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.