Thread: Placebo's Hexaphasic Journal

keep on keepin on man... but idk what to tell you if you are actually sick... would it be possible to be awake without moving in order to gain 'something' back for you immune system to work with? like meditate ALOT during one waking period?

No, don't think so. But if I'm sick, then I'd have to postpone.
So I really hope not

Last night I felt ill again. Sore throat and a cough - and it being impossible to stay awake even though I don't feel as sleep deprived as at other times.
So I added in a lot of extra naps ... I didn't really have a choice. Either pass out for hours on my desk, or force myself to nap all the time.

Going to see a doctor this morning for some meds. At least to get rid of the cough - it interferes with my naps.

BTW, I had some alcohol last night.. perhaps that's got a lot to do with it. But I don't remember it being this lethal to my polyphasing last time - it just caused me to nap badly.

UPDATE: Doctor gave me some meds and a shot in the ass. Also, we established that I don't have chronic blood pressure issues, as the stand-in doctor diagnosed. Bloody idiot doctor!

Even with the doctor's meds, I'm not doing well. I've also got some heavy stress at work which isn't helping.
I unfortunately have to switch back to an easier schedule involving core sleep, until such time that my immune system is as strong as possible again.

This really has me depressed, as it's not the first time this has happened.
I feel like I have this unfailing desire for hexaphasic (uberman) sleep, but keep being prevented from doing it.
I know I *can* do it, as I've had a month of it before.
But clearly the first week or two of adaptation is very bad for your immune system.

Don't give up on it (though I really don't need to tell you this considering your experience). Though I haven't tried polyphasic yet, I have a few observations relating to you entries here so far:

1. Wait until you feel good and have a bit less stress at work to start the uberman sleep, your immune system is going to have a hard time on so little sleep, especially during the adjusting period

2. Don't drink any alcohol/caffeine AT ALL! At least while you are adjusting, I think the alcohol and caffeine is definitely having a negative effect on you when you polyphasically sleep and is detrimental to polyphasic sleep, when (at least to start off) near perfect conditions for polyphasic are necessary.

3. It is understandable that you do not have the cash for "correct eating" (most people don't), but chicken a la king (though I don't actually know what it is) for example sounds really heavy (though i may be wrong, as I said, I don't know what it is). I think avoiding heavier, greasy food could really help, as it makes you tired from digesting, and is therefore not good for polyphasic sleep. You may not be able to eat really healthy, which of course would be best, but choosing the right less healthy food could work out.

4. Don't be so hard on yourself when you mess up. You are sleep depriving yourself until your brain and body adjust to polyphasic sleep, and therefore it is expected that there will be a few times you just won't be able to hold up the strict schedule for one period or something (though a secondary phone alarm 5 mins after the first can help reduce this problem I think).

Again you know better than me on polyphasic considering you've actually done it, but these are just some observations that I think may make it a bit easier on you. Don't worry that right now you can't do it, and wait for things to calm down a bit, and try again, I know you can do it .

Thanks
I've actually gotten quite a lot worse the last few days, despite having meds. I think it's just a cold or flu that will pass (I hope).
The post nasal drip is agonising - sore throat, etc.

BTW, what you say about digestion seems to be very true. On my first attempt, I did my best to eat small amounts of 'bird food' (easy to digest stuff).
And coffee is definitely a problem. Not immediately, but the problem snowballs. Coffee has an 4 hour half-life. So there's no time between naps to recover enough to have a quality kip.
Alcohol also seems to do some strange things - unnatural sleep, etc.

The problem with the second '5 min later' alarm is - if this is what wakes you - you feel like hell afterwards.
23 minutes is really the longest I can set my mp3 without waking up with serious difficulty.
I think this changes though - when I can't fall asleep easily, then 26 minutes is fine. As I'm better adapted and fall asleep faster, I can make do with something below 20 minutes.

Thanks for the pep talk
I think I'm going to prepare for the next attempt with a few weeks of sleep reduction and healthy living.

Still sick. I'm on antibiotics.
Once I'm better, I'm going to spend some time rebuilding my health.

i assumed this was just something that happened to you, but im now sick... damn... and the last 3 nights i slept for hours on end, even dreamed... was fairly lucid last night, enough to jump off something that should have hurt me without 'lines' to carry me. i think ill feel better by tomorrow and restart... i should be waking up right now... i find myself saying that alot recently...

