Polyphasic sleep cycle 2.0 - Day 1

Progress at-a-glance

End of day 1*

• Mental alertness: 9
• Physical energy level: 10
• Quality of sleep: 10

*On this scale, 10 represents my original state prior to beginning this experiment.

Detailed comments

During my pre-experimental research stage, I read someone's comment somewhere if you adopt a polyphasic sleeping pattern, then return to a monophasic one, and at a later stage desire to recondition yourself into a polyphasic cycle, it becomes easier. Not enough research is available to give a definitive stance on this claim yet, but I may have experienced something of the sorts today. Comparing my first day on my first attempt at a polyphasic sleep cycle, and comparing my first day on my second attempt (the day just gone by), I fell asleep arguably faster this time round, my sleep quality was better, and I was more awake at after each respective nap. Of course, another plausible explanation is that I allowed myself more sleep per cycle this time round, which would obviously boost overall performance. So in the end, I don't know :P But I'll leave this speculation here for now, if ever it makes sense to refer back to it.

The 12am to 8am interval was pretty good. That may have been because I'm faring better on my second attempt, or it could be simply due to how I filled up my time, namely making Christmas cards.  Yes I know Christmas was five days ago. But I've been at my dad's place till yesterday, so I haven't given my friends anything yet, so better late than never. In addition, it helped me pass the time during the night, quite effectively it turns out, by keeping my brain active in a non-strenuous activity during my awake hours.

I spent the most part of the day grocery shopping, and also spent some time catching up with friends and doing some homework. I made sure to time everything so that I would be able to return to my room in time for my scheduled nap every time. Overall, my mental function was close to normal, but I think I sounded a bit sleepier than I usually do. I also yawned a number of times today, while performing not menial tasks.

My eating regime went well today, largely sticking to the schedule I drew up prior to beginning take two of my polyphasic sleep cycle. The one major difference is that I skipped the 12pm-4pm meal, simply because I was out shopping and didn't get back in time. But I had dinner at 6pm, and I cooked stir fry for the first time since coming to Japan in April. For my ingredients I used soy bean sprouts, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, celery, and something that looked like bok choi. Not your conventional ingredients, but it was delicious. In terms of nutritional value, I think I ate sufficiently today.

All in all, a good end to the first day of my second attempt at the Uberman sleep cycle.

Polyphasic sleep cycle 2.0 - Day 0

Tonight is my first night back in my own dorm room since I first started sleeping polyphasically. But my previous attempt has already, simply put, failed. And before I even reached the planned end date as well. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed.

So that's what brings me to my second attempt at trying to adapt to the Uberman sleep cycle. My rationale for wanting to do so, as well as details on what this polyphasic sleep thing is all about, refer to this article I wrote previously. In this post, I'll be outlining my strategy, adding and improving on my initial experimental setup, in the hopes that I will at the very least stick with the Uberman sleep cycle till the end of my designated experimental period. The rationale for my experimental design this time adds my own experience from my first attempt to the things I learned from reading about others' attempts.

Goal: to change from a monophasic 7 hour sleep cycle to a polyphasic sleep cycle sleeping for 30 minute sessions at regular four hour intervals, for a total of six times (i.e. three hours' sleep) per day.

Experimental timeframe: Ten days will be allowed for the sleep pattern transition period. After the initial ten day period, I will evaluate the viability of continuing the polyphasic sleep cycle based upon my state of mental and physical functionality in comparison to prior to starting the experiment.

Sleep schedule: I will be taking six lots of 35 minute naps each 24 hour period, evenly spaced out every four hours. These naps will begin at 12am, 4am, 7:50am*, 12pm, 4pm, and 8pm every day. I will be using a countdown timer, which I will set at 30 minutes before I lie down. I will strive to keep my actual start time within 10 minutes of the predetermined timings. My first sleep begins in five minutes.

During the initial transition period of ten days only, I will allow myself an additional nap time between the 12am and 4am, and between the 4am and 8am naps respectively where necessary, inspired by Steva Pavlina's attempt of the Uberman sleep cycle.

*Instead of 8am, I will be timing my sleep for 7:50am purely because of pragmatics. I have class every weekday beginning at 8:30, and it takes 5 minutes to walk to class from the dormitories, and I would rather not rock up late to class every day.

Diet: From this point on until at least the termination of my polyphasic sleep cycle regime, I will be on an almost vegetarian diet, though I can't promise I can stop eating meat altogether. This time, I will strive to maintain a more regulated diet so that my diet might have minimal impact on my quality of sleep. I've given an outline of what I plan on eating throughout the day by looking at each nap segment. I'm using my experience from my previous attempt as a reference point.

• 12am-4am: soon after waking up from my nap, eat half a cup of rice with soup, or the equivalent amount of calories. Consumption of fruit and vegetables (excluding starch heavy ones e.g. potatoes, corn) is unrestricted.
• 4am-8am: from past experience, I haven't needed to eat anything. But once semester begins, I will need to go to class immediately after waking up from my 8am nap, so I may consider moving some of the food I eat in the next segment into this one.
• 8am-12pm: one cup of rice with natto, and one cup of yoghurt with a proportionate amount of cereal. Eat fruit liberally.
• 12pm-4pm: one bowl of noodles/cup of rice with lots of vegetables, or the equivalent amount of food. A little bit of meat is okay, but if eating animal products, seafood is preferable.
• 4pm-8pm: one bowl of noodles/cup of rice, lots of vegetables, maybe a little bit of meat (seafood preferable).
• 8pm-12am: no significant food intake is planned. Snacking on fruit and vegetables is okay.

Overall, there will be a reduction in protein intake, but I hope to supplement that with soy products. I am especially fond of tofu and I can eat mountains of it. The diversity of tofu products helps. Also, I expect a sharp increase in vitamin intake, for the better. My caloric intake will probably decrease, considering how much I ate before, but there are long established studies demonstrating that underfed mice (and probably people too) live longer than overfed mice, and even those consuming a normal diet, so a reduced caloric intake is not of concern to me.

Predicted course of events: Shouldn't differ much from my first attempt. The first 24 hours, I will be slightly tired, but otherwise normal. The next 48-72 hours, I will be a walking zombie. The remaining time over the ten day experimental period, I will slowly transition from zombie-like status to regaining normal brain clarity.

Known significant events during the experimental period:

• Dec 30: experiment begin
• 31st Dec (night): news year's party at the dormitory
• 2-4th Jan: going shopping for post-NY heavy discounts
• 6th Jan-: winter semester begins

Detailed breakdown of experimental design:

     The Uberman sleep cycle is a method well known amongst the polyphasic sleepers community. I have chosen to try out this pattern of sleep for two main reasons, firstly because it appears to come with a truckload of advantages and only slight disadvantages, and secondly because it happens to fit into my weekly routine.

     If you want to read up on the advantages and disadvantages of the Uberman sleep cycle, just refer to my previous post or type the search term into Google, and you will get more than enough results so I won't bother adding to the vast amount of content already available. The deciding factor for me personally in choosing to undertake the Uberman cycle, is the distinct lack of 'core sleep'. From a theoretical perspective, I agree with the thinking that retaining a core block of sleep in your regime encourages oversleeping in the long run. From a practical perspective, it frees up more time to be awake doing stuff!

