Day 4......

Good morning everyone!  Today has been an all over day.  And here, I will document it for you as best as I can with new things that I have learned.  For one, I truly believed that this morning that I was on top of this thing.  But this is what I have noticed.  It is easier to be up in the day light time.  This allows me the ease of moving in the morning with no issues.  On the other hand, it does not matter how much I have rested that day; the night is still tough in the 12-4 range and even the beginning of the 4-8 region the next day.  The ease and burden "polar opposites" have begun to even out a bit so that the evening was not that difficult and the day was not that easy.  In other words.... it is beginning to work. :)   But the day/night still remains.

This morning was a normal morning.  I was feeling overconfident as normal with the morning boost that I get at my 9 am wake up.  This is due to the light from outside, previous experience, and lastly (I believe) my medication.  I take Synthroid each day due to my thyroid.  Understanding that synthroid gives my body extra thryroxin {metabolism and energy} that it is missing, I am wondering if this is also contributing to my insane boost of energy at that time period.  Because I take my synthroid an hour before I nap in that time frame.  I am just wondering if that medication gives me an unfair temporary jumpstart each morning.  Either way, it is a thought that I have been considering.  I did not do anything too crazy this morning.  I simply at my breakfast and headed to my church for play practice from 11:30 to 1:00.  I had been slowly stretching my sleep schedule so that I would be able to make it back home and collapse for my slightly overdue nap.  But this is what happened.  I had a parent show up 25 minutes late to get their kids.  Now I was understanding, but I was also very upset inside.  I ended up getting home an hour overdue for my nap!  I functioned fine since I was in my boost, but I knew that this would have terrible consequences.  This is why (back-track, then I will pick up from here):  I believe I failed to mention last night in my my post that I had taken an extra nap to pass the time by.  Due to the whole 20 minute nap verses 30 minute nap situation, I needed rest and I took a nap exactly half way between naps.  this is a quick nap only meant to pass the time by.  Sleep by definition of REM or DEEP is almost null!  But I was so exhausted when I got up.  Even more so than I was previously.  My body was used to a pattern of Up Down Up Down Up Down.  By throwing in a little double time, my body was not in the right spot to get my rest.  This was recovered for by my nap (original time again), but I learned that not only are you tired in cycles, but your rythyms need to be in line with your naps.

So back to the story, I got back an hour late for my nap.  I had to have it.  My heart had begun pumping harder and my mind was tired and ready to pass out.  It took me a very long time to fall asleep.  I could feel my body working overdrive trying to keep me functional while I was attempting to relax so it could rest.  I could hear my heart beat in my ears, I could feel it on my skin (and face against pillow).  It kept me up even as I tried to rest.  So this is what happened........

Mind you, it could have been worse.  I ended up worrying if I would get any sleep because of my burdened vitals.  Well, the Lord was gracious and I fell asleep.  In this moment.  It was a DEEP sleep.  The orange bars that overlap the 2PM mark were my nap.  Well, I ended up waking up with the alarm and shutting it off.  But I slept terrible and I (apparently) fell back to sleep immediately after I turned the alarms off (3 total alarms during the process {1 normal and 2 backups}) .  Well, luckily I didn't take off my headband, so my zeo just kept recording.  I ended up sleeping an additional bit with a total of 45 minutes of LIGHT, 12 minutes of REM (most I had these last days at a shot), and 27 minutes of Deep.  With all of that sleep, you would assume that my body would be rejoicing!!!!  It wasn't.  The timing was wrong, the amount of sleep was not patterned in 20-30 minutes of time, and I was super groggy!  My normal nap time was just an hour and 48 minutes away (108 like LOST (which is why I remember that detail) ).  here I got 10 minutes of REM and 20 minutes of LIGHT.  I felt much better after this, even though I knew the next naps would have to compensate for this outrage. :)  They did.  My next naps were REM filled.  The first was 9 min REM to 2 min DEEP and the second was 16 min REM with 2 min DEEP.  But I have slid back on track again with my high DEEP and low REM again.  last nap was 12 DEEP and 6 REM.

