Tuesday, Dec 25, 2018
Day 4, 10am. Already I can feel my body adapting to this new schedule. The sleepiness is more predictable (about an hour before nap time I start to feel drowsiness descend) and my energy level is more steady throughout the 24 hour cycle. I did make a few modifications to the schedule and it's helped the transition a ton.
Traditionally each sleep cycle is 25 minutes (theoretically because that's how long a REM cycle is*), but I extended it to 38 minutes. I find that it takes me a while to fall asleep (I'm guessing 5-10 minutes?) and a 25-minute sleep cycle just doesn't give me enough time to actually get to REM stage. After I started the extended cycle, I feel a lot better upon waking. It's amazing how much difference 13 minutes can make.
10pm. I was listening to a podcast and the speaker reminded me that the other sleep phases also have purpose. Specifically the slow wave cycle is how the brain clears itself of plaque buildup*. The plaque is what, according to the latest research, causes Alzheimers.
So after hearing that podcast and reading more, I'm not sure I want to continue this experiment.... Maybe I'll finish the 2-week trial I promised myself. Maybe I'll cut it down to 1 week. I'll need to talk to Todor about it first.
Other than that, I feel like I'm constantly sleeping but never rested.... My brain is foggy still and the time between midnight and 8am are the hardest. There is not much I can't do, since I have to be quiet and not wake everyone in the house. Also physically I just don't have the energy for much either. I find myself wishing time would go faster and it'll be 8am already. And if I'm wishing time would go faster, then what's the point of this experiment anyways? Todor's biggest reason for doing this is that, supposedly, it gives you a lot more time to do stuff. Idk.... maybe my negative thinking is because day 4 is the hardest day and I'm not thinking straight...
* Sources:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sleep-brain-alzheimers-plaques-protein
https://learning.omnivistahealth.com/2018/06/how-slow-wave-sleep-can-protect-your-brain-from-alzheimers/
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