Polyphasic sleep cycle 2.0 - Day 8

Progress at-a-glance

End of day 8*

• 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

It's fast approaching the end of my predetermined ten day experimental period. During this time, I've learned so much about both my sleep patterns and sleep in general. In this time period, I think I've more or less made the transition to sleeping polyphasically. The advantages are that I now have an additional six hours of awake time each day (night), but the disadvantages are that I can't seem to stay functionally awake for longer than 8 hours without taking a nap anymore. Of course, aside from that, there's also the extra burden placed on social interaction because I have to duck off to sleep every now and then, as well as having to watch what I eat and when I eat, so as to not affect my sleep quality. At this point in time, I'm still on the fence as to whether I'll continue this sleep pattern past the experimental period, because of the aforementioned pros and cons. Well, I've yet to experience the three days of semester under this new sleep regime, so I'll save my final say till I've experienced what it's like.

I'm having trouble deciding what's worth mentioning in terms of sleep quality, timing or duration, or of diet, because everything went more or less according to schedule. Maybe that's worth mentioning in itself, since I haven't been able to do even that for so many days so far.

What I would like to know from here is how my sleep regime would fit in practically with, say, having lunch with the Aikido club after practice on Saturday, or napping in the middle of a party that takes place off campus which means I don't have easy access to my bed, or taking up a part time job that clashes with one of my naps. It's precisely because of the inconvenience I would cause in such scenarios that causes me to hesitate in continuing this polyphasic sleep cycle. I guess we'll see how the next two days unfold.