Polyphasic sleep cycle 2.0 - Day 5

Progress at-a-glance

End of day 5*

• Mental alertness: 10
• Physical energy level: 10
• Quality of sleep: 8

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

Detailed comments

Five days into my so-called second attempt and eleven days since the day I first started sleeping polyphasically, it keeps on getting stranger. Over the past 48 hours, the amount of time I've spent in an actual asleep state and my perceived energy level just don't add up. And I mean it in a good imbalance sort of way - I feel a lot more active than my commonsense tells me I should be, in my current sleep deprived state.

My day was not off to a good start, from an experimental point of view. Overslept my 12am nap, all the way until my 3.50 alarm went off which was supposed to tell me to prepare for my 4am nap. That either means I fell asleep before I had time to set my countdown timer at 12am, or that I slept through my countdown timer and up until my 3.50 alarm went off. I am almost certain about having set the alarm before lying down, so I don't know if that meant I was actually tired enough for even an alarm to wake me up.

Whatever the actual cause may have been, consequently I ended up skipping the 4am nap, and waiting till 8am for my next one. The good news is that I didn't feel anywhere near as drowsy as the same time on the previous night, so although 4 hours of sleep is by no means much, it seems like it was enough to bring my brain alertness level back despite three consecutive naps over a span of 12 hours where I didn't reach REM sleep (or fall asleep at all, it appears). During my waking period between 4-8am, I typed up my sleep experiment progress report for yesterday, cleaned my room a bit, and did some reading.

After waking up from my 8am nap, I had breakfast (the usual rice, natto, yoghurt), then set out for day two of clothes shopping shortly after. I found lots of bargains today, at stores such as H&M, Appbank and my personal favourite, GU. All these stores put up reasonable prices, but because it was post-new year's sale, there were so many rock bottom cheap stuff. I didn't know it was possible for me to shop for so long, but the clothes I bought were worth every penny.

I took two naps while out shopping today. I didn't feel sleepy in neither the 12pm nor the 4pm nap, but because it was time to sleep, I lay down for 30 minutes. The former nap was taken in the resting area at BicQlo (Joint Bic Camera and UniQlo store), and the latter was in a karaoke room. After taking the former nap, we went to a restaurant for lunch and I ordered a raw seafood with rice dish (海鮮丼 かいせんどん). For the latter nap, my friend and I booked out a karaoke room for an hour and we both rested for half an hour before singing a bit.

When we returned to the dormitory, a bunch of us gathered to make pizzas for dinner. It was really delicious, but we started eating sometime around 7:00 so I couldn't eat more than two slices, in fear of messing up my 8pm nap. It turns out though, that I didn't feel a tiny bit sleepy by 8pm and even though I took a nap in my own bed, I didn't end up falling asleep. It seems so strange to me that two days in a row now, I didn't actually fall asleep in three nap sessions in a row (12pm, 4pm, 8pm) and yet throughout that period, my brain was perfectly clear and I felt like I had a lot of energy. When I tried studying after our pizza dinner today, for example, I had no problems concentrating on the task at hand. I voiced my concerns at the end of yesterday's experimental log that my sleep quality while outdoors will make or break the successfulness of this sleep pattern transition. But looking at how surprisingly energetic I am despite not having fallen completely asleep for so many successive naps, it seems the issue is a lot more subtle and multi-faceted than I'd anticipated. Clearly the brain gets a chance to rest if you just close your eyes for a couple of minutes during the day, whether you fall asleep or not. Well, I'll have plenty more chances over the next couple of days to continue experimenting with sleeping outdoors and gauging my alertness levels throughout the day.

One thing I neglected to mention yesterday was that as of my (delayed) 12pm nap (yesterday), I have reduced each countdown timer session from 35 minutes to 30 minutes. Looking at the changes that have taken place in my sleep patterns over the past few days, it looks like I can get more out of less sleep time now. I saw it as an appropriate time and occasion to make the five minute reduction yesterday at noon, that's all.