Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Back From Up North

4:08 p.m. July 31, 2012
So I didn’t get around to blogging yesterday after we got back at around three thirty.  I hope that that’s okay with you.  I have four days to catch you up on so what I plan on doing is releasing a big blog post tonight or tomorrow that includes my weekend.  I’ll just post what happened today. 

I woke up late at eight thirty but I was okay with that because I was fairly exhausted from the weekend.   However, I forgot about the afternoon nap until my alarm went off.  I went to bed at three and could not fall asleep.  I guess I just rested my eyes.  This might make it more difficult to stay awake tonight; we’ll see.  I really want to get running again so I might make an effort tomorrow morning.  This would help keep me on track I think.  I’m getting pretty tired of not keeping to the schedule I set up and I don’t want to call this entire experiment a fail.  I realize there have been some legitimate reasons but it’s still frustrating.  I’ll post the big one later so stay tuned.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Au Revoir For The Weekend

5:11 p.m. July 26, 2012
Yesterday and today I slept in.  I wasn’t utilizing the snooze button so that messed me up.  I did rest in the afternoon though.  Yesterday was harder to fall asleep while today there wasn’t too much of an issue.  As promised here’s a picture of the painting I finished up;




Sunflowers

This weekend I’m going up north on a fishing trip with my brother, dad and uncle.  During this time I may be able to stick with the schedule or I may not.  I don’t really have a plan going into this; I’ll just work with what happens.  So until Monday, happy sleep cycles!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Getting Back On Track, For Now

10:29 p.m. July 24, 2012
I was kind of up at five today.  It was closer to five thirty but close enough.  After a very long break from running and the discovery that it was the physical activity in the morning that made me dread waking up, I have decided that I want to start the daily runs again.  I am hopeful that I was get my lazy self up before five thirty tomorrow and be back and showered before six tomorrow.  That’s the ideal plan.

Today my afternoon nap was delayed until three o’clock because I forgot.  I found it more difficult to fall asleep and had a much lighter rest than I normally do.  I’m not worried about it at all though as tomorrow I will hopefully have returned to my normal schedule.

I'm also planning on working on a few paintings tonight as I haven't even touched one since the last update I gave.  I'll post pictures once there's something to post.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Last Double Post

This is another double post but I promise it's the last.  After this point we'll be completely caught up and we'll be moving forward.  I'd also like to apologize for the recent lack of posts; I was away this weekend.  They will be much more consistent and frequent so stay updated!
My weekend destination
1:09 p.m. July 18, 2012
Yesterday I got my afternoon nap in and everything went well.  My brother and I however took a couple friends up to our trailer and needless to say we went to bed later than my normal bedtime of 1:00 a.m.  I also woke up at eight o’clock in the morning so that I didn’t disturb them too much.  I don’t really care that I didn’t stick to my schedule yesterday as it was a one time kind of  thing. 

Right now I’m really looking forward to my nap since I’m tired physically and mentally.  It will be very nice.

3:24 p.m. July 23, 2012
I know it’s been a few days since the last time I had an update but that’s because I was away for the weekend and I’ve been pretty busy overall. I went up to Peterborough on Friday with my youth group and while I was there I didn’t get an afternoon rest period for three consecutive days.  Today, (Monday), is the first one I’ve had since Thursday.  Switching back to a regular sleep cycle is a bit odd but not too difficult.  I was just more tired earlier, that’s all.


This morning I slept in to ten o’clock.  That’s the latest I’ve slept for the entire summer and it was a bit of a disappointment but I understand that I was incredibly tired and drained after spending a weekend with over a dozen people.  Tonight I should be up until one and tomorrow I should be up at five.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Getting Caught Up

5:13 July 14, 2012
I know it’s been a few days but there hasn’t been much to report.  I’ve been sleeping in lately which sucks.  I haven’t been meaning to; I just hit the alarm button and I fall back a sleep.  I even had a shower then fell asleep after that.  I have however been able to stay up until one o’clock so that’s good to see.  Other than that there’s not really anything to report

4:30 July 17, 2012
This past week has been not very good for the sleep cycle.  That’s mainly due to the fact that in the past five days I have not had the afternoon nap for five of those days, (today is the first time I’ve had the nap).  I’m a bit embarrassed by this lack of will power but it’s not entirely my fault.  I was out on Thursday, (Niagara Falls, Albright-Knox Art Gallery), Friday and Sunday were spent with my girlfriend and Saturday and Monday I just forgot. 

