Progress at-a-glance
End of
day 7*
- Mental alertness: 10
- Physical energy level: 9
- Quality of sleep: 9
*On this
scale, 10 represents my original state prior to beginning this experiment.
Detailed comments
Yesterday
was an interesting day by all accounts. From 8am-10pm, our family was at Tokyo
Disneyland for the final day of the in-park New Year's celebrations, in its
30th anniversary year. With respect to adhering to my predefined
parameters for my sleep experiment, it was a spectacular failure in terms
of sticking to sleep times and diet, after prioritising going on rides and
watching shows over dropping everything and sleeping when my appointed time was
up. However, I consider it to be surprisingly successful as an experiment in
sleep pattern adaptation, since I still spread my sleep over the course of the
day, napping for no more than 30 minutes at a time, and still retaining normal
functionality. I'll share in more detail our experiences from our fourth time at
Tokyo Disneyland in a separate blog post, but for now, I'll be concentrating on
how my sleep experiment went in the context of having spent a day at a theme
park, where the last thing you want to go there to do is sleep.
In
continuation from my day
6 account yesterday, I stayed awake after my 11pm nap until my scheduled
4am nap. During that time I didn't have much trouble staying awake, but that
could have been because I was looking at a computer screen the entire time,
researching and planning how to make the most of our time spent at Disneyland.
Then again, it could have been because I was keeping my brain active by doing
such research. In any case, it was really interesting reading the experience
annd advice of other bloggers who had been to Tokyo Disneyland (and often its
counterpart in the US).
My nap at
4am was surprisingly refreshing. Although it was only 30 minutes, I felt like
I'd been asleep for much longer. It helped me go the final stretch in planning
what we would be doing during the day. At about 6am, I had breakfast consisting
of muesli, yoghurt and a bit of bread.
Even
though this has now been my fourth time at Tokyo Disneyland (the only
Disneyland I've been to so far), I still gained new insights from others'
perspectives. Such as finding out which day is projected to be how
congested, and how to track how long
the queues are at each ride without going to look at each one personally.
One irony was that I was so absorbed in reading such blogs that my own
preparations before departing were delayed, and I failed to utilise the first
piece of advice, which was arriving at the gates at least 30 minutes before
opening. The park opened at 8:30am this morning, and we arrived at 8:15, by
which time there were unbelievably large crowds already waiting in line. It was
due to this seemingly minor mistake that we missed out on getting on one of the
most high demand rides in the park - by literally two minutes. I'll mention
that part of our day in more detail in a later post dedicated to our trip to
Disneyland. In the meantime, back to the topic at hand.
Having
mentioned that the park opens at 8:30am, it necessarily means that at 8am, my
scheduled next nap after 4am, I was still commuting on a train, and there were
frequent transfers so I wasn't able to nap then. I'd hoped to enter the park a
bit earlier, grab a run on one of the more high demand rides first, and then
relax by having my morning nap. But arriving at 8:20 meant that ideal went out
the window. Instead, we entered Disneyland at 8:30am, grabbed a FastPass
(available for the most in-demand attractions, enabling you to skip the queue
by going on the ride at the designated time), then I found a free seat in the
reception building lobby, and got 30 minutes of shut eye there at 9:20am. I
don't think I actually fell asleep, or at best fell asleep for about 10
minutes, but even so it was a refreshing nap that kept me going till my next
sleep.
My next
planned nap time today was at 11:30am while waiting for a show that started at
12pm, but the turnout was bigger than expected and we had to stand, both while
waiting to enter the show as well as during the show, so hopes of sleeping then
went out the window. I didn't actually get a chance to sleep until 2:30pm, when
we found seats at a restaurant inside the park. We ordered a pizza and I rested
for 30 minutes, after which I had the remaining uneaten pizza. It wasn't a
comfortable sleep, but it did the job of keeping me functional until my next
nap.
My next
nap was scheduled for 4:30pm, but since we used our time so efficiently in
keeping busy watching shows and going on rides, I ended up having to wait until
8:30pm for my next nap. Even then, my nap was involuntarily restricted to 20
minutes instead of the full 30 because it was during a show (which I realised
I've seen in a previous Disneyland visit). The earplugs were a real lifesaver,
helping me to properly rest. I think I may have even fallen asleep, despite the
singing and dancing bears on stage.
My next
sleep wasn't until we reached home. It appears I was so tired I fell asleep
right at the table right after having had some soup. That was around 11:50pm,
and I only realised when I woke up at around 1:20am, by which the rest of my
family had gone to bed.
Diet for
the day was mediocre, eating more to avoid hunger than to be particularly tasty
or nutritious. Having said that, park bought food was pretty tasty (though I'm
not sure about healthy). Food eaten includes rice balls, chocolate, biscuits,
meat buns, churros, popcorn, pizza, crepe, mandarins, etc. We ate in small
portions each time, so my diet didn't majorly affect any single nap during the
day.
As of
today, it's been about half a month since my first attempt at sleeping
polyphasically, and seven days since the commencement of my second attempt.
Over this time, I've developed an ability to sense when I've slept for 30
minutes, the ability to enter REM sleep soon after falling asleep, and not in
the least gained several hours each day while maintaining almost normal
functionality. It was in this setting that I went on a family trip to
Disneyland, which was uncompromising to an uncompromising sleeping regime. One
concern I had was where I would be able to sleep in a theme park. Having spent
a day during my experimental period in Disneyland, I can recommend sleeping in
the lobby of the reception building, and during one of the more longer shows (>20
mins). I also considered going to the first aid tent and asking if I could lie
down for half an hour, but I never found it so I didn't have the opportunity to
try it out. It may depend upon personality and default ease with which you fall
asleep regularly, but for me, I am now able to say that I was able to enjoy a
full day at Tokyo Disneyland while sleeping polyphasically, though designating
my nap times more out of necessity than based on a rigid sleep regime. One
piece of advice I have for anyone who attempts the Uberman sleep cycle and
finds themselves in a situation unconducive to taking 30 minute naps at fixed
intervals, research potential sleeping destinations in advance. Assuming you've
allowed your body enough days to get used to sleeping polyphasically, it won't
be too difficult to fall asleep when you decide to. Just don't try and force
your body to sleep - the harder you try to sleep, the more sleep will elude
you, so just relax. Hope this special edition of my sleep experiment account
was at least somewhat interesting to read.
Tomorrow
will be the beginning of the new school term. From tomorrow until the end of
the experimental period, I will see what it's like sleeping polyphasically
while keeping up with the demands of class work and homework.
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