So in a concluding thought on this subject before I talk about caffeine and REM, I want to show you just how important these naps are.  When they are off balance, it literally will ruin your day/ ruin the entire cycle you have begun.  (I AM VERY LUCKY) that my body aborted early on that long nap.  If it had been another 2 hours, I would have had to start back on day 2 again with getting a cycle down pat and re-working my entire experiment.  Thank the Lord, this did not happen.  Otherwise, my nap would have had even more light sleep, and I would have been like a normal person running on 2 hours of sleep in finals week of college.  A normal person in a normal monophasic state cannot function on 2 hours of sleep a day for an entire week.  You will either, pass out, get very sick by exhaustion, or even die!  On to better thoughts for Polyphasic sleepers.

I have really attempted to be very good during this experiment with drinking water.  I have attempted (and done well) to drink at least one glass of water in each cycle.  And only water.  The only exception to this is the occassional milk in cereal, or decaffeiNATEd sweet tea.  Because I am stressing my body, I want it to have what it needs physically and water is the way to go.  I get electrolytes from the foot I eat!  Anyway, I am not drinking any caffeine during this experiement.  And I know this from personal experience in my 2 month backlog of a baseline.  When you drink caffeine, your body is affected during sleep.  You are simply too active due to the drug being in your system.  You will start a normal (big block) of REM and abort it early.  In fact, you will see dramatic cut back in your REM lengths.  You are literally "too hyper" for REM and you are sent back to the principles office in LIGHT of your activities.  HAHA  you get what I am saying?  Any caffeine is running a risk of that happening.  And on the amount of REM that I am getting, I cannot sacrifice any of it!

Closing thought for the day.  This is why caffeine is so bad for you.  I will explain in a roundabout way, but it will help you to understand.  Here comes the biology, but it will be in laymans terms.  trust me, you will get it from this:

Our body likes equilibrium.  (a balance).  It desires to be in a mixed/balanced state and never at the extremes.  And here i will explain a situation.  Hang with me.  When you see a person who likes another person (call it American teenage love), biologically, they are pleased with the other person and their body shares in the pleasure by releasing dopamine.  (in other words, brain candy).  When you make a shot in basketball, achieve something great, or are happy because of something; it is a dopamine release.  It is a wonderful little drug.  So when a person likes someone, they are selfishly liking the way they feel when they are around them.  due to the drug, they are happy.  Well, just like with any drug, we need bigger accomplisments, more time with a special someone, to keep the current feeling going over time.  this is due to our body fighting the increase in dopamine levels.... it wants to get back to a balanced situation.  So you want more of the happy feeling, while your body is fighting to stay normal.  Hence, in love, you feel lost when they are not around.  you are a downer.  that is because, when you first met them, they increase you from 50% to around 80%..... Over time, your body adjusts for the fact that the person is going to be around and releases less dopamine on its own (maybe 35%).  It is accounting for the surplus that it will get from the person (15% from seeing the person).  (so when you are not around them, you are running at 35%.......  This makes you sad.  This is also why people who break up (sadly) have a rebound person to just "MAKE ME FEEL BETTER".  Over time, your body will adjust, but a rebound is so much faster.  This is also what happens in marriages.  Infatuation love brings you together, your body adjusts for them being there, and then you wind up at 50%.  No more lovey dovey.....

Now caffeine works the same way.  This is what it does.  When you are in a scary situation, you release epinephrine/adrenaline (fight or flight).  Ready to punch or run for your life.  this goes to a cell and induces cAMP to be formed in the cell.  YAY....  This will give us the energy to run or fight!  cAMP is broken down by another enzyme (i believe it is phosphodiesterase).  Anyway,  caffeine is a tricky little drug and inhibits cAMP from being broken down.  This causes high cAMP in our cells, thus a booster of energy!!!  YEA!!!! We are doing nothing of super importance, and have the fight or flight system running to keep us going (as if our life depended on the situation).  Well, our body likes equilibrium.... when you normally take in caffeine, your body will start making more phosphodiesterase to break down the excess cAMP in your cell.  So after a while, you become addicted to caffeine..... you need it to get moving in the morning.  Because otherwise, any little cAMP you make is immediately cleaved because of extra phosphodiesterases.  Your body is used to having caffeine induce more cAMP.  so without it, you cannot even do anything.  You are a zombie...  Now, if you were to go without for a week or two, your body would begin to adjust to get  you to 50% on your own.... But we just do the quick fix.  we take in caffeine.  So people that always have caffeine, and people that don't;  the ones that don't normally have it will be more affected by caffeine..... or a bear that charges into your work place.  theoretically, the person with no caffeine will probably be better reacted to the fight or flight, since his/hers is not already in effect.