     A note on my modified sleep schedule. I've concluded that 25 minutes per nap is insufficient (at least for me) from my previous attempt, and have subsequently increasedthe amount of time allocated to each nap, as seen in my experimental setup. I've considered altering the timing of each sleep to try and get 30 minutes in an asleep state every nap, by predicting how long I will take to fall asleep, but I've decided that it is (1) too subjective and (2) too inaccurate, so I've opted for the more standardised fixed timing approach.

     As for compatibility with my usual daily routine, I worked it out like this. Until winter holidays end (Jan 5th), I will have a 100% flexible schedule (excluding one off events) which allows me freedom to make the sleep cycle transition. After winter semester begins, from Monday to Friday, I can sneak in a nap before class begins at 8:30, then during my 11:40-12:40 lunch break I can sneak in another nap, and after classes finish at 3:50, it's the next scheduled nap time. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Aikido training from 5:30-7:30pm, Wednesday there is a prayer meeting at Tama church from 6:00-7:00, none of which interfere with my 8pm nap. On Saturday, I'm at Aikido training from 10:30-12:00, so my noon nap time might be slightly delayed, but only by a bit. However, I do sacrifice having lunch together with the other Aikido members after practice, unless they are willing to wait half an hour, or unless I delay my sleep time. The morning service at Tama church is from 10:15-11:50 ish, which is compatible, but if I want to stay for lunch, I may need to sneak off somewhere for a quick 30 minute shut eye between end of the service and lunch time. There is also an afternoon service for younger people from 5:30-7pm, which fits into the schedule just fine. I'll just need to watch out for the occasional social event or Christian event and such, which may interfere with my 8pm sleep time. Though if I let people know in advance, disappearing from the gathering for half an hour if need be shouldn't be too big of a deal.

     Having already attempted this sleep cycle once, I still regard the biggest factor that will make or break this experiment to be self-discipline. Over the next ten days (and if I happen to succeed, then from that point onward) there will be various life events that will threaten to throw me off my planned routine. These can be planned events such as parties and outings, or it can be something more abstract such as getting tired of maintaining a healthy diet. Sometimes it will be plain insensible to stick uncompromisingly to my sleep regime. But other times, I need the discipline to not make excuses and to stick with it. Let's see how polyphasic sleep cycle experiment 2.0 works out.

Polyphasic sleep cycle - Termination

Today is day 7 of my experimental period. At the beginning, I set myself a 10 day trial period to see how I would cope with the Uberman sleep cycle. As recorded in my logs, I had various achievements and failures, and gained some insights into sleep patterns and diet and mental and physical performance. In particular is how alert I felt over these six days compared to my expectations after reading the accounts of various others on the net who attempted this sleep cycle before me. Something that might sound slightly unusual in light of the above comments, is that I will be terminating my first attempt at the Uberman cycle as of today.

It was more out of necessity than out of my own will. Long story short, I messed up my sleeping pattern again yesterday night, so rather a matter of continuing, I have to start again.

What happened last night, even I'm not sure in detail, but here's the gist of it. After I wrote and published my previous sleep log update at midnight yesterday, I went to have my usual 30 minute nap, setting my countdown timer for 37 minutes. I'm positive that I started the timer before I went to bed, but the next thing I knew, I was awoken by my preset alarm, intended to notify me of my 8am nap… Some might doubt whether I actually pressed start on the countdown timer before I went to bed at 12am, being the reason why I failed to wake up after half an hour, but I'm pretty sure that's not it. In any case, something even curioser is that my 4am nap alarm failed to wake me up as well. In fact, I just so happened to mention in a previous post how the one advantage of the iPhone alarm system is that it doesn't stop ringing until you manually turn it off. So I know that even I didn't start my countdown timer, my preset timer to notify me that it was time for my 4am nap should have kept ringing till it woke me up. But… it didn't. And that has remained a mystery till now. Was it a bug? Is there something about how the iPhone alarm works that I'm not aware of? If anyone has any explanation to offer, I'm keen to hear it. At the end of the day, I unintentionally slept a whole eight hours last night, which makes my attempt a failure.

On that note, I'm going to take a break from this sleeping six times a day temporarily. The reason is mainly pragmatic. Tomorrow will be Sunday again, and I'm going to visit Shin-Funabashi Christ Church for the first time. What's the big deal with that? Aside from the fact that the service goes from 10:30 to 12:00 (which is when I need to be taking my nap by, which will obviously not be happening if I'm still in the church service), the pastor of the church is apparently a long-time friend of my pastor at the church I'm regularly attending, Tama Church, next to my university TUFS. I found out from him shortly before I came to my dad's. Praise God for the way the Gospel links people together! So since I have to start the sleeping routine from ground zero again anyway, it can wait a day so fellowship tomorrow doesn't get interrupted by my strict sleep routine.

Having said that, I haven't given up on trying to establish a polyphasic sleep cycle completely just yet. That's just not my style. There may be a day when I give it up, because life circumstances force me to, or because of another clear reason why. But just because I feel tired, or in this case, because of a mistake on my part that led to the failure of my experiment, is not enough for me to give up.

In fact, in these short six days, I've learned a lot from the mistakes I've made along the way. Apparently Coke was also an accidental creation, but is now regarded as black gold by many. Similarly, my mistakes that have cumulated in the termination of my first attempt at the Uberman sleep cycle, have served as a stimulus for me to retry with renewed fervour. Of course, whether my life circumstances make it practically feasible to do so is another question. Reading the sleep logs of other bloggers who tried sleeping polyphasically failed simply because their lifestyle wasn't forgiving enough to give them a chance to do the transition. For the time being, I still have a bit of time left before the new semester begins. While it's still holidays, I still have a chance to get used to it, so I'm going for it. I can't live with myself if I didn't keep trying until I could honestly say I followed my intended course and legitimately failed. Specially not when progress in these past six days have hinted at so much promise.

So it's a goodbye from me for now, but not forever. Be on the lookout for my attempt at the Uberman sleep cycle, take 2.

Polyphasic sleep cycle - Day 6

Progress at-a-glance

End of day 6*

• Mental alertness: 8
• Physical energy level: 9
• Quality of sleep: 7

*On this scale, 10 represents my original state prior to beginning this experiment.

Detailed comments

Sixth day into the experiment, and first day into my altered sleeping regime. In my previous blog post, I suggested increasing my intended duration of time spent asleep from 20 minutes to 30 minutes, to maintain a polyphasic sleep cycle but to mitigate sleep deprivation which I suspect was cumulatively taking place during the first four and a half days of this experiment. So instead of setting my countdown timer at 25 minutes when I lay down and aiming for 20 minutes spent in a sleeping state, I adjusted the time accordingly to aim for 30 minutes in a sleeping state.

From what I learned about how I sleep over the past five days, I set my countdown timer for my first attempt at 37 minutes. I think it was quite a good attempt at giving myself close to exactly 30 minutes in a sleeping state. What's more, I experienced a reasonably lengthy dream, so I think I spent a good amount of time in REM sleep. However, after waking up from my first ever 30 minute midnight nap, I still felt drowsy. Whilst doing some reading, I nodded off numerous times. I spent the rest of the time watching TV. Though that's not a very productive use of time, in a state like this, my main objective right now is to stay awake until my next nap.

