Two sleeps forward, one sleep back
I’ve been sleeping polyphasicly off and on for nearly a month now. I’ve come a long way but I have a lot farther to go. It seems that every few days I’ll oversleep a nap for one reason or another. Recently they have been due to issues with alarm settings and placement.
I took a nap at 2:20 AM Sunday morning, expecting to wake up at 2:46 AM. I woke up at 5:30AM to something extremely strange. My alarm clock and timer were moved. I have them sitting on the window sill next to my bed. It wasn’t as if I had brushed against them in my sleep. They were at the other end of the window sill, as if I had put them there. The thing is, I have no memory of doing that. I’m guessing that the timer went off to wake me up. In the process of shutting it off I knocked it and the clock off the sill onto my bed. I then put them back and proceeded to fall back asleep. Now, this is only the second time that I can remember having amnesia. The other was when I had my apendix removed and the anethstesia caused me to forget speaking with my parents as I came out of the OR. Amnesia is a troublesome thing, even when it’s something as stupid as this. I don’t think it has any relation to polyphasic sleep. I seem to remember reading some research that shows we frequently do not remember a short period of time prior to falling asleep. I tried finding it but couldn’t. If you know what I’m talking about I’d appreciate it if you could send me the info. I’d like to blame my memory loss on that 
I had a few other extended naps over the past week. Last night my 6PM nap went for 4 hours. I’m not sure if I slept through the alarm or if I forgot to set it. Luckily a friend called me about something at 10PM and woke me up.
I don’t really look on oversleeps as a major setback. One thing I’m learning is that they help me make it through the late night tired spells I get. However, I think they do interfere with adjustment to polyphasic sleep. Last week I thought I was finally adjusted. Then I overslept a nap and I’ve been tired at night ever since. I think that longer naps may be fine once you’re completely adjusted, however they do seem to reverse progress in the mean time.
I’ve been thinking about what to do with my sleep schedule now that I’m going back to school. My classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 8AM to 4:50PM with a break from 1 to 2. If I take a nap from 7:20-7:45 I’ll be awake for about 5.25 hours before I can sleep again. That’s assuming I can find a place to sleep at school. I may shift my 6AM nap back to 5AM and make it 1.5h long on school days. I think that would help me make it through class a lot better than just a normal nap. Plus I won’t have to worry about oversleeping at 7:45 and missing class. The first few weeks should be extremely easy for me since I know a lot about the classes I’m taking. That will allow for some sleep adjustment since I won’t have to worry about being at my peak to learn. However, if I find that polyphasic sleep interferes with my ability to learn and participate in class I’ll switch back to monophasic sleep on those days or maybe for all days. A 4.5h core with 2 naps could work too.
on January 18, 2006 at 2:02 am
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I don’t have any research to quote for you, but I can tell you that I often manage to turn alarms off with no memory of doing so when I’m tired. In fact, reading your site inspired me to try polyphasic sleep, and this has been one of my major problems with it. I now usually set my cell phone to go off across the room so I have to get out of bed entirely.
on January 18, 2006 at 7:13 am
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After the incident I had I started leaving the timer I use across the room as well. I’d have to sleep walk to not remember shutting it off.