And just to sum this up to my simple point..... FIGHT or FLIGHT means a monster is chasing you.....  you aren't supposed to sleep when that happens..... So now your body is ready to go........ but you are just laying there.....  REM is interupted... and you probably won't sleep well overall either!  ... if you do, imagine how well you would sleep without the caffeine....

Sorry for the light-hearted, oversimplified biology lesson.  I guess I just wanted to talk about it! :)

Day 3 In and Out of Phase

Hello again. :)  I am amazed that I am actually doing this blog.  But that is what happens when you have some free time.  Ok.  Again, bare with my mind.

Today was really great.  Overall, I would put it as my best.  As far as productivity is concerned, however, I am afraid that video games got the best of me.  So lets jump into the ins and outs.  Especially because I have come up with a great observation that is necessary to clarify.

Once I got around to my shower in the first cycle of the day (around 9 am), I found that I was able to play video games and not have that tired pressure on me.  My eyes were doing fine and could concentrate on the reading that was involved as well.  This is an improvement from my previous conditions where I had to adjust myself and time spent on activities to compensate for eye tiredness.  I also found that I would drift off in thought easily.  This is interesting, because these thoughts are really concentrated ideas that I will tangent off of and focus on.  Ability to multitask (while difficult for me already) is almost impossible.  I have been writing down ideas and such on my expo board to be reminders of day to day activities.  Note-taking has become part of my nature.  I am also very creative in my approaches to thoughts and problems and their "scenic route" solutions I come up with.  Not the typical me.  My appetite still consists of three meals in a 24 hour period so I am positively concluding that my metabolism has slowed to an altered hybrid state.  I should be eating more food, but I am just not hungry for it.  So breakfast, is around 9 am.  Lunch around 5 pm and dinner around  11 pm.  Everything has spaced and my stomach reminds me at these times that I should eat.

Also before my "great observation" I need to state a few more side effects.  My cough is holding fine.  Not bothersome, just a reminder.  My temperature (as discussed before) is warmer during the nighttime (dark) and colder during the day (light).  My memory is hit and miss on different things.  For instance, I cannot tell you when I had my pizza.  I know I had left-overs today of the remaining 4 pieces, and I had risen from bed and it was still on the stove, but I cannot conclude when I cooked it.  A normal person would say that they left it on the stove and went to bed and it was there in the morning.  I go to bed 6 times a day.  So I cannot recall.  This may seem trivial to you, but it has shown me that my days are no longer days anymore.  I am seeing things as cycles and something 3-4 cycles ago is literally like thinking 3-4 days ago.  It also does help with my REM, but that topic is coming up and I will discuss it there.  I was just thinking about the Youth party, and realized that it was only this last night.  I had to think hard to remember that.  (again, discuss with REM below).  Day and Night are relative terms.  I understand the AM and PM I have written on the board, but I don't have activities timestamped in my mind.  Like, eg., (I called Wilson around 10 am).  that time is a complete guess because I have no idea (Again with REM below). And lastly in my side effects, my mind is so ADHD!!!!  I have so many thoughts that go through it at a time.  It is completely un-filtered.  I have to re-read my blog to try to make the ideas flow from one to another smoothly.  I already did this in the past when I talk to people, but it is almost a bad joke how much this characteristic has manifested in my day to day activities now.

OK, for what you all have been waiting for (well, what I have been waiting to write).  I realized something today.  within the last 3 cycles.  I am getting more deep sleep than a normal person of my age group.  My age group is supposed to get over 2 hours of REM and a little over 1 hour of DEEP sleep each day.  Well, I have been taking (over the last 12 cycles) close to 25-30 minute naps instead of 20.  This I concluded as a mistake 4 cycles ago, but realized that I will be sticking with this.  Here is  two samples I have pasted together of my two 8:45 naps (one AM, one PM today).

