2:40am

Deciding that, rather than fight tiredness I’d take naps early at some points I took one at about 1am, from which I just woke now over 90 minutes later.
I’m also feeling a little sick, with onset flu symptoms (for about a day now); I must have caught it from a family member who had it this week. My flailing attempts at polyphasic sleep are straining my health. For now, I must abort them.
I’m going to bed, without an alarm clock, Goodnight.

9:30am

Well a night of stuttered sleep. After falling asleep I woke up sometime on 6am: I sat up looked at my clock saw a 6 and laid straight back down and fell asleep. Then I woke at about 8am.
For now I’m going to let my sleep run freely. So I’ll go to bed whenever I feel tired and not use an alarm clock, so my body can wake me when it’s done.

Post-mortem

Although I wasn’t able to successfully convert to polyphasic sleep I consider my experiment a success. I couldn’t really be much more prepared because no account I had read was comparable to my experience. This experiment will prove to be the most important memory when I next attempt polyphasic sleep (in about 4 months), because my account will prove extremely accurate to the experiences I will have. And not only that, but next time I will consciously and sub-consciously be able to guide myself through the first week more easily and efficiently.

1am

At the moment it is very difficult to keep my eyes open. Eating a banana doesn’t seem to have worked, nor the upbeat music. But with the volume I’ve got it on at least I won’t be falling asleep.

9am

Another Crash. I must’ve fallen asleep with the music playing and then taken the earphones out. They were still playing when I woke up. I fell asleep at about 2:15am and I woke just now at 9am. Over 6.5 hours of sleep. I’m going to have to reassess my progress. If it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to have fully adjusted by the end of next week I’m going to have to cancel the experiment for now. I think the biggest problem is that I was a bad sleeper in the first place. I have mild insomnia and take between 10 and 60 minutes to usually fall asleep, and only then when outside stimuli are minimal. If I don’t keep going with this now I’ll try to sort out my insomnia and then try again in about 4 months.

10:30pm

I had my 9:45am and 1:45pm naps as planned but didn’t take the following 5:45 nap until about 6pm so I decided to go with the 4-hourly schedule from there and planned my next nap at 10pm. I couldn’t really fall asleep so I just lay there and I was in a semi-paralysed state for most of the time. So far I’ve simply gone on when this happens but I’ll try again this time, as missing naps will probably make things a lot harder. And I am very tired so I should be able to fall asleep.

11pm

No such luck with the nap; still couldn’t fall asleep. I’ll just have to wait till the next naptime comes around.

3:15am

I’ve had a bit of time to rearrange my schedule for tomorrow’s plans. I’m meeting some friends at 1pm which means I wouldn’t be able to have a nap at 2pm as it would be under the current schedule. So I’ve decided to shift the morning naps from 4 hours to 3.5 hours. So I had my first nap at 1:30am, and I’ll have the coming naps at 5, 8:30am and 12pm at which point I’ll resume the 4-hour gaps with the proceeding naps at 4 and 8 pm.
At the moment I feel basically awake; some background tiredness, but for this time of night it’s not so bad. However when I first got up from my previous nap I didn’t feel so well so I ate a banana for some energy and put on some upbeat music to jumpstart myself a bit. Seems to have worked. Another factor is I’m reading a new book that’s keeping my interests longer (which I can read hours on end) that the previous one I was reading.

5:45am

Recently got up from my 5am nap. The 15 minutes before it were extremely hard. I was really tired and my eyes couldn’t read any further and I just wanted to sleep. I feel the same except now I’m over 2.5 hours from my next nap. I’m going to try stimulating some increased alertness. I really don’t feel like crashing tonight.

10:10am

Well, I made it through that horrible period between 5:30 and 8:30am. That was definitely the hardest period I’ve been through for this polyphasic experiment. I feel good about overcoming it, and hopefully it’ll mean some definite progress.

11:55am

I had my 4 and 8 pm naps and then at 9 looked at my schedule and adjusted it for work tomorrow. It involved taking a sleep at 11:30pm, which I’ve just taken followed by naps at 2:45, 6:15 and 9:45am tomorrow and following the normal 4 hourly from there.