My second 30 minute nap produced much better results. Again, I set my countdown timer for 37 minutes, and I think it was an accurate prediction. It took some time getting back to my senses immediately after getting up, but I was stably mentally alert till my 8am bedtime. My mental and physical operation were also virtually back to normal. But when I tried to do some reading, I had trouble staying awake.

After my third 37 minute nap at 8am, though, I didn't feel significantly different to any other 25 minute nap I had. Shortly after waking up and having breakfast, we set off for a day road trip. Today, we travelled to Enoshima in Kanagawa Prefecture for the illuminations there. We happened to still be on the way there by the time my 12pm nap came around, so I slept in the car. Again, it was a mediocre quality nap.

For my 4pm and 8pm naps, I don't think I was able to properly sleep at all. After lunch we headed to the hot springs so at 4pm, I took my nap in the relaxation room facility there. 8pm we were on the way back, so I slept in the car like I did yesterday. I set my alarm for 42 minutes each time, but judging on how much of my surrounding noise I was consciously aware of, I'm pretty sure I wasn't able to get to sleep for longer than 10 minutes at most in both cases. Having said that, I don't feel anywhere as sleepy at the moment as I should be, with the lack of sleep I'm getting. Very curious.

As for my eating plan today, I had one inari sushi when I woke up from my midnight nap. That sustained me till after my 8am nap when I had rice, natto, soya milk and a red bean bun. My next meal after that was lunch at Sukiya after my 12pm nap. It was so cheap there, that I ate more than I should have. I'm pretty sure I was still digesting that meal by the time my 4pm nap was due, and my guess is that that was the reason why I couldn't get to sleep - it was either because of the amount of meat I ate (I had beef with rice or 牛丼 in Japanese) or it was because of the quantity I ate, or maybe even both. Then at about 6:30, I again ate more than I should have (raw young sardines with rice or 白子丼 in Japanese) and my meal contained a high proportion of seafood, which could be considered animal protein and thus may have impeded my sleep quality. I can't quite say yet how strong a link there is between quality of sleep and quantity of food eaten, and quality of sleep and amount of animal products consumed yet, but there definitely seems to be a connection of some sorts, from my observations and experience today. What I can't explain yet, though, is why I don't feel as sleepy as I should with so little actual sleep.

Tomorrow, I intend on sticking with my target of getting 30 minutes of actual sleep per nap. This time, my main focus will be on carefully watching the size and constitution of every meal, so that I don't take in too much meat or just simply overeat and create excess burden over digestion. For the moment, I want to see if achieving this will improve the quality of my sleep in any way.

Polyphasic sleep cycle - Day 5

Progress at-a-glance

End of day 5*

• Mental alertness: 10
• Physical energy level: 10
• Quality of sleep: 7-11

*On this scale, 10 represents my original state prior to beginning this experiment.

N.B. my current state is not indicative of how I felt throughout the day. Refer to my detailed comments below.

Detailed comments

Fifth day into my polyphasic sleep cycle experiment, and the discoveries just keep coming. It appears that aiming to get 20 minutes of REM sleep per nap was too ambitious. I initially decided to set my countdown timer to 25 minutes, but after today's new insight, I'm going to allow myself at least 35 minutes from now on. Explanations below.

Today, I felt extremely tired during the hours when I am usually asleep in my former monophasic sleep cycle. To fill up the time between my 12am, 4am and 8am naps today, I did an online course on project planning that was recommended by my dad. Not to mention I nodded off numerous times during that time, but I found it extremely hard to take in what I was reading. This state closely resembles my post-2am state back when I was still on my normal monophasic sleeping cycle. I could never seem to stay awake past that point, and I couldn't take in anything after 2am no matter how hard I tried. Although there were points last night/this morning while I was doing the online course where I was alert and able to progress, much more frequently I was suffering severe fog of brain. The best news I could offer is that surviving on just these moments when I nodded off involuntarily and my scheduled naps, I was able to stick it out till the sun rose without the need for any supplementary naps in the middle. I wouldn't call my 12pm and 4pm naps poor, but I can't say I woke up feeling refreshed either. I wasn't feeling fully functional for most of the day, probably rating my mental alertness at most an 8 up until my 8pm nap when it suddenly regenerated.

So why did I feel a lot better all of a sudden after my 8pm nap? Well, there are a lot of possible explanations, but if I were to take a stab at explaining, I reckon it all had to do with amount of time spent asleep. For starters, I took my 8pm nap today in the car on the way home from watching the illuminations at Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi Prefecture today (which were very impressive by the way). I used an inflatable pillow to prop myself up while I slept in the back seat, not the most comfortable of positions. For a change though, I used ear plugs, which promoted the soundness of my sleep.

However, one disadvantage of using earplugs was that I couldn't hear my alarm going off either. I began my countdown timer for 25 minutes starting at 8:01pm, which means it should have started ringing at 8:26. One thing I really like about the iPhone alarm clock system is that if you don't actually turn it off manually, it will keep on ringing forever. I can think of many occasions where that would be very embarrassing or even extremely rude, but in this case, I was glad it didn't give up on me till I regained consciousness and turned it off. When I finally came to, my phone displayed 8:40. It'd been 40 minutes since I went to sleep!

Initially, I panicked. That spelled another failure for my attempt at sticking to the strict sleep regime. But then, I stopped to evaluate how I was feeling at that time, and although 40 minutes is by no means abundant sleep, I was actually feeling arguably the most refreshed I'd been since I accidentally slept 5 hours four days ago. After talking with my parents for a bit after my nap, it was unanimous that I was acting the most awake and alert I'd been since probably the beginning of my sleep experiment. My dad was even confident enough to let me take over the wheel and let me drive the rest of the way home, which was about an hour. Considering the night time wet conditions, I think I can say I did a pretty good job. So looking at the situation wholistically, it turned out it may not have been such a failure to wake up 40 minutes after setting my countdown timer after all.

I did some rough calculation, and I recall being awake as we reached the tolled roads, since I heard the e-tag beep, but I don't recollect much after that, which suggests I fell asleep not long afterward. That means I was lying there (propped up?) conscious for about 10 minutes before finally drifting off, and having once entered actual sleep mode, stayed asleep for roughly 30 minutes before waking up feeling my phone vibrating in my pocket (and not to the alarm tone which I did not hear at all). Sorry to my parents who had to put up with it ringing for 15 minutes before I turned it off.

Having allowed myself only 25 minutes from the moment I lay my head down to when my alarm went off up until now may have been a mistake, in the sense that though I avoid the risk of entering a deeper phase of sleep from which it would be difficult to wake up, I also didn't allow my brain enough time spent in REM sleep in any nap during the past four days. If that proves to be true, then what I've actually been doing is nothing short of subjecting my body to mere sleep deprivation. Of course, I come to that conclusion with the assumption that giving my body a chance to have proper REM sleep and only REM sleep qualifies for a legitimate amount of sleep, which I am aware is in contention. But one thing I can't deny is how I felt waking up after my 8pm nap today, compared to how I felt after every other nap, as well as considering how I feel after a normal night's sleep.

And so that got me thinking. What if from now on, I allow enough time on the countdown timer to give myself 30 minutes of time spent in a sleeping state instead of the 20 minutes I intended previously (and too often failed to get anyway)? Would that (1) leave me feeling more awake after every nap, and (2) be sustainable health-wise in the foreseeable long term? As far as I can see, everyone is different, so with regards to myself, there's only one way to find out.

