Polyphasic sleep schedule Day Three

Only Day Three? Did I slip into some clandestine wormhole near the river that sent me back a week, or has it really only been three days since I began this little joyride? Let's see, I had my last monophasic sleep on Sunday night, waking at 6:30am. It's now Thursday morning at 4am so yes, looks like it's been three days.

I just looked back on my post from yesterday morning and had to laugh about how tired I was. That was nothing compared to how I felt after the 6am nap. I nearly crumpled in a weeping heap when I woke up. I could feel my eyes trying to lock themselves in and my limbs were shaking. Angie was fantastic though - she saw that I was on a knife's edge of collapsing into a comatose sleep, and she pushed me out the door into the very brisk morning air and took me on a walk up the mountain. It all felt manageable by the time we returned, but I was still completely wiped out.

Okay, I confess. I caved in and added a nap.

I don't think this is against the "rules", because Steve Pavlina did it on his much publicised blog about his polyphasic experiences. I just wanted to beat the guy though. I slipped in an extra 20 minute nap at 8am and it was really the smartest thing I could have done. I've been feeling almost good the rest of today, and aside from a quietly gnawing drowsiness right now, I'm still feeling at least ten times better than this stage last night. Do I dare believe I might be past the worst of it?

Aside from that period of perhaps twelve hours where I nearly wanted to drown myself, I think the experiment is going smashingly well. I haven't overslept once (indeed, I'm still waking before the alarm in most cases), and I've started dreaming quite vividly almost every time. The last one involved a country town op shop lady who called me to come and collect something and, after I drove for an hour to get there, told me they didn't have it and I should come back tomorrow. Incredibly banal dreams, but vivid.

I work in the office with music playing far louder than is acceptable for a resort office during the day, and I found time to bake some chocolate chip cookies last night. Once I get a handle on the tiredness I'm planning on spending a lot more time reading and writing (I have a list of short story competitions ready to enter). I'm getting back into German lessons and have uncovered a weird minor addiction to crosswords.

I haven't yet had the spiritual awakening that some polyphasers have had, where they realise time does not have to be the man-made construct we created but can instead unfurl in an infinite, mobius-strip-styled ribbon. The closest I've come is to shed my usual concerns of not having enough time in the day to get through everything (I call them concerns, Angie's aunt calls them fears, either/or). When you know you have at least another six hours to fill each night, you stop worrying about having to get through the accounts by 6pm, or cleaning the room before bed. You're happy in the knowledge that at some point in the next few waking phases it'll probably get done.

I'm hoping to not need an extra nap tomorrow morning but I'll see how I feel. That gnawing drowsiness has just started to bite a little, it might be time for a brief and cold walk outside.