still find that I am more productive on this schedule than when I was on a monophasic schedule. I enjoy having every third wake-cycle entirely to myself. While I am not always as productive as I imagine that I could be during that night period, I get a lot of benefit out of spending some time reviewing the previous day and planning the next two wake-cycles. 

Diet and polyphasic sleeping

I was recently asked about my diet and how that affects my sleep schedule. I do think that food - good food - is important, and I can quickly tell when I am not eating well. It becomes MUCH harder to maintain my triphasic schedule. I have come to believe that polyphasic sleeping does, inherently, put some stress on the body, and that can be somewhat mitigated by a good diet and reasonable exercise. 

I have tracked my foods periodically for years, so I know that I typically eat 40/40/20 as far as carbs/fats/protein. However, those are not targets; the only macronutrient that I target is protein. I try to get at least 55g a day. I am a flexitarian, and do not eat much meat AND I do a calorie restriction diet for longevity, I have to be conscious of getting enough protein, without a disproportionate number of calories.

I do a CRON diet (Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition). I also kept a journal on my diet for a short while, so you can see specifically what I tend to eat. I track my diet about twice a year with nutrition-tracking software, to make sure that what I am eating at least gives me the known nutrients. This is important because with fewer calories, nutrition packing becomes more problematic, and like most people, I get into habits with food, making things that are quick and easy. So I check periodically, and adjust my diet when needed.

An important part of a complete breakfast.

Of course, I avoid caffeine after the first hour that I am awake, although I have a cup of coffee just about every time I get up.

I avoid overly processed food. I don't think that would have any direct effect on my sleep, but I believe that it has a direct effect on my health. I tend to agree with Michael Pollan's basic rules of health eating: "Eat food, mostly plants, not too much". I believe that my health has a direct effect on my ability to do triphasic sleeping.

I avoid alcohol. I find that more than one serving of alcohol will interfere with my schedule. I fall asleep easily enough, but do not wake even if I set an alarm. I also try to avoid foods with a high insulin index, except right before cardio-type exercise. I find that they make me tired about 40 minutes after I have them. It takes me longer to fall asleep if I just had some, and I tend to "oversleep" by about 20-30 minutes.