To make a comment on food consumed today, during the early morning, I consumed one inari sushi, some natto and some juice. After my 8am nap, I had yoghurt and cereal for breakfast, which works surprisingly well, and goes very well with my palate. For lunch after my 12pm nap, I had handmade udon noodles with handmade tempura (vegetables, squid, fish) in a neat little Japanese restaurant in Gunma Prefecture. It was an excellent meal, unbelievably cheap and surprisingly filling. I can't recommend it enough for anyone who might happen to pass by the area, it will be worth experiencing. So back on topic, having eaten right after waking up, I'd digested it enough by my 4pm nap time to have my sleep quality drastically affected, but at the same time, I didn't feel actually hungry again until 10pm today. I still had some pork stew at 7pm though. Throughout the day we ate lots of mandarins (it's that season now in Japan), and I must have consumed over four and a half small to medium sized ones in total today.

Super long, super tasty, and super affordable udon noodles in Gunma Prefecture. Can't recommend it highly enough.

That's a wrap for today's progress. So let's see if any change takes place with my awakeness levels from now on by adjusting my countdown timer according to aim for 30 minutes spent asleep instead of the previous goal of 20.

Polyphasic sleep cycle - Day 4

Progress at-a-glance

End of day 4*

• Mental alertness: 8.5
• Physical energy level: 8
• Quality of sleep: 7

*On this scale, 10 represents my original state prior to beginning this experiment.

Detailed comments

Merry Christmas! The only day in the year when the majority of the earth's population participates in a celebration that commemorates the difference that Jesus made in our lives (whether people realise or not). Though I know it's hot back in Oz, hope you had a good one. It's a cold one here, but sadly not a white one this year.

So I made it through the fourth day, and still adhering to the strict sleep routine. Most of the difficulties that I'm experiencing at this point in time are my own fault - namely, by putting myself in situations not conducive to sleeping, my sleep quality goes down, and subsequently does the sensation of being well rested, and consequently not feeling as well as I might have been by this point in my transition period otherwise. I guess I was right when I predicted that discipline would be the make or break factor prior to embarking upon this experiment. Here's a breakdown of how today went.

My midnight nap was decent, but I certainly felt fatigued during my awake hours. Same as yesterday, I kept the room lights on while I was awake to simulate daytime. I tried watching some TV programs, but I caught myself nodding off from time to time, which indicates poor attention span and my body wanting to sleep.

Due to my fault fidgeting around and adjusting stuff before going to bed before my 4am nap, my time spent asleep was reduced by a couple of minutes. I know I entered REM sleep again, because I can vividly remember my dream (nightmare?) about a freak typhoon. A bit miffed that my alarm woke me up literally seconds before the typhoon in the dream was about to hit me, after having lifted the walls of the convenience store I was sheltering in, because I wanted to know how being hit by a dream typhoon felt like. Oh well, I'll have many more opportunities, if this polyphasic sleep cycle works out.

I don't know if it was because of my reduced nap duration that I felt a lot more tired after waking up, or whether I'm at the stage in my transition period now where I'm supposed to feel that way irrespective of the reduced minutes or not, but I decided to add in another nap in between my scheduled 4am and 8am naps anyway, namely at 6am. As I mentioned before commencing this experiment, the purpose of these temporary additional naps is to mitigate legitimate sleep fatigue, while never sleeping more than 30 minutes and letting my body pass into deeper phases of sleep. I'm aware that implementing more nap times might run the risk of taking longer to adapt fully in the long run, but if it means mentally making it getting easier to get up after my naps, it's better than risking giving up because of a cumulative overwhelming urge to sleep. I thought I'd mention that I'm making more typing errors as I write this update, indicating that my brain activity is indeed subpar as of this update. *later update*: irrespective of my 6am nap though, I still ended up nodding off between that and my 8am nap.

Today I was faced for the first time with the dilemma of what to do if I approached my nap time while outside. After lunch today, we took a stroll to Funabashi, the closest major city to my dad's place, for some shopping. Bring it on, Japanese winter! This Aussie boy is now ready.

There was, however, one slight issue concerning my 4pm scheduled nap. We were still in the department store at 4pm! It takes 25 minutes to walk home, and not that much shorter by train, so going back home wasn't an option unless I compromise on the time of my nap, which I didn't want to do so early on if I could help it. So I settled for sleeping on the seats where you can take a rest during shopping. One major problem I've learned about doing such a thing, is that the seats I happened to choose were right next to the escalators. And escalators in Japanese department stores, are unbearably annoying, if you stay around them for too long. I tried to sleep through a prerecorded woman's voice perpetually repeating "Stand on the left hand side. Hold onto the rails. Watch your step." over and over and over and over again. I hadn't considered I would need earplugs today, so I didn't bring them with me. Needless to say, I didn't sleep too well. I did in fact have the feeling of being well rested after my 25 minutes of shut eye, but I can't say I actually fell asleep for much of it. It would definitely have been better if I'd chosen a quieter place, or at least brought earplugs. At the end of the day, I'm glad I got to experience what it would be like if I found myself in such a scenario, so early into my sleep routine. In Japan at least, it doesn't seem other people mind much at all if they find you asleep sitting upright in a public place. Though how much this poor quality nap added to my sleep deprivation, only time will tell.

Other than that, everything else went according to plan. In terms of food today, in the wee hours of the morning, I lightly snacked on some cookies. To keep breakfast light, I had a small bowl of rice with natto and supplemented it with mandarins and a banana. After my 12pm nap, I had homemade ramen noodles and some bread. Dinner was the extravagant meal today, comprising about half a kilo of crab (Jap: ズワイガニ) with a glass of wine and followed by some rice and vegetable soup. Hey, it's Christmas :p I finished eating over an hour prior to my 8pm nap, and it didn't seem to make it any more difficult getting up, so it seems ok to eat that much as long as I leave sufficient digestion time afterwards.

Polyphasic sleep cycle - Day 3

Progress at-a-glance

End of day 3*

• Mental alertness: 9
• Physical energy level: 9
• Quality of sleep: 9

*On this scale, 10 represents my original state prior to beginning this experiment.

Detailed comments

Merry Christmas everyone! Celebrating the best news that came in the smallest package, Jesus entering the world so that God might dwell among men.

Today went according to plan! I was able to sleep at home for my daytime naps, which made it easy to fall asleep. I also took my first nap in this experiment on the train tonight. In all my sleeps, I was able to go to sleep, then wake up when I was supposed to, and not oversleep, while still functioning fine throughout the day. After my incident with oversleeping yesterday, today I took extra care in not delaying getting out of bed when my alarm went off. It turned out well.

My midnight nap returned to a quality similar to the first day, and I woke up feeling refreshed and awake. I managed to stay awake till my scheduled 4am nap, feeling only a little drowsy. This time, instead of having only one dim light during my awake time, to simulate daytime and to avoid falling asleep, I turned the main room lights on and kept them on till I went to bed again. I spent the time making some travel plans in the upcoming few days spent at my dad's place. I didn't eat anything between my midnight nap and my 4am nap this time.

