Polyphasic sleep schedule Day Two

I thought I knew what tired felt like.

I've been really tired many times in my life, especially whilst on tour. I could tell you some excruciating stories about driving under the slumber influence, and stories about sleeping under the merch desk as punk bands sound checked not ten metres away. But I don't think I ever knew real tired until today.

I was feeling okay, especially after my 10am nap. That 10am nap is my best friend at the moment. I woke from that one feeling on top of the world. But the 2pm nap went all strange, and I spiralled downhill faster than a drunken skier. This is what happened.

I was down outside the office talking to Angie. Matt was just pulling out to go do a shop. I thought this was odd because I was pretty sure I'd seen him leave earlier in the day. Perhaps he had been doing something else. Anyway, a lady drove in and got out of her car. She looked after Matt, perplexed, and asked me if he was the one she had to speak to. I told her that Angie and I worked here too. She asked for a room for the night, and I told her Angie could help (it was, after all, my day off). Angie spoke under her breath and told me she was really busy with something, and I replied that I couldn't do it as it was time for my nap. She smiled and said not to worry, she'd take care of it.

Just then, all hell broke loose. A huge blaring sound errupted in the air, and I woke as I fell off the couch. You see, none of this had happened, although the dream felt more real than almost any dream I've had. I could have sworn I was awake, but the screaming alarm clock, the time and my body sprawled on the floor of the library said otherwise. I mention this not because it was odd to dream of such a mundane scenario, but that I absolutely believed I was awake. I don't tend to remember my dreams too much, and I think I usually have an inkling that I'm dreaming when I do. Too much weird stuff usually goes on (like the dream I had the other night with an elderly lady chasing me and my arms growing into lengthy, ape-like apendages to assist my escape...but that's for another time). This was so vivid and realistic that it took me a good ten minutes after waking to convince myself I was now actually awake and not the other way around.

My afternoon very quickly descended into the zombie-like state I've read so much about and had started, optimistically, believing might pass me by. At one point I actually felt my jaw hanging down a few inches lower than it should be. Angie has been hugely entertained by all this, taking every opportunity to come and laugh at  me. On the plus side, she's been around a lot to ensure I don't just curl up into a ball somewhere and fall asleep, which has been one hell of a strong urge to fight. I finished my 2am nap a little while back and have been feeling almost human after that one, although I can feel the weariness settling in again as I type now. Two and a bit more hours to the next nap though...

So, some things I've realised in the last two days:

1. I haven't been yawning, until this afternoon. Normally when I'm tired I yawn like the television demon in Aphex Twin's Come To Daddy clip, but not this week (until this afternoon). I just find this interesting.
2. I'm still mostly waking up before the alarm goes off (with the notable exception of my parallel universe experience this afternoon).
3. Most of the time I wake before the alarm, it's about 15 minutes or so into the nap, which means I'm probably averaging close to an hour and a half's sleep each day right now.
4. This is probably a good thing because it's really bloody hard to sync up a collection of analogue alarm clocks.
5. I really need to cut back the activity. I've stopped running in the morning, but I'm still walking up the big hill for a round loop of close to 8km each day, and with the added activity of all the walking I do simply to keep moving and stay awake, I'm getting quite tired. I had to stop halfway down the hill tonight on a walk with Angie and sit down (terribly close to sleeping on the road). I also stopped my yoga session after about ten minutes because I knew if I didn't I would fall asleep, probably in a position that I would regret after a few hours of sleeping in it.
6. I've found myself drinking so much water I could be mounted in the herb garden and used as an ornamental fountain. I'm not sure that this is a conscious choice - either my body needs the fluids or it's another reactive mechanism in response to the tiredness.

I thought there were a few others but everything's a little cloudy right now. I can feel that sleep net tighten as I type, pulling my eyelids down and constricting my muscles. The best way I've found to deal with it is to try to view it exactly as I asked for - as an experiment to see what happens. If I start feeling sorry for myself then the tiredness feeds off that with rapacious hunger. If I remember to keep breathing deeply and try to watch it all with a curious eye then it doesn't feel quite so bad. And besides, there's every chance that this will be the hardest day. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Oh, that's right, there is no tomorrow for me anymore. We'll see what the next waking period brings.