Day 6 - Pre Core

Alarm: 12:30am

I'm trying out writing this with the android app. After the Mensa events and chores, we spent the remainder of the evening leisurely building new contraptions and welcoming new players in Minecraft, and eventually getting to bed 30 mins late.

No sweat. I feel great and am excited about how much work I'm getting done with out running myself into the ground.

See you in a few sweet hours ...

Day 6 - Post Nap 3

Alarm: 1:06pm

My wife was busy in the garden so we started this nap about 15 minutes late. I was lucky today in that the neighbors were all very quiet and I wasn't interrupted. That bump at the end of the graph is my alarm going off. Usually that syncs up better with the end of the graph, but this time I knocked the phone under the bed and had to dig for it.

The Mensa Website Committee Meeting was pushed back to after "Great Minds," so for the guests, I had plenty of time to make this bad boy from scratch (even the whole wheat flour dough!).

Day 6 - Post Nap 2

Alarm: 8:05 am

Well, we were nearly an hour late for this nap, but we had planned on that. I fell asleep quickly as usual, but this time was awoken by a loud noise from coming from outside the bedroom window about half-way through the nap.

Below is a record of my movement in bed. You can clearly see when I was repositioned myself after hearing the loud noise.

After waking up, we spent some time in bed, among other things, chatting about how we are faring due to the transition, dreams, sleep in general, etc. Given that most people take at minimum 1 week and at most 1 month to feel normal again, I think that I am ahead of schedule, and that due to my ability to fall asleep so quickly.

Day 6 - Post Nap 1

Alarm: 3:50 am

We got to bed 10 minutes early, I slept restfully and woke up easily, but my wife did not sleep at all. 

We re-heated and ate leftovers from last night's supper, "African food", so I was feeling pretty stuffed. As far as I can tell, I am no longer experiencing any sleep dep. symptoms. This is great!

After doing a bit of computer work, we decided to take our new puppy to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was gorgeous and we got a decent workout chasing her around. She doesn't like the water/waves yet, but she'll learn.

We spent too much time enjoying the beach and exercising too close to nap time, so we are going to have to push our next nap back at least an hour. I hope this does not effect how awake I am for our two Mensa events today, "Great Minds" and the monthly Website Committee Meeting.

Classical Music - Sleep vs Concentration Aid

Concentration

A fact that has always been true for me and recently has been emphasized in times of low concentration and drowsiness: having classical music playing ambiently increases my focus and keeps me awake; and what a boon this has been!

Sleep

I think most people will be thinking that this is ironic, as pop culture associates classical music with nodding-off. However, given a decent tempo and interesting arrangement, it has always had the reverse effect for me (much to the chagrin of my younger self who was still experimenting with how to get to sleep asap). 

Explanation

Based entirely on empirical evidence, I believe that this phenomenon can be attributed to concentration vs. mind wandering. Letting your mind-wandering is a fantastic way to fall asleep, so perhaps most peoples' minds wander about when they listen to classical music? Personally, I find that when listening to classical music my mind sharpens, so focusing and exploring different sides of a single idea or concept is easier and less boring to do, thus preventing mind-wandering and therefore preventing sleep and/or drowsiness.

Polyphasic Sleep

If you plan on transitioning to a polyphasic sleep lifestyle yourself, perhaps you should try playing classical music ambiently to help you through those difficult drowsy days too? Just make sure its nothing slow or droning or you'll surely find yourself cheating on your next nap.

Examples 

• Amazon.com/Classical-Music-Help-Asleep-Volume
• Amazon.com/Classical-Music-Concentration-Study-Mozart
• Music composed by John Williams: if you are not looking for concentration but instead just staying awake. While prancing around like a T-Rex, whipping things with an imaginary Indiana Jones whip, or light saber fighting you dog like a padawan are all great energy boosters, but these hyper-popular tunes will constantly bombard your mind with powerful memories from movies and will surely prevent concentration on whatever it is you are trying to work on.

Day 6 - Post Core

Alarm: 12:00 am

We woke up slightly drowsily, but otherwise with no sleep deprivation symptoms. 

Checking my SleepBot log, I can see that at 9:05pm, 9:27pm, 10:10pm, and 11:38pm, I rustled in bed, indicating when I entered light sleep and the best time for me to have woken up. Perhaps soon, I can start again utilizing SleepBot's "Smart alarm" to detect spikes like these, because even though waking at 11:38pm would have lost 22 minutes of core sleep, if I had been woken up during that light sleep perhaps it would not have been so difficult to roll out of bed?

After reviewing my blog as a visitor would see it, I have decided to revert back to publishing each section as its own post; I think that styling of each heading looks better this way.

Day 5

Post Core - 1:10 am

Even though we did not get to bed on time, we decided to guarantee that we still obtained 3.5 hours of core sleep by pushing the alarm back by 1 hour and 10 minutes. That was a good idea. Even though it was difficult for both of us to wake up and we initially felt extra groggy, within the hour we both felt like normal again.

My wife made us a larger breakfast, each having two fried/seasoned eggs, a kiwi fruit, a lilikoi, a mandarin, and a glass of almond milk.

Post Nap 1 - 3:50 am

We laid in bed 10 minutes early, then fell asleep and woke up on time. I immediately felt better. My wife decided to sleep through until the alarm for nap 2.

Post Nap 2 - 7:20 am

I got to bed 10 minutes early, then fell asleep and woke up on time. When I can do this I wake up feeling very good! Sleeping extra has my wife feeling great too.

Spartan Race

My brother spent the night and upon waking, he wanted me to accompany him to spectate at the Spartan Race. I obliged, knowing that I would be late for my next nap. It was a 1.2 mile hike from our parked car to the event. I ended up getting sunburned on the backs of my forearms, neck and knees, and on the top of my feet; creating a "slippahs tan".

Post Nap 3 - 3:30 pm

My wife chose to skip nap 3 because she slept in, but also hadn't eaten lunch yet either. I prepared for us two bacon, lettuce, tomato (BLT) wraps, took a shower (the Spartan Race gets the spectators muddy too), then hopped in bed nearly 3 hours late.

Even though the nap was late, I wasn't experiencing any sleep loss symptoms; except perhaps yawning. Waking from the nap was easy, and I feel refreshed. I plan to work on my computer until it is time for core.

Pre Core - 8:30 pm

I feel wonderful.

Pork Shoulder with red wine sauce, sweet potatoes pan-fried with coconut oil, and a deluxe house salad for dinner while watching an episode from Battlestar Galactica - Season 2; getting to bed early and relaxed. What a great evening. :)