For the purpose of blogging, I have put some thought into the question of when to start a "day" . Now that I am not sleeping for more than 30 minutes at a given time, my perception of a day is not quite as clear.
I have decided to name days as a calendar does. When the clock changes from 11:59pm to 12:00am to 12:01am, the day changes from day n to day n+1.
I just woke up from my first ever 12:30am 30 minute nap. It is now 1:00am on Saturday. I will call this the beginning of Day 1.
How shall I describe what I am feeling right now? I do not feel tired. But, I also do not feel like I am surging with energy. My eyes feel as if they are somewhat refreshed, but I expect that in 4 hours or so they will feel tired and stiff. My body does not ache or cry out to me in any way. I feel very relaxed, as if I just returned from one of the two-hour yoga sessions that I partook in last fall.
This relaxed state helps to calm(pun intended) one of my reservations about the Dymaxion Sleeping Schedule which is the fear of increased levels of stress. While researching, I have come upon claims that monophasic sleeping (normal people's sleeping [i will refer to normal people as muggles until my current ennui returns]) includes several sleep cycles in which breathing becomes slower and more rhythmic and the muscles go into a deep state of relaxation.
However, I have read many accounts written of and by polyphasic sleepers and I have frequently seen them say that they feel much more relaxed and at peace. I am almost certain that in my current hyper-relaxed state that my breathing is deep and rhythmic and that the majority of my muscles are very relaxed.
This leads me to a thought that has been recurring in my mind for quite some time. I feel that polyphasic sleepers lack the ability to put their body in a restful and recuperative position without falling asleep. It is important that polyphasic sleepers have several hours each 24 hour period (each day) in which there body is relaxed and inactive.
I suspect that these inactive hours are mainly spent sitting in a chair of some kind. I think that sitting in a chair poses some undeniable problems to the goal of negligible strain on the body. For instance, right now my legs feel quite relaxed but my upper-body faces a slight dilemma: I must either exercise good posture and put physical strain on my lower back for long periods of time or slouch slightly thereby misaligning the spine for long periods of time. I am merely suggesting that a new method of relaxing while awake has the potential to greatly benefit the future and practicality of polyphasic sleeping.
I really do feel very comfortable, relaxed, happy, and excited right now. More updates to come later on in the very very long day ahead of me.
-NEXT DAY
-PREVIOUS DAY
-HOME
-POLYPHASIC SLEEP
1 comment:
John, let me preface this by mentioning that I was originally reading your blog on my blackberry while waiting for a flight at the airport but the use of the word "muggles" was hilarious and drove me to pull out my laptop to comment. I have been researching polyphasic sleep recently with the intent to execute the dymaxion schedule as well, and like you I was first made aware of the idea through Steve Pavlina's page. I appreciate your writing style and I intend to read further but had to comment. You look quite young in your profile picture on this blog but you speak very eloquently, it is rare to see in our generation. Inspiring to say the least.
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