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!

Second Post of the First Day

9:10 a.m.
It feels extremely odd that I have been up for four hours and normally I would have been just getting started in my first class at school.  As of now it feels that I have opened my whole day up and I have an endless amount of time to do whatever I please.  So far I have read, set up the blog, and watched an episode of criminal minds (I dozed off for the last ten minutes).  I have been very lazy for four hours but the thing is it’s only nine o’clock in the morning; I still have my whole day ahead of me, except of course for one nap.
  
As I mentioned before, I dozed off for no more then ten minutes.  I wouldn’t be so concerned about this except I am not tired at all.  This is bad news because from about 7:00 until 8:20 I was extremely drowsy resulting in me resting for a few moments.  I wasn’t sure if I would be able to stay up until 2 o’clock on the first day.  Even if when switching sleep cycles you’re not supposed to be able to stay up for the nine or ten hours after the first night I count this as a loss.
 
The last thing to note is my hunger.  Normally I have dinner at around six or seven then don’t eat until breakfast twelve hours later.  That is pretty average for human’s eating habits. What I thought would happen was that my body wouldn’t get hungry until seven in the morning and I could continue to have three meals a day.  This is not the case.  Even though I had steak last night at six, I was extremely hungry at 5 a.m. today.  And since about seven I have been starving.  That’s why I am about to make some eggs for my second breakfast. I also had a banana at around six thirty but I’m counting that as my first breakfast.  It appears right now that I will have to eat about five meals a day with smaller portions.  The approximate times they would happen would be about 5:00, 7:30/8:00, noon, 6:00 and 10:00.  I don’t mind this new meal schedule at all and if I remember correctly, many smaller meals is actually much healthier.
  
I’m wide awake and alert which concerns me because of my ten minute nap.  I am also very hungry.  My mental state appears to be fine (maybe skittish) but I just noticed now as I’m typing that my hands are shaking.  I could attribute that to the fact that I’m slightly cold even with a cardigan on.
  
I thought about changing into pants because I was cold earlier (I never experienced being awake on purpose that early before). However, I decided against it not wanting to change outfits multiple times a day.  I think that I may have to wear pants and sweaters in the morning then change into shorts and t-shirts around noon or before my second rest period. 
  
I should have another update after three o’clock.

Preview for Things to Come

5:42 p.m.
Tonight’s the night.  I’m not too excited but I am a little hesitant.  I only had three exams this semester as I had a spare during one period.  My last exam was this morning, it was a geography course; resource management.  I’m starting the experiment so shortly after my school year because I’m afraid of putting it off too long as teenagers are prone to do.  I also don’t see the point in procrastinating when this can be started as early as possible.
  
At this point I have two main concerns.  The first is that my phone only allows me to set one alarm at a time.  That means that I will have to change the alarm twice daily.  Being forgetful doubled with the fact that I will be extremely tired I am worried that I might sleep through a rest period and destroy the trial up to that point.  I looked for cooking timers but we don’t have any in my house.  I will attempt to use my phone’s alarm.  I only see this as a threat for the first week because I hope that my body will become accustomed to the schedule and I will be able to fall asleep faster.
  
That leads into my second concern; falling asleep.  I’m naturally not able to go to sleep quickly, whether it’s due to too much natural sugar in the evening or I haven’t trained my body well enough I’m not sure.  Where it becomes real concerning is now that in southern Canada we are getting into the actual heat of summer this could create a discomfort that I won’t easily overcome and sleep.  I do not like heat and much prefer winter to summer.  If the heat continues (the forecast as of 5:48 p.m. is high 20’s and low 30’s for the rest of the week), I may not be able to fall asleep as fast as needed.  This is the lesser concern because I feel that since I’m going to be staying up until one o’clock, my body will be so exhausted it will fall asleep quickly, (my normal bedtime is 10:30). 
  
I’m strangely not concerned about how this experiment will effect my everyday schedule.  I won’t be doing much this summer, mostly yard and house work.  I will however be playing with my church’s band on Tuesday nights and performing on Sunday mornings.  Hopefully I will not be musically limited by the lack of rest I will be getting.
  
I also have a beautiful girlfriend that unfortunately lives half an hour away.  This could pose a problem if we are together for the entire day or at the very least it would create awkward or uncomfortable situations.  That reminds me though that I need to check with her to make sure we are on the same page with the sleep cycle.  I mentioned it to her previously but she may not have thought that I was going to take it seriously (I have many side projects with few completed).  She may be upset that I am starting now since her prom is on Thursday, three days from today.  I may be reporting back on this situation but if I don’t everything went smoothly.
  
Lastly, I should mention my habits and physical shape.  I am a six foot male that weighs 185 pounds who is a little concerned about the amount of fat I have put on recently.  I will be attending a gym hopefully six times a week to work out in preparation for football season.  I have an average diet, which is to say on the unhealthy side.  I have been trying to eat less meat and more veggies lately.  I think I should include what I am eating in this experiment.  Today I had nothing for breakfast (I usually do have breakfast), two hotdogs for lunch and I just had a sugar filled ice tea as I was writing this.  I have never taken drugs, I haven’t had alcohol in a year and I have taken a puff of a cigarette once.  I don’t plan on consuming any of those within the time frame of the experiment.  Now I’m a little excited.