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.