Polyphasic Sleep

So I have been desperately trying to convert to Polyphasic Sleep. Unfortunately, it has proved to be a much harder task than I originally thought. Despite this, I am still out to conquer this goal. I have been keeping a small journal of my feelings during the days of massive sleep deprivation. I will keep you updated on these until I have accomplished this goal. Anyone who wishes to attempt this can learn from my experiences. One word of advice: Have a VERY strong will to accomplish this or you will fail.

Polyphasic Sleep

January 2, 2009 - 11:00 am - Today is the start of my polyphasic sleep plan
January 3, 2009 - 4:00 am - I'm now starting to feel fatigued, but not enought to make me lose basic motor skills.. I dropped my cup and my coffee twice.. so maybe not.
January 3, 2009 - 8:30 am - Well I have been up for almost 24 hours now and I am starting to feel very tired now. If I were to go lie down in my bed, I would be dead asleep in only a matter of seconds. I am also starting to lose some of the feeling in my body, especially in my legs. I have not lost the feeling completely, but my body feels very slow and heavy. I can tell my brain is functioning slower than normal. Infact I have made numerous spelling/typing errors on just these basic sentences (ofcouse I've been correcting them along the way, but they are mistakes I don't make. It is finally starting to click in my mind that converting to this sleep schedule is not going to be easy. I keep pondering thoughts of quitting already... Be strong.
January 3, 2009 - 11:00 am - I am starting to feel more awake now. I think the blue sky and sunshine comming in throught the windows has a lot to do with my newfound energy. Just three hours ago I was getting ready to shut my eyes and fall over. Now I feel fine, a little fatigued, but nothing like before. I have the feeling of when I get up about an hour early for a morning staff meeting... the feeling of slight tiredness and nothing a cup of coffee couldn't solve. Hopefully the worst has came and gone, but I seriously doubt that. Well I have a nap again soon.
January 3, 2009 - 5:00 pm - Wow, this is getting strange. No I am not hallucinating or having strange feelings in my body. What is strange is that I feel normal now. I feel as if I am off 8 hours of sleep. I am good to go. Infact I even had the nerve to go drive my car to the grocery store... something I promised myself I wouldn't do while adapting to this new sleep schedule. But I can't think of any reason not too. I gave myself a few basic test.. including reading comprehension and coordination. I also bounced a tennis ball off of my walls for a while and didn't drop it once. Yesterday at 4:00am I couldn't do this drill for the life of me... however today it is a piece of cake.. and I've had less than 2 hours sleep since then. Is my body recognizing the change? Can I have possibly adapted this quickly..? I am skeptical... I hope I am wrong, but I don't think it is possible to adapt this quickly. More updates soon.
January 4, 2009 - 5:00 am - The night was a little rough, I am definitely tired, but not to the point where I can't keep my eyes open. I think once daylight comes I will be more awake. Sleeping has been going good so far, my 20 minute naps seem like an hour to me. Although I haven't experienced any extremely vivid dreams, which kind of worries me because that is supposibly normal. I want it to happen to.. I just think it'd be cool.. I've never really expierenced a vivid dream. One more thing, I've noticed that I get VERY tired when I stop using my brain. For example I decided to watch television to pass the time. BIG MISTAKE. All that did was make me more exhasted. Then I sat up straight, and started playing video games with my cousing, speaking to him and interacting.. All of a sudden I wasn't fatigued anymore, infact I was awake as ever. So that is one of the tricks here, to keep my brain active.
January 7, 2009 - 3:00 am - The last few days have been pretty good. Except I over slept on by two hours the previous two days. Aside from that everything has been going smoothly. I am not really getting tired anymore. I have been driving my car, and lifting heavy objects, and operating power tools. Another thing to note is that I usually start to get tired with in 10-20 minutes of my scheduled nap time. For example, when I am getting ready for my 4pm nap, I start feeling drousy around 3:40. Which is good, because it tells me it is time to sleep. I'm pretty sure in a few weeks or so I won't need an alarm to tell me it's time to sleep. The extra hours so far have been amazing. I'm still in awe of how I have slept so little, and still feel the same. Absolutely Amazing. My 4am nap has definitely been the toughest so far. I think that is because my body is already condidtioned to sleep at the time. I have overslept it the past two nights on accident. It is my next nap it will be interesting to see if I don't sleep through the alarm. I'll let you know soon.
January 11, 2009 - 12:00pm - Well I have overslept for the past three days. I have to start over. The good news is, I have still been taking my naps, so I think I'll be a little more equiped to handle things this time around. Another thing I've noticed is I just like the feeling of being in bed. I guess that "few more minutes" was too overwhelming for me to handle. But the wierd thing is I feel better (less groggy) when I get up after 20 mintues, rather than taking those extra few minutes of rest. At first it sucks, but only a few minutes of groggyness and then I am up and I feel great. Where as the other way around, if I sleep the extra 5 minutes, I feel like shit when I get up. Anyway, it is a REAL challenge to conquer this when you're half asleep.. mainly because it is so easy to justify a few extra minutes of sleep. Your mind starts rationalizing, making things up, and before you know it, you've slept an extra 4 hours. It is absolutely heart breaking to wake up and look at the clock and see that you have overslept. Also very frustrating, because it feels like it is only half your fault.. like you have no control over your body when you are in that state of mind. Being so exhasted you can barely think. Sometimes it feels like torture in a way.. because you body is desperatly begging you to give it sleep, yet your brain says NO. The sensation throughout the body is awful... and the mental state of knowing that you cannot sleep no matter how bad you want it. Horrible. I am devastated I have to start over. But i have to do what I have to do. This month of pain will pay off.