I was still able to stay up until my bed time though so that’s positive.  What’s not good is that I slept in every day that I missed my rest period.  That means I was sleeping in about six hour blocks and that’s it.

Today was different though.  I woke up at 5:00 a.m. and got up half an hour later.  I also took my one hour afternoon nap.  I really hope that this is the start to me getting back on track. 

It should also be noted that I didn’t go for a run once since I was wanting to see if I hated getting up because I was running.  This was definitely the case but it meant that I also allowed myself to sleep in.

Until next time good luck with your sleeps!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

I'm Back

As you can see by the previous post Allyssa can't continue the sleep cycle.  That's fine; it's not for everyone.  This means that I will be taking over the blog again after her brief stint.  I have only taken a few notes during this time frame so I will be posting a couple a day until the blog and I get on the same page.  At this time I will be doing daily or every other day posts.  I realize now that I had been blogging much too frequently.  So, here's the first post of my return;


7:34 a.m. July 9, 2012
A couple days ago I went without the afternoon sleep period and not entirely on purpose.  I would not recommend doing this for anyone out there wanting to try a new cycle.  I fell asleep before my bedtime and I was tired for much of the night.  You are able to do it but just once.  Any more than that and it becomes unhealthy.

I have had a dread of waking up.  Initially I thought that this was because I was getting up so early but now I think it’s because I knew that I had to go for a run.  So for a few days this week (including today), I won’t be going for runs.  This is just to see if that the anxiety will be gone once I don’t have to worry about running.


3:55 July 11, 2012
After having gone a few days without running in the morning I can definitely say that that the desire to not wake up in the morning was directly because of the runs.  Now I don’t really care if I wake up at 5:00 because I won’t have to be running.  This kind of sucks but it’s the truth.

Another thing that has happened is that I consistently sleep in now.  I will hit the snooze button half a dozen times and then I might doze off after my shower.  This of course is not done on purpose but it is still happening.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Allyssa's Cycle - Resignation



10:39 pm
To my disappointment I will not carry on the sleep cycle for the ten days or any time after that (for now). Here are my reasons:
1.     I have personally found it has no better effect on my tired levels than my normal 8 hour night sleep
2.     It hinders the amount I can do in the day (social wise, and waking up from the nap is difficult)
3.     My family goes to bed around 10, and work early in the morning so I have been accidentally waking them up all week.
4.     I am getting canker sores from being over tired

These reasons are all because of my personal experience, I encourage everyone to try the sleep cycle and contact Corbin about how it’s going, and maybe this blog could just be full of people’s experiences with the cycle? Just a thought

thank you for reading about my experience!
Corbin will be posting shortly about how the cycle is still working

Good luck :)

Friday, July 13, 2012

Allyssa's Cycle - Two Day Post



10:45 am
Wednesday Night:
I found that working without the nap difficult to remember, which happens to be a major part of making sure who gets the right food. From now on I am going to sleep an extra hour the night before and have a power nap before or on my break to refresh myself so this doesn't happen again. I don't know if it’s because I'm not used to the cycle yet or because my body can't handle loosing those hours of sleep.

Thursday:
So my youth group had an event planned that went from 8am-8pm  (I slept an extra hour and a half so I wouldn't need a nap in the day) we went to Niagara Falls, outlet shopping and to an Art Gallery. The extra hour and a half didn't help, and I was still very tired from the afternoon on. 

Friday Morning:
Because I was so tired from yesterday, I fell asleep an hour early and woke up an hour late. It was really nice to go for a bike ride this morning because it hasn’t really gotten hot yet, this cycle has opened more doors for exercise schedules

That’s all.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Allyssa's Cycle - The Sleepover

9:05 am

Last night my friend and I went to go see People Like Us (quick review: it was cute but not life changing, should have seen The Amazing Spiderman) and then went home and played some card games. Its tricky to be in this cycle with social activities, and I think it would be easier if there was more routine that summer doesn't bring.