Anyway, so I know my previous post of my original sleep cycles doesn't have the key fact I am about to discuss, but I want to point out that when I normally fall asleep, i always jump to REM briefly before I get to LIGHT sleep and finally to DEEP.  In fact, both of these graphs look like they were chopped right off of my initial sleep graphs from November-December.  Which brings up an interesting point.  My body is not adjusting properly.  I took this as I needed to get 20 exact minutes of sleep (when I did that tonight, I got more REM).  But I felt drastically more tired.  Then it hit me.  That is why this transition has been so easy for me.  I am getting around 8-15 minutes of DEEP each nap.  multiply that by 6 and you get a range of 48-90 minutes.  That is in range (90 beyond it) of normal sleep.  that is why my body has been fine while my mind is  in chaos.  My body is actually improving in the amounts or restorative rest for cells and muscles.  Which brings me to the next fact.  I am only getting 4-8 minutes of REM each cycle.  Averaging this out to about 35 minutes of REM a day, I am in 25% of the range I should be at.  This explains so much more of my lack of multitasking.  I can concentrate, but only on one thing.  My mind blurs easier together in cycles and some details just don't make it.  That is why my memory has been so shot.  My body is not getting to file my thoughts and make those connections of "who/what"  "when"  "where"  "why" and "how"  I really have to think hard and try to piece these together myself.  Sometimes I can, other times (like the pizza) are left to the Lord to know.  So my memories are not filed in an organized file system.  I just found this interesting.  Instead of getting my REM and REM only sleep in this process, I am actually getting my DEEP sleep and very little REM.  This really amazes me!  I am so glad I am experimenting with this!!!  So much fun to learn things like this.  This hopefully will change when i "adapt" but to be honest.  These are the naps I am looking for.  When I change to the EVERYMAN 3, I want naps that cover all bases lightly while my main core sleep of 3.5 hours gets the big stuff.  

I am just amazed that I can function on little REM though.  This is very vital to a person and my side effects are probably only the beginning.  I had already researched some of this.  So I am being keen to write down things that happen to track them.  If I start halluciNATEing, I know that I need to abort the project.  When you don't get REM (like in war forms of torture) you cannot handle stress.  That is step one.... Two, you will give up just about anything you know (hardened people even struggle to hold on) and finally, if a person is not allowed to sleep (get their REM) they will start dreaming with their eyes open.  This is when you are in trouble.  So far, stress is still good, but I am looking for these other side effects too!  The only thing I know about in this area of struggle is that I get a headache approximately 35 minutes before each nap time now.  It is a subtle reminder that I am approaching that time.  Also, i like this.  Since I have a headache, I know that I will fall asleep when I hit the bed.  When I fail to have this, I normally take longer to fall asleep.  These have subtly gotten better today.  I think it is because my body is in an equilibrium state between happy and HELP ME. :)

In closing for today.  I just want to state that I feel like I am in time dilation   I just finished exams Wednesday.  But it feels like more than 3 days ago.  For me, it actually has been over 4 days.  Let me explain.  a normal person has approx 16-18 hour days (using 6-8 hours of sleep).  So, adding up hours, you readers should have spent about 3 days worth  WED-FRI (as a whole).  That is 48 hours for you  (using 16 hour days).  I on the other hand am getting 21-22 hours of  day.  So I am at (using 21.5 hours) 64.5 hours.  This means that I have had an additional day to your 3.  64.5 minus 48 equals 16.5 hours extra!  Just a tidbit I thought I would share! :D   Until next time......

Day 2

Well to start off..... I have mixed feelings about Day 2.  This is due in part to the very different nature of the day at its different times.  More on that in a few minutes, but first I have to explain my mindset and how it shifted all day.  (DISCLAIMER:  my mind is very REM deprived currently, so I forgive my spelling and sentence structure).

