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Goodbye Everyman
Last night I had another miserable night of tiredness. I was debating adding an hour or two to my core, but everyone seems to think that it is much better to add a nap, so I struggled through the tiredness with the intention of taking an extra nap this morning.This morning came again and I was still very tired, so I did give in and took an extra nap. I woke up naturally after 10 minutes and felt very slightly better, but still not good. After my 6:30 nap I still felt pretty grim so I discussed the idea of giving up with my girlfriend. Before when we spoke about giving up she had encouraged me to carry, on but this time she told me maybe it was time to give up.
Why I Gave Up
Overall I think the everyman sleep schedule is not right for me at this moment in time. The following are my reasons for giving up:Too Hard to Adapt
The main thing that made me give up was that the adaptation process was simply too difficult for me, and I'm not even sure if it would have ever worked for me. After about a week of sleeping with this pattern things seemed to improve, but in the past few days things got significantly worse. Today was Saturday, and I feel like I already wasted last weekend, and I am not willing to go through another weekend of feeling like a zombie.Since I have started I have not really been able to enjoy ...anything! Playing on the computer for more than an hour each day has been rubbish, I can't drink alcohol, I can't drink tea, I can't watch TV, I can't always program. Basically the enjoyment was taken out of almost every activity that I can do at home (although roller blading was still cool).
Too Many Naps
I love a nap, but 3 a day is not really worth the effort. Most of my naps were 22 - 25 minutes long, but realistically they took longer than that. I often started to feel alert before my naps and needed to spend 15 minutes or so winding down to get me in the mood for sleep. Also, after each nap I had at least 10 - 15 minutes of feeling sleepy. This means that each nap was really taking up to an hour!Also, if I want to go out for the day, getting home for a nap would be an inconvenience. Getting back for 3 naps on the other hand would be severely limiting.
Too Inflexible
I understand that the schedule would become more flexible after I am fully adapted, but even then I think it is still too rigid. During the adaptation it is way too rigid.I have a course coming up in 2 weeks and I will not be able to nap, and I may not have been adapted by then so what would I do? I normally see my next door neighbour at 4:30pm - 5:30pm but that is when my nap is so how can I see her? In 3 weeks time I need to come into work early to launch something, and I will be working from 4:00am until about midday. What if I can't get my nap then?
And god knows what I would do if I was on holiday for 2 weeks!
I don't mind sticking to my schedule most of the time, but it seems like it would be very difficult to fit all of these things into my schedule.
Incompatible with my Lifestyle
I like to drink beer, tea, meet up with people in the evenings, go on holiday, visit my family... Basically I have a social life! I think cutting down on the amount of caffeine and alcohol that I drink would be a good thing, but I don't want to give these things up forever.In the next couple of weeks I have 3 or 4 things coming up where I would like to be able to relax, eat and drink what I like and come home when I like. I really don't think I could do this whilst adapting and I think living my life is more important than this experiment!
What I Have Learnt
All in all, this experience has not been a waste of time. I think I have learnt a lot from this past couple of weeks.It's Good to Try Something Different
It's very easy to go through life doing things in the same way as everybody else. A lot of us eat, sleep, drink, work and do lots of other things in a certain way just because everyone else does, and we don't think that there could be a better way of doing things. This sleep pattern was not for me, but I definitely don't like my normal sleeping pattern and I don't want to go back to monophasic sleep.I Rely too Heavily on Tea and Alcohol
Having to give up tea was really difficult for me. I normally drink at least 5 or 6 cups a day, and I really don't like not being able to do that! I don't think this is a good situation to be in, being so reliant on something throughout the day.Similarly I think I have been drinking alcohol a bit too much as well. Most nights I had been drinking 2 or 3 beers in the evening, whereas on this sleeping pattern I sometimes had 1 with my dinner but no more. I even left half a pint of beer behind in a restaurant the other day!
I am hoping to cut down on tea and alcohol after this. I will still be drinking tea every day, but I will be doing so only at the beginning of the day. Before I was often drinking tea in the evening and I think this was having an effect on my sleep.
Similarly I will cut down the amount of alcohol I drink. If nothing else this will save me a lot of money! This isn't to say I'm going to be teetotal: I still enjoy a good drink and intend to indulge in it regularly. I just don't want to spend so much time sitting in my house drinking.
I Like Infusions
This is a relatively minor point I think, but I have discovered that tea is not the only hot drink worth drinking! I really like a peppermint tea, or camomile and honey, and a whole range of other strange infusions that I bought for this experiment. I intend to drink these in the afternoon instead of tea as they are naturally caffeine free.Napping is Amazing
One of the really positive things that has come out of this is that I've learnt how to nap. In the past I have napped from time to time, but I would often feel really tired and still not be able to nap, or it would simply not cross my mind that I could use a nap. Now I know that if I ever feel a bit sleepy, I can always take a 20 minute power nap for a bit of refreshment.I would also like to include a daily nap in my new sleeping schedule.