I am not too focused on the whole physical mental side of this but more of a schedule side of this. I can handle the effects it has on my body but its much harder to do in social situations.
I work 11-4:30 so I will be missing my nap again today, or I will take it when i get home  we'll see if I can handle going without one 
Last night I slept the right amount of time and my dog needed to go outside and she kept me awake which was good.

I will blog about how my shift goes! I have a feeling it  there will be mistakes and forgetting to give people theirs fries or something.
Anyways, have a good day :)

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Allyssa's Cycle - Change of Plans

5:40 pm
My summer goal is to build a platform/captain's bed in my room, and to do that my room needed to be emptied. Lucky for me my little sister cleaned it out for me (she is not a cheap worker) so that was pretty great! The reason I'm telling you this is I was busy organizing and my chores and missed my nap time (not that I was planning to have it anyways).  This shouldn't be a problem because I slept longer this morning, and I don't really feel tired.
My friend and I are going to the movies and I have to work tomorrow 11-4:30 which will be interesting to try to nap around. I wanted to start this cycle on a calm week and I thought this week was going to be that.
So you will see how this cycle works with a busy week ahead!

I will blog again in the morning (and will wake up on time!)
Until then :)

Allyssa's Cycle - Day 2

9:05 am
I  made a big mistake this morning, I didn't wake up. My alarm went off at 5 and then I hit snooze and didn't get up, that happened until 6 and then I must have hit dismiss because I woke up at 7.
I learned two things:
1. My sleep walking has moved to alarm changing, and I need too fully awake myself every morning\
2. It solidified how much I love my sleep

these two things I kind of knew in the beginning but now need to be fixed in order for me to succeed.
I didn't say this before, but I am a champion sleeper, I can fall asleep anywhere and with speed and ease. Which is really great, expect when I am trying to stay awake.
I think I will not have my nap today, or have a 20 min one for refreshing because of the extra sleep I got this morning.
Mentally and physically I feel very normal.
Thats it for now!
Enjoy :)

Monday, July 9, 2012

Allyssa's Cycle - Game night

12:15pm
So my dad thought it would be a great idea to ride our bikes to our game (we play on the same team, weird sounding but the league doesn't have an age restriction and I love any opportunity to beat him), and of course it pour rain for the ride home (but hey, I still beat him home)

The game went well, i don't believe the sleep cycle effected me in any way physically wise, I actually think the early morning improved my endurance. The problem I did have was the effect on my mind, a couple times i got really mixed up which isn't usual. If this cycle stops that or at least lessens it, I think it will be extremely helpful in the future so I'm not a dough head every time I'm tired
Staying up at night isn't really a problem because its impossible for me to fall asleep in front of the TV and I cant really do anything productive (not yet at least) because I'm not one for concentration; especially when I'm tired.
Corbin has been able to be awake enough to work at night so the competitive side in me is determined to get used to working at night, and if its quicker than him; well...that's just the name of the game. right?

For those of you reading this at this time of night, koodos, you are half way there to the sleep cycle, just wake up at 5 every morning and you'll be good to go :)
Sleep tight!

Allyssa's Cycle - First Afternoon

4:30ish pm
I am so tired!
I napped from 2:20-3:20 and it was very deep, but then when I woke up I was even more tired and slow minded. Like this  morning I forgot to tell you how I was physically and mentally handling this so far. This morning i just felt dopey, nothing out of the normal tired feeling. Although I do have a headache from not having any caffeine (For this experiment and other reasons I am going without my daily morning coffee) so i hope I can get over this quickly.
 
Today I shouldn't have watched so much Scrubs and actually did something productive like clean the house like I was suppose to. Tomorrow I will defiantly find something to do, like the gazillion craft ideas stumbleupon.com has given me.
   