So yesterday, I finished typing my blog around 5:45 ish.  After that time, I simply watched an episode of a tv series and finally got to the nap.  Upon waking from the nap, I was decently awake.  This would have been around 9ish and I believe that my normal circadian rythym was taking hold and giving me an insane second wind.  I felt very good!  In fact, I felt insanely pumped up till 4 in the afternoon.  I remember specifically looking at a good friend that had stayed the night and slept on the couch.  He had stayed up with me till around 4AM and ended up not getting up till around 1:50 PM.  He was that tired.  My excited mind was literally saying things like, "look at the waste of time laying there!"  "Typical Monophasic Sleeper".  ha ha  I just continued to function while he slept for most of the time.  I did all kinds of things to pass the time by, and really enjoyed it too!  Something was wrong......  This is too easy!  way too easy!!!  I am not having any issues doing this.  I have been up for multiple cycles and I am feeling just fine.  [This sums up my day thoughts]  Here is a snapshot of my sleep cycle statistics for my day.  This is practically the same for each nap.

As you can see, we have a few issues from both sides of the spectrum.  (1.  I am getting REM like I normally do when I first fall asleep.  It is not much, but it is REM.  This is not allowing me to starve from withdrawal from REM as simply as it should be....  More on that in a second.  (2.  My sleep cycle has not adjusted from its normal function.  I  am getting DEEP sleep (the beginning of a sleep cycle [90 min]).  This is actually a two fold problem that I am dealing with now.

I still have too much REM in my system.  My body is not compensating yet, but seems to have a good, plentiful reserve (in viewing REM like a rechargeable battery).  Also, I am getting little chunks of REM to add to that reserve.  This is allowing me to feel on top of the world, and yet not accomplish anything.  This also leads to the problem that happened earlier this morning.  :(  Feeling on top of my game, I visited a friend's house to chill with the guys, say hi, and shoot a music video.  I allocated the nap for their house and had a room set up with the qualifications for me to sleep there.  DARK, QUIET, secluded. etc.  I allocated time to unwind, but my mind was not settling down.  I was not tired.  I was feeling good.  So, when I took my nap, I never fell asleep.  Yes, it could have been the strange room, or the excitement of friends, but I truly believe that it was also the fact that I was not tired.  I was even bragging about it!  So, though I rested for that nap, I got no sleep at all.  This drug me down for the next cycle.

The next cycle was horribly wrong.  I had issues making it to the checkpoint.  I made it there, but it took all of my will to keep from drifting.  I was exhausted and my mind was ready for rest.  This was good for the project, but bad for my body and will.  I had to battle getting up to do this blog.  My mind was elusive and I had to take in the situation before I realized that I had woken up and needed to kill the alarm and turn on my BRIGHT LIGHT to shock my eyes into realization of wake time.... (this also helps your circadium rythyms to set by using light to be your "I'm awake, or I'm asleep stages"  The Pineal gland is involved with this as it is  involved with sensing light and therefore influencing melatonin.  I am feeling better as I type this blog now, but I am afraid that my sleepiness will return with a vengeance if i do not get straight REM sometime soon.  My will is strong, but even that is masked by fatigue and the onset of mental opaqueness!  I have started a video game, but believe that I may have to put that aside since it does not have enough physical interaction to keep me busy.  Or maybe that was just the missed nap issue!

PHYSICAL AND HEALTH ISSUES:
I have finally developed a cough.  With my body, I seldom get sick due to a auto-immune disease that I have.  Since my body is always on high alert, most intruders get killed in the crossfire of immune response.  When I don't sleep properly, my immune system suffers greatly and I get coughs and other symptoms of sickness.  And if not corrected, I will have bacteria cultures in my body's "normal flora" (normal bacteria groups, in check with each other, that normally live in me) that may overtake an opportunistic  infection in my weakness.  I only have the cough now and hopefully this will be the final extent (Lord willing) though I know that I am susceptible right now for just about anything.

