So Far So Good

As you can tell from the last post, I was in a little bit of a low spot there. I had just woken up from the only nap since waking up from a short crash at 4:00pm (started at 12:30pm). The "crash", which I have absolutely no guilt for, and some of you trying this should learn from, was good for me. It ended up I was having a very long afternoon/evening, and I wasn't going to have a chance for a nap until about 10:30pm.

I am sure that my crash happened because I couldn't fall asleep again at another attempt at sleep at 8:00am. It was in the car, with an eye pillow and earplugs, but there was just no sleeping for some reason. I was not dangerously tired to where I couldn't drive, so I drove home. Then I was reading things on the web and looking for other cars for sale, and time flew to afternoon. I couldn't find something or other to help me wake up, and I was at that time needing sleep, so I decided to just let myself take a snooze for one or two ultradian cycles. I woke up at 4:00. So thats 3 1/2 hours. And I was feeling very groggy, probably because of that extra 1/2 hour (2 normal common ultradian cycles total 3 hours, or 2 x 90 minutes).

I felt fine for most of the night. But at about 10:45pm, when my wife was in bed too, but I was trying to stay up to finish watching "The Colbert Report", I just decided I couldn't wait until 11:00pm.

The sleep went pretty well. I woke up feeling OK, but I started to dip again just about the time I was beginning to nag myself to post here about where I disappeared to all day. But I made the post :).

So it's 1:08am here now. I don't care to add up where I am for sleep to wake ratio, or total the hours. I am very tired. But I've been here before and it is very familiar. Thats kinda sad, but good too. I don't plan to do much tonight other than try to find something interesting on TV. I don't have anything heavy tomorrow, although I do need to clean the car really well. I was supposed to do that yesterday when I was crashing.

Like Paul (www.paul-bradley.com) I am using Sleep Tracker (I'll make a link later, but it is at placebos site). It's just fine. I just don't want to input the last 18 hours just this minute.

I am also noticing fovial vision. My peripheral vision darkens. At the same time I find it easier to focus my eyes, but that is about all that I see. I think the brain does shut out extra data it doesn't need when pushed "beyond fatigue". I am looking forward to seeing what it is like to transition from this to a more awake state once established in a polyphasic sleep pattern. I have had terrible sleeping habits so it may be quite a difference if I "wake up" as much as others report. It's also very nice to know I'm not going to an empty room, so to speak.

One thing I noticed on the first attempt earlier this week, after having a few naps, is that the naps seem much longer than they actually are. In fact, when I did crash the first 6 or 8 hours or however long it was It seemed as if I had been in bed sleeping on and off the entire day, like 16 hours. A deeply distorted sense of time is definitely a product of this experiment.

Paul writes of peripheral vision being much more acute, and he and others have written of chatter in ones head, what I would call peripheral internalizations, quieting down too. I suspect the data from the peripheral vision has a clearer neural pathway to get in to conciousness if all the chatter is cleared.

Tonight I had a small piece of steak, 3 beef ribs, and some chili. mmmMMMEATT!! As a former atkins experimenter, having lost 17lbs in 3 1/2 weeks, I do have a tendency to blame processed carbohydrates for most of our bodies maladjustments. I am not on Atkins now, as about an hour ago I had 1/2 a cantelope. This being awake all the time makes me hungrier. I wonder if some of the same changes in the paragraphs above can be experienced by smoking pot?

What is on the TV behind me right now is boring me. Time to give it some more attention, particularly the tuner.