Up until my 8am nap, I caught up on some email, watched some TV, and did some light aerobic exercises to pass the time. I spent the daytime reading, writing emails and watching TV. For breakfast I had yoghurt and cereal, and for lunch I ate some bread and rice with stew.

The whole morning, I suffered fog of brain which led to slightly slurred speech, but my bladder control and appetite were both functioning normally. Another sensation I thought I'd mention is that I feel quite cold even indoors. I don't know if it's because it's currently winter, or because I'm having issues with thermostatic homeostasis, or both, or something else altogether, but maybe I'll be able to interpret the sensation better as time goes on.

After my 4pm nap, we set out for Ginza for a dinner my dad had booked from a while back. It would have been nice to have been attend the Christmas Eve service at church, but my dad had booked already before I'd shared that idea, and it's kind of difficult changing reservations around this time of year. Well, I have this Sunday to visit the church I was planning on going to. In the meantime, the dinner itself was amazing. It was a Japanese style meal that came in several courses (lost count) and it was themed around fish and seafood. We had sashimi, fish head miso soup, grilled fish, scallops, and rice cake dessert with abalone, amongst many other dishes. Probably not the best idea to eat such extravagance when I'm adjusting to a brand new sleep regime, but it was an experience worth every bite.

In hindsight, we all regretted not dressing up more formally for today :P

In the end, I was still able to sleep reasonably soundly so that was a relief. The only issue was, the dinner finished at 7:40 and it would be awkward to pass out at the dinner table so I had to either delay my sleep till I got back home, or sleep on the train. It just so happened that at 7:58pm, we transferred to a train that we rode to the terminal station, and the trip was exactly 29 minutes, and I managed to get a seat. So I took my nap on the train. I recollect hearing the announcement for the first stop after I'd prepared to take my nap, but nothing else after that till the train pulled up at the terminal stop, which suggests I managed to get at least some shut eye. I consider that pretty impressive, since I have never been in the habit of napping before commencing this sleep experiment. Even if I terminate this sleep experiment for whatever reason, I am still glad to have gained insight into the art of taking short naps.

Polyphasic sleep cycle - Day 2

Progress at-a-glance

End of day 2*

• Mental alertness: 8
• Physical energy level: 8
• Quality of sleep: 5

*On this scale, 10 represents my original state prior to beginning this experiment.

Detailed comments

Though it's only the second day of the experiment, I overslept. I don't think the cause was because I was physically incapable of getting up though - a skill of mine that has been brought to my conscious awareness during this experiment worked against me this time.

The first nap went all according to plan, getting up around 12:30am. But I got really hungry, so I ate five inari sushis, and some cut raw vegetables. After that, I took a nap at 2am. It was only halfway between my first and second planned naps, but as I mentioned in my experimental design, I allowed for extra naps during the transition period. So I went to bed at 2am and set my countdown timer for 25 minutes later. But when I turned the alarm off after 25 minutes, I didn't get up straight away - a big mistake. From how it felt like to me, not even half a minute after turning the alarm off, I must have fallen asleep again. I woke up of my own accord at 7:14, turning a half hour nap into a five our sleep. At 2 in the morning today I got really sleepy, but in my opinion, much more so than I should have been at this stage of my transition period. I think the not insignificant amount of food I ate an hour prior to going to bed contributed at least in part. I will plan the quantity and variety of food I eat in the time period I'm usually asleep, namely between my 12am nap and my 8am nap, so that I don't make myself sleepier than I will already naturally become.

Because of that, I skipped my 8am scheduled nap and waited until my 12pm nap. Today, my 12pm, 4pm and 8pm naps were taken in the car, because we went on a road trip to German Village in Chiba Prefecture to see the illuminations. According to the official Japanese page, this is in the top 3 illuminations in the Kanto region.

I used an inflatable pillow (a thoughtful farewell present from Australia) and an eye mask while sleeping, but it was definitely not as nice an experience as a proper bed. I may have not even properly fallen asleep even once, though mentally I was still able to function the whole day. Right now, I feel quite ok, and I've been able to converse quite normally with my parents, and even felt capable of driving (though dad drove the whole time so I didn't need to). My appetite has been good, and I really really want to eat a lot of meat, but knowing that it will lead to increased sleep requirement, I refrained.

Only being the second day, I was a bit disappointed I wasn't able to stick to the routine. But the experimental timeframe I set for myself was 10 days, so I'm going to stick it out till that period is over. Assuming I don't oversleep a nap again tomorrow, I expect to feel pretty dead at least mentally tomorrow. From here on, I need to watch what I eat during the night time period much more closely so I don't induce feelings of sleepiness through giving my body extra load in digestion.

Polyphasic sleep cycle - Day 1

Progress at-a-glance

End of day 1*

• Mental alertness: 9
• Physical energy level: 9
• Quality of sleep: 10

*On this scale, 10 represents my original state prior to beginning this experiment.

Detailed comments

I've reached the end of my first 24 hour period, and I'm proud to say so far so good. I've successfully stuck to my sleep regime, hitting the sack no more than ten minutes out from any of my designated sleep times. I'm feeling surprisingly normal, in comparison to my hypothesis for the first day. I am going to note that during the entire 24 hours, I minimised (but not eliminated) meat intake, and ate a lot of fruit and vegetables, but it's too early to be able to comment how much if at all that influenced sleep quality. Also, I can't say for sure, but from my conscious perception it appears that every nap, I'm asleep within five minutes of laying my head on the pillow. Can't say for certain yet whether it has any link with my low animal product diet.

First nap was better than expected. I went to bed only minutes after finishing my experimental design writeup, which didn't leave me much time to collect my thoughts and calm down a bit, so there were a million (ok maybe around 8 or so) thought processes buzzing around in my head when I hit the sack. Naturally I was a bit concerned about whether I'd be able to fall asleep, but I was actually awoken by my alarm 25 minutes later, which meant I did actually fall asleep eventually. I promptly climbed out of bed after I woke up, with only a hint of fog of brain. I spent my waking hours updating my blog, replying to emails, and doing a bit of reading.

On my second nap, I fell asleep straight away. It seems I don't seem to be having any trouble falling asleep, which is a good thing. But after waking up, fog of brain affected me more noticeably. I spent my waking hours catching up on some unwatched anime, then ate a bit, and fought to stay awake by physically keeping my body moving for the final stretch before my scheduled 8am nap.

After waking up from my third nap, I felt like a million dollars. I had my first dream since starting the polyphasic sleep cycle, which means I hit REM sleep! I didn't expect to reach it so fast. Also, I woke up of my own accord one and a half minutes before my countdown time went off. My dad, mum and I all did some light aerobics exercises (テレビ体操) before I had breakfast, then I went to church with my parents. We visited the Funabashi Bible Baptist Church (船橋聖書バプテスト教会) for the first time, and it was a good experience. Everyone was really friendly, the sermon was firmly centered in the gospel message, and the congregation was a surprisingly large 100 or so people. I didn't have trouble with nodding off during the sermon or anything, though I must say it was a good sermon that again reinforced the necessity of the gospel for Christians and non Christians alike.

The church being so close to my dad's home, I quickly ducked back for my fourth scheduled nap of the day at 12pm, and rejoined them in time to have lunch together. Once again I felt pretty good, quite far from how I'd expect to feel with only two hours of sleep over the past 28 hours. We watched a play based off the book of Esther that the church held, before going home and winding down. Throughout this leg of the day, there was no hint of fog of brain.