My game tonight is at 6:30 and my position is only running, so we will see how that goes! I am actually very interested to see how athletic I can be with this cycle.

as of now if I continue this after the 10 days I would continue to wake up at 5 and go to bed at midnight  because the morning is actually very nice and the extra hour wouldn't hurt and there's not a whole lot for me to do at midnight anyways. 
That is the up-to-date news and I will be back tonight to post about how the game went

Bye for now

Allyssa's Sleep Cycle - First Morning

8am

I didn't end up going to bed until around 1:30 because my sister was watching her show and then Scrubs is just too good to not finish.
5:30 this morning wasn't that bad actually, I stayed in bed for a while and talked to Corbin but didn't fall back to sleep which was pretty great! Hitting snooze instead of shutting my alarm off was the best advice from Corbin on how to get up on time because really, who wants to get up at 5 in the morning?
Since i have a game tonight i decided to just go for a walk instead with my dog. This morning was so cool I should have bundled up more, but it also helped me wake up.
London the Labradoodle also referred to as: meathead, and snickers




so today I don't know when i will need the hour nap, i will just see how it all goes and blog afterwards
Enjoy the day :)

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Allyssa's Cycle

So as you have read, I am Corbin’s Girlfriend, and am very forgetful so we will see how this goes!
The reason I chose to follow Corbin’s steps in the sleep cycle is because I’m staying up to 1 anyways to talk to him, and I am up for a challenge to keep life interesting. My main concern is time; I usually use sleep to fill time and to replace boredom, so I will have to find some way to fill my time and to patch my boredom. My secondary concern is how I will function; when I am tired I am irritable, impatient and I kind of become an air head. this may be because of the amount of sleep I get in a 24 hour period (around 10 hours with an 8 hour night sleep and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon is too much) and if this sleep cycle decreases that my family and I (mostly my family because they so lovingly put up with my over tiredness) will be overjoyed. I am opposite to Corbin in many ways and that includes my schedule, because I don’t have one, I pretty much just go with the flow and see where I end up. So now I will consciously have to plan out how my day will go
 I just graduated high school and am going back for a victory lap to catch up on credits I lost from my full time co-op with an electrical company. So its time to pick a new career path and I pray I can find it this year
I work at McDonalds (small stepping stone) and get about 15 hours a week, I usually work in the evenings but this week I have 2 shifts in the afternoon, so we will see how it works with the whole napping part of the day.
Two nights a week I play Ultimate Frisbee in a league (it gets pretty intense) and I mostly use it as an excuse to run around more than actually caring if we win or lose.
My Plan:
Sleep 1-5
Go for a run
Sleep for an hour whenever in the afternoon
Fill my time somehow in-between and repeat
I will follow the same blogging schedule as Corbin and I’m keeping it on his blog to keep everything on the same page
I will keep you posted because im starting tonight!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Tips and Tricks For Your Sleep Cycle

After trying this sleep cycle for ten days now I have accumulated some knowledge of what  and what not to do if this is something that interests you.  I thought that I would be generous and share this information with the public because I'm a swell guy.  So ahead you'll find the most important things that I learned while trying this new cycle.

First up: don't ease into it.  I know this sounds appealing and you probably think by slowly cutting back your bed times and wake up alarms you'll be better adjusted.  This is false.  You will be less committed and more willing to cheat.  You may be thinking that you have a lot of will power and won't cheat when doing this.  That's great, but if that's the case then just start with schedule you're planning on using. 

Use time effectively.  At first it seems awesome that you're awake for nineteen hours a day (it is), and you have endless amounts of time to do whatever you please.  The reality is that you don't have an eternity and the day will end.  I know this sounds needless to mention or condescending but it's very important to realize.  If you decide in the morning to catch up on your favourite website or TV series and that takes you ten in the morning, you wasted more time on that than you would on any other given day.  This also leaves less time to do the important things that need to get done.  So don't spend hours playing video games because the day will end and you will have spent 24 hours playing FIFA.

The second part to the previous tip is to start being productive early.  If you can get all your hard work out of the way first thing in the morning then it opens up the entire day so that you can do whatever you'd like.  My personal example is running.  I haven't run consistently in years and had it not been for this sleep cycle I still wouldn't be running.  I didn't have time and my days were too sporadic.  But now I can get the run out of the way and still shower before anyone is up.  There's a sense of control that comes with getting annoying tasks out of the way first thing in the morning.

