So very soft

The thing that keeps going through my head at the moment is that I should have started writing about this experiment when I actually started doing it, rather than three weeks before when I'm in what I'm lovingly calling rehearsals. But I'm noticing little snippets of information so I suppose I may as well document it.

The main thing I've noticed is the planned nap time of 6pm is working like a charm. Each day, around 5:45pm or so, I get very drowsy. I head to my room, set my alarm, lay down and fall asleep within a couple of minutes. At first I woke up about three or four minutes before the alarm went off, lately I'm sleeping 'til it rings. I usually feel pretty good, but only after about five to ten minutes of dopey eye blinking and walking as if through yoghurt. Not that I can't function, I think I've always been very good at snapping awake and looking like I've been up for hours, but I definitely have that nap buffer that I'm working through.

The big core sleep at night is working a little differently. I'm either completely wiped out around nine to ten and have to struggle to keep awake until eleven, when I usually do an hour or so of yoga, or I feel fairly calm and relaxed and don't struggle at all. Either way, by the time I finish meditating around 12:20am, I am wholly ready for sleep. I slip into bed as quietly as I can so as not to disturb my girlfriend and, like the naps, fall asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow. I'm also sleeping straight through to my alarm, but finding it very easy to get up right away. Although I must say that most mornings, if I had the luxury of a non-competitive conscience, I could very easily fall asleep again.

Once again, can you believe I used to sleep four hours a night with no problem? I've grown so very soft.

Today I've also been aware of a sore throat coming on, the kind that feels like there's a thick bruise sitting just under the Adam's apple. Angie's got something like that today as well (the sore throat, not the Adam's apple), so perhaps it has nothing to do with the sleeping. It might have something to do with the goddamn cold water in the river that I persistently throw myself into every morning, but who knows? It's one of those things that will either be non-existent in the morning, or will have taken a strangle hold over my vocals chords, playing gleeful compositions of coughs and wheezes. I'm focussing on the former, of course.

So I still have a few weeks to go until launching the Uberman schedule proper, but these instant sleep naps are really encouraging. I'm very excited to think I may fit into the apparent 2% of people who this sleeping pattern suits marvellously. I'll at least try it until I collapse, I owe my competitive conscience that much.