Still doing Uberman! I got sick a few weeks ago, and made the choice to sleep like a normal person for a few days till my body repaired itself (which it did). The next week or so, I had a very, very difficult time readapting...I found myself oversleeping by 1-3 hours at least once a day. While this is still better than normal sleep, I really wanted to get back on track. No matter what though, I kept convincing myself that hitting the snooze button for 5 extra minutes would be ok, and then 3 hours later...
Then, I found myself continually hitting the snooze button, for up to an hour (like the old days), until it stopped, and I'd just continue to sleep.
I finally remembered the oh so helpful wakeup drills from Steve Pavlina, and decided to start those up again. That was the magic button for me, and I've been going pretty much perfectly on schedule till last night. Last night I went to a Halloween Party. I still kept to my naps in a hotel room, but there were major distractions each time and I couldn't sleep (during the second nap, about 10 people raided the room about 5 minutes into the nap). I also danced pretty hard while I was partying. The aftereffects of this was that I crashed the next day, sleeping for around 10 or so hours (the most I've had if forever it seems like). Getting up afterwards was pretty miserable, but I managed, and I suspect it will be a couple of days of tiredness to get back into the groove.
Looking forward to it!!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Day 31
I've noticed the last several naps since yesterday have been very iffy (if that is a word). Frankly, I just haven't been tired when I need to go to sleep, and I've been lying awake (yes, I'm still going to bed at the scheduled times) until the alarm goes off. A couple of the naps were not in my normal resting place though, and that may have been part of the problem at least for those ones.
I finally got super tired around 12:30pm, and had the most wonderful nap. Feeling nice and refreshed again. Good thing, cause the phones have been off the hook this entire stinkin day!!
I finally got super tired around 12:30pm, and had the most wonderful nap. Feeling nice and refreshed again. Good thing, cause the phones have been off the hook this entire stinkin day!!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
30 Days on Uberman!!!
Woo Hoo! I am feeling about 90% adapted. Yesterday was mostly awesome and extremely productive. I'm excited about today.
Just woke up from my 1:30am feeling refreshed and went straight to work afterwords. Nap felt a lot longer than 20 minutes!!
Just woke up from my 1:30am feeling refreshed and went straight to work afterwords. Nap felt a lot longer than 20 minutes!!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Day 29
Well, the first nap of the day (1:30am) I ended up laying awake the whole time. Wasn't tired in the least. I've also noticed that I have had problems before at this time going to sleep, although usually I still fall asleep at some point. I realized this might be why I have so many problems with my 5:30am. It's like I skipped a nap. I am planning on inserting a nap at 3:30am to see if this helps. Crossing my fingers.
UPDATE:
My theory worked! I slept like a baby at my 3:30am, and I just woke from my 5:30am feeling the most refreshed I ever have for a 5:30am nap. Feeling pretty darn good right now!!!
UPDATE2:
Almost a perfect day. The entire morning I was not tired in the least. I was extremely productive. In addition to getting a lot of regular work done, I also cleaned the kitchen and did a load of laundry. My 1:30pm nap gave me another nice long dream. Everything was perfect up until around 8:30pm, when I began to feel increasingly tired. This was a first, as I normally experience this in the morning and never at night. I had a hard time getting out of bed after my 9:30pm nap, and I was quite sleepy (also a first). I went back to work, and I had a series of micronaps from around 10:30pm - 12:30pm. I don't remember struggling to keep awake at this time, I think I just caught myself several times waking up. All of this very wierd, as this is usually one of my most productive times. I suspect that this might stem from the fact that I had a rather large dinner earlier this evening. Much larger than I normally eat. It is possible that this had something to do with it. Let's hope so at least!!
UPDATE:
My theory worked! I slept like a baby at my 3:30am, and I just woke from my 5:30am feeling the most refreshed I ever have for a 5:30am nap. Feeling pretty darn good right now!!!
UPDATE2:
Almost a perfect day. The entire morning I was not tired in the least. I was extremely productive. In addition to getting a lot of regular work done, I also cleaned the kitchen and did a load of laundry. My 1:30pm nap gave me another nice long dream. Everything was perfect up until around 8:30pm, when I began to feel increasingly tired. This was a first, as I normally experience this in the morning and never at night. I had a hard time getting out of bed after my 9:30pm nap, and I was quite sleepy (also a first). I went back to work, and I had a series of micronaps from around 10:30pm - 12:30pm. I don't remember struggling to keep awake at this time, I think I just caught myself several times waking up. All of this very wierd, as this is usually one of my most productive times. I suspect that this might stem from the fact that I had a rather large dinner earlier this evening. Much larger than I normally eat. It is possible that this had something to do with it. Let's hope so at least!!
Day 28
Well, it's almost been a month now. I still wouldn't say I'm completely adapted, but probably ~85% adapted. I say this because I still have periods of tiredness. Seem to mainly be during the 5:30am - 9:30am cycle, although it only seems to be for maybe an hour or 2. Also I continue to have bouts of oversleeps, but usually only for around an hour. It seems that no matter how many alarms I set for the 5:30am, I sleep right through them about every 2 or 3 days. I am trying to figure out something else that will get me up during that time.
Aside from this morning bout, things have been quite awesome! Full of energy for the rest of the day...so much so that I sometimes forget about the nap until the last minute. Definitely don't feel like I need them and go to bed wide awake. Somehow I still fall asleep fairly quickly. For the last couple of days, I've noticed that my 5:30pm nap seems to be especially refreshing, like I slept for several hours. I even woke up prior to the alarm going off during both of those naps. I really hope it will eventually feel like that for all of them. I will keep you posted.
Aside from this morning bout, things have been quite awesome! Full of energy for the rest of the day...so much so that I sometimes forget about the nap until the last minute. Definitely don't feel like I need them and go to bed wide awake. Somehow I still fall asleep fairly quickly. For the last couple of days, I've noticed that my 5:30pm nap seems to be especially refreshing, like I slept for several hours. I even woke up prior to the alarm going off during both of those naps. I really hope it will eventually feel like that for all of them. I will keep you posted.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Week 3
Week 3 started out much more difficult than I anticipated. Not that it was nearly as bad as the first week. Before the problem was staying awake. Lately, however has been a series of serious oversleeps. Beginning on Monday at my 5:30am (right after I had blogged earlier about how great a day it was), I succumbed to temptation by reasoning that I could sleep a few extra minutes by just waiting for the next alarm to go off (remember, I have a series of staggering alarms). So I hit snooze and thought an extra five minutes wouldn't hurt. Next thing I know it is after 12pm. I slept through all of my alarms, several phone calls, and several emergency pages (very very bad thing). When I did wake up, I realized I seriously screwed up, and reasoned that "oh well, I might as well enjoy the sleep", and proceeded to go back to sleep for another few hours. Tuesday, not suprisingly went quite well, since I no longer had any sleep dep in my system. I didn't sleep for a couple of the naps, but I was surprised that I was able to sleep for any of them.
Wednesday morning...I did the exact same thing as Monday. Slept till noon. Same exact issue as before - I thought it would be fine to sleep for just a couple extra minutes. It seems that the snooze button is your ultimate enemy when adapting. You get one chance to get up. If you miss it, you go into an ultra deep sleep for which nothing will wake you.
I knew that the oversleeps were going to set me back quite a bit, and not knowing how much is very agonizing. Because of both of these incidents, I was seriously tempted to quit and try again maybe a few months later. The stubborn side gave in though and insisted that I continue to keep to the schedule. Thank goodness I did. As of early Sunday morning, I have been on nearly perfect schedule, and feeling pretty great for most of it. The first 3 or 4 cycles after the oversleeps I got really tired, but wasn't really that bad. I had one small oversleep (1 hour) simply because I slept through all of the alarms. I was lucky that my wife woke me up, and I got up right away. All of the days I've been pretty good to go during my circadian low points (5:30 am - 13:30pm). I've been tired very little of the time. I surprised myself a couple of times, because I was forced to skip naps a couple of times, and there were a few other naps where I just laid there not sleeping at all. Afterwards I am usually tired (the times after I skipped a nap I was very very tired, but not zombie tired). I am very excited because I finally feel like I'm close to being adapted. My productivity has been pretty decent - by far the best since I started this.
I instituted another alarm on the computer in addition to the existing 4 alarms I already use because of Saturday's oversleeping incident. This one plays techno, and to turn it off I have to switch on the monitor and manually shut it off. I also started sleeping with the lights on in the morning naps.
A few of the latest naps I've noticed have been very refreshing. I feel very good and well rested after waking up. In fact the last one I took, I woke up before any of the alarms went off and felt quite nice. It would seem that the oversleeps from earlier in the week didn't really affect my adaption that badly, thank goodness.
Wednesday morning...I did the exact same thing as Monday. Slept till noon. Same exact issue as before - I thought it would be fine to sleep for just a couple extra minutes. It seems that the snooze button is your ultimate enemy when adapting. You get one chance to get up. If you miss it, you go into an ultra deep sleep for which nothing will wake you.
I knew that the oversleeps were going to set me back quite a bit, and not knowing how much is very agonizing. Because of both of these incidents, I was seriously tempted to quit and try again maybe a few months later. The stubborn side gave in though and insisted that I continue to keep to the schedule. Thank goodness I did. As of early Sunday morning, I have been on nearly perfect schedule, and feeling pretty great for most of it. The first 3 or 4 cycles after the oversleeps I got really tired, but wasn't really that bad. I had one small oversleep (1 hour) simply because I slept through all of the alarms. I was lucky that my wife woke me up, and I got up right away. All of the days I've been pretty good to go during my circadian low points (5:30 am - 13:30pm). I've been tired very little of the time. I surprised myself a couple of times, because I was forced to skip naps a couple of times, and there were a few other naps where I just laid there not sleeping at all. Afterwards I am usually tired (the times after I skipped a nap I was very very tired, but not zombie tired). I am very excited because I finally feel like I'm close to being adapted. My productivity has been pretty decent - by far the best since I started this.
I instituted another alarm on the computer in addition to the existing 4 alarms I already use because of Saturday's oversleeping incident. This one plays techno, and to turn it off I have to switch on the monitor and manually shut it off. I also started sleeping with the lights on in the morning naps.
A few of the latest naps I've noticed have been very refreshing. I feel very good and well rested after waking up. In fact the last one I took, I woke up before any of the alarms went off and felt quite nice. It would seem that the oversleeps from earlier in the week didn't really affect my adaption that badly, thank goodness.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Day 15 - BEST DAY YET!!!
Day 15 (Monday)
Starting the beginning of this day (which I consider starting after my 1:30am) I actually started getting productive. Up until this point, my productivity has been very low: from zero productivity to about 20% productivity at best. All of the sudden, I'm able to concentrate and focus on getting things done. Maybe not 100%, but definitely above 80%. All of my naps today I have woken up either completely refreshed, or completely refreshed within 5 min. At least a couple I have woken up before the alarm. One of the naps I woke up from with another 5 min to spare, so I went back to sleep...it felt so good to be able to do that. I do still feel like sleeping when my first alarm goes off, and I still battle the temptation to sleep until the next alarm. But I know the potential consequences of that and don't want to take the chance. Once I'm standing though, I'm good. Aside from some minor sleepiness in the mornings during my low period, I was great. I got a huge amount of work done, got my teeth cleaned, got a haircut. If every day went like this, I'd be thrilled. But supposedly it gets even better!!!
No dreams for previous 2 days. Also none of the weird psycadelic effects that other people claim they experience, such as time distortion. The days (and nights) seem perfectly natural for me. I think it might be due to the fact that my body clock was already seriously screwed up to begin with, and I very typically spent many of my nights awake and doing stuff, and sleeping during a good portion of the normal day. So perhaps I'm just already used to it. Also, I very rarely dreamed before, and so even a few dreams in this short period of time is significant for me.
Well, my 1:30am is coming up, and I'm starting to feel a little sleepy, so until next time...
Starting the beginning of this day (which I consider starting after my 1:30am) I actually started getting productive. Up until this point, my productivity has been very low: from zero productivity to about 20% productivity at best. All of the sudden, I'm able to concentrate and focus on getting things done. Maybe not 100%, but definitely above 80%. All of my naps today I have woken up either completely refreshed, or completely refreshed within 5 min. At least a couple I have woken up before the alarm. One of the naps I woke up from with another 5 min to spare, so I went back to sleep...it felt so good to be able to do that. I do still feel like sleeping when my first alarm goes off, and I still battle the temptation to sleep until the next alarm. But I know the potential consequences of that and don't want to take the chance. Once I'm standing though, I'm good. Aside from some minor sleepiness in the mornings during my low period, I was great. I got a huge amount of work done, got my teeth cleaned, got a haircut. If every day went like this, I'd be thrilled. But supposedly it gets even better!!!
No dreams for previous 2 days. Also none of the weird psycadelic effects that other people claim they experience, such as time distortion. The days (and nights) seem perfectly natural for me. I think it might be due to the fact that my body clock was already seriously screwed up to begin with, and I very typically spent many of my nights awake and doing stuff, and sleeping during a good portion of the normal day. So perhaps I'm just already used to it. Also, I very rarely dreamed before, and so even a few dreams in this short period of time is significant for me.
Well, my 1:30am is coming up, and I'm starting to feel a little sleepy, so until next time...
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