So far - this has been easier than expected. Luckily I have been able to keep to my scheduled nap times - although because of a family dinner - I had to wait 20 minutes past when I normally would have had my 8PM nap.
I felt the fatigue from the breaking of the monophasic sleep cycle kicking in last night before and after the 12AM and 4AM morning naps. I was able to work on a couple lengthy projects - business e-mails, BlackJack strategy, wine valuation, and business school interview preparation. Apparently, Day 3 is supposed to be the most difficult part of the adjustment period - but am looking forward to days 4 and 5 because that is when people usually start feeling better.
My Mom is nervous because of health reasons - the effect of lack of sleep on humans has some serious side effects - potential increased chances for cancers, higher blood pressure, obesity.
Christopher Winter, M.D., a board-certified sleep-medicine specialist and the medical director of the Sleep Medicine Center at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, had the following to say: "All kinds of things could happen to individuals who are sleep deprived. Changes in blood pressure, heart rate, hormones, glucose metabolism, temperature regulation, and appetite can be seen quite quickly. The sleepless individual is probably cold [due to increased energy expenditure], so hypothermia could be an eventual cause of death. So could catabolism — that is, an increased metabolic rate and protein breakdown — and susceptibility to disease from a weakened immune system."
A Menlo Parent and also a PhD, Dr. Rosekind came and spoke recently at Menlo about the importance of sleep especially with growing young minds. He founded a company called Alertness Solutions - "which is a scientific consulting firm that translates knowledge of sleep, circadian rhythms, alertness, and performance into practical strategies that improve safety and productivity in our 24-hour society." Will be interested to hear his thoughts on Polyphasic Sleeping - a field where unfortunately, there is not enough research to make conclusions.
As I mentioned before - Steve Pavlina loved this sleep schedule and notes his reasons here. Eventually he ended up reverting back to "normal" monophasic sleep but because of the reason the rest of the world doesn't do it - "The #1 reason I decided to call it quits is simply that the rest of the world is monophasic. If most of the world was polyphasic, I probably would have stuck with it. Obviously when you go polyphasic, you fall out of sync with the way other people live. You’re awake most of the night while everyone is asleep. If you sleep like most people, then the hours you’ll gain from polyphasic sleep will come in the middle of the night. And as I gradually learned, nighttime hours are not the same as daytime hours when you live in a monophasic world."
Another great blog I found did some deeper discussion on the health issues and studies that have been performed - and it looks like this can be a very reasonable way to live and recharge.
Off to my next nap!
