Sleep in Review
I haven’t discussed polyphasic sleep for quite some time as I stopped it back in February. Since then I’ve followed a few different sleep patterns. While I was in school I followed a split 6 hour pattern, sleeping from 11PM to 2AM and then 3AM to 6AM. That worked fairly well but I frequently found myself quite tired if class was boring.
After school got out I returned to monophasic sleep. I don’t know if it’s because of my experimentation with polyphasic sleep, changes in my diet, or the exercise routine but now I sleep 6-7 hours a night. Before I tried polyphasic sleep I was out for 8 hours a night. If I wanted I could probably sleep that long again, but I’ve found that I function well on 6-7 hours.
I may try polyphasic yet again. One thing that I disliked about it is that it interfears with social gatherings that last more than 3 hours. I either have to leave or I have to find a place to take a nap. Now that it’s nice out that isn’t as much of a problem, but it still causes problems with my social life. When doing the 4 hour, 20 min pattern I also eat at the beginning of each eating phase. That means I have to make or buy food right after waking up.
With it being so nice out I have a lot of ways I can spend the extra time outside biking, exploring, hiking, etc. Plus the gym I joined is open 24 hours during the week which would allow me to workout there at night. I could do a split routine with lifting during one time period and cardio 12 hours later. It’s something I’m strongly considering. It would also help get me back into the groove of sticking strictly to my eating plan as I’ve been straying a bit recently.
I’m interested in hearing how other former or current polyphasic sleepers have delt with the social issues. Did you just nap at your friends (as I have)? Did you get your friends to do polyphasic sleep as well?