My fifth nap was quite uneventful. I woke up feeling fairly decent, the same as my previous nap. Something I thought I should mention, though, is that my dad said I was acting significantly more out of it because of my new sleep pattern. I was surprised to hear it, because by my own sense of alertness and physical energy, I felt close to my normal state.

On my final sleep for the day, I experienced for the first time the sensation that Steve reports on his 22nd day, more specifically, that it felt like I was asleep for much longer than I actually was. I felt a slight sense of disorientation when my timer went off slightly before 8:30pm, because my body told me I had slept for quite some time whilst the time on my phone indicated I had only been asleep for 25 minutes, as planned. I don't think it's a bad thing when your body feels like it's rested for longer than you actually did.

One concern I had was that during the period between my first nap and my fourth one, I found that my urge to relieve my bladder doubled in frequency compared to prior to commencing the polyphasic sleep cycle. But the volume I would relieve each time was close to half of my usual. The symptoms possibly suggest that cell signalling to my detrussor muscle was abnormal during that time. From after my fifth nap and onwards, those symptoms resolved itself, and my toilet trips became regular again. Throughout the 24 hours, my bowel movements matched my usual cycle.

Looking forward to how the second day will progress!

Polyphasic sleep cycle - Day 0

So my little(?) experiment begins here. I explained in my previous post my reasons and motivation for embarking upon this challenge, as well as what exactly I will be embarking upon. In this post, I'll outline my strategy on how I actually plan to go about doing it. The rationale for my experimental design is based on my research into past recorded attempts of the Uberman sleep cycle, much of which is summarised in my previous post.

Goal: to change from a monophasic 7 hour sleep cycle to a polyphasic sleep cycle sleeping for 30 minute sessions at regular four hour intervals, for a total of six times (i.e. three hours' sleep) per day.

Experimental timeframe: Ten days will be allowed for the sleep pattern transition period. After the initial ten day period, I will evaluate the viability of continuing the polyphasic sleep cycle based upon my state of mental and physical functionality in comparison to prior to starting the experiment.

Sleep schedule: I will be taking six lots of 30 minute naps* each 24 hour period, evenly spaced out every four hours. More specifically, I will be sleeping 25 minutes beginning at 12am, 4am, 8am, 12pm, 4pm, and 8pm every day. I will set a countdown timer before I go to bed, and I will get up after 25 minutes irrespective of my sleep (if at all) quality. I will strive to keep every bedtime within 10 minutes of the predetermined timings. My first sleep begins in 5 minutes.
During the initial transition period of ten days only, I have allowed the addition of an extra nap time between the 12am and 4am naps where necessary, inspired by Steva Pavlina's attempt of the Uberman sleep cycle. 

*The thirty minutes is calculated from the time I begin preparing to sleep, until after I come to my senses and climb out of bed. So the time spent with my head on the pillow is actually only 25 minutes, and my time spent asleep will be even less. This time designation was also inspired by Steve Pavlina's Uberman sleep cycle blog, after I suspected being asleep for a whole thirty minutes might actually be counterproductive.

Diet: From this point on until at least the termination of my polyphasic sleep cycle regime, I will be on an almost vegetarian diet, though I can't promise I won't eat meat altogether.

Predicted course of events: The first 24 hours, I will be slightly tired, but otherwise normal. The next 48-72 hours, I will be a walking zombie. The remaining time over the ten day experimental period, I will slowly transition from zombie-like status to regaining normal brain clarity.

Detailed breakdown of experimental design:
     The Uberman sleep cycle is a well established and widely accepted method amongst the polyphasic sleepers community. I have chosen to try out this pattern of sleep for two main reasons, firstly because it appears to come with a truckload of advantages and only slight disadvantages, and secondly because it happens to fit into my usual daily routine.

     If you want to read up on the advantages and disadvantages of the Uberman sleep cycle, just refer to my previous post or type the search term into Google, and you will get more than enough results so I won't bother adding to the vast amount of content already available. If I were to do a comparative analysis between the advantages and disadvantages of the more common various polyphasic sleep cycle variations, I would point out that the distinct lack of a core sleep block was the clincher for me. From a theoretical perspective, I agree with the thinking that retaining a core block of sleep in your regime encourages oversleeping in the long run. From a practical perspective, it frees up more time to be awake doing stuff!

     As for compatibility with my usual daily routine, I worked it out like this. Until winter holidays end (Jan 5th), I will have a 100% flexible schedule which allows me freedom to make the sleep cycle transition. After winter semester begins, from Monday to Friday, I can sneak in a nap before class begins at 8:30, then during my 11:40-12:40 lunch break I can sneak in another nap, and after classes finish at 3:50, it's the next scheduled nap time. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Aikido training from 5:30-7:30pm, Wednesday there is a prayer meeting at Tama church from 6:00-7:00, none of which interfere with my 8pm nap. On Saturday, I'm at Aikido training from 10:30-12:00, so my noon nap time might be slightly delayed, but only by a bit. The morning service at Tama church is from 10:15-11:50 ish, which is fine, but if I want to stay to have lunch, I may need to sneak off somewhere for a quick 30 minute shut eye between end of the service and lunch time. There is also an afternoon service for younger people from 5:30-7pm, which fits into the schedule just fine. I'll just need to watch out for the occasional social event or Christian event and such, which may overlap with my 8pm sleep time. Though if I let people know in advance, disappearing from the gathering for half an hour if needed shouldn't be too big of a deal.

     If I were to specify what would be the make or break of this experiment, it would be self-discipline. In my opinion, my background knowledge is satisfactory (considering the scarcity of material available on this subject), the experimental design is realistic yet well set out, my personal motivations for making the sleep cycle switch are clear and rational, and my current life circumstances are conducive to carrying out such an experiment. But whether my willpower to last till the end will rule over my mounting desire to sleep over the next few days, I don't know. I think I'll take the advice I read on Steve's blog regarding navy SEALs mentality - during the toughest period, just focus on progressing one leg at a time.

Polyphasic sleep cycle - Prephase

Lately, I stumbled across this article outlining patterns of sleep different to the conventional monophasic and/or biphasic sleep patterns that the majority of adults adopt. The clear advantage of picking these alternate sleep cycles is requiring less hours of sleep per day to obtain the same benefits as sleeping the conventional 8 hours. Always-short-on-time me got thinking after reading it, and thus came about the inception of this upcoming personal experiment/project.

The aforementioned alternate sleep patterns vary amongst themselves depending on whether there is a "core" block of sleep to supplement the nap-length sleep times, as well as on the number of sleeps per day (and the duration of each sleep). But for one who is contemplating adopting one of these patterns, the more important factor is compatibility - whether a routine that involves pre-planned naps during the daytime fits into your lifestyle. The Uberman sleep cycle which involves sleeping a mere total of 3 hours a day, just happens to fit into my usual schedule well, as I've outlined further down. Thus began more serious research on whether it's worth having a crack at it.