7:10am

Crash.
My iPod battery ran out during a nap. That was extremely stupid of me; I especially noted that I needed to keep the battery full. However I may also have slept through the one (or several) alarm first before the battery ran out, I can’t really be sure. This is somewhat of a major set back, I slept about 7.5 hours, which would have been 5 phases of REM sleep, that really shows that I wasn’t actually getting any from my naps.
I’m going to schedule today’s naps every 4 hours, since I had trouble getting to sleep every 2 hours anyway. I’ll see how that goes. I’m still aiming for 48 hours without core, a target, which does seem more elusive now than I first thought.

11am

I just had a short but refreshing nap. This was REM sleep; a pattern that seems to be emerging is that it is easier to achieve REM in short naps after recently having core sleep. I was intending to have the nap at to start at 10, but I only realised what the time was after 10:30, so I went then. I took me quite a while to fall asleep, and I woke up before the alarm went so it can’t have been more than 15 minutes.
I’m liking this 4 hourly better, my waking time goes by faster than if I’m always waiting for my next nap, or trying to fall asleep (which just torturously extends time). So next nap at 2pm.

3:50pm

I woke up at about 3:05pm after going for a nap at about 2:15. I slept through one cycle of the alarm clock, and was asleep approximately 45 minutes. This isn’t exactly a crash because I didn’t sleep at all long enough to get into standard phase sleep, and I woke up easily to the silence on my mp3 track between the white noise and the alarm; still, it shows how ineffective it is in waking me. I think I’ll set an alarm up as well as the mp3 track, just have to make sure I don’t wake everybody (Might put it under my pillow).

8:15pm

Had my 6pm nap. It wasn’t entirely easy falling asleep so I must’ve only had about 15 minutes sleep (I woke in the silent period between the white noise and alarm on my mp3 track). This seems to show some progress toward the body naturally going for 15 minutes naps.

10:30pm

Just got up from my 10pm non-nap. I didn’t fall asleep. Since I’m doing only 4 hourly naps now my next one is at 2am, which, during the night, looks like an incredibly long time away. I’m feeling tired now, I’m not sure how I’ll be able to stay awake till then. I’ll see.

12:30am

I’ve noticed something weird about my hands. Clamping a finger of one hand with the thumb and index finger of the other hand causes pain, even with very little pressure applied. This is particularly strong on the right hand in the middle section of the fingers. I really don’t know the significance of that but I should keep an eye on it.
I’ve modified my schedule a bit for tonight. After the 10pm nap I took my following one at 11:30, and will take the next one at 1am. Then I’ll continue this 1.5-hour pattern until 7am.

3:50am

Next nap in 10 minutes; I feel pretty awake, nothing like the extreme physical tiredness I felt yesterday before the crash. I can’t believe it’s already getting easier, I’m a somewhat sceptical it won’t get harder in the days to come; I have yet to go 48 hours straight without core sleep, something that may prove harder than I anticipate. I also still haven’t figured out what to do with the extra time at night; now that I’m more conscious I should be doing something useful with my time. At the moment I’m reading a lot of a book, which is OK, but I want to do more than spend every waking night reading; I need to find some nighttime activities. I wonder if there is a polyphasic club in my town; If not maybe I should create on, that would be extremely useful for others attempting to convert. Time for my nap now.

6:30am

My scheduled naps of 4 and 5:30 am went fine. I’ve got the next one coming up at 7 and then at 9. After that I’m meeting a friend to sort out some things at University before the semester starts in 2 weeks. I’ll hopefully get a nap in at around 1pm before we go see a movie.
I feel pretty much awake at the moment but it’s quite cold and my muscles feel sort of tired, so I’ll probably go for a run after my next nap. I went running/walking a couple of times one the first day (my time perception is really weird now so I actually had trouble figuring out which day it was), which woke me up a bit (although perhaps it contributed to the crash). That should hopefully warm me up, get my blood and endorphins pumping and wake me up a little more.
I also have to mention another weird experience. This has happened a couple of times over the past couple of days: When I lie down for my naps near the beginning of the night (around midnight I suppose) I get a very weird feeling in my spine. It’s sort of relaxing but also somewhat discomforting. I try stretching my back a little, and it fades away. Maybe my body just has to get used to the increased time on my feet, but I should probably also do my Sun Salutations yoga routine that I printed out a couple of weeks ago more regularly; Maybe schedule it in after every nap.

