Day 3

Last night was a blast! It is amazing how perfectly my schedule is helping me try this new sleep schedule, because last night was a sleep over at one of my student's house. In the past when such an event would occur I'd often be the first one in bed. Not so last night - I expressly told my students to wake me up if I overslept my alarm for my two naps. The night flew by with all the action of camp fires, stories, early morning walk, and truth-or-dare and Uno games. My second nap happened to be 40 minutes long (can't trust my watch alarm to wake me up), but once I woke up this morning nap I felt energized almost like I hadn't just spent the whole night awake. I couldn't believe it! The only weird thing was my stomach - it felt a little upset, but soon that feeling passed away.

The next perfectly planned event was a boat outing to an island. The morning dragged on a little bit as I was trying to not focus on the increasing fatigue that comes several hours after I wake up from my nap, yet snorkelling around an island made me not even focus on it at all.

The trip brought up another interesting point for me. I don't get seasick, but if I told my mind on the rocking boat that I felt seasick I would immediately feel nauseas. I think it is the same thing with my energy levels in this experiment. If I say I feel tired, immediately I my eyes start closing and I just want to take a nap. Believing that I am not tired, on the other hand, makes me feel normal. And so far I am - on average I would say I am a 8 on a scale of  a usual 10 in mental cognition. Which considering that I've gotten under 4 hours of sleep the last two days is impressive!

The middle of the day nap proved my downfall. I had brought a loud alarm clock, but as you should know I am a deep sleeper. I oversleep making my nap 2 hours long. I really don't know how to solve this problem, and I know that if I don't hear my alarm for the late night nap I will be in trouble. Tonight is going to be interesting.

Let me rephrase that - this week in general will be interesting. Tomorrow (Monday) will be a work day, and as I go back to teaching a 6.5 hour block of awakness will be forced upon me (usually I aim for 5.5 hours between naps). The good news is that, except for the late night nap, all other naps will rotate around a fixed schedule and people can wake me up. I just hope my alarm wakes me up for the late night one. I think cuddling it will help me wake up to it.

Update@5:30 am - The last two naps of the day went well, but again on the last nap I overslept my alarm. It is a miracle that I woke up at all in only 1 hr 25 minutes considering it was still night. I still feel pretty good and having a schedule for my awake time is very helpful.