Over the last month, I have had some mixed results. During the beginning of the month, I was observing my nap times pretty strictly, falling asleep faster and had dropped my schedule from 3x90 a day to 3x80 a day, and then occasionally 2x80 + a 45 minute nap for the afternoon nap. I had plenty of energy, mental alertness, and physically felt great.
Then on May 20th, I badly injured my shoulder in a fall.
I immediately started sleeping more. This was not a conscious decision, but an immediate bodily response to the pain. I still stayed polyphasic, and I was still waking easily at roughly the regular times, but I was basically laid up on the couch and spent my time reading and drowsing. On a related note, last month I received a note from Piotr Wozniak, who told me that my post on sleep not being needed for muscle is untrue, and that while they are able to repair themselves during any sort of low-activity/rest phase, the catabolic and anabolic cycles are hooked onto the undisrupted circadian cycle. Breaking one's night's sleep disrupts those hormonal changes and results in a slower recovery from exercise and injury. I have not looked into the science of this yet, but experientially, it seems to be true.
During this period of recovery, I did intentionally do some standard triphasic 3x90 days. For example, I have been driving up to see my Grandmother every other Tuesday, and it works well to drive up during the night, take a nap, visit, nap, and then drive back. But my priority has been on healing my shoulder.
While it is not yet better, it is now (mostly) not in pain, and I have moved back to my triphasic sleeping pattern. One of the things that I enjoy about this pattern, as I have said before, is how easy it is to slide back and forth between circadian triphasic and the more typical monophasic pattern. The triphasic does seem to get more efficient the longer that I (rigorously) on it, but the immediate gain of only sleeping 4.5 hrs is very nice.
Then on May 20th, I badly injured my shoulder in a fall.
Reenactment of my injury.
I immediately started sleeping more. This was not a conscious decision, but an immediate bodily response to the pain. I still stayed polyphasic, and I was still waking easily at roughly the regular times, but I was basically laid up on the couch and spent my time reading and drowsing. On a related note, last month I received a note from Piotr Wozniak, who told me that my post on sleep not being needed for muscle is untrue, and that while they are able to repair themselves during any sort of low-activity/rest phase, the catabolic and anabolic cycles are hooked onto the undisrupted circadian cycle. Breaking one's night's sleep disrupts those hormonal changes and results in a slower recovery from exercise and injury. I have not looked into the science of this yet, but experientially, it seems to be true.
During this period of recovery, I did intentionally do some standard triphasic 3x90 days. For example, I have been driving up to see my Grandmother every other Tuesday, and it works well to drive up during the night, take a nap, visit, nap, and then drive back. But my priority has been on healing my shoulder.
While it is not yet better, it is now (mostly) not in pain, and I have moved back to my triphasic sleeping pattern. One of the things that I enjoy about this pattern, as I have said before, is how easy it is to slide back and forth between circadian triphasic and the more typical monophasic pattern. The triphasic does seem to get more efficient the longer that I (rigorously) on it, but the immediate gain of only sleeping 4.5 hrs is very nice.
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