7:40pm

I just woke up from a Nap, only the second one for a long time. After the 7 and 9 am naps, I attempted to sleep at about 12:50pm at the movie theatre but the atmosphere (that is the loud music playing), and the seats (I probably really need to be lying down to be able to fall asleep) prevented me from falling asleep, though I did drift out of consciousness at one point. After that my next sleep was when I arrived home at about 5:30pm and then again just now at 7:15.
I feel quite tired at the moment.
Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up the time I lost.

11:30pm

Previous nap at 9pm; just off to take one now. I just have to mention:
Tonight feels a like it’ll be a lot harder than last night.

Feb 15, 2am

Can hardly keep my eyes open. Reading is impossible, though writing seems a lot easier. 30 minutes till my next nap. I nearly feel asleep several times sitting in my (large leather office) chair, when I defeatedly allow my eyes to droop. I wonder how I will be able to ward off sleep, as this gets more difficult later on.

5:30am

Dammit, I crashed. I just had 3 hours of sleep instead of my nap. I must’ve slept right through several alarms as the mp3 timer was playing repeatedly on my iPod.
I’m still extremely tired though; my eyes are yearning to just stay closed and I can’t concentrate very well.
I’ll take my next nap as scheduled at 6:30, hopefully I won’t crash again, might have to think about using something other than my bed to take my naps (if it’s too comfortable I won’t want to get out)

7:30am

Well, that was weird; I was sitting on the side of my bed, and I must’ve fallen asleep. After I got up from my previous nap at about 5 to 7, I stood up and walked around a bit to wake myself more; I sat down on the side of my bed, and the next thing I know I wake up lying sideways on my bed, after what was approximately 20 minutes of nap; about the same as what I’ve been doing for my scheduled naps; It seems my body has adapted a little; and to top it off, it was an REM nap. I woke up from a dream (though I don’t remember what it was now).
This is a great development, after my crash I though my progress would have slowed but this doesn’t appear to be the case.
I’m going to continue my 2 hourly naps a while longer, the next one being at 8:30am.

11:50am

My 8:30 nap went well, REM again, which is great; it seems my body has figured out to enter REM immediately. For my 10:30 nap I couldn’t fall asleep, at least I don’t think so, I was awake at the end of the mp3 sleep track (the white noise fades to a minute of silence before the alarm; when the white noise is gone I know the nap is over), I might’ve drifted in and out of consciousness though.
I think the problem with not falling asleep is not so much not being tired, as my body’s unwillingness to fall asleep when it’s daytime. The white noise blocks out a lot of outside sounds but they still audibly exist to my ear even if they’re not recognisable. I think this is something I will get used to as I continue this; my body will hopefully fall into sleep more easily as I progress, so I’m going to continue with the 2 hourly naps.

6:00pm

I had my 12:30 nap, and then I had a couple of things to do downtown. I assumed I would miss one nap, but it took longer than expected and I missed both the 2:30 and 4:30 naps. When I arrived back home at about 5:30 I took a nap straight away, which is now throwing my schedule a bit; But I couldn’t have left a 6 hour gap between naps; this five hour one shouldn’t be too weird as when I’m fully polyphasic I should be able to spread my 6 naps out to be between 3 and 5 hours apart.
I’ll try going for the 6:30 nap as well because if I don’t I think it’ll be harder over the night; hopefully the gap of only one hour won’t cause a problem.

10:50pm

Woke up from my nap at 10:30, my naps are becoming less regular, I missed the nap before that. Since waking I prepared myself some food to snack on during the night so I don’t have to keep searching the kitchen in between naps.
I feel basically awake, I’m not sure how I felt at this time yesterday but it was definitely hardest around 2am, so I’ll see how things develop towards that.
The mp3 sleep track is proving a little problematic; If I keep it quiet I won’t wake up at the end if I’m really tired, whereas if I make it louder my head begins to hurt from white noise, not to mention the physical discomfort of the earphones. I think I’ll have to get some better earphones/headphones and get a sleep track with no, or lower volume white noise. However if I just figure out how to use it properly now, it should be all right. I just need to remember that if I’m very tired I need to turn it up, which’ll be fine because it shouldn’t stop me falling asleep anyway, and if I’m not as tired I need to put the volume down so I can fall asleep and the quieter alarm should wake me up (just have to find the balance). But to make matters worse, during the day, outside noises stop me from falling asleep and white noise loud enough to cover it is very uncomfortable and quickly gives me a headache (thus preventing me from sleeping anyway). Also, the amount of sunlight seems to prevent me from sleeping during the day. To solve these two problems I think I’ll need some good blinds in my room and some noise-reducing headphones.
As I’ve been writing this I’ve been subject to steadily depleting wakefulness, I suddenly feel a lot more tired.