There is a lot of controversy around the interwebs surrounding polyphasic sleep cycles with low sleep hours such as the Uberman sleep cycle, not in the least being the sparsity of success stories or nonexistence of studies on the long term health effects. Everybody knows how crucial sleep is to maintaining mental and physical health, and very few people are willing to risk their health - or that of potential test subjects - by subjecting them(selves) to a pattern of sleep that is too good to be true. Next to no one actually sleeps like that in the real world, at least in modern society. And there are many reports on the web of people who have tried and failed, putting out the conclusion that it's just not humanly compatible, for whatever reason.

However, why the article I mentioned at the beginning stopped me and got me thinking, was because it actually mentions success stories of real people who have been using the Uberman cycle for many years with no reported adverse effects. However, what made me hesitant was that just being aware of these success stories didn't address some big concerns I had for trying it out myself.

That all changed when I stumbled across Steve Pavlina's blog. Assuming that it is not made up, Steve successfully applied and maintained the Uberman sleep cycle for half a year, and the best part of all, he documented his day to day experiences during that period of time in great detail. I read through his entire half year log, and what impressed upon me the most was that he declared that he had no negative health effects long term (half a year, and then five years later), and he provided possible hypotheses for why that might have been along the way. He brings up, and addresses, worries and concerns I had about trying it out for myself, and gave rational responses to commonplace skepticism surrounding the Uberman sleep cycle. These include*:

• Mentally, regular three hour sleep days is insane.
• Motivation for adjusting to a polyphasic sleep cycle.
• Adding in a block of 'core sleep' each day is easier to keep up long term than only 30 minute naps.
• More sleep each day equals more energy and alertness.
• Getting less than six hours a day means reduced energy levels.
• It's too weird.
• It will remain a chronic battle with feelings of sleep deprivation.
• If your sleep time is off by 10 minutes, your sleep regime is doomed.
• You will lose the crucial body repair stages that take place in non-REM sleep stages.
• Recovery from physical exercise (e.g. weight training) will take longer. And also here.

Not only does he address my initial concerns, but along the way he offers a list of potential factors that affect your success rate at adopting this sleep cycle.

• Eat right after a nap, not before, as digestion makes falling asleep difficult
• Implementing more naps (no longer than 30 minutes each) during the transition period
• Finding your optimal sleeping position
• Reading late at night
• Going vegetarian/vegan
• Cutting out all sources of caffeine (and also here)
• Increasing your fresh fruit and vegetable intake will decrease your sleep requirement
• Self-discipline, particularly waking up
• Accountability and support from others around you during the initial period

The above is what tipped the scales for me, and what compelled me to give it a try while I'm still in winter holidays and I can afford to fail a personal sleep experiment. This post is intended as the preface into why I began this little experiment. For the methodology i.e. what it will look like in practice, refer to my next post.

I'll leave you with a quote from Steve, taking on a different perspective to the skeptics.

"I don’t think the biggest risk of polyphasic sleep is that you’ll fail to adapt to it. I think the biggest risk is what might happen if you actually succeed."

Further insights into sleeping polyphasic cycles

• People's comments, experiences and results relating to the Uberman sleep schedule (Everything2)
• Special issue of Nature that examines sleep

* For Steve's analysis and hypotheses addressing these concerns, refer to the respective link leading to the blog post where he mentions it.

Apologetics seminar in Japan

Yesterday, I was invited by a Thai friend from the same program as me, to attend an apologetics seminar held at Fuchu Calvary Chapel. It was delivered by a special guest from Hawaii with an Okinawan name and lineage called Pat (sorry, I forgot his last name >.<). He was apparently well versed in the area of apologetics, and the title he earned was proved true by what he taught today. Coming from Australia, it wasn't the first time I'd heard or read these things, but since coming to Japan, it has been my first time. Having already been 9 months, it was a welcome refresher for my faith also, being reminded that it's by faith we are saved, and that the faith we have in Christ is sure faith. I thought I would share here what I learned, for everyone's edification.

Historical reliability of the gospels

Jesus' ministry is commonly held to have taken place between 30-33AD. Some skeptics assert that the gospels do not represent the oldest record of Jesus Christ, but that they were written after the lifetime of the eyewitnesses. The implications are that they are not eyewitness accounts, but mostly legends and mythology.

According to historians, it takes 120 years after a major event for legends and myths to develop. That is because all the eyewitnesses must die first. However, if the accounts were written in the lifetime of the eyewitnesses, they are not legend or myth, but actual records of what happened. That's because the eyewitnesses can affirm or deny the things that have been written down. Made up accounts of what happened wouldn't last very long once the eyewitnesses found them.

The earliest biography of Siddhārtha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha, comes 400 years after his life. That means much of what is written about Buddha is actually based on legends and mythology. And many people think the same way about the gospels.

What is worth noting, is that we have strong evidence that the gospels were in fact written by eyewitnesses. That means these accounts are not legends or myths; they are true stories.

Dating of the gospels

• William F Albright, a Jewish non-Christian dean of archaeology, concluded that every book of the New Testament was written by a baptized Jew between AD40-80.
• Bishop John Robinson, a liberal critic and founder of the "Death of God" movement, changed his position on the date of the gospels at the end of his life, newly asserting that the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were likely all written between 40-65AD.
• Traditionally, the gospels are dated as follows:
• Mark, 60AD
• Matthew & Luke, 70AD
• John, 70/90AD

Date of the gospels: internal evidence

• In all four gospels, Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple (occurred 70AD) but its fulfilment is not mentioned once. This was the most important building in the history of Israel, and its absence in the accounts suggests the books' completion prior to the event.
• We know Paul was killed by Emperor Nero in 64AD, so his letters have all been written prior to that time.
• Paul quotes the gospel of Luke (1Ti 5:18), meaning the gospel of Luke was completed before Paul died.
• Acts never mentions the Jewish War (66AD), when the nation of Israel was completely dismantled.
• Acts never mentions the death of the three most important early church leaders, showing that Luke completed the book of Acts before 62AD

Date of the gospels: external evidence

• There have been over 5000 Ancient Greek manuscripts discovered to date
• The Rylands papyri found in Egypt, dated 120AD, contains a fragment of John. To reach Egypt by that time, it must have been written much earlier.
• Clement of Rome 90AD and Ignatius 107AD quote many of the books of the New Testament as Scripture
• Polycarp 120AD, disciple of John, informs us by his writings that the canon we have today had already been confirmed in his time

Archaeology and the gospels

• Luke names 34 countries, 54 cities and 9 islands very accurately
• He also mentions the names of government officials, whose names sounded very strange for people of that time, but recent archaeological evidence affirms all of their existence
• William Ramsey spent many years in Israel trying to prove Acts was unhistorical, but at the end of his studies, he highly appraised the calibre of Luke's writing, and became a Christian
• John mentions the pool of Bethesda in his gospel, and we have discovered this pool recently in israel

The historicity of Jesus

His existence is recorded in secular history records, both Jewish and Roman. The notable thing is, these people were enemies of Christianity historically. By their acknowledgement that such things took place, the enemies of Christianity affirmed the accuracy of the gospels.

The Jewish Talmud (completed 300AD) speaks of a historical Jesus and tries to explain Jesus' miracles by attributing them to sorcery and magic. What is interesting, is that by not denying these phenomenon, it affirms that they really took place. Also recorded is Jesus' crucifixion, and the death of five apostles. Thallus mentions in his third book that the earth covered by darkness when Jesus was crucified. Tacitus (115AD) through calling Christians evil by documenting all that they were doing, affirms that the events and the people of the NT were real.