Know that times can change, but don't abuse this.  I used three or four different times for my afternoon naps effectively.  This was good news because that means your schedule can be flexible.  I noticed however that the more I switched it around the harder it was to go to sleep.  That's obviously because I was throwing my body off constantly.  So know that your sleep time can change, just do it cautiously.

Plan ahead.  It sucks when you're having a great time with your friends then realize you were supposed to be sleeping 47 minutes ago.  Remember to tell people in advance.  Mostly everyone finds different sleep cycles at least interesting and they will give you a couch and pillows.  Even if they just give you some quiet almost everyone respects different sleep routines.  It's important to tell people though and make sure you yourself remembers it.


That's about it for tips and tricks for now; if I remember anymore I will blog them or possibly add a tips and tricks part two.  I hope this has been helpful for you go-getters.

As for where this blog is going in the future here's the deal; my girlfriend is going to try this sleep cycle as well.  As I mentioned in a previous post, she is more forgetful than I so this will create a nice contrast between two different styles of committing to the cycle.  I or she will be blogging her thoughts and reactions for at least the transition period.  That way we will together be able to compare and see how the sleep cycle effects two people differently.  I'm excited about this new tactic and I hope to see you again very soon!

Just A Quickie

9:02 a.m.
Before I'm gone for most of the day I just wanted to throw a quick update on the blog.  I hadn't intended on doing this but I thought that these two things were important enough to share.  Last night after posting the summary, I was able to stay up until 1:00 without any tiredness.  This was exciting and it made me wonder if there was something to the transition period after all.

The view out my bedroom window every morning
The second thing that happened after I got out of bed and went for my run was that I was tired.  From about 5:00 a.m. to 7:30 I was completely fine but after that and up until a few moments ago I was extremely close to falling asleep.

These two things have gone against most of what has happened before and everything in my summary yesterday.  The blog post yesterday still should be taken at full value since it was an accurate summary up until that point.  These are just very notable occurrences.

Stay tuned because later today (5:30 between 10:00), I will be posting my tips on how to successfully transition from a monophasic cycle to a polyphasic one.  In that post I'll also be telling what's going to be happening with my cycle, the blog and other stuff that is secret right now.  So stay tuned!

Friday, July 6, 2012

The End Of The Transition Period

As was promised earlier, I will give a summary of the first ten days (transition period) of my sleep cycle.  It goes as follows;

Before the experiment began I was nervous and excited.  I had imagined that it would be difficult to stay up at first because I would be tired all the time.  I had also thought that it would take longer than ten days to make the adjustment because I had been sleeping in eight hour blocks pretty much since I was born.  I had many concerns going into the project; I wouldn't be able to follow through, I would be too tired, and many more.  This however was not the case.

The first few mornings in I woke and got up right at 5:00 a.m.  This surprised me as I thought that I would be too exhausted to wake up.  I also went for runs almost immediately and I'm sure they helped prepare my body for the day.  There were some other surprises for me; ones that I had just been too busy to notice.  One was how cool it is in the morning.  I have never gotten up this early in all my summers and due to this schedule I have discovered that mornings are awesome even just for their coolness.  I normally dislike the heat and in the morning there usually isn't any.  Another observation was that I had to eat more and constantly be eating.  I didn't gain any weight, fortunately and I haven't been eating any better.  The last thing was that I had so much time in the morning.  Usually on the weekends I would sleep in to 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. and would eat and shower taking me to 10:00 or later.  Then I would do some pointless things (reading, TV) and I wouldn't start doing homework or yard work until the afternoon.  Now I can be lazy for a couple hours and it will still be 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning; I still have the entire day open.  This was a huge revelation.

As the transition period wore on I became more lazy in the morning.  I would wake up at the alarm but then sleep in to 7:00 or 8:00.  This was easily fixed by using the snooze button but it's still worth noting that my body was less comfortable with the schedule as the trial wore on.

For my afternoon rest periods, I got used to them almost immediately.  I didn't find working my way into these challenging at all, and if you've been keeping up with the blog, you'll remember that I was able to freely change the periods from 2:00 to 1:00 to 4:00.  This is an important aspect for those of us needing a flexible schedule.

