Polyphasic Sleep Experiment - Day 5, end

Wednesday, Dec 26, 2018

So..... I gave up at midnight yesterday. My reasons are many, but the straw that broke the camel's back was my concern that this experiment might end up exacerbating my predisposition for Alzheimer's. My grandma died from Dementia and my dad is currently going through late stage Alzheimer's. This is a serious concern for me. So after yesterday's 'revelation', I decided it's just not worth the it.

Also it wasn't like I didn't like my schedule BEFORE the experiment. I got to do all the things that were important to me (friends, workout, ride, work) and I didn't have any sleep issues. If there is something I wanted to add to my life (like read more or do more track days), I just make room for that by spending less time on social media or aimless web surfing. With polyphasic sleeping, even though theoretically I had more time, I felt like I was giving up opportunities to do the other things I loved. For example, there's an organized ride that popped up on Meetup. But I couldn't sign up because it's an all day ride. Also my friend Sandy were planning lunch, and I felt dismayed when she proposed we meet at 11am to avoid the crowds. Normally the time wouldn't be a problem but now I was stressing about how I'm going to take a nap a noon, or maybe I can push it out, but then I'll be not fully there mentally with my friend.

So all of these reasons made me stop the experiment. I went to bed at midnight last night and woke up at 7am feeling wonderful! =) My brain is no longer in a fog and physically I have more energy. Also I've come to the conclusion that I/we get more done on a polyphasic sleeping schedule not mainly because we had more time. It was more because we had these small deadlines everyday to compel us to finish something before the next bedtime. And we HAD to do things to distract from the drowsiness. In other words, we had to focus and we had to keep moving.

That was what I was already doing to some degree prior to the experiment; now I just have a better idea of how to do it better (with small "deadlines" and keeping the momentum going).

p.s. So this morning I had 1/2 spoon of coffee. GOD IT TASTED SO GOOD!!! I'm not going to go back to my 4 spoons-a-day habit like before, but I' will let myself have a little every morning. 😀