Sorry to hear you got ill guys - I was reading through the posts getting more n more excited to see what happens!!!

Also realised that I've done something like this when sailing. I used to sail alot with my family, and on long journeys we would do "four on two off" which was 2 hours helming, two crewing (or cooking, cleaning etc if the weather was good) two sleeping - less by the time you got ready etc. Actually I think my Mum and Dad would let me off a bit earlier (I was 16-18 at the time) which means they would have had even less sleep. We were often working hard especially if the weather was bad - and it was tiring but OK. Wonderful to see the sunrise and set, dolphins following the boat at night, phosphorescence etc. And it didn't seem to effect cognition too badly - e.g. when comming into port at the end of a leg, you would have to be very alert with the increased traffic, lights, boys, wrecks etc. My Dad did freak a few times come to think of it - but then he also drank like a fish. Diet was mainly bad - especially when the wind was strong - sometimes both people would have to be on-deck so there was nobody to cook. Then it was just museli bars, and hot chocolate with coffee.

Also, come to think of it, very freaky dreams - especially when we stopped in port and went back to normal sleep. I remember at least once waking up and panicking thinking that I was supposed to be helming but mustve gone below for some reason and fallen asleep, leaving the boat on the auto helm!!! Once this happened and I got very confused trying to find the tiller in the lockers, until I woke my Mum who pointed out that we were moored.

lol, I suspect the freaky dreams were partly to do with the stress/pressure of doing the job right

As for the illness - it's no secret that sleep deprivation is a knock to your immune system.
So before you attempt polyphasic sleep, get your health up and take your vitamins

On the google polyphasic group, 3 people have come down with illness, and we all started at roughly the same time.
This doesn't mean you WILL get sick, but it is something to be wary of.

That's why this time around, I'm going to spend a few weeks rebuilding my health and then slowly reducing my sleep requirements again.
I call antibiotics 'nuking myself', so naturally that means you need to rebuild afterwards.
Yogurt with live cultures (bulgarian preferred), vitamins, both cardio and resistance exercise, and pretty much any immune boosting potions you can find out about.

Other things I've heard (but not confirmed):
- After you shower, alternate cold and warm water for a few seconds at a time. This perhaps gives your body a shock and forces it to get used to temperature changes. That way, you don't instantly contract a cold when you walk outside into a winter morning.
- There's a variety of drinks that supposedly help. They're typically the same ones that are used to fight colds too.
E.g. tea with lemon, honey and whisky (brandy can also be used). My wife adds ginger, but that's just disgusting then.

Any other suggestions on immune system boosting would be appreciated

hee hee... seriously, that's me message.

I left a note on your blog to the same effect... ;->

love,
h

well aside from a 2-3 hour crash last nght, then intentionally sleeping this morning im back to health and atempting to nap again... though taking it a bit less seriously in some respects this time, but i have been more on the dot about my naps... i'll say something if i lose it again, or come across something interesting. oh yeah, and sometime during the 3 nights of full sleep, i had one of the longest lucid dreams to date. anyone ever try flight with a DC? i wasnt nearly as able without their energy for some reason...

Interesting idea. Of all the things I've tried, no, I've not flown with a DC. With a big eagle, yes.. but that probably doesn't count.

Etheria - Thanks. Didn't get an email about the comment on my blog though *scratch head* ... will check it out.

[EDIT: I had a look, and there's no comments on my blog. Checked the spam as well. Which blog is this? The one at www.placebo.serv.co.za ?]

Hey Placebo,

Sorry to hear you fell ill. I've been polyphasic (mostly everyman) for 11 months and have had two illnesses that really messed up the schedule. At least your napping skills will remain in place when you return.

Been using your soundtrack the whole time - it is the #1 song on my iPod by a mile. Thanks for making them.

Oh, for red eyes, a humidifier works great. I prefer the warm mist type because they are quiet. During the winter I have one at home and one at work. Get well and good luck when you return.

Thanks, I'm almost ready to start again. I'm planning to start on Thursday (31 May 2007)
I want to get a humidifier, but don't have the cash flow right at this moment..

I'm glad you like my nap mp3 as much as I do

I'm Baaaack!