It’s about 1am, Tuesday 14th of February, about 5 minutes after I woke from my third polynap of the night.
I woke up from a normal nights sleep at 7am yesterday morning. At about a quarter past seven in the evening I have my first nap; I use Eric Mueller’s 28-minute mp3 timer on my iPod, but I got woken about 5-10 minutes early by noises outside. I remained lying down until the timer went. Approximately two hours later at 9:30 I lie down again. I don’t think I fell asleep this time, but you can never be sure, your body can play strange tricks on you, and especially with polyphasic sleep, which is uncharted territory for me. My body did feel completely paralysed at times though, and that definitely was a new feeling; I didn’t anticipate any new sensations until at least several naps more in. It wasn’t really paralysis as such as I could still move if I tried (and I did try) perhaps it was more like pins and needles, all over my body. So after that sort of non-nap I watched a film. A 90’s Jack Nicholson Film Noir; I enjoyed it, but I was over 2 hours and so I only got my third nap started at about 12:20, and I almost didn’t wake up from it (I slept through all sorts of horrible noises the timer makes). Might have to set my earphones a little louder to make sure it wakes me next time.

Perhaps you’re reading this and you’re entirely unsure of what I’m talking about. Well, I’ve gone polyphasic. By the end of this week I hope to be sleeping 6 times a day, every 4 hours for approximately 20 minutes each time, giving me a total of about 2 hours sleep per day. If you haven’t heard of Polyphasic sleep before you might be thinking: that’s nuts; I’ll explain it sometime.
Right now I’m trying to get into it by sleeping every 2 hours so that I can eventually start removing every second nap and be left with the correct schedule.

Later:

It’s about 1:50 now, and there is one thing I have to add. I feel extremely awake. And I have heard and experienced this to be the case: you can miss one night’s sleep and feel fine (in fact you body will be pumping out hormones to make you feel artificially awake). Your body can borrow some extra time. So I suppose this first night will be the easiest, the 2nd or 3rd day will really be the hardest hurdle.

3:20am

I woke up from my last nap about 20 minutes ago. I felt hungry so got so I ate what I could find in the kitchen. Some food got stuck in my throat in a weird way that I hadn’t experienced before (mostly because the food was soft and would usually just have slid down), drinking water cleared it right through though; it was as if my mouth and/or throat were malfunctioning; I kept eating, making sure to chew more and it didn’t recur. Maybe that shows my level of alertness, I couldn’t even eat properly.
The Battery on my iPod ran out, so I had to do without my polyphasic sleep track and had to rely on a conventional alarm. I have to keep it quite at night though to avoid waking other people, and during the day I probably won’t be able to get to sleep without it drowning out outside sounds with it’s white noise so I’ll have to remember to keep my iPod charged.
At the moment (other than writing this) the prevalent feeling is boredom. What to do with the extra time at night when the rest of the world sleeps? I’ll have to sort that out some time, at least I have plenty of it.

8 hours later: 11:20am

I woke up twenty minutes ago. I had trouble falling asleep and probably only got a short 10 minutes or so, even though I missed the previous nap. That’s the first one I missed. Since the one at 3:20 entry I had these naps: at 4:30, 6:30, missed the 8:30 one, and took the 10:30 partial nap just now. I might as well do only every 4 hours during the daytime if I have trouble falling asleep. My eyes feel extremely tired though so I’m going to lie down for the next one, even if I don’t get any sleep, to rest my eyes.

10:10pm

At this point I feel extremely tired, the feeling is mostly coming from around the eyes and in the form of slight headaches. Since the nap I missed this morning I got all my naps in, except for the 8:30pm nap which I couldn’t take because I was at my theatre company meeting (What an amazing coincidence, I missed the 8:30 am and pm nap). I’m going to take my next nap in about twenty minutes, and hopefully continue the 2 hourly routine from there until I start experiencing REM naps, something I’ll hopefully notice straight away; Although I may miss the first one (or two).