Lastly on my rant tonight, I have noticed that my metabolism has slowed down to compensate for the overall function of my body over the new 22 hour period day.  This is evident in my lack of hunger and my bodies colder temperature (to me) (this could be actual colder temp of my body or higher temp of my body so I feel the outside air as cold).  I have had to use blankets and coats to keep myself warm.  And as anyone that knows me understands, I NEVER WEAR COATS OR BLANKETS!  I am the type of guy who wears shorts and a T-shirt year round with little issue.  It is odd to have to have things warm me.  I feel like a normal, weak human being (just kidding people). Between getting sickly and getting cold, I am experiencing a lot of things that I am not used to.

In my research, the other factor that could happen would be the metabolism staying the same.  This sounds good, but causes the body to actually run normal for longer periods.  The side effect to this situation is having to increase your calorie intake to match the new demands on the body.  Maybe each body reacts differently and mine chose to slow down.  Or maybe, it is still adjusting to this concept, since I am still just getting into the situation.  We will find out soon enough.  Hope you enjoyed Day 2.  Now I just pray that my will for Day 3 is strong enough to get me over the hump of REM rebound!  Until Then.

PolyPhasic Day 1

Today has been a successful start to my polyphasic sleeping.  It has only begun, but I am glad that I have not failed yet!  After taking my final examination in BioChemistry, which started Christmas Break, I rushed home just in time to hit my first nap.  I slept terrible the night before (anxiety) so I was ready for this nap.  UnfortuNATEly, I did not actually fall asleep.  I lied there and rested and my mind was filling with thoughts on the excitement of this opportunity.  I have been looking forward to this since early-mid semester.  3 hours and 40 minutes later.....  Same thing.  I lied down and couldn't turn off my mind.  This sounds normal since I am shooting at 20-25 minute naps.  But it was quite strange......  When the alarm went off, I saw that I had actually gotten REM (rapid eye movement).  I really wondered if this was a fluke of my ZEO (EEG that measures my brainwave activity as I rest).  Either way, it could be possible that I was actually doing both.  Either way, I had Over 80% REM to the less than 20% Light Sleep.  Picture Below:

It also took me 7 minutes to fall asleep.  This is high for me normally, but, in the course of this experiement, that number should drop dramatically.  So I went about my day and took my other naps.  Each was a restful fail where my mind would not shut off.  O well.  I continually and progressively became more tired.  :)  So I finally got a nap in from 4:50 am till 5:15.  This nap was crucial and it was a bit difficult to get up.  But once I did, it was easier to keep moving.  Typing this blog takes some of the time and effort away from me since it is not as demanding as other tasks.

Ok, so let me give you an overview of what I am looking at doing:  For those that don't know:

Comparison of sleep patterns

Monophasic

Biphasic

Everyman

Dymaxium

Uberman

 ^[19]

Name	Total sleeping time	Sleeping %	Method
Monophasic	8.0 h	33.0%	8 hours major sleep episode.
Biphasic	6.3 h	26.4%	6 hours major sleep episode and one 20 minute power nap.
Biphasic (90-minute nap)	6.0 h	25.0%	4.5 hours major sleep episode and one 90 minute nap.
Heidiphasic (with 2 naps)	5.3 h	22.2%	4.5 hours major sleep episode and two 20-minute power naps.
Everyman (with 3 naps)	4.0-4.5 h	16.7-18.8%	3-3.5 hours major sleep episode and three 20-minute power naps.
Everyman (with 4 - 5 naps)	2.8-3.2 h	11.8-13.2%	1.5 hours major sleep episode and four to five twenty-minute power naps.
Dymaxion	2.0 h	8.33%	Four 30-minute naps (every 6 hours).
Uberman (from German 'Übermensch')	2.0 h	8.33%	Six 20-minute naps (every 4 hours).

The insert above is from wikipedia....  So let me elaborate.  I have had tons of time to research this over the last few months.  A normal person generally adheres to the Monophasic method of sleeping.  This is all sleep in one shot.  A good time for most people is either around 7.5 hours to 9 hours.  This is because our bodies link together sleep patterns of 90 minutes together in our sleep.  That is why I was always puzzled when I was younger when sometimes I would work on a report and only get around 4-5 hours of rest and feel better than I had all week getting my normal 8 hours of sleep.  It is because I (unintentionally) was getting 4.5 hours of sleep (which fits my sleep patterns as well as the average person).  When you finish a 90 minute block of sleep and you are privileged to wake up, you feel very refreshed!  So estimating a normal extra 10-15 minutes for normal people to fall asleep, you should always sleep in 90 minute increments..... so 90 min, 3 hours, 4.5 hours, 6 hours, 7.5 hours, 9 hours.  :)  Try it!  It will defiNATEly give you more energy.

