16 July 2006

Sleep Experiment: Day 4 - Failure

Posted by Greig under: Sleep Experiment .

It’s with great disappointment that I have to report a huge failure in my experiment. Sleep just got the best of me. Since last writing my nap schedule was as follows.

8:30pm: Result - Very little sleep but felt recharged afterwards

1:30-2:30am: Result - No sleep at all. I tried twice here. I could get any sleep although I felt very very tired. After the first nap where I just lay there for 30 minutes I decided another one was in order, yet it was no good.

7:30-8:30am: result - OVER SLEPT. I slept right through my alarm. One of the biggest problems I’ve had with this experiment is the alarm. Since it’s on the computer where I can set a 24 hour lock, there are many mistakes I can make, especially while exhausted.

After this, I just fell apart. I was so tired that I don’t exactly remember what happened, just that I woke up two hours later. I should have gone outside for a walk as soon as I got up.

I experienced some mild hallucinations and confusion. Around 6:30 am I thought I saw a bug on my mouse pad but it was nothing at all. Sometime around 9am I woke up and ran around the apartment looking for something extremely important that had been lost or, I thought, stolen. When I was looking I couldn’t even remember what it was, just that I needed to determine whether it had been stolen or I had simply misplaced it. Maybe it was a favorite blanket, I’m not sure anymore.
Does this mean I’m going to quit?? Hell no. I’ve thought about postponing the experiment until my 10 day holiday in two weeks but right now I really think I could do it - I just have to change a few things:

1. Routine. It doesn’t really matter too much in the beginning. I’m not too bad with alarms usually, but when I get to the point of utter exhaustion that I’ve hit early in the morning (between 6am and 9am) then I need a set routine that prevents me from going back to sleep, at least for 90 minutes. For example, when I hit this exhaustion point again, I shouldn’t even have the option to lie back down on the pillow. I think that it was something as small as someone calling me but the phone was on the bed. I had to stretch out on the bed to get it but that was deadly.

2. Motivation: Unless you are committed and have a specific purpose in mind, it’s very difficult to keep motivated to deprive yourself of sleep. Why am I doing this? The answer at the moment is probably to be more productive in the long run, even if I end up bin a zombie for a week.

However, that is not enough motivation at those wee hours when my brain is screaming at me to get some real shut-eye. This needs to be about beating the system man! Maybe I should move to the Arctic for a while.

3. Organization: I found myself just sitting at the computer bored for long periods of time - just waiting for the next nap time. I even passed up the opportunity last night to go into Seoul and hangout with my girlfriend because I wanted this to work! Now I feel that was a mistake. I could have easily planned a sleep on the subway or bus and gone out - at least it would have kept me awake and it was a scheduled activity.

So am I giving up?? Hell no! But I need a few hours to make a decision as to whether I’m going to wait until my vacation days or going to continue as of tonight. Check back soon, mysterious Internet readers.