In court today, if your enemy affirms your story, that is the most powerful evidence.

Q&A Session

Using the conclusion we established in the first session, namely the historical reliability of the gospels, we proceeded to answer mostly prepared, and some impromptu, questions on the topic of apologetics.

1. Why do Christians do wars?

The use of force is necessary to keep the peace. In the book of Revelation, it is written that Jesus will one day return and wage war against evil. If the Son of God must use force to defeat evil and bring peace, so must we.

At the same time, the Bible gives guidelines on when and how to use force. Violence must be as a last resort, and even then, only proportional means to win, and not to decimate the country, and the civilians must be spared.

Some people use Matthew 5:38-42 to argue that Jesus preached pacifism, by insisting that one must not lash back against a wicked man. However, this teaching does not prohibit the use of violence. In Jewish times, a slap on the right cheek means "I despise you", in this case, for being a Christian. So the passage actually says that if you are despised for being a Christian, don't fight back, turn the other cheek instead. It does not prohibit the use of force to stop someone who is defenseless from being harmed.

However, the Bible does not endorse murdering people who are not Christians. Sadly, this has happened in history. That is man's fault, it is directly in contrary to God's commands, and it should never have happened.

2. Doesn't a monotheistic belief cause people to be narrow minded and intolerant?

This question strikes close to the heart of the Japanese people, who believe a polytheistic belief is more welcoming and less exclusive.

Firstly, it is correct to say that a monotheistic belief is narrow and exclusive - because that is the nature of truth. Truth by its very nature is narrow and exclusive. It excludes all other possibilities, by calling them fallacy. So it can be said that anyone who believes the truth is narrow minded and intolerant of what is not truth.

Accordingly, when the Bible teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, any religion that denies that is wrong. And if Jesus is the Son of God, and he taught that he is the only way to life, then every other way to God is wrong.

3. I can believe in God, but I can't accept why I need to believe in Jesus.

The bible teaches that God has given us the perfect law, and put it in our hearts. Romans 2 says that Christians and non-Christians alike have the moral law within them. Everyone knows we have not lived perfectly according to God's law, and that makes us all sinners.

Someone needs to die for sin, but no one except God is perfect enough to be able to. However, God cannot die. So Jesus came to earth as a man, in order to become the perfect sacrifice for sin, and to die the death we deserve in our place to pay the price. No other religion can offer that, and that is why we need to believe in Jesus.

4. Why do people suffer if there is a just and loving God?

If God doesn't exist, life is ultimately without meaning and without purpose, and your suffering means nothing. But because God exists, our life has meaning and purpose.

James 1:2 tells us to endure trials of various kinds with joy, because it builds our character to be more like Christ. In the Hebrews 5:8, it says Christ learned obedience through suffering, so we should expect to go through the same thing.

Some skeptics ask question of why children who are born crippled have to suffer and live meaningless lives. But how do you know they live meaningless lives? Some of the greatest lessons we have ever learned come from people who have suffered tremendously. Nagai Takashi from Nagasaki who suffered radiation position from the bomb and was paralysed for much of his life, but through his suffering he wrote several inspirational books that are read all over the world. Furthermore, Christians look forward to that day when Jesus comes back, because there will be no more suffering.

On the other hand, what message does an atheist have to give to these crippled people? They offer no substance, no hope, and no meaning, not just for cripples, but for anyone. Just suffer in a meaningless life, die and disappear.

How do we know the Christian gospel is truth, and not just a fairy tale? Because our faith is based on a real Jesus who really rose from the dead. Only Christianity can offer any message of hope for those who suffer.

5. What will happen to someone who dies without ever hearing the gospel?

This is possibly the most difficult answer for Japanese people to hear. It is not an easy answer to stomach, but sometimes truth is just that.

Romans 1:19-23 says every passing day points to a creator, from the telescope to the microscope. How much more complex is the human brain than a computer, which no one would ever believe came about sponaneously or accidentally?

Romans 2:12-16 says that everyone has the witness of God through their conscience, and we all know right from wrong. For example, murder, adultery, and stealing are universal sins unanimously considered to be damaging to society. The biggest sin of all, is denying the creator God who made us and gives us purpose in life. And for those who don't believe in Jesus and accept his death on the cross for their sin, they will be condemned to hell.

Having said that, Acts 10 mentions a God fearing Roman soldier named Cornelius who didn't know Jesus but wanted to know God. In the end, God used Peter to share the gospel with him, and he believed. Whoever wants to know God, God will somehow get the message to them.

Hebrews 9:27 tells us that there are no more chances to repent and believe in Jesus after you die.

6. I have mounting doubts even after say I believe. Does my faith need to be reevaluated?

Doubts are actually a good thing!

"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates

For us Christians, the unexamined faith is not worth living.

God is big enough to answer any questions we have concerning him. Other religions say don't ask, just believe, but Jesus and the apostles invited others to ask questions and seek answers. So when you have questions, it should motivate you to seek answers! Many Christians who do not ask questions about their faith, are those who fall away when their faith is challenged.

7. Why are there so many divisions within Christianity like Catholicism and Protestantism? Which one is right?

Truth is measured by the Bible, not by man-made parameters. We measure whether a church or a denomination is consistent by the Bible. The Bible, God's truth, is never wrong, but human interpretation is not perfect (1Corinthians 13:12, this world is like seeing through a mirror unclearly).

We do not have perfect interpretations so we do not have perfect understanding. But we should agree on the essentials such as there is one God, the Trinity, and the Son of God Jesus Christ. On the non essentials, denominations are allowed to disagree like how to conduct baptism.

As for Protestantism and Catholicism, the former initially came about as a result of the latter drifting away from Biblical teaching. If you read up on Martin Luther (not Martin Luther King) in the 16th century, you will learn why. I didn't bother writing down what's already on Wikipedia.

8. How do people who lived and died before Jesus came to earth get saved?

Just believing in God through our knowledge of the creation and our conscience (Q5) is not enough. We need special revelation to know God, and that special revelation came through the nation of Israel.

Israel had the system of offering sacrifices for sin. That sacrifice was an unblemished lamb that would shed its blood for the sins of the people. The lamb itself did not save people from sin, but it was a prophetic symbol of the Saviour whom people would put their faith in.

Foreigners outside of Israel still had a chance to hear the gospel. Many came to Israel to learn about God. In other cases such as Jonah, God sent a prophet from Israel to reveal himself to the foreign countries.

9. What age of children are saved?

The Bible talks about an "age of accountability". After a certain age, children are able to understand and respond to God's expectations. In Israel, the Bar Mitzvah ritual takes place at 12 years of age, but that is more tradition and not something taught in the Bible. The bible doesn't specify when exactly the "age of accountability" is. The actual timing may depend person to person.

10. Will a spiritual revival come to Japan?

400 years ago, Christianity thrived in Japan (Edo period). As we study the lives of the Christians back then, they were faithful to Christ, enduring persecution and even dying in his name.

An age of revival may not have yet come, but before one will come, God's people must be faithful to God's call in the Bible. Revival begins in God's household. Let's pray for revival to sweep Japan, and pray that it would begin within.