I haven't posted in a while, because my illness held me back for so long.
I've discovered that I have post nasal drip and hyperactive immune system, causing the illnesses.
I've boosted my immune system with a slew of things, and have a nasal spray for the post nasal drip.

Immune system is more or less bulletproof now.
I started on 29 May, 2 days earlier than intended.
Now sleeping with 2.5 hour core, with 5 naps of 23 minutes.

Thanks to iadr for the ginger tips

Glad you're back. Keep the updates coming!

#asher

Sure, will do

Tonight I'm pulling through okay, with the help of my friend Black and White 2.
This is despite a pretty rough day for napping. All my naps have been about an hour late.
I'm hoping this isn't going to snowball on me

Good to hear you're getting back on your feet. This log has intreigued me and I plan to continue reading it.

And on another note, are you still drinking coffee at all? This is just out of curiosity.

Nope, at least for the time being, I'm avoiding coffee and alcohol.
Well, I had a beer shandy, but that's only got 0.5%

Things are still going well. But unfortunately my baby (dell laptop) has fallen on bad times, and without it I risk getting bored at night.
I'm hoping it'll be fixed soon

Do you have any other hobbies besides geeking out on the computer? :p

What happened to the love affair with duct tape. That was an interesting one.

I've had quite a few, but polyphasic sleep, lucid dreaming, programming, game development and anime are the main ones that stuck.

When I have passing hobbies I tend to get pretty intense about them, so it often seems like I'm an 'expert', when I've only just learned them.
Interests over the decades:
- Lockpicking
- Handwriting Analysis
- Telekinesis
- Health and Fitness
- Crazy pets (I still have an axolytl, bearded dragon, crab and tarantula)
- Breeding food for the pets
- A bit of stock market research .. not much though
- I tried electronics, but need a lot of practice to find it useful
- Knitting a scarf
- Languages. Still important to me, but taking a break atm.

umm.. can't remember more now..

Update:

I had a one night set-back of the sniffles. My home remedies got me over it quickly though.
Later I discovered that a work colleague who got the same thing ended up with a lung infection. Nasty.

I'm finding it a lot easier at night lately, so I'm going to try ramping myself up to full uberman. Beginning tonight.
And I'm switching to a strict 20 minute nap (I was using 23 before)

I have two little complications - the wife insists that I take my last nap of the night in bed next to her, without the mp3.
I'm going to try this, but in the case that she accidentally wakes me early I'm going to need an extra nap.

The other complication is that it's bloody cold at this time of year, and I'm taking a hot bath in the mornings to regulate my temperature.
Unfortunately this makes me doze off for a bit, spoiling things.
I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this, because it'll happen right after my nap in bed. Worst case scenario - an extra nap.

In total, this means getting between 2 and 3 hours of sleep in 24.

I suspect this last shift is going to be tough. So wish me luck :S

Update + change in schedule:
I've been forced to give up my readaption to uberman (I succeeded about a year ago, for a month)

#1 : Main reason, social. Big suprise. Most polyphasers give up for this reason. At work some morons are completely close minded and are beginning to cause trouble for me.
#2 : Wife insists on some amount of flexibility, or she gets irritable.
#3 : I don't have the determination I had 2 years ago.
#4 : I'd miss my coffee, beer and cuddling into bed

In the last 2 years I've tried a variety of schedules, and now I feel I have enough information to choose one that suits my conditions.
The most successful, flexible and comfortable version was the one where I slept something like this:

My schedule of choice: 3:30am-5:30pm, 12pm, 6pm, 10pm, 2am
Nap lengths = 23 minutes
Total sleep per day = between 4 and 4.5 hours

Advantages:
#1 - I can drink coffee and beer at selected times, without a problem
#2 - I can drop a nap in the evening without having a huge impact
#3 - The only nap at work is during lunchtime, so the whiners can shut the F up
#4 - The lunchtime nap is fairly variable, by up to an hour or so.
#5 - I get some cuddle time in bed with wifey, but also get a lot of time to myself as well

For me, this schedule was a great balance of time and convenience.
It has similar benefits to biphasic sleep, but doesn't have the cost of a large nap at lunchtime (typically an hour or more)

I'm pretty optimistic that this schedule will fit like a glove, just like last time.