So I have purchased a ZEO that records my sleep patterns.  It is a nifty thing.  Using my research and that device, I have learned a lot about how I sleep.  For instance, when I set my alarm, I allocate my bedtime with the sleep cycles of 90 minutes and tell the zeo to wake me in a 40 minute "wake window" where I finish my REM cycle.  When I exit REM or transition to another stage, it will sound the alarm and wake me at peak times so I am refreshed.  If I linger in the stage, it will wake me up when I exceed the wake window.. :D  So lets talk about my sleep.

RED is WAKE----GREEN is REM------GREY is LIGHT--------DARK GREEN is DEEP

This is just a sample of a night of my sleep.  It differs each night due to sleep pressure and activities (caffeine intake).  Most of the time my rem time increases in each 90 min block.  But this will give you a good picture of what I was explaining above.

Now back to phases.....  Most college students and even Central and South Americans use the Biphasic style of sleep.  Here, you take about a 4.5 hour core sleep at night and take a nap (or two).  These siestas give you the boost you need to continue on throughout the day.  This is the phase I have been on for portions of the semester.  Now, as you can see from Wikipedia, the more blocks of sleep you take, the less sleep you theoretically need.  This is due to the Light sleep aspect.  Looking above, you will see a ton of grey.  In fact, this picture is made up of 61% of light sleep.  While a lot of studies are being done to still learn from sleep, here is what I know.  An average 20-30 year old needs ~2 hours of REM each night.  REM is important in the function of the mind and remembering and categorizing it.  Think of it as a defragmentor of a computer hard-drive.  That is what it does to us.  Very vital for our function and ability to handle stress!  Deep sleep is necessary for bodily restoration of muscles and cells and needs to be around 1 hour each day.  When we are in REM, blood goes to our heads..... When we are in deep, blood goes to our body's extremities.  Light sleep, on the other hand, has functions, but they are not well known.  As far as normal function, we gain some but nothing fancy (that we know of from it scientifically).  So The more blocks of sleep, the less light sleep you get.  Because your body goes directly to REM and DEEP to get you restored.  So by stretching out your sleep, you starve your body of REM and actually make your body do REM first.  In doing this, in 20 min, you will have gained your REM and you are actually saving the lag time for the light sleep.  (NOW I HAVE TO NOTE: that you actually get DEEP in here too, which is another reason I am doing this experiement.)   [as you age, you need less REM and DEEP fyi].

Now lastly for my morning rant as I press forward till my next nap :p  I am adopting the Uberman 6 (20min) naps.  My actual goal is to achieve that Everyman 3.  If you are confused, it is fine.  Let me explain.  I am shooting high so that I can fall back on the Everyman when I fail the Uberman.  I could adapt it, but for my needs, I believe the Everyman 3 will better suit me.  But here is the reason for Uberman.  The Uberman quickly forces your body to be starved of REM and allocate it to the beginning of your sleep cycles.  This will quickly (and painfully) get me there.  Because, currently, my body is starving of REM.  It is not used to getting so little of it and only have 20 minutes to get it.  This will force me to become tired as my body adjusts itself to this desired profile.  I will not be rested, until my body gets this..... OR my will breaks and I rest :( Once my napping success is achieved, I will be in optimum starvation and satisfaction of REM.... Enough to keep me going, but not enough to satisfy my body from the immediate REM cycle at the beginning of my sleep cycles.  Once I have this, I will be able to get my 3 naps effectively in Everyman and yet get some DEEP and even some light in the 3.5 hour core sleep block that will be adding when finished.    That way I can function in the best of both worlds of less sleep and yet having light and deep since they are important for other reasons.  Plus, I will see how I function with and without those stages of sleep. :)  That is enough for now..  I hope you all enjoyed this update.  As long as I continue this process, you can expect updates at least once a day.