I was never able to grasp the nightly sleep periods.  Once in bed I was almost at once asleep however the most challenging task of this project was to stay awake until 1:00 p.m.  Now I know that this doesn't sound hard but for me it was.  I had trained my body to fall asleep around 10:30 and to push this back two and a half hours was very foreign to my body.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to combat late night sleepiness better in the future but this is something that I will still keep an eye on.

As far as the miscellaneous stuff goes there wasn't too much to note.  It felt weird sleeping in someone else's home but everyone was understanding.  It did not feel strange to sleep in the afternoon even though I had never done this before.  These periods just felt like naps and I never took the risk and tried to power through a day without my afternoon nap (soon, maybe).  As mentioned before, I usually always want to sleep longer in the morning when thinking about it the night before.  I rarely want to sleep in once I wake up though.  I also always want to go to bed earlier and it feels like nonsense when I HAVE to stay up.  That's about it for there though.

My last point that I would like to make is about productivity.  I had envisioned myself being more creative and more productive and able to handle more.  The truth about this is that you have to be productive yourself.  You have to do it.  You can't depend on parents or sleep cycles or agendas to make you more productive.  You get what you put in.  I would like to end this post with a quote from Yoda, "Do or do not, there is no try."

This is what you can expect tomorrow; tips and advice for when you start your own cycle.  I'm personally excited as the survey shows that most people are looking to do something like this.  After that post I will also be explaining the next step with this blog.  You'll want to read it.

Three Birds With One Post

8:21 a.m.
I know that I only had one update yesterday so I’ll have to summarize three posts in this one.  Starting with the afternoon rest period.  I went to sleep at 2:00 and oddly woke up at 2:45 before my alarm went off.  I don’t know why this was the case but either way I’m not too worried about it.

Then there was late last night, I stayed up until 12:50 because I was so tired that I couldn’t keep my eyes open.  I haven’t been able to get rid of this tiredness at night although it does help to keep your mind active (reading, painting, work).  If you watch TV you will fall asleep early.

Then lastly there was this morning.  I slept in and I’m aware that this is a bad ending to the transition period but it makes it more difficult that it’s the summer time and I don’t have a schedule that I need to abide by.

For all three of them there was something slightly off but I’m not concerned about any of them.  I think that it’s still going well and the transition period has been relatively successful.  Today I will have only one more post.  That update will be the summarization of the transition period.  That means I will briefly describe the transition period and how my mind and body felt.  I will also have another special post tomorrow and the day after that so keep informed.  I’ll see you again very soon.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Thank You!

As of right now I have reached 1,000 views of this blog and I'd just like to take the time to thank everyone who has stopped by and helped this thing keep going.  I didn't expect it to get very big and this surpassed my expectations.  The following list is the top ten countries that are following my blog;

1. USA
2. Canada
3. Hungary
4. United Kingdom
5. Sweden
6. Germany
7. Ireland
8. Australia
9. Denmark
10. Argentina

If one of your countries isn't up there that's okay; you'll just have to spread the word.  I truly appreciate each of you guys and I'm glad to keep doing this for you.  Since tomorrow is the last day of the transition phase, I will be giving a brief summary and update of how that went and what you guys can expect in the future.  Again, thank you!

Skipping The Run

6:45 a.m.
I went to bed and got up right on time again; I’m really getting the hang of it.  I did not go for a morning run though.  I got up in time to go on the run and I was ready, then I remembered that me and my quarterback are going to throw the football around after we work out.  That’s why I decided to skip the run so that I would be better prepared for our practice tonight.  What did I do instead of go on my run?  I continued to read this book:

It may be long and boring, but it sure is long and boring
I have a few desires.  One is right before I go to bed.  At this time I wish that I could forget the alarm and at least sleep in to seven or eight.  I did however notice once I woke up that I felt completely rested and to sleep in would have been a waste of time. 

The other thing that I constantly wish for is to have a normal bed time.  I’m not saying that I wish I used the monophasic sleep cycle like everyone else; I just wish that I went to bed at eleven or twelve.  Thinking about it now though, this could be a viable option.  It would just mean that I would have to wake up at four o’clock in the morning when it’s still very dark.  I would then need to change my schedule too.  It’s something to think about.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Quick Update Before Bedtime

12:19 a.m.
This has been my first night update in a while.  I promise I’ll try to make the most of it.  I think that no matter how many times in a row I stay up this late I will still be tired.  I haven’t been able to remain alert past 11:30 once through out this entire experiment.   I’m not too frustrated by this although it is a little disappointing.

