Aside from my absurdly painful 6-10 morning block this morning (detailed in the previous post) I felt fine all day. This is especially cool considering that I moved my naps around to accommodate my class schedule. Granted, I ended up shifting my 2pm nap forward by only 45 minutes, but from what I've read it's meant to cause near instant exhaustion and paralysis. That I was able to do it after 3 days without serious consequences makes me rather happy.
I believe the reason I've been doing so well is two fold. First, I decided not to do this on a break, where I had full control over my schedule. This is contradictory toward what nearly everyone I've read on this has said to do. But the reason I believe it works is because I both have more than enough work and play activities to consume my time, and that I have daily obligations in which my brain is basically required to function.
For example, I am able to be totally fine in engaging classes. As was seen yesterday in my latin american class and my TA-ing, my want to sleep gets reduced to a dull thrum in the background when my brain is fully engaged. Today, my first class was a lecture class but was not altogether exciting. I had to spend my time memorizing the location of all the african countries just to stay awake.
These class periods generally offer opportunities where I can be thoroughly engaged and where I am forced to be so. If I were at home it'd be much easier to both not do anything challenging with my tired brain and to regress, as I would have no limits to, say, sleeping from 4-12 to recover.
Second, I rallied my friends around me like a protective shield. I've had a number of people reach out and say that if I need anything to simply let them know, as they both don't want me to die and are curious to see if it works. My friends and even acquaintances are so pumped about the idea that its hard not to be infected by their enthusiasm. And trust me, when you have to walk in the cold just to keep yourself from falling asleep enthusiasm is every weapon you could need.
This morning, while I was contemplating my decision and whether or not I was a fool, I sent a text to a one of these friends. Of course, it was about 6:50am when this happened, so I did not expect to get a text back, but simply being able to vent something like "SWEET JESUS MY BODY IS SO UNHAPPY WITH ME RIGHT NOW OWWWW" does wonders for managing to overcome it.
Also, the texting helped me not to fall asleep.
Which makes me think that the ruling notion of how to go about this may be all wrong. Most poly's suggest switching sleep cycles when you have total control over your schedule and its okay if you're a zombie. For most college kids, this means doing it on one of the holiday breaks. I think this is the absolute worst idea.
I say you should do it when you have things that are not necessarily important for you to be attending to, but which will require your full engagement. It should also be a time when you're surrounded by people who are not only supportive of your actions but are there to interact with on a daily basis. I cannot explain the amount which my friends have held me afloat in these past few days.
In short, it's starting to seem that boredom is more the cause of sleep than an actual need to sleep.
My naps today were nothing of note, in that three of them seemed to properly do their job and two of them failed to meet the mark. I can tell when I nap whether or not it's good based on the quality of the imagery that bursts around in my brain. A good nap brings high resolution, tangentially related imagery into the forefront, while a bad one brings no imagery and makes me groggy upon waking. I admit that I am rather sleepy at the moment, but writing this post has helped to push that into the background yet again.
I have my fingers crossed for the next few days. There's an immense Basshunter concert on Saturday that I'm attending, and I'm wondering how my nap requirement at 10pm is going to match up with the location. I may have to move it up a notch so it doesn't block my raving.
I recognize that this post may not be as polished as I'd like, but my current level of sleepiness (nap in 1 hour GET EXCITED) exceeds my want to edit it and make it more sensible. Instead, I'll end with some endearing pictures.
YOU GOT THIS.
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