Claire's Random Thoughts

Yes, I did officially complete the first day of my Everyman sleep schedule experiment. Now I’m going to take a study break and do an update on the experiment.

So far, I have noticed that the most difficult part is timing the naps so that they are exactly 20 minutes. Although this sleep schedule is practically a cure for insomnia due to exhaustion, it’s still difficult for me to estimate how long it will take to fall asleep so that I can set the alarm clock accordingly. Once, I also tried using the Placebo’s Sleep Track with Bose QuietComfort 3 noise cancelling headphones so that I would not be disturbed by awake (and normal) room/suite mates. If I can start falling asleep more easily, then the Placebo’s Sleep Track with Bose QC3 headphones would be ideal due to its perfect timing and noise reduction.

I have definitely noticed the significant increase in useful time. Four hours per day of useful time should be considered as follows:
In a typical day for the typical human being, 8 hours are spent sleeping.
Approximately 1 hour spent maintaining personal hygiene and otherwise preparing oneself for public appearance.
Let’s say that for a college student, approximately 4 hours a day, on average, are spent in class or en route to class.
Approximately two hours are spent eating, cooking, grocery shopping, or otherwise on food.
Nobody is completely efficient during transition time. So let’s allow 1 hour for dissipated transition time.
Therefore, 24-8-1-4-2-1 = 8 hours of useful time in a day
Thus, I am increasing my useful time by 50% with the four hours of sleep I am saving each day.

I fell asleep almost right away when I went to bed. After all, it was 3 am, and I was tired enough to crash.
I got up around my alarm set at 6 am and had a light breakfast consisting mostly of yogurt, fruit, and juice. After that, I began some productive work, and of course, still wasted a little time browsing the web, facebooking, chatting, etc.

I took my first nap around 10 am. Unfortunately, I found it a little difficult to fall asleep right away and get out of bed right away from this nap and spent about an extra 15 minutes lying in bed. With some more training, as I stated earlier, this should be less of a problem in the future.
After waking up from this first nap, I ate a second breakfast, with more substance, this time eggs and potato pancakes. Some more light productive work followed this, similar to the earlier morning productive work.
In the early afternoon, I was getting bored, so I decided to take a break and hit the gym. I ate another piece of fruit before going, so it would take me longer to get hungry during the workout. Due to the negative effects on the immune system sleep deprivation has, I have to eat healthier to compensate.

Wow, running hurts when you haven’t had enough sleep. This might be an issue later, which is why I’m monitoring fatigue. My heart rate was slightly higher than normal but I was still able to fit in a decent length workout.

Following my workout, I replenished with a 35g protein shake from Trader Joe’s. Those are awesome. I also bought healthy foods accompanied by some cookies. When I finally made it back to my room, I was pretty tired already, so I just took my shower, treated myself to a couple cookies and nuts, and my second nap.

After my second nap, I did a little more productive work, completing the first of two essays I have due soon. Since I was hungry again and it was not quite time for dinner, I ate a single slice of whole wheat bread with a little peanut butter, then killed a little time.

Then, dinner with Katie. Hey, I deserve some fun sometimes. Of course I discussed my current sleep schedule at the dinner table. After dinner? Nap time, again. Then, more cookies.

After the third nap? Studying for the EGB (Economics of Global Business) test. I still had quite a bit of reading left. Pomegranate juice on the side. I am writing this blog post to take a break from that.

Variables I am monitoring:
physical energy – I was no more tired than I am on a typical school day with 8 am classes
fatigue – well, my thigh is still sore now. Maybe this sleep system wasn’t designed for the physically active. I will address this issue again later as I continue my experiment.
memory and concentration – again, not any worse than a typical school day with 8 am classes
redness of eyes – should be ok if I’m not constantly wearing my contact lenses. I can just take them out and wear glasses when I’m sitting in my room sometimes

I am adding one more variable, appetite/weight gain:
I seem to be eating more than I normally do with frequent snacks, no surprise here. When doing my research, this was one of the potential problems listed. Ideally, the additional waking hours and healthier diet should balance it out, but I will have to wait at least a few days to see.

Ok, back to studying. The plan is to study until my core sleep time at 3 am, then write a rough draft for the Con West paper so I can submit something. Good thing the final draft isn’t due tomorrow, so I don’t have to stress over it yet.

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