I promised an updated picture of the painting I’m working on and I delivered.  I wasn’t able to completely finish it tonight but I did make a lot of headway.  If you can’t figure it out by now, that’s a stream surrounded by trees during winter.
Almost done, hang in there
If my math is correct, this is the tenth day, (July 5th).  That means that the transition period should be coming to a close and I guess I’ll have an official report later on how this has gone and my plans for the future.  I still need to figure most of that out so hang with me.

Another North American Holiday

6:27 p.m.
I apologize that this one is going up so late but it’s the first time I’ve had some time with the computer.  I was going to have a late afternoon rest period but I was tired around 1:30 so I went to sleep at 2:00.  I had a little difficulty falling asleep but I think it went well.  I was also tired in the morning around 9:00; I don’t know why.  I’ll see tomorrow if I’m still tired in the morning.

It's America's Independence Day

A big shout out goes to my American friends to the South.  It’s their Independence Day so I hope they enjoy their day of barbecues and fireworks. Up here in Canada it would be a perfect day for that so I hope the weather is good down there too.

Overall today has gone well.  I worked most of the morning away and am about to head out to the gym.  I’ll see if I can throw another post up late tonight with my finished art work attached.

Early Bird Gets The Worm

6:08 a.m.
I woke up right on time this morning at 5:00 and was out the door half an hour later for my morning run.  In case you were wondering, that’s three days in a row that I’ve been on time.  This is exciting news for me; I’m finally starting to get the hang of it.  The only problem is that I dozed off last night for maybe half an hour in front of the TV.  This means two things; one is that if I am actually using my brain a little (painting, reading) I will be able to stay up much better than if I sit in front of the TV.  The other thing it means is that the later afternoon nap didn’t help as much as I was hoping.

These are the shoes that have carried me in all my runs
Nevertheless, I will have another late afternoon rest period today (third day in a row) just to see if it really doesn’t help at all.  And I should be able to finish the painting I started and posted a couple days ago.  That should keep me awake at night.

One last note is that when I meet people who know what I’m doing it always surprises them that I’m usually not tired at all and even during the transition phase, I wasn’t very tired at all.  This shows that no matter where you are in your school or job, you can make he change at any time so long as you are committed and have a schedule flexible enough.  If some of you guys decide to try this sleep cycle out or another one let us know in the comments!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Late Afternoon Nap

6:02 p.m.
I had another late nap this afternoon as I said I would yesterday.  I started it at 3:30 and woke up an hour later.  Like yesterday I had a little more difficulty falling asleep but I did rest better than when I was on the couch a day ago.  We will have to see tonight if the later sleep period keeps me awake longer.  If it does then I will definitely make 3:00 or 3:30 my normal time.

I was able to get a full morning of work in and was fairly lazy this afternoon.  I remember my older brother saying how some of the editors at his university news paper get six hours of sleep a night.  When I heard this I was at first discouraged because they were functioning with only an hour more than I am.  I then thought about their caffeine and coffee consumption.  I don’t drink any coffee and have very little in the way of caffeine.  This sleep cycle is also healthier I believe so my mind was put at ease.

Consistency, Finally

6:16 a.m.
Good morning everyone.  If you were wondering if I stayed up until 1:00 last and got out of bed this morning on time, the answer would be yes.  Two days in a row now I have stayed right on schedule.  Last night though I went to bed ten minutes early because I was very tired.  I was actually tired at about 9:00 p.m.  I am going to chalk that up to me not getting a full one hour sleep.  Overall though, I am pretty happy with the results.