I Have a Better Understanding of How Sleep Works
Getting by on such little sleep, and managing it so precisely has taught me a lot about sleep. I understand more about how sleep stages work, how circadian and ultradian rhythms work, and what it feels like to feel truly tired. I have experienced nightmares, sleep paralysis, microsleeps and at times even euphoria due to my sleep pattern.I have also truly experienced what it feels like to fall asleep. When you are extremely sleep deprived, and trying to nap, sometimes you seem to drift into a light sleep without losing consciousness.
First of all, all of your limbs go numb, and then you feel really heavy and warm, like you are melting into the mattress. It feels like it would take a great effort to move any of your body parts. You start to see hypnogogic imagery (lights, colours, dreamlike images) and sometimes hear sounds. Your eyes gently roll back and start to move from side to side.
Most people probably don't really get to experience this and it has been interesting.
I have also learnt how to fall asleep and it is really simple:
First I take a few deep breaths. I breath in through my nose deeply, so that my stomach rises, hold the air in my lungs for a few seconds, and then exhale through my mouth. I repeat this a few times and it makes me feel a little bit more drowsy.
Next I start counting my breathes. Every time I exhale, I think in my head 1, 2, 3... all the way up to 10. If I get distracted and can't remember where I'm up to I start again. If I get to 10 I start again.
I have no idea how well this would work if I wasn't sleep deprived, but I found this to be an excellent way to clear my mind and drift off to sleep during the experiment.
[ EDIT 4/10/2012: It turns out that this technique doesn't really work for me if I am not sleep deprived. Taking a couple of deep breathes is a good way to relax a little bit, but the counting thing no longer works for me. I think it is useful if you are really tired but can't clear your mind of thoughts (especially due to not winding down), but concentrating on counting seems to be counterproductive when I am not exhausted.]
The Snooze Button is a Waste of Time
I have really had to jump out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off during this experiment, even if only because it was 2:30am and my girlfriend was sleeping. This is a good habit to get into!Before this experiment, every morning I would set my alarm to 7:05, and snooze the alarm until 7:35. This is really not worth doing, and I intend to get out of this behaviour from now on.
I Like Rising Early
I always thought of myself as a bit of a night owl, but I have realised that waking up early is great! My girlfriend always said I should get up half an hour earlier so that we can eat breakfast together before work, but to be honest this is not good enough. I want to be able to get up, have breakfast, shower, and still have an hour to spare to do whatever I want.I Like Being Awake at Night
As well as being awake in the morning, I also want to be awake at night! I've always known this to be honest, but during the experiment I found it quite cool to be doing the dishes at 3:00am and going for a walk before sunrise when everyone else was still in bed.I Spend too Much Time in Front of a Computer
I had some horrible feelings in my eyes, and I think a lot of this was due to sitting in front of the computer too much. I think it would be good for me to be a bit more active.I Can Use the Computer Standing Up
Related to the previous point, I had terrible back ache for periods during the experiment. Because of this I ended up building something to rise my keyboard and mouse up to standing height, and I intend to use this in the future as well. Obviously I will not stand at my computer all of the time, but it actually feels quite good to not be sat in my chair all of the time.My Girlfriend is Amazing
The final thing I want to say here is that my girlfriend is really supportive and I couldn't have tried this without her support. Even though she thought this whole sleep thing was ridiculous, she still talked me out of quitting several times, and really helped me feel better when I was feeling low. One night she even got up at "stupid o' clock" to keep me company! She also tolerated my waking her up in the night with my vibrating alarm clock and having to come home at inconvenient times for my naps.My New Sleeping Pattern
My everyman experiment officially ended at 1:09pm today when I decided to take a 1.5 hour nap to switch to a new sleep pattern. My new sleeping pattern will be biphasic sleep, commonly known as taking a siesta!| Sleep Period | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core Sleep | 1:00 | 5:30 | (4.5 hours) |
| Nap | 16:30 | 18:00 | (1.5 hours) |
This schedule is also supposed to be very flexible. I have heard people who are on similar schedules say that they can take their nap anytime between 12:00 and 19:00 which is going to be great compared to the rigid everyman naps. The only downside is that the nap is 1.5 hours long, and is much more difficult to fit in than a 20 minute power nap, but I think it will be worth it.
The Future of this Blog
I will not be blogging every day with this sleep pattern as it is not weird enough to be interesting, but I will continue to log my sleeps on my sleep site and will continue to log notes throughout my adaption period.I also have a few more things to post about everyman, and will probably write a conclusion post at some point when I am fully adapted to biphasic.
Finally, I wouldn't rule out a similar experiment at some point in the future. A big part of me wants to know if it would have been possible to adapt to everyman, and I would also love to try the uberman sleep schedule.