cycle #0002

Ugh! So, I don't have my countdown timer yet... was planning on buying it after work today, since I REALLY wasn't even planning on starting naps today in the first place! Anyway, I told Darrell to give me a call if I'm not back inside by 15:30. He said he called and it rang 4 times, but my phone has no record of the call (didn't ring). Blasted technology! Anyway, he finally came out and woke me up after 15 minutes, assuming I slept through the ring.

Dreams: The GOOD news is, I DID sleep! -- and probably had a dream as well, but I don't remember it. I hope this provides me that much needed REM and eases my transition. Not sure exactly how long I was awake first, but probably 10-15 min.

Lessons Learned: Have a backup plan (or two) for getting woken up. I can see how living WITH a supportive person would be helpful.

Mentally: I woke up immediately, completely alert. I wouldn't say I feel better or worse mentally than last cycle. Perhaps very slightly refreshed? Perhaps my imagination.

Activities:

I just finished reading Sergiy Korobkov's blog which I really enjoyed. Short, clean, to the point. In a way I'd like to do something like that too, but did not contain the level of data I'm really wanting to post. He's just finished 4 weeks. Seems pretty successful, except a few oversleeps and habits of taking another nap right after another. And he plans on doing series of core sleep periods. One day he had posted 10 nap times! But, I've been considering an extra nap time or two, and now I feel very strongly that the purpose of the transition phase is NOT to deprive ourselves of sleep, but rather to get our bodies to realize it's only got 20-30 min to get that REM sleep in, so it needs to start ASAP! Since that IS the goal, then why should we only give our bodies 6 chances a day to get in that habit? I think providing more nap time opportunities for our brains to adjust would be a good thing... however, if the brain doesn't get to REM during a nap time, then the answer is NOT to immediately provide another opportunity! ... but rather wait at least two hours (maybe 3)... providing a little "slap on the wrist"... such as "Hey Brain.... you missed out on that chance now deal with it". Perhaps next time it will learn to do better. If I just immediately take another nap, then my brain might learn "I don't need to jump right in to REM, because if I miss it, then David will take another nap right away". Once my brain IS conditioned to jump right in to REM, then I can back off to 6 or 7 short naps per 24 hours, and that should give me enough total REM per day. The 20-30 min time limit is EXTREMELY important for conditioning... the number of initial naps per day to get on track is not (but they DO have to be well spaced apart)... my new personal opinion.

Started reading Sean's blog, seems very good so far.

UPDATE (19:50): I started to get really tired the over the last hour. I'm sure it has more to do with only getting 3 hours sleep last night than anything else. A bit hungry too. I decided to have a SMALL snack (drank some grapefruit juice, ate 4 olives).. and take a nap from 20:00-20:30. Setting phone alarm and normal night stand alarm. See you soon.