Talking to my girlfriend yesterday she had said that she wanted to try the cycle and was actually planning on starting last night but I don’t think she did.  I encouraged her to do so since if my routine becomes boring and predictable, I can post her results from the beginning.  This would provide a cool contrast between two peoples experiences especially since she is much more forgetfull and laid back about her routines.  Either way, I’ll give you a heads up.  Unless you want to hear her results sooner just comment or tweet me that that’s the case and I’ll get on it.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Bowling And Sleeping Elsewhere

5:16 p.m.
I had the latest afternoon sleep period today.  I came to my girlfriends house today in the morning and I'll be staying for dinner.  We went bowling today with her family and I think I did all right (92). I didn't want to beat my girlfriend too badly so I kept it close for her sake.  After bowling we came back and that was around quarter after three.  Being the generous people they are I was set up with pillows and blankets and slept on the basement couch.  I was able to sleep for at least half an hour so I'm  a little hesitant to claim that it was a success.
Temporary sleeping quarters

I have been considering moving the afternoon sleep block back to 4:00 so I will be less tired at night (11:00 to 1:00).  I will try this again tomorrow and see what happens.  My hope for tonight is that I am once  again able to stay up until 1:00, am less tired, and finish the painting  I started yesterday.

Back On Track

5:59 a.m.
Last night I went to bed about five minutes early on purpose and today I woke up right on time.  I’m very glad that I decided to use the snooze button otherwise I would probably still be in bed right now.  I would also like to add that my bed has never been as comfortable as it was at 5:00 a.m. during summer break.  It was a struggle to get out of bed to say the least.

My run today went well, I’m very happy with today so far and I’ve been awake an hour.  As far as my plans are for today, I’ll try to finish up that painting I posted last night and put some man hours into yard work.

I’ll be putting another update on the blog after my afternoon rest period.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

The End Of A Day, The Beginning Of Some Art

My work station, for now
12:31 a.m.
I’m not too tired although I fell the tiniest bit drowsy.  It’s so small that I even considered not sharing it but I did.  Because I care.  With this lack of tiredness that I have been experiencing I started another work of art.  I had meant to take a picture of it as I was priming the board but I forgot so below you can see my temporary work station (dining room table).  This work is about half done and so far I’ve spent half an hour on it.

Overall today has went well.  Church in the morning and my family went out for lunch and then I was fortunate enough to have a lazy afternoon and caught the CFL game between Calgary and Montreal.  I have felt pretty good today.

Tomorrow I think that I’ll start the real physically demanding work in the yard and outside so that will be interesting to see how my body reacts to running on little sleep while physically working a lot.  I hope I have some interesting results for once.

A Late Nap After A Late Morning

4:33 p.m.
I was very worried today because I realized around two thirty that I was not sleeping and had forgotten about the afternoon sleep cycle.  Initially I was even more frustrated as I had already messed up today but I think it become something positive.  I went to sleep at 3:00 and I fell asleep pretty fast.  I went to sleep quickly and this shows that I have practiced falling asleep enough that I can now make my body sleep much better than I could before.  This is very useful as I almost always had difficulty falling asleep. 
Happy Canada day!
 The other good thing that came out of this is the fact that I have utilized a rest period at 1:00, 2:00 and 3:00.  Three different times for my afternoon nap and they were all done successfully. This is exciting because it means that this rest period is very flexible.  If you’re looking to try this biphasic cycle, don’t worry about needing a very strict schedule because you can actually change the time around daily. Granted, I haven’t strayed outside of the three hours but I don’t think much more than that would be an effective sleep schedule.  This is still good news either way.

Another Late Morning

7:56 a.m.
I slept in again today.  If it weren’t for sleeping in I would have no problems with my experiment.  However, as it is, I’m sleeping in about half the time.  This is getting to be very frustrating since it would make the project pointless if I continue to do so.  I hope that simply hitting the snooze button no matter how awake I am will do the trick.  I haven’t once used it so far because I didn’t feel like had a need for it.  I’m thinking much differently at this point.

Last night went well, I stayed up right until 1:00 p.m. and I watched my first episode of Mad Men.  It’s very well done but I’d recommend watching it in order and not jumping in wherever your older brother is.  I was glad to have stayed up that late even though I almost dozed off a couple times and was drowsy.

My typical breakfast, delicious
So as this post shows you, I’m doing the sleep cycle but it’s the details that I’m getting ahold of.  I don’t have anything wrong with me mentally or physically and I’ll stop telling you that after this because I haven’t felt off since the first couple days.