ADPU – Day 11
Day 11:
It be time for a new set of rules! Some of the ones that I used previously still apply. Others have been replaced.
1. If by the end of week three, I have not gone a week without any oversleep, I quit. – The initial “3 oversleeps” rule was a bit too strict. If I overslept, I would look for an excuse to not count it as one of my three. This should fix that. I have a week and a half to spend 7 days with no oversleeping.
2. Laying down for any reason (even if awake) after alarms go off is considered oversleeping. - A problem I’ve been having is motivating myself to get up after a nap. After going a week with two really bad oversleeps, it’s definitely been harder to convince myself to get up. In the past day, I’ve probably lost an hour just by laying down for a few more minutes after a nap.
3. For every nap, 3 alarms must be set for no more than 25 minutes for a nap and 185 minutes for a core (nap times plus 5 minutes). - Until I finally learned to fall asleep quickly (Yay Pzizz), I would be adding 10 minutes to the nap time to give me time to fall asleep. Couple that with my issue of laying down after my alarms have gone off, and it is obvious that I’ve been losing a lot of time and haven’t been strict enough.
4. If by the end of week four, I have not truly adjusted to the schedule, I quit. - It’s pretty self-explanatory. If I’m not 100% adapted or if it looks like I’m not getting anywhere, I’ll need to quit. One month is my cutoff.
5. I need to follow my schedule to the point until I either adapt or quit. – Here I am just reaffirming my commitment and ensuring I maintain some perseverance.
6. I cannot let outside opinion influence my own opinion. - I haven’t really had this problem since week 1, but it bears repeating.
7. No caffeine. - This one has been really easy to follow, and I’m sure it has helped me hit my naps quickly and on time.
Overall, the theme of my rules is to stop spending extra time in bed. In the area of falling asleep, I’ve shown tremendous discipline, and it shows in my newfound ability to fall asleep quickly. On the other side of things, getting up has been a much larger problem than I expected. I just haven’t disciplined myself enough. I hope this new set of rules will make the rest of my adaptation a success.
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As some of my newer rules hint at, oversleeping has been a problem for me. Both Monday morning and Wednesday morning I had massive oversleeps, and in the past day I’ve had some pseudo-oversleeps just by laying down for extra time following a nap. These slipups have made me really tired at certain points of the day, particularly around my midnight nap (since that is when my 2 major oversleeps happened).
My short-term goal for the next week is to have no oversleeps at all. I can do it!
-DB
Hi!
Good to see there are other polyphasic sleepers out there. I hope these new rules do the trick for you, Everyman is the best!
If it helps for rule # 3, in May I had put together a list of tactics I’ve used to help me learn (and continue) to fall asleep quickly. (http://ohgodthechicken.com/2008/05/20/how-to-fall-asleep-quickly/) Hope it helps.
Good luck to you!
Thanks for the advice! I actually was having quite a bit of trouble falling asleep at first, and even now there are still a few naps that cause some problems. Some of the suggestions on your list have really helped me; I use sleep tracks for my daytime naps and focus my mind